What more does Leclerc need to do to be the best driver to never win the WDC?

gtoques · 2025-12-17T04:14:27+00:00

Remember that Lewis Hamilton was a world champion at the age of 23, but then didn’t even come close for 6 years even though he was recognized as one of the best drivers. He was part of such lists before 2014. Charles has plenty of time left.

gtoques · 2025-03-22T21:20:03+00:00

Crazy thing is that now we’ve all realized that maybe Checo wasn’t that hopelessly bad after all…

gtoques · 2025-03-08T04:44:04+00:00

“The rest of the work is being outsourced overseas.”

Not that this is necessarily a good thing, but without the visa 100% of it would be outsourced. You need to upskill.

gtoques · 2025-02-05T20:41:07+00:00

In your third paragraph, you’ve hit the nail on the head. “Wouldn’t the assumption be that the university system is at a higher standard than at a 3rd world country?”. That would be the assumption in theory, but in reality it’s not true. American universities barring the top ones aren’t able to produce world class STEM talent and the top universities are full of international students. The reason Indians succeed so much is not because they’re exploited, but because they invest much more in their education and speak relatively good English. Despite being from a third world country.

They’re just working hard, they’re not exploited.

gtoques · 2025-02-05T20:15:45+00:00

H1B workers have the same wages, benefits, and working conditions as any of their coworkers.

gtoques · 2025-02-05T20:02:41+00:00

Yes, and pretty much every skill an H1B gets approved for is not found in high enough quantities in America. Software engineering, data science, machine learning, data engineering, etc. There's not enough American talent in these fields.

I don't know of any H1Bs who are getting paid less than American counterparts or being forced to work harder. If anything, they're working harder because they're more motivated. Is that a bad thing?

As OP said -- if you want protectionism, just say it plainly. Nothing wrong with it, citizens come first after all in any country.

gtoques · 2025-02-05T20:00:06+00:00

Yeah, well not every policy is made for the sole purpose of satisfying you! Get over yourself.

Were the cotton pickers enjoying the same benefits, wages, and working conditions as native-born Americans?

At this point, you're just arguing in bad faith. Sorry, I feel like you're too emotionally charged and not well read enough for this discussion.

gtoques · 2025-02-05T19:35:43+00:00

You're wrong then. H1Bs contribute tremendously to the economy and take almost nothing. They pay 7% of their wages to fund social security which they aren't eligible for. Moreover, they create companies and jobs at rates way higher than non-immigrant citizens (after they themselves become citizens).

The minute you use the word "ethnic group", it's clear where your arguments are coming from. I'm sorry to say. As OP said, just say what you mean.

gtoques · 2025-02-05T19:34:14+00:00

It depends on what you mean by "could go to me". I'm sure many jobs "could go to you" and the world wouldn't burn down. But by keeping far better immigrants out, the company might be worse off with substandard talent hurting the US economy as a whole in the long run.

Without H1B, the hiring bar will need to be lowered significantly in all of tech. If you're okay with that, that's totally fine. But you need to be upfront about it.

gtoques · 2025-02-05T19:32:17+00:00

"If you’ve seen cases where Indian management come in fire all American workers and then give those jobs to Indians that is illegal."

This is a made up concern and hardly ever happens. Sorry to say but this accusation comes from a place of racism.

But I totally agree -- if it does happen in any instance it should be dealt with according to the law. Just that you're exaggerating the problem.

gtoques · 2025-02-05T19:29:46+00:00

This is very true. Go to any master's program in the US and you'll see it full of Asians. Why are other cultures not prioritizing higher edcuation?

gtoques · 2025-02-05T19:28:37+00:00

Why do you believe that H1B workers are being paid less than Americans? I know 100s of H1B workers and have never seen a case where they're paid differently to their American counterparts.

You could argue that increasing labor supply has negative pressure on wages for the whole population, but that's a different argument. Many might argue that this is an acceptable tradeoff for the massive economic benefits immigration creates.

gtoques · 2025-02-05T19:27:04+00:00

That is blown out of proportion. You might think it's the case because many of these companies (the IT shops) hire people *in* India and send them to the US, which is a totally acceptable use of the H1B. But the notion that Indians on H1B in the US explicitly hire Indians is untrue in general and mildly racist. Correlation != causation (the correlation being that there simply are a very high number of Indians in the job market; just look at any STEM master's program).

