Are Chinese and Russian Developers More Skilled Than Americans?

Re:Are Chinese and Russian Developers More Skilled Than Amer... by rdtsc on Friday February 10, 2017 @12:55AM (#13613531)

In Eastern Europe it is a cultural thing perhaps. Math and programming Olympiads I think are taken more seriously and are often a gateway to a good college. In some cases those who rank higher get to skip entrance exams. In US it might be more of a hobby with a lot less at stake. Not sure about India and China.

Also note that it is possible to train to do well in those but not necessarily be a good full time programmer.

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Re:Are Chinese and Russian Developers More Skilled Than Amer... by a_bonobo on Friday February 10, 2017 @01:06AM (#13613580)

Could it be an overhang from the Soviet Union's focus on chess?

See for example http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/20...

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Re:Are Chinese and Russian Developers More Skilled Than Amer... by rdtsc on Friday February 10, 2017 @01:09AM (#13613586)

Could be. I used to watch chess competitions on TV with my dad like people watch football here in US.

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Re:Are Chinese and Russian Developers More Skilled Than Amer... by MrBuddyCasino on Friday February 10, 2017 @01:12AM (#13613592)

Yeah we've got quite a lot of eastern european developers here in Germany, especially Ukraine. They are mostly top notch.

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Re:Are Chinese and Russian Developers More Skilled Than Amer... by zerr on Friday February 10, 2017 @02:08AM (#13613760)

I guess it's also related to survival - I can't imagine how people live on salaries in "humanities" fields. This is less relevant to west where people have more or less good jobs/salaries outside tech as well.

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