* It's difficult for Western businesses to time shift, and there are usually caps on work visas.
* Perhaps until recently, most Western programmers genuinely enjoy the work. What I've heard from Indians is that many Indian programmers are more interested in building a career than in the work itself. Intrinstic vs. extrinsic motivation. I think this may be declining as a factor as software eats the rest of the US economy and brain drains talented people from other fields, though.
* Cultural differences--it turns out that English fluency is necessary but not sufficient to seamlessly slot into an Anglosphere company.
* One way out of this conundrum could be for new software companies to start in India and outcompete Western companies (at which point culture differences and time shift wouldn't matter), except I get the sense there are barriers to that.
* It's difficult for Western businesses to time shift, and there are usually caps on work visas.
* Perhaps until recently, most Western programmers genuinely enjoy the work. What I've heard from Indians is that many Indian programmers are more interested in building a career than in the work itself. Intrinstic vs. extrinsic motivation. I think this may be declining as a factor as software eats the rest of the US economy and brain drains talented people from other fields, though.
* Cultural differences--it turns out that English fluency is necessary but not sufficient to seamlessly slot into an Anglosphere company.
* One way out of this conundrum could be for new software companies to start in India and outcompete Western companies (at which point culture differences and time shift wouldn't matter), except I get the sense there are barriers to that.