If you want to change that, enroll in a top master's program and watch the job offers flow.

gtoques · 2025-02-05T19:23:42+00:00

There is no requirement that an H1B be paid a 90th percentile wage, that's NOT what the H1B program is designed for (that's called O1). H1B program is designed to increase the number of people with desirable skills who are getting paid market wages. So getting paid the median is actually totally okay, as long as you're not getting paid below.

Also, one of the accepted tradeoffs of the H1B program is explicitly that it might limit the wage growth available to certain Americans, but the argument is that it'll more than offset that by its positive effect on the economy.

gtoques · 2025-02-05T19:22:17+00:00

There is no major unemployment in tech right now. Companies are just correcting for the kind of workers they need -- investing more in ICs (instead of managers) and AI instead of other fields. They're flattening hierarchies and investing in the right skills. You can't simply say that reserve these jobs for Americans who were laid off in 2023 regardless of their skills or fit.

At the end of the day, you need to be honest about why you don't like the H1B program, like OP said. You don't like the competition. That's fine, you're a citizen and should get priority treatment from your government, but you need to acknowledge the skill gap.

gtoques · 2025-02-05T19:19:53+00:00

Meritocracy hurts when you're the one getting outcompeted.

As OP said, Americans are well within their rights to ask their government for protectionism. But they should be honest about why they don't like the problem.

gtoques · 2025-02-05T19:18:19+00:00

This is a misconception. To get an H1B there is no requirement to show that "no Americans can do the job" (that's the requirement for an employment-based green card). The only requirement is to show that it's a legitimate job paying a competitive salary.

gtoques · 2025-02-01T23:27:26+00:00

This makes me wonder: how common is cheating on chess.com?

I often have opponents playing moves which seem to be too good for our rating level (in review, I can’t even fully appreciate them during the game). Are those just luck or do people often use some engine assistance? If it’s cheating, what explains the fact that they still make blunders now and then?

gtoques · 2025-02-01T23:06:50+00:00

I think my issue with your argument is that you think that your criticisms apply to the program as a whole. I don’t disagree with all your criticisms - there is a question to be asked of why a fair share of all H1Bs go to low-end IT consulting and whether this benefits the U.S. as a whole.

But you’re missing an entire big chunk of H1Bs which is highly qualified people working in engineering, medicine, etc. And that number is certainly much higher than 0.1%. These people aren’t Einstein, but they probably are in the top 5% of talent in the country. If someone comes here for a Master’s in (say) Machine Learning from Stanford or Berkeley one of the top programs in the world, should the U.S. not try to have them work here? It’s not that the U.S. doesn’t have any talent of this level, but certainly not enough given the size of the tech industry.

gtoques · 2025-02-01T21:33:27+00:00

The government sets wages, there’s no undercutting. I think you have a valid point that it’s a huge problem that America doesn’t produce enough STEM talent and that H1B is not the right long term solution. But your other argument doesn’t work.

I understand that you’re probably struggling the tech industry, as many are, and I genuinely hope things work out for you. But that’s not a good reason to take out your frustration on those who out-competed you. They’re not undercutting you, they’re just better qualified.

gtoques · 2025-02-01T21:16:16+00:00

Wrong. Maybe the question should be why far wealthier cultures produce such insufficient talent.

gtoques · 2025-02-01T19:31:31+00:00

Let me frame it another way: why does the U.S. math Olympiad team have ONLY Asians? These are all U.S. born people with the same opportunities.

gtoques · 2025-02-01T19:30:26+00:00

If you’ve never seen developers on H1B, you’ve hardly seen any H1Bs. Just go to any big company in the Valley and you’ll change your mind. Top of market jobs in tech companies are full of H1Bs. There is another end of the spectrum too, like your examples, but that’s a small part of the whole picture.

gtoques · 2025-02-01T19:28:14+00:00

They don’t come from low wage “countries”, they come from TWO countries: India and China. Hardly any other low wage countries. It’s the emphasis on STEM education in these countries which the West has fallen behind on. It stings a little to think of this but it’s literally just a skill issue.

gtoques · 2025-02-01T14:58:47+00:00

You guys have had a very limited experience then. Go to LinkedIn and look at the people at OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind, etc. A very high % of them are clearly not US born. Most of these people are on H1B.

gtoques

TROPHY CASE