Russian Programmers Dominate At Google Code Jam 159
New submitter Migala77 writes "Now that the third round for Google Code Jam is finished and only 25 contestants are left, we can look at which nationalities performed well and which didn't. Code Jam contestant foxlit has the stats, and some interesting things can be seen. Although there were over 3000 contestants from India in the qualification round (17% of the total) , only 3 of those managed to reach the third round (0.7% of the round 3 contestants) . This in contrast to Russia with 77 out of 747, and Belarus with 13 out of 114 reaching the third round. The U.S. performed somewhat below average too, with only 25 out of 2166 contestants making it to the third round."
none of that seems surprising (Score:3, Insightful)
Or these results don't reflect anything about the quality of the programmers from a country, and rather the bias of who found out about the Code Jam (lots of everyday Joe programmers, vs those in-the-loop).
Re:It's the cold and Isolation (Score:5, Insightful)
Then computers in the prisons should be a good rehab route?
Witness the power of... (Score:5, Insightful)
...the strong emphasis on mathematics and science during the Soviet era. Just throw in a bit of Lysenkoism to carry its fruits into the current generation, and presto, world dominance!
Re:It's the cold and Isolation (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, internet access and such is another point because that could be used to communicate with other criminals outside.. but having a library of programming books and personal computers for prisoners would be a good way to change those people. Programming books being just example, there could be other things too. The main point being; yes, it is much better to try to get those prisoners life back on track instead of just punishing them.
Re:Economics and chess (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:none of that seems surprising (Score:5, Insightful)
Hell even the Indians educated here seem to be fairly useless. Adept at rote learning, useless as engineers. It's cultural.
Re:Language? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Language? (Score:5, Insightful)
What do you suggest an alternative? The US needs to export something to buy all that foreign made tech, the mainstream commercial porn industry is in freefall, and the German amateurs are already giving away most of the sick niche stuff free.
Lawyers to sue the world, politicians to tell them that it's OK to do so, and grunts with guns who make it OK to do so. Did I miss any?
Re:I don't get it (Score:4, Insightful)
"Scientist" - may be. "Engineer" - hell no. You wouldn't want a surgeon who knows the theory but never practiced it to operate on you, would you?
It would be like advertising for "heart surgeon" and specifying BS in bio, premed, or biochem are OK. They could crosstrain, but its kinda inappropriate. Its just as dumb to ask for a CS degree to swap backup tapes, pull cat5, and run "ghost". They could probably learn to do it, but...
Its a huge problem with computer jobs. If construction trades were run like computers, we'd confuse architects, structural engineers, building roofers, masons, CSI arson investigators, janitors, and maintenance dudes and no one would consider that unusual because they're all building workers and all building workers are the same, except that we'd include endless name brands and specs in each job description "Job title is plumber, must have minimum 25 years experience using 2010 model year craftsman 12 oz carpentry hammer model number 124351-3, along with 120 git sandpaper operation, 100 grit and 150 grit sandpaper operators need not apply, architect degree preferred, and TIG pipeline welding certificate optional"