Slashdot Mirror
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.'"
From IRAQ, guys, we're being whipped over there;
to the non functioning healthcare system,
the broken education system,
the massive deficit, (no wonder the dollar is at an all-time low),
corruption in government, though we preach ccontability of governments overseas;
Katrina: The response fell nothing short of a third-world type response,
Our mothers fair badly on the world stage during child birth,
Why should I be suprised? My own niece (6 years old), who is in a public school does not know what 11 looks like. After adding 6 to 5, she has to count on a number board to see what the answer looks like! And she is not alone. At my place of work, my own supervisor cannot write an essay describing what happened in a situation. She has to rely on others to do it!
We are going down guys. Sooner or later, we'll be at the bottom of the pack.
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."
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?
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
> Maybe all the US programmers were busy working for a living.
jojojo... the "richest" country in the world has all his best programmers working for a living, while the rest of the 3rd world's programmer are idle.
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.
an ill wind that blows no good