I'll try to clarify a little bit

> they do come, more than any other place but most don't come

With most being, most of the

> just slightly less motivated or talented

than the author of the article. That our comments come in the wake of.

I think we agree on that: that most of those outside of the very top of the tech elite do not come.

And we're also not in dispute as to how it can become the tech capital of the world because I think most of the top talents that could come do come.

But the most that don't come are those who are just slightly less motivated or talented than the very top.

I think our disagreement here is probably all about degrees and relative amounts rather than about the substance of the the points. I could be misunderstanding what you're saying, but here's how I see it.

Say there exist 1 million top tech talents in the world. I say most of those that can come do come to the Bay area. The crucial part is: can come. What does "that can come" mean?

It means how much demand is there in the Bay area for top tech talents. Let's just say the demand is like 500,000 top tech talent jobs in the Bay area. That means out of a million top tech talents in the world there are 500,000 that can come to the Bay area. What I'm saying is that most of those do come. So at the very least 250,001 top tech talents do come to the Bay area. that's what I'm saying. I think the reality is very much in line with that thesis.

I admit I have no hard data to back this up it's just my feeling that it should be the case. I'd be very surprised if the reality that I described (adjusted for the actual amounts,) was not the case. I mean if it was not the case I'd be happy to learn, and that would be surprising and interesting, and a highly useful lesson that I could update my perspective with because it was so surprising to me. But I highly doubt that it's not the case.

Also the more we talk about this the more I'm sure that we don't actually disagree about that.

Do I think that most of the subtop tech talents do not come to the Bay area? Yes I absolutely think that the vast majority of not-elite tech talent in the world (so those outside of that hypothetical 1 million) do not come. One reason is obvious which is just because there's so many tech talents in the world and there's not enough demand in the San Francisco Bay area to accommodate all of those.

The second part of that is those sub-top tech talents that could come. so where there is a demand for subtop tech talents do most of those come or not? I honestly don't know. I think it could go either way: maybe they come because they seek a better life and they want to get a higher salary and that high grade experience; Or maybe they don't come because they're just not motivated enough to overcome the immigration process barriers and maybe they're not (by definition) talented or experienced enough to command the even higher salaries that would make that an attractive proposition for people with that given level of motivation. I think it could go either way.

Now none of this contradicts the idea I think you're proposing that the US immigration system presents real and troubling barriers to staffing the US tech industry. I agree: I think that's a real tension the US faces. I'm not pretending that's not a problem nor trying to say it's some easy problem.

The smartest person I know (in terms of registered iq, academic performance and reasoning capabilities) is doing a low paid job in southern europe and he's happy.

Anyway, I understand how you could have taken what I said to mean I think they're wasted but that's not what I mean.