Archive for the ‘“ninja”’ Category

Internal Brain Drain

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Norman Matloff of the University of California-Davis computer science department on the current serious scientific and technological workforce problem facing the US:

In fact, Matloff went on, the nation is "wasting the innovation" that Americans could create because they are being driven from technical and scientific fields by the influx of foreigners.  "There are a lot of good people who are displaced," he said. In the tech field, this does not occur because of  talent, education, productivity or ability but with age, and ultimately with pay, he stated.  Employers prefer to bring in young foreign workers who are cheaper in preference to employing experienced Americans who are more expensive.  In a number of tech companies, a majority of workers are foreign-born while many Americans being displaced "are of good quality."    Over 20 years ago, he noted, experts predicted that encouraging immigration would discourage citizens from entering these fields.

"It’s an issue of money….It’s all due to an oversupply of people" created by immigration policies, he said. The issues applies to both the IT industry and scientific research, he added.  One result is that young American "would have to be crazy to go into lab science today," he said.  "No study except for industry studies has ever shown a shortage" of scientific or technical workers, he said.  One indication of non-shortage is that "salaries are flat," whereas in a shortage situation they should rise.

.:blogs.sciencemag.org->

Solving a Problem

Aza Raskin talks about how the winner of the original X-Prize came to be.

When you are solving a difficult problem re-ask the problem so that your solution helps you learn faster. Find a faster way to fail, recover, and try again. If the problem you are trying to solve involves creating a magnum opus, you are solving the wrong problem.

Chumpriding

OkCupid on the science behind interracial dating- they wonder what if there weren’t so many whiteys?

When Not to Be a Hero

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You can’t always rely on a hero…

Switching focus away from individuals and towards the team is a non trivial exercise, but if the agile movement has brought us anything it is methods to engender collaboration, trust and team level thinking. via

You and Your Research

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Richard Hamming, transcription of the  Bell Communications Research Colloquium Seminar  7 March 1986:

Now self-delusion in humans is very, very common. There are enumerable ways of you changing a thing and kidding yourself and making it look some other way. When you ask, "Why didn’t you do such and such," the person has a thousand alibis. If you look at the history of science, usually these days there are 10 people right there ready, and we pay off for the person who is there first. The other nine fellows say, "Well, I had the idea but I didn’t do it and so on and so on." There are so many alibis. Why weren’t you first? Why didn’t you do it right? Don’t try an alibi. Don’t try and kid yourself. You can tell other people all the alibis you want. I don’t mind. But to yourself try to be honest.

If you really want to be a first-class scientist you need to know yourself, your weaknesses, your strengths, and your bad faults, like my egotism. How can you convert a fault to an asset? How can you convert a situation where you haven’t got enough manpower to move into a direction when that’s exactly what you need to do? I say again that I have seen, as I studied the history, the successful scientist changed the viewpoint and what was a defect became an asset.

I claim that some of the reasons why so many people who have greatness within their grasp don’t succeed are: they don’t work on important problems, they don’t become emotionally involved, they don’t try and change what is difficult to some other situation which is easily done but is still important, and they keep giving themselves alibis why they don’t. They keep saying that it is a matter of luck. I’ve told you how easy it is; furthermore I’ve told you how to reform. Therefore, go forth and become great scientists!

.:cs.virginia.edu->

Climbing a Pole…

With some skills…

Documentary : Starting-Up in America

Starting-Up in America is a documentary film by Tarik Ansari and Basil Glew-Galloway about the issues faced by international Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs with US Immigration.

Who is a Scientist?

Joseph Rotblat: "a scientist is a human being first, and a scientist second."

.:3quarksdaily.blogs.com->

The Future of (un)Consumption

A new wave of Collaborative Consumption is making sense across the world:

"While it may continue to be necessary to buy certain things ‘new,'" Anderson said, "Collaborative Consumption has the potential to be an equal counterpart to other more traditional forms of consumption."

Anderson added that businesses that stick doggedly to the practices of wasteful consumption are likely to go the way of Blockbuster and Borders.

"Some industries might be slower than others in recognizing the importance of a Collaborative Consumption model," Anderson conceded. "[But] those who don’t catch up will certainly be left behind the newcomers."

.:mcgilldaily.com->