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[Michael Czeiszperger <michael AT czeiszperger.org>]

On Dec 8, 2003, at 10:14 PM, Roger Austin wrote:

>  How is this different than normal supply and demand economics? Why
> is this news? If the guy was going to slash his current staffs' pay,
> we would call him an asshole. He does the same thing (being
> proactive) and he is some kind of wizard.

It *is* normal supply and demand economics, which is why its news. What  
we've been hearing is startups right here in RTP outsourcing their  
entire technical staff without ever giving anyone local a shot at a job  
at any price. I suspect the reason is most companies can't quantify the  
actual costs of software development. Now you'd think that someone you  
could hire at 80K a year would be more productive than someone you  
could hire for 45K a year, but then the hiring manager would have to  
know what they're doing. The last software startup I interviewed with  
didn't have a *single* *person* with even the slightest bit of software  
experience-- the business model had been cherry-picked, and an  
"experienced" management team brought on board, except what they were  
experienced in was getting financing. Having business experience is  
definitely a requirement, but I don't think investors would try to run  
a steel mill without at least hiring a single foreman who'd ever worked  
in a steel mill before, so I have no idea why these startups think that  
software development is so easy you don't even have to hire an  
experienced software manager, let alone actual experienced technical  
staff.

________________________________________________________________________ 
_________
If you put up a large switch in a cave somewhere, with a sign on it  
saying "End-
of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH", the paint wouldn't even have  
time
to dry. -- Pratchett
        -- michael at czeiszperger dot org, Chapel Hill, NC