FreeLists / si-list / [SI-LIST] Re: just curious

["Hargin, Bill" <bill_hargin@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Brent ...

> Has this list become the most popular technical list in India 
> in the last
> few months???

Perhaps ... This is an interesting question.  The Internet, jet travel, cell 
phones, and commercial broadcasting have progressively shrunk the globe.  As 
the globe shrinks, things that used to happen one state away, now happen 
countries and continents away.  The underlying question surrounding previously 
American jobs going to Asia or other regions parallels the "protectionist" 
(import tariffs, etc.) vs. open market question.  (A difficult subject.)

I can't say I have a good feel for how an American engineer should respond.  
The Indian and Chinese economies are growing faster than ours (in the U.S.).  
They buy U.S. products, and we hire some of their engineers and call center 
people to help develop and support some of those products.  (Note: I'm not 
driving this, and you're not ... it's being driven by immutable economic 
forces.)

If I could make a book recommendation ... beyond some of the excellent SI books 
that have been discussed on this list ... it would be "Who Moved My Cheese?" by 
Ken Blanchard ($13 paperback; $10 Audio on Amazon).  The point he makes -- in 
about a 2-hour read (longer, if you read slowly like I do) -- is that change is 
going to happen.  Jobs are going to move from America to India, or wherever.  
Instead of trying to hold onto the past, though, he recommends "following the 
cheese."  The point is kind of obvious, but sometimes the most obvious points 
are the ones that we habitually overlook.

The book covers a macro-level point that I believe applies here.  I'm not sure 
what the "micro-level" answer is.  Better training and differentiation, 
perhaps?  Move to India?  Start a hardware engineers' union?  :-)

We see this in Seattle, where I live, all the time.  Boeing employees (both 
engineers and hourly workers) want to keep jobs and Boeing's headquarters in 
Seattle.  So, the company responds by moving the HQ to Chicago, and farming out 
subassemblies to every part of the world.  

I doubt that many people (Americans or otherwise) on this list have the inertia 
or leverage to affect a trend of this magnitude ... Or to stop the free flow of 
information over the Internet, for example ... So the best thing you and I can 
do is decide what we're going to do now that the cheese is moving.  If I had 
specific (micro-level)ideas, I'd be happy to share them ... Maybe someone else 
does.  I'm doing well just to keep enough cheese on my table ... And it's moved 
a few times these last 5 years, requiring that I change my approach, and keep 
my eye on the cheese supply!

Sorry if I'm raining on anyone's parade ... I just think that complaining about 
this type of trend will only slow down a person's ability to respond 
effectively.

Bill Hargin
Redmond, WA, USA

> -----Original Message-----
> From: si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Brent DeWitt
> Sent: Friday, April 02, 2004 8:11 PM
> To: si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [SI-LIST] just curious
> 
> 
> Has this list become the most popular technical list in India 
> in the last
> few months???
> 
> Brent DeWitt
> Loveland, CO
> 
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