TFA is set in Tokyo, which is decidedly not the West. Yes, you can take your skills and go to a developing nation where you will probably be much more qualified than most of the locals, but that's not the broader question at stake, nor does it really take into account what the lives of locals are like. I have faith that the world will, eventually, be filled with mostly developed nations. These problems increasingly seem to be plaguing all developed nations.
Don't get me wrong, in Russia, you have many times more people with 6 years degrees in the industry than in US. That's a hard fact. And so is China for as long as you consider the part of the workforce born after economic liberalisation in parts of the country where the industry took off.
>not the broader question at stake
Well, I was just trying break the going narrative of "Internet troll" being thrown on every "looser" or basically unpopular person with Internet presence.
I'm confused, what does the comparison of the number of higher education degrees between the US, Russia and China have to do with taking your skills to a "developing nation"? Are China and Russia supposed to be considered developing nations in this comparison?
As such, your using them as examples or counter examples of developing countries is confusing (at least to me), and I think is misinterpreting the meaning of the original statement.
Indeed. Me coming back to Russia was nowhere near a typical "downshifting" case. If I were to compete with locals on the job market, I wouldn't have lasted long. People who can ace ACM olympics prequalification tests are only passing as junior devs here.
You grasped the idea very well. Life in the West gives you a lot of "false idols," way more than just plain income (in)security and social acceptance.
A lot of very well doing people are insecure about what you call class attributes: "have you sent your kid to an Ivy league college? is your MBA still hip enough? have you launched a tech startup by 30? have you appointed trophy diversity hires of a current trendy ethnicity to your C-Suite? is an apartment you bought shares the floor with influential people A, B, and C?" and so on.
I myself felt nearly crushed morally when my employer was unsuccessful extending my work permit in Canada after 6 years of my life there. I worked towards having "a perfect immigration case" since my mid-teens: from learning French, to having all and every pre-college education credentials that can benefit an immigration application possible, and yes, studying like crazy, wasting best years of life for a piece of paper.
Now, I'm feeling more or less recovered from that. Not only I came back with a heavy bag of cash, I was still doing more than 99% of locals just from "insubstantial" freelance gigs, had solid resume, and tons of calls from recruiters offering jobs in every country imaginable, and finally, after nearly 9 years of my life I could wake up at a time of my volition, and not what was mandated by job or college. That last thing was near surreal for me at the time.
But what was the best was not "prestige checkboxes" on the resume, nor an approving looks of female classmates from my highschool class, nor a trophy apartment I bought for pocket change when the Rouble was on its way to a seafloor. The best things from all of that were things of universal value: skills, life experience, being alive and well, fat rolodex, and knowledge "where to scratch fat cats" from places awash with cash.
Now I'm happy working in engineering consulting with a Chinese company, netting more than 99.99% of locals, having nearly careless lifestyle in comparison to what I had, and living in a city without gloomy weather. I can't believe that just 2 years ago I thought of my whole life as failure.
Another valuable thing, China has introduced me to was the entirely different, "BS Free," work culture centered on value: contract, payment, and CAD files in the morning — widgets ready in the evening, without any manager title holder in the loop.