An 11/24/2014 article in the New Yorker explores the world of “top programmers”; how much they are “in need” and how startups go awry because said talent can’t be found. Or afforded. Various reasons are suggested as to why this is so, but it’s a factor to consider in forecasts about the pace of innovation. Can we get better at “training” top programmers, or is there some finite limit based on “talent pool” in any population?
[gview file=”https://publicservicesalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/The-Programmer’s-Price.pdf”]PSA has pondered the practicality of trying to work with someone with programming capability wherever in the world that they might be found. But being connected online is easier to accomplish than creating quality communication with someone with ESL, or from a very different culture.
Yet Kris has had some experience with MOOCs that seemed to thrive in a transnational and worldwide context. Lean Startups generally talk about five people at computers in the same room, as do incubators; but if talent is in short supply in your home town, maybe that’s not the model one can use.