on linkedin.com, bill gates asked:
“How can we do more to encourage young people to pursue careers in science and technology?”
the answer to this question is “mu.”
its like asking “how can we increase our crop yields?”
kids are not crops.
a more pertinent question might be: “can one honestly recommend a career as an individual contributor in a technology field given today’s corporate environment and global economic realities?”
the answer to that question in this country at present is unfortunately “no.”
lets stop kidding ourselves.
its practically impossible to achieve real success as a technologist without essentially transforming oneself along the way into some sort of manager or “entrepreneur” — a fancy word that literally means “undertaker”. what we really value and reward is initiative and risk taking. quite the contrary to the implicit assumption that technical proficiency and professionalism are valued, they are rather attributes to be exploited. ask any teacher. ask any software engineer over 40.
ownership or at least a management role with equity is almost the definition of success in this world, so why not just encourage everyone to do what we clearly value the first place and go into business and management? that’s where the money is, and money speaks louder than words. I once worked for a guy who told me he was a “pure manager.” what he meant was that he didn’t have the slightest idea what business we were in or what we actually did, and what was more, he didn’t care. his specialty was management. he probably made triple what I did at the time. I quit shortly after that, and I never looked back.
but it doesn’t matter. the real breakthrough individuals will focus their attention on the problems that interest them despite, not because of external factors, as long as they can keep body and soul together. any half-baked motivational scheme will only result in attracting marginal characters who will be unhappy and unproductive as engineers and scientists anyway. for the most part a net loss, both for the individuals involved and the companies that hire them, if you ask me. and there’s a lot of folks like that out there, as anyone in the field will tell you. simultaneously marginally competent and miserable. not a pretty picture.
so it may be counter intuitive, but inducing people into science and technology fields based on some abstract nationalistic strategy of “competitiveness” that is obviously contradicted by our own global trade and immigration policy, is just dumb, and a waste of time. but doing so for motivations that are essentially corporate interests masquerading as the interest of the individuals in question is worse — it is positively dishonest.
seriously, economic policies that encourage initiative and risk taking are our surest guide to broad success — in areas that we haven’t even thought of yet. that’s the whole idea.
not everyone is cut out to found a company, but many great innovations come from small companies, of 10, 20 or 50 employees. many of us fondly recall the creative energies and associations of our involvement with such organizations. if there is a crop to be thought of, its the next generation of small companies. we must do everything we can to foster them, and to provide a creative environment that allows them to develop and thrive.
in this regard, for the past few decades we have benefited tremendously from an ample supply of credit and available investment capital for startups. this capital has spawned entire new markets that didn’t even exist twenty years ago. we must continue to ensure this flow of capital.
the next most important thing we can do is encourage individual enterprise by broadly sharing risk of a different and more personal nature — by making available affordable, portable and reliable health insurance for all, in the same way that we have done for independent retirement plans through IRAs, 401-Ks and SEPs. providing quality health insurance is becoming increasingly problematic and burdensome to administer for small companies, and constitutes a positive impediment to growth and innovation.
following that, but worthy of mention, and for the same reason, is that we maintain some aspects of our business environment that many of us may take for granted. that is, trustworthy accounting practices and a relative lack of petty corruption.
the former is crucial to maintain the trust of investors in the statements of company managers respecting their success and prospects.
the latter is maybe a more subtle and perplexing economic problem. corruption is something that in many countries, and perhaps more dysfunctional areas of our own, embodies a kind of hidden tax. bribes to the local inspectors, or protection money to the local mob burdens the poor small enterprise ultimately to the point of extinction. it is my belief that that is the root cause of illegal immigration. poor, hardworking people are looking for work. they cannot find it in their countries of origin because of these factors. for the very same reasons, it is one of the root causes of urban decay in our own country.
corruption and poor accounting practices create hidden burdens and systemic distrust between investors and small enterprises.
since small enterprises are the primary source of job growth, it stagnates. the cycle continues, and both capital and enterprising workers flee. so again, perhaps ironically, the solution to another, different problem lies in addressing the same root cause. if we can reduce the causes of illegal immigration, we can both enable the poor, hardworking erstwhile immigrant to prosper where he is, and at the same time preserve economic opportunities at all levels where he or she would have come to compete illegally.
rather than putting up stronger border defenses or stricter immigration policies, we should focus on developing small business abroad as well as at home by focusing on building trust and stamping out corruption in the market. and perhaps ironically, and for the very same reasons we should take steps to encourage individual enterprise, calculated risk taking and for those few gifted, inspired souls, the pursuit of careers in science and technology for the betterment of mankind and love of the art, not the dollar.