Very good article. What is missing to close the analysis are two fundamental aspects related to mentality and legislation. From a mentality point of view, being Europe lacking behind USA in technology, in the majority of the countries software engineers, software architects, product managers or anyone working in IT are considered as 'technicians' on par with electrician. It is a chicken and egg situation - because we are seen as 'electrician', or bizarre IT guys, we don't have the credibility to attract investments - on the other side of the coin, because Europe lacks behind the potential added value of IT companies is not fully appreciated nor is the hard work of the people that have studied the field. It is not unusual, and I heard many times, listening to global townhall for companies with the HQ in Europe to 'complain' about Europe lacking behind, yet internally not having a clear career path to develop engineers above the individual contributor role and for any managers role outweighing any even minimal technical knowledge by the pure ability of managing people, abilities often matching with a management style detrimental to knowledge worker i.e. command and control. Last bit not mentioned are the legislations related to failure, and the mentality around it. In Europe, whoever dare try to build a whatsoever company without having a large safety net or being child of a family which is already a company owner is seen as a fool. Doing so is not encouraged, it is condemned as arrogance rather than being appreciated as courage. If more so the venture fails, as many startups do, the legislation around it is troublesome and your career credibility and potential reemployment or opportunity to attract funds is destroyed, you are basically tainted as a Looser for your entire life. The other side of the coin, considering that from failure you could have learned a lot and so avoid further mistake is not considered at all. If you finally look at the startups created in Europe you will also quickly find that the creators are often tied to international environments, academy, to open source, already wealthy or in general, in some way or another, they all had an heavy exposure, if not even their social circle, is going to be largely outside Europe.
Very good article. What is missing to close the analysis are two fundamental aspects related to mentality and legislation. From a mentality point of view, being Europe lacking behind USA in technology, in the majority of the countries software engineers, software architects, product managers or anyone working in IT are considered as 'technicians' on par with electrician. It is a chicken and egg situation - because we are seen as 'electrician', or bizarre IT guys, we don't have the credibility to attract investments - on the other side of the coin, because Europe lacks behind the potential added value of IT companies is not fully appreciated nor is the hard work of the people that have studied the field. It is not unusual, and I heard many times, listening to global townhall for companies with the HQ in Europe to 'complain' about Europe lacking behind, yet internally not having a clear career path to develop engineers above the individual contributor role and for any managers role outweighing any even minimal technical knowledge by the pure ability of managing people, abilities often matching with a management style detrimental to knowledge worker i.e. command and control. Last bit not mentioned are the legislations related to failure, and the mentality around it. In Europe, whoever dare try to build a whatsoever company without having a large safety net or being child of a family which is already a company owner is seen as a fool. Doing so is not encouraged, it is condemned as arrogance rather than being appreciated as courage. If more so the venture fails, as many startups do, the legislation around it is troublesome and your career credibility and potential reemployment or opportunity to attract funds is destroyed, you are basically tainted as a Looser for your entire life. The other side of the coin, considering that from failure you could have learned a lot and so avoid further mistake is not considered at all. If you finally look at the startups created in Europe you will also quickly find that the creators are often tied to international environments, academy, to open source, already wealthy or in general, in some way or another, they all had an heavy exposure, if not even their social circle, is going to be largely outside Europe.