I am. I found the second line much easier.

@Timur

That's a separate issue : )

I found the first easier. I can "see" the spaces in my head.

I think if you find that you simply read aloud the two sentences, you'll find the second easier.

@abgemacht: Then you must be very good at anagrams.

Not already knowing what they're going to say, of course.

Ifinditeasiertoreadwithoutspacesthaninwrongorder

err... I think *you'll* find...

In any case, neither of them are that hard.

The key to the anagram version is the first and last letter of each word must be correct. There are studies that show we can read most thing provided that much is correct. Of course, this also explains why typos don't get caught when typing hurried posts.

Exactly. To me, at least, i find the anagrams easier than no spaces. I think as the words get harder, the anagrams will become easier for people than no spaces.

What would you prefer to face?
arussiaandturkeygamelongalliance
or
a jnagrgueut?

What would you prefer to face?
arussiaandturkeygamelongalliance
or
a jnagrgueut?

Both are so easy that it's hard to say.

I would prefer to face:

a rsiuasn and teukry gmae lnog alinlcae

Wouldyouratherhavepizzafordinner?
Or is stapethgi and maltbales mroe to yuor lkinig?

For instance, I had trouble with that top one.

I can read all of them, so hey could be worse :P

To return to the original topic...

I am an MBA graduate (well, almost - less than 3 weeks away from it) and an entrepreneur. To keep with the thread, I am not from the US/UK, and English is not my primary language, although the MBA program I am in is an English-language program.

I am not a big expert regarding world economy, in fact I don't have a prior economical knowledge. Contrary to someone who has stated in this thread that there will be peace in the Middle East in 10 years, I don't believe it - there is too much interests involved not to have peace in this region. I hope I am wrong, though.

I do believe that more and more countries will follow the Chinese way - a controlled capitalism. The US economy will decline, compared to that of China and India, as these countries focus more on knowledge industry instead of production and service industries.

As for my skills - I am an entrepreneur, looking at the world in a different way than most people are. It is about skill, but more than that - it is about vision. The world, as I see it, is full of opportunities and possibilities, and you can change it step by step, creating a better society for the benefit of the whole planet. All you need is to believe you can do it, and then do it - it is only up to you.

Damn, Bask! For a non-native English speaker, your prose is excellent.

Thank you. I wish I had a habit of re-reading what I post, it would minimize my mistakes.

I should point out, though, that your views particularly regarding India are a bit flawed. A significant number of India's "knowledge" workers come over here to the states because we have the job openings. Of course, the reality is we don't really have them, but many companies would rather pay a fraction of the going rate of a skilled local technology worker for a less experienced and less independent working and thinking "drone". Most of the Indian developers I've met working on H1B Visas honestly can't solve problems. They are great coders, but they can't troubleshoot. So for big projects they are fine where someone else researches the issue and tells them what to do to fix it. But for small to mid size companies where you may have a team of up to a dozen developer's they don't fit in because each person has to be an independent starter.

I should point out I'm not biased. I work with four Indian consulting developers right now in a team of 10. Two of them are outstanding and I'll try to scarf them on my next project. The other two, I'm afraid, won't last through the new year. Their communications skills are week and they are always asking "how to do this". We are to small a firm for that kind of worker.

So, while I can't speak for China, India is producing Technology people as exports, and they are typically cheap products at that. Until India starts encouraging and teaching their Tech people to think outside of the box and face challenges head-on, it will be the US techies who guide the work of the Indian "drones" in the US for some time to come.

I agree that right now this is the situation. However, the Indian and Chinese ground is becoming fertile for creative thinking, and the sheer amount of people in there is a major factor.

I'd like to point that I am in an international MBA program, having professors coming from different corners of the globe, each having an interesting (and sometimes biased) view on the reality.

Lets play with numbers a bit:
There are about 1140 million people in India, and 307 million in the US. That's almost four times more. Assume there are 5% entrepreneurs in the US (just an assumption, it doesn't really matters), which is about 15 million people. Assume that there are only 1% of Indians that are "qualified" to be entrepreneurs, and it means there are 11.4 million Indian entrepreneurs who understand the needs of 1140 other Indians, ready to supply the demand.

What I am trying to show is that India is on the right path. The moment Indians will become richer, the education will improve. Treating them as drones is a mistake, because the "drones" you are dealing with are the product of the old education.

China is in even better position. US invests more in China than China invests in the US. The two countries are tied together because of the amount of USD China bought. China is moving fast from manufacturing country to developing country. A lot of western companies create R&D centers in China (and India as well, but the infrastructure in China is much better at this moment).

Regarding your bias remark - if two of the Indian developers are outstanding and the other two suck, that means that there are 50% awesome Indian developers, which is probably much more than US developers - and if it is not the case right now, give it a decade.

Anecdotal evidence is evidence of nothing. Yes, at my present position, 50% are decent developers. But take into account the other 2 dozen I've known in the last decade who weren't worth the money we paid them and you get 2 out of 26 or less than 10% that are worth anything. And the only reason they were employed is because they cost $40K a year, less than 2/3rds what a qualified developer from the US costs. But $$$ are the bottom line to large corporations. The fact that their projects will fail miserably or their leads will get burn out from having to do all the real work before passing the coding off to the lesser skilled Indians is irrelavent to them.

The H1B Visa program has seen it's day and it is time for it to end. It was intended to fill jobs left vacant in the work force, but is abused and gives jobs to foreigners while leaving quality local people unemployed.

And here are some more accurate population numbers.

US citizens at work- 180 million
Indian Citizens (total) just over 1 billion (not 1.1 billion) of which fewer than half work (about 420 million) so only 2.5 to 1.

Approximately 35% of the US workforce has a college degree - 60+ million
Fewer than 7% of the Indian workforce even graduates high school - 30 million

Suddenly the US numbers look a hell of a lot better, don't they?

Exactly, this is why I brought your "I am unbiased" remark up.

You are looking at the past. This is incorrect, you must look at the trend. You are saying that all the Indian developers suck because the majority of them who you met so far, suck. This might be the case, but you are missing the bigger picture. The US kids play with computers since early childhood, while Indian kids don't have the luxury. The moment the population in India will be able to allow computers to their kids (which is not too far away), you will see a lot of brilliant Indian coders.

7% never graduate highschool. That is a current statstic. The US has rughly the same number of college grads as India has high school grads.

Draugnar, it is obvious that the US *currently* is in a much better position that India (and we are not even talking about China yet, which is in a great position compared to India).

The point is that India has begun to realize its potential, and in 10-20 years the situation will change. There will be more people with college degrees, less poverty, more startups, etc.

(And no, I am not from India or China).

And again I point out the H1B issue. The US needs to look to US workers first. It's time to end the H1B Visa program. We have double digit unemployment and yet keep importing people from India because they are so f-ing cheap.