Sheep running off the cliff

Some company job sites show hundreds of job requisitions for software engineers (in the broad sense) in India, along with a handful of software engineer positions scattered across the U.S. Many of those job ads seems to have been sitting there untouched for time periods on the order of years.

So... how does it escape management's logic that when the hiring folks go to India and come back saying that people walk into kiosks and out with a job, and companies still have big trouble finding workers, getting them to accept the offer, show up on the first day, and not to mention stay for some time... that there's something wrong with making plans to exponentially increase headcount in India. Aren't software folks supposed to have logic? The numbers don't add up anywhere close.

Not the slightest concern about anecdotal and media reports that 30-40% of new hires don't even show up on the first day...

Or actual experience confirming the above...

It takes people 3 years to register what's been going on...

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1536211.cms
"Software services companies are expected to recruit more than 1m people in the next three years. And this kind of demand cannot be fulfilled by the existing engineering colleges. The government has expanded the number of engineering seats in the country to 495,000, with around 1,450 colleges. According to Mr Pai, out of this available pool only 2,25,000 graduates have the requisite skills and training to be employed by IT companies. 'The status of education in engineering colleges is really poor, most colleges do not have faculty...'"

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1529330.cms
"Of every 100 offers made, about 50-60% don’t take the offer at the junior level (0-4 years experience), opine consultants. And the trend of either not turning up for a job at the last minute or leaving within a month or two has now bitten middle and senior-level people as well. While about 40% is the estimated figure for dropouts in the middle level, 30% of senior staff don’t turn up on their first day of work at the new company. However, dropouts at a very senior level (director and CXO levels) are only a handful..."

Back to the Future

I hadn't been to Piazza's for a while, and apparently it's turned Whole Foods-esque, complete with the little "natural" body care section in the center front of the store. Natural cleaning products appears to be on the verge of going mainstream too, after organic food.

While other fast developing countries are adding automobile owners at warp-speed, the U.S. is going around the other side of the circle. After fuel efficiency with hybrid cars, it's also entering people's consciousness to just avoid driving as much as possible.

An automobile is a luxury item. Yet, not needing an automobile as much is an even greater luxury. The next evolution in standard of living.

And in farming, the future somewhat mirrors like turning back the clock to small family farms before chemical pesticides and such. I happened to try some Strauss Family Creamery ice cream recently because it was on sale. It's delicious. So now I've bought some of their non-homegenized milk in a glass bottle, which is sent back to them via bringing it back to the grocery store. The milk costs the same as regular organic milk.

I recently also came across the concept of a refill station in grocery or drug stores, for cleaning products, so people can bring back their bottles to reuse. It would seem this should cost less for all parties involved. Some awesome woman in Minnesota started it. I expect to see this coming out in stores all over the place in the near future.

So, distribution is important for a business... and now I think we need to work on "reverse distribution", or "undistribution", or ... hm, to bring the milk bottles back to the creamery. I am curious how this all works.

This is all very interesting, how much effort, work, and money goes into "reversing" some of the things that industrialization brought us.

***

In other random thoughts... there was a period a few years back when it seemed like a different guy was asking me out every week. (What a change from middle school and high school when no guy would come near me, haha.) Anyway, that was flattering and fun, although I didn't click with any of them. Maybe I had the blinders on since then, but apparently if I take the blinders off and step outside, I have three guys inquiring in a week. Gee, better enjoy youth while it's still here. (I dunno, is someone who's almost 30 still in youth...?)

Please no dripping...

Memorable words from Big Dance. I was chatting with A DL alum whom I recently met, who has worked in China and has a business there. Qi comes up, introduces himself, and asks, "Is it true in China, when guys from here go back there, they have women dripping all over them? ...I mean, like literally d-r-i-p-p-i-n-g . . ."

Huh... I'm thinking to myself. I thought the gender ratio would be in favor of women not dripping. More wonderings... is this so with Chinese Americans, or white guys, or Chinese returnees, or all?

So the topic goes on to the "corrupting" nature of being an expat in China. Ugh, images of weird high-class places where women come up to talk to guys, sit on their laps, and they can fondle them. What?! If I went to China now, would I still get phone calls in the 5-star hotels every night from women who hang up at the sound of a female voice saying "Hello"?

So I wanted to know what it would be like for a female "expat" engineer instead of male business-type person. Apparently, it's not corrupting for females. Okay then.

The topic also touched upon the lack of culture and art, except perhaps in a little enclave in Beijing. Not my image of Shanghai... it should be the New York City of China. So this is all coming from one expat's viewpoint.

And the notion that being an expat is conducive to "romance." Expats just find each other, get together, and then separate. The term Casa Blanca was used. I saw that movie once, and I don't get it. Is it like a surreal world people live in when they live in a foreign country?

One odd person who had lived here for many years told me once that American money was like fake money, like Monopoly money. Huh? Just because it's a different look and a different environment? And after so many years, like one-third of his lifetime? Okay so I've never lived long term in another country, but I've traveled quite a bit and never have I thought of anything during my trips as fake, including money, and especially people. Interestingly, I got the feeling that relationships were also these dream-like surreal love affairs in this wonderland.

Dude. America is real. China is real. Everything is real. I would consider any place one lives (for more than a year) to be home.

***

Anyway, so in other news... Big Dance yesterday. The guy from Starlite who asked me for 5 dances in a row both times I went to Starlite actually did show up to see our performance and dance. Converting, or at least introducing more people from "ballroom" to "social" and "vintage" dance would be a wonderful thing. As it is now, sadly the other day I was thinking, gee, there are really only about a dozen guys (in the world) who know how to lead the type of dancing that we do at a high level of skill and artistry. And only about half of those whose personalities are more comfortably compatible.

I don't think the undergrads who asked me to dance knew I'm probably about ten years older then they are. Dancing with the newbies is quite fun.