Americans Are Scarce in Top Programming Contest

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Only four of the 48 best computer programmers in the world are Americans, at least according to a computer-programming competition run by TopCoder. Poland had 11 of the final 48, and Russia had 8. Wall Street Journal columnist Lee Gomes asks whether this is more evidence of a sad decline in American education and competitiveness: 'Surprisingly, the Eastern Europeans don't seem to think so. Poland's Krzysztof Duleba, 22, explained that in countries like his own, there are so few economic opportunities for students that competitions like these are their one chance to participate in the global economy. Some of the Eastern Europeans even seemed slightly embarrassed by their over-representation, saying it isn't evidence of any superior schooling or talent so much as an indicator of how much they have to prove.'"

Comments

*BEST* programmers? Really?

[Stele]

Have any of these academics ever shipped a product?

I would imagine that the "best" programmers in the world are all off producing commercial software at some company, or working on some high-profile open source project.

I don't have much ego about my programming abilities, but I HAVE shipped dozens of highly rated commercial applications. Those of us busy with "real work" usually don't have time to take part in these competitions. The title should probably be something like "best academic programmers with little real world experience."

Re:Polish politeness.

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Gah. You got a computer, how hard is it to start "calc.exe"?

American High School Graduate: What? calc....dot what did you say? How do I start that? Computers are for running google on aren't they?

Re:USA

[amightywind]

Your references are absolutely atrocious. GDP is not the be all end all metric for societal fullfillment. But it is an indicator of increasing wealth. In the US that anyone who obeys the law and is willing to work and compete can improve their standing. Does that mean that their will be no poverty? Ofcourse not. But high GDP also insures that there is class mobility. That is why immigrants (legal and illegal) are tripping over each other to get into the country. That is a profound strength.