I work in software for 20+ years. I'm a pragmatic builder who is laser-focused on bringing value and shipping to users. My core areas of expertise are Python/Django, SQL, Kubernetes, Linux, and IoT.
In the past I co-founded two startups which helps me better understand the business side of development, how to identify value, how to measure and optimize for ROI, what makes a good hire (and how to be one), what are the true costs of rewrites, unit economics, and many other things.
Don't hesitate to drop me a message – I'd love to chat!
Just a personal anecdote. I was living in China, my father was visiting and fell ill (anemia). We needed to go to the hospital and decided to call an ambulance vs. calling a car because it could enter the gated compound. For a 3 km ride the price difference wasn't even a concern. A car would cost ~$3 and an ambulance ended up about $30.
PS: An average net salary in that city was about $1700/month at the time.
I think the misunderstanding here might be "skilled people who come to work in Germany for N years" (which Germany sorely needs) vs. "people who immigrate to Germany forever to make it their Sacred Motherland" and bring their grandma and 3 cats.
As above comment mentions, N-years people sometimes have circumstances that make language learning difficult. My initial comment proposes to be polite (in my own definition, admittedly) and make effort to include them in conversations (in work environments - you do you in social env), especially when all parties know that all parties can speak perfect English.
> accomodate their laziness forever, not just until they'll get settled in
Do expats in Germany walk around with "I've been in Germany X months" clock on their foreheads? :) Of course you learn eventually... some faster than others. And some not fast enough before "maybe I should just work in Switzerland" kicks in.
Let me play a bit of devil's advocate here. This is not what I really think but it's a point that has merit.
Germany is in deep demographic and economic crisis, mostly due to talent shortage. If it has any ambition to maintain being #3 economy (by GDP), while simultaneously paying cushy pensions to a growing pool of retirees, it must either very quickly build talent (but it has a very limited pool due to demographic), or accept high levels of immigration. The US is in better position because, let's face it, English is the widest spoken language professionally. If Germany's pitch is just "please come here to work for less money, speak German day #1, and enjoy batshit crazy bureaucracy with years to process residency", it's just not going to work. Something has to give.
I'm definitely making a judgement :) It is not a social situation, but a work-related event in an international team, where people have varying German language skills (some have almost none, like me). In a true social situation, of course, I will not expect by default a cashier in a shop or a clerk in a bank to speak English to me (though it's appreciated).
> understand as much as you can, and say what little bits you can, in German, not in English. Then study, study, study as much as you can in your time alone
That's the whole point to add to "why people leave Germany". It's a difficult language and not everyone have time to "study, study, study". It leads to isolation, expat bubble, and leaving.
It's an international team that is specifically hired this way. I wouldn't expect people switching for me in a bar or in an informal setting, but at work or work-related event, it's common courtesy (to me), especially if you're aware.
I can add my anecdote to the language barrier points.
At work we speak English, everybody speak English all the time, all docs are in English, all meetings are in English. There's an occasional German email every now and then but people will switch.
When we go to a "team building" retreat, all the same teammates that happily chatted with us expats in English just switch to German 100%, full stop. You can come and stand at the edge of a group chatting in German and they will look at you and continue, knowing you stand there not understanding, without batting an eye.
I lived and worked in China for 10+ years. It is very very rare that people take sick leaves there, or any kind of vacation. Partly it's considered "not good for the team" if someone is missing, so it's peer pressure to stay and grind. Partly its the fact that everything there is efficient - you can go to the hospital in the morning, see any doctor within 15 min, and do whatever tests within another 15 min. (In Germany in April I booked the closest endoscopy slot... in November.)
Now I work in Germany. Vacation and sick leaves here are... very generous. In fact I'm writing this while on vacation. In my company it's often hard to set up a meeting with 4+ people because for months in advance at least 1-2 are on vacation.
I don't want to express any opinion on this.
One interesting thing is how people here say "work smarter, not harder". I don't know how they imagine China, but I promise you people work smart AND hard there.
This is a good observation. Antirez is one my favorite authors and software developers. I'm 100% sure he could have made the same Redis PR and ds4 (or something else) without LLMs in about the same time with the same quality or higher.
I switched to a large company from a series of startups (including my own), it is definitely a big change, and "efficiency" is not the thing anymore.
Now I can spend days fighting with some gnarly IT security problem to load an internal Python package cross-org with a Managed Identity token issued to Build Pipeline that is scoped to a Service Principal with a wrong checkbox, or something equally cryptic and useless. Nothing of it would be even remotely possible in a startup. Is it "performative"?.. I think not. Is it efficient or necessary? Probably not, but who knows. Chesterton's Fence and all that.
Surprised nobody mentioned Intel vPro AMT so far. It is basically an always-on KVM that's part of CPU firmware, powered by an always-on 5V PSU rail. There is a scary amount of options, including unattended periodic (or alarm based) phone home, user acceptance or full user override, boot media spoofing, Serial over WiFi... All built-in into consumer(-ish) CPUs.
In the past I co-founded two startups which helps me better understand the business side of development, how to identify value, how to measure and optimize for ROI, what makes a good hire (and how to be one), what are the true costs of rewrites, unit economics, and many other things.
Don't hesitate to drop me a message – I'd love to chat!
m [at] sayap.in https://sayap.in