

Is it really so that the Polish programmers are so good? - blazej_j
http://espeo.eu/blog/from-poland-with-code/

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informatimago
They are cheap. This is what makes them $good (or $better) than local
programmers.

In my experience, they're the same as any programmer: you have to filter ten
to get a good one. But since they are cheap, companies invest less time to
filter them out, so you should be prepared to scramble to correct all the bug
and implement all the missing features two weeks before release... At every
release until you find a good one!

------
dozzie
Programming contests are very, very remote proxy for assessing how good
programmers are. You make Poland look petty by bragging about contests instead
of something of substance. Doesn't Poland have anything more significant in
the field?

~~~
Zuider
The large companies that converge on these contests in a feeding frenzy of
head-hunting would beg to differ on your assessment of how good a proxy such
contests are.

Poland has a long tradition of brilliant mathematicians, logicians and chess
players. Just look at all the Polish names in the industry or in open source.
They tend to get excited at the deep problems with mathematical implications,
not so much with the shallow problems (by shallow, I don't mean insignificant,
or trivial for industry). Most of the shallow problems in programming have
been solved by now, and the next step is beyond a wall of mathematical depth
that is barely understood even now. This is the time for programmers who
operate at that nexus between mathematics and programming to shine. You can be
sure that the Polish will be at the forefront of this.

It is a tragedy that the Polish tend to have to go abroad to succeed. This is
an industry that should not be affected by the lack of transport
infrastructure that is a legacy of Communist occupation.

~~~
dozzie
> The large companies that converge on these contests in a feeding frenzy of
> head-hunting would beg to differ on your assessment of how good a proxy such
> contests are.

I'm yet to see some good code produced by winners of such contests. And large
companies typically struggle to achieve sensible accuracy of assessing hiring
candidates; hard to argue that they suddenly got this sole criterion right.

> Poland has a long tradition of brilliant mathematicians, logicians and chess
> players.

Yes, it does. I constantly stumble upon Poles when studying anything related
to modern mathematics.

> Just look at all the Polish names in the industry or in open source.

...like? I don't remember anything of significant size and popularity written
by a Pole. The most prominent thing originating in Poland I can recall is
Nemerle. The only big Polish names I can think of are lcamtuf and Rutkowska.
Not too much of global achievements, I would say.

> They tend to get excited at the deep problems with mathematical
> implications, not so much with the shallow problems (by shallow, I don't
> mean insignificant, or trivial for industry).

By now, I'm still waiting for Poland to _produce_ something significant (or
for something already produced to gain significance).

> This is the time for programmers who operate at that nexus between
> mathematics and programming to shine. You can be sure that the Polish will
> be at the forefront of this.

We'll see. I hope you're right; I want to take pride of my country's
achievements. For now, I just feel offended by talking how good Poland is in
computer science or programming, but mentioning only programming contests.

