Tom-D
Taxi to Parking
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Tom-D
Cool transportation
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steingar
Taxi to Parking
Isn't quite transportation yet, and might not be given the inverse square laws. Israel has scientists too, actually some awfully good ones.
denverpilot
Tied Down
Israel invented tons of stuff people don't realize. Intel's first Pentium chip, for example.
Their equivalent of Silicon Valley is in many ways significantly better than ours.
They have two motivating factors:
1. They're completely surrounded by people who'd love to kill them. That tends to keep one on their game. We had a video conference going once with a manager over there and heard a "whump". When we asked what it was he said it was a rocket that hit a couple blocks away as he casually looked out the window. Then he excused himself to make a quick phone call to family to let them know he was alright. When you're shot at regularly, corporate games aren't nearly as interesting nor scary.
2. They're secretive as hell due to #1. My last employer had a major engineering division in Israel and getting information out of that group about what they'd even built into the products for troubleshooting and systems diagnostics was like pulling teeth.
Our competitors were halfway across the country here in the States. That same competitor's engineering offices for similar products was right across the street in Israel. They ate lunch with the "enemy" regularly.
There's also a better culture I'd say there in respecting engineers and technologists who are worth hiring. No one over there didn't have a company car, fully paid company cell phone of any type they desired, and the Israel office was left alone to deploy their own IT and server solutions as they saw fit. They didn't have an IT staff or any significant IT policy.
Some of the reason for the above was that a good engineer would literally walk across the street and have a new job by dinner time. But that was a bit taboo unless you were abused by a previous employer. They still have the concept of a career over there.
(We regularly used their servers from Colorado. The corporate servers on the West Coast were awful to access, didn't work as well, and the support people were surly. Israel, the server was run by the person INTERESTED in having said server and they were expected by their team to do it right. Their bosses knew the stuff worked and spent their time fighting off the corporate IT staff, not telling the Israeli Engineers they "couldn't do that" or "that's outside of company policy".)
I often wondered why the huge culture differences between staff and managers over there. Best I could come up with was the conscripted military service. You had to join as a teenager and learn teamwork and trust. You often ended up working alongside those same people, later on. I can't say I ever proved it though. That secretive nature never gave any answers. In the States it was a middle manger's job to maintain corporate policy at all costs. In Israel it was cultural to get that crap off the backs of workers who'd be at the company for life.
Very different outlooks and it significantly affected work production.
Their equivalent of Silicon Valley is in many ways significantly better than ours.
They have two motivating factors:
1. They're completely surrounded by people who'd love to kill them. That tends to keep one on their game. We had a video conference going once with a manager over there and heard a "whump". When we asked what it was he said it was a rocket that hit a couple blocks away as he casually looked out the window. Then he excused himself to make a quick phone call to family to let them know he was alright. When you're shot at regularly, corporate games aren't nearly as interesting nor scary.
2. They're secretive as hell due to #1. My last employer had a major engineering division in Israel and getting information out of that group about what they'd even built into the products for troubleshooting and systems diagnostics was like pulling teeth.
Our competitors were halfway across the country here in the States. That same competitor's engineering offices for similar products was right across the street in Israel. They ate lunch with the "enemy" regularly.
There's also a better culture I'd say there in respecting engineers and technologists who are worth hiring. No one over there didn't have a company car, fully paid company cell phone of any type they desired, and the Israel office was left alone to deploy their own IT and server solutions as they saw fit. They didn't have an IT staff or any significant IT policy.
Some of the reason for the above was that a good engineer would literally walk across the street and have a new job by dinner time. But that was a bit taboo unless you were abused by a previous employer. They still have the concept of a career over there.
(We regularly used their servers from Colorado. The corporate servers on the West Coast were awful to access, didn't work as well, and the support people were surly. Israel, the server was run by the person INTERESTED in having said server and they were expected by their team to do it right. Their bosses knew the stuff worked and spent their time fighting off the corporate IT staff, not telling the Israeli Engineers they "couldn't do that" or "that's outside of company policy".)
I often wondered why the huge culture differences between staff and managers over there. Best I could come up with was the conscripted military service. You had to join as a teenager and learn teamwork and trust. You often ended up working alongside those same people, later on. I can't say I ever proved it though. That secretive nature never gave any answers. In the States it was a middle manger's job to maintain corporate policy at all costs. In Israel it was cultural to get that crap off the backs of workers who'd be at the company for life.
Very different outlooks and it significantly affected work production.