Young people are ducking out. (These young people, by the way, are French.)
It's already starting to bite.
I often feel it in reaction to items I write here or on ZDNet. Excuses. Reasons not to try. That will never work.
Young people new to a field don't think like that. Back in the 1970s and early 1980s, we didn't think like that. Whether or not our politics become more conservative as we age, our lifestyles do. A 50-year old programmer worries more about what they're making and fears the future, while a 20-year old thinks about what they might make and embraces the future.
It's a cliche, but that doesn't make it less true. Young Americans are shunning technology for business, for real estate, for law, for things that redistribute wealth rather than create it.
Leaving the future to be made by others.
Because technology changes so rapidly, we feel the impact of change here very, very quickly, and this is like a cold wind in November.
Want some good news?
Over at my lovely bride's place of business many of the top people now are Indian. They're immigrants. They're talented. They're young. They're Americanizing. But they're Indian. We don't have to out-source because the industry is being in-sourced.
One reason for that is youth, and a youthful attitude toward technology these programmers bring. Every high-bandwidth industry in the U.S. is seeing the same thing. Many of the best and brightest still come from overseas. The addresses change, but the attitudes remain.
The Indians are the good news. If we can continue attracting such people we may come out all right. But I'm not expecting that. India is becoming a better place to live. It's an exciting, vibrant time there. Why leave?
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for over 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the "Interactive Age Daily" for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age, and dozens of other publications over the years.
1. Jesse Kopelman on April 20, 2005 02:07 PM writes...
"Young Americans are shunning technology for business . . . "
When I first started as a young American engineer in the 90s, it took me about 3 months to realize the industry was run by business people who knew nothing about technology. A few months later I went back to school to get my MBA. These young Americans you speak of have made the right choice.
Permalink to Comment2. Reuben on April 21, 2005 12:44 AM writes...
Interesting take, I am from India and was educated in the US (BS,MS) and worked there for 10 years. Perhaps the real reasons the US will fall behind in the tech future are poor curriculm's in Math and Science in high school and undergraduate college, add that to the plethora of MBA's (who populate most corporations) who are nabobs of narcissism and just plain dumb.
Permalink to Comment3. Emeka on April 21, 2005 08:31 PM writes...
Seems like the malaise of the old colonial powers, UK ,France etc is finally begun to afflict the U.S.
Permalink to Comment"Young Americans are shunning technology for business, for real estate, for law, for things that redistribute wealth rather than create it." England went this route years ago, those in research are caricatured as 'boffins'.
4. Jesse Kopelman on April 22, 2005 01:38 PM writes...
Emeka, I think America is very much heading into a state similar the UK of 30-40 years ago. Classism is a growing problem and economic power seems to be waning. Maybe this means we are ripe to start producing some incredibly awesome music . . .
Permalink to Comment5. Tom Mariner on April 29, 2005 10:13 AM writes...
And after the Technological Eclipse comes ... An Economic Eclipse as we have less stuff to sell to each other.
Hell, France is a beautiful place and is surviving quite well, thank you, for a country that in centuries past was the most technologically superior and powerful in the world. On the other hand, the release of the A380 hints that technology is not dead there after all. Hey, didn't the US supply virtually all of the world's passenger planes 20 years ago?
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