Fewer but better
December 26, 2024
"Fewer but better."
That's my take on the immigration debate being in full swing now in a power vacuum between the Presidents.
Hopefully, I can credibly express an opinion on the subject in my capacity as a career, registered licensed professional engineer with as long as 45 years' experience of practicing engineering only in the U.S. (nuclear power).
And my opinion is: "Fewer but better."
I've been honored to work with many excellent, first generation immigrant engineers of Indian, Turkish, Russian, Chinese... origin. Talented, well educated, passionate, refusing to play politics.
American?
Not as much.
American technical specialists, in my experience, tended to be either very good or mediocre. All those in-between tend to gravitate to middle management. En route developing an exaggerated opinion about themselves vs. the work sticks with their atrocious accent and deficient social skills. Those who can, do; those who can't, teach.
I agree with the following tweets by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk's X post today
Dec. 26
@elonmusk
Maybe this is a helpful clarification: I am referring to bringing in via legal immigration the top ~0.1% of engineering talent as being essential for America to keep winning. This is like bringing in the Jokic’s or Wemby’s of the world to help your whole team (which is mostly Americans!) win the NBA. Thinking of America as a pro sports team that has been winning for a long time and wants to keep winning is the right mental construct.
And here's by Vivek Ramaswamy
@VivekGRamaswamy
The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH:
Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG.
A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.
A culture that venerates Cory from “Boy Meets World,” or Zach & Slater over Screech in “Saved by the Bell,” or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in “Family Matters,” will not produce the best engineers.
Phil Z.