In Defense Of Vivek Ramaswamy

To win the A.I. race, USA needs 3 things. Vivek’s right about 1.

Like most progressives, I derived (too much) pleasure from the Christmastime food-fight that broke out between “the billionaires and the bubbas” on the MAGA right.

Laura Loomer + Steve Bannon VERSUS Elon Musk + David Sacks?? With Musk telling his opponents literally to “fuck yourself in the face”???

I was like — THANK YOU, SANTA!! A little “consolation prize” for Team Blue. So fun!

And yet …

As I reflect on the whole brouhaha, my tiny bit of glee has already started to fade.

After all – fascinating pyrotechnics aside – this is a serious debate that is as much about American INNOVATION as it is about American IMMIGRATION. And America’s future as a high-tech superpower is on the line.

China is rapidly accelerating its high-tech capabilities – especially in artificial intelligence — trying to erase our advantages. You should be nervous about this. Last year, China landed a probe on the far side of the moon! If we were smart, Americans would unite and make 2025 our version of a “post-Sputnik” moment.

But the debate so far is leaving a LOT to be desired – on all sides. Over the holidays, Americans wound up in two or three different camps. And none of them were nailing it.

• TEAM “I LOVE AMERICA”: This side apparently thinks we can “home grow” enough tech talent to beat the whole world — all by ourselves. That crew is hostile to the H-1B visa program, which lets foreign-born geniuses come here to work. They see H-1B visas mainly as tools to (1) sneak in lower-paid workers, (2) steal jobs from qualified Americans and (3) fatten the pockets of greedy tech giants. Their pride and patriotism are admirable. … Unfortunately, they consistently (1) overstate the number of superstar computer engineers that America presently has, (2) underestimate how hard it is to train top-notch engineers in the first place and (3) overlook the miserable state of U.S. education when they assume we can easily meet the demand for tech talent in the future.

• TEAM “SEND US YOUR BEST”: The other side wants to grab the planet’s top tech talent — and fast-track the world’s hotshots into American tech firms. They point out that H-1B visas are for workers with skills that are rare in the United States. They also argue (1) U.S. companies are in a major A.I. race against China, and (2) the United States is not producing enough top-tier tech talent to keep ahead. I generally buy this argument. … BUT BUT BUT – if winning the A.I. race is SO important, shouldn’t U.S. tech firms ALSO be leading a massive charge to up-skill millions of AMERICANS for these new positions and industries, as well? Where is the passion to train NATIVE-BORN tech talent at scale? Our tech titans seem willing to spend billions and trillions to “SCALE UP” everything related to A.I. — EVERYTHING — except the capacity of America’s youth and the dreams of America’s workers.

• TEAM “LET’S ALL HATE VIVEK!”: Meanwhile, people on BOTH sides of this fight are still fanning themselves and making mean faces at Vivek Ramaswamy. Why? Because he made the (inarguable) point that America’s pro-jock, “fun-first” child-rearing culture isn’t exactly designed to mass manufacture math nerds or science geeks.

And, folks — THIS is why we can’t have nice things!

It’s perfectly fine to dunk on each other and reduce major issues to one-sided, screaming matches — during an election season! But the voting is over now. And we still have our kids’ futures to worry about.

So for the NEW year, I am craving some NEW conversations – especially about major issues like this. Maybe we can find some common ground?

To start: I hope we can all agree that the United States needs to employ an ALL-of-the-above strategy when it comes to stock-piling and deploying world-class tech talent.

Maintaining our position as the world’s leading technological superpower won’t be easy.

To do that, we will need dramatic improvement in three areas: education, immigration, and aspiration.

• EDUCATION: We are still wasting too much genius in America. From Appalachia, to our industrial heartland, to our Native American reservations, to our urban centers — too much American talent goes unseen, untutored and untapped. That’s especially true in the area of technology. At a time when we need excellent instruction, most public schools are failing to teach technology skills — and most private schools suck at it, too. To compete in all of these emerging industries, from A.I. to biotech, America needs to train or retrain millions of our people. But we aren’t doing a good enough job – at least not yet. Innovative programs like CodePath.Org and KuraLabs.Org are beginning to close some gaps. But we need massively more support for these and similar efforts. (I will be writing more about promising approaches in the coming weeks).

• IMMIGRATION: But even if we finally get our butts in gear — it won’t be enough. American tech firms need top talent. Now. Today. And regardless: the United States does not hold a monopoly on genius; it never has. In fact, during the last century, we rose to greatness by convincing the planet’s best to come here and join America’s team. We would be fools to throw out that playbook now — when rival powers are gaining so fast. To the contrary: we need a national, bipartisan strategy to pull as much global tech talent to America’s shores (and away from our adversaries) as we can. Vacuuming up global talent would confer a double-benefit: there would be more tech-smart allies here to HELP us, and there would be fewer tech-smart foes abroad to HACK us. (In the coming weeks, I will explain why progressives should be especially passionate about this approach.)

• ASPIRATION: More young people need to ASPIRE to become world-class technologists, in the first place. Vivek got torched for saying it. But sorry, folks! The truth hurts. It’s NOT just the schools. IT’S ALSO THE KIDS!!!! Every American youth loves to POST on apps. But how many enjoy PROGRAMMING apps? How many even know how to? Or even think it would be cool to learn? Not enough! And this. Is. A. PROBLEM. … No, I am not saying that EVERY child needs to be a math nerd. (My own teens are non-tech jocks — so trust me, I’m not judging anyone!) But we do need to be able to talk honestly about the best parenting practices (and possible cultural shifts) that will help more American kids thrive in the era of exponential technology.

VIVEK’S CRITIQUE IS MORE RIGHT THAN WRONG.

All three of these factors will be critical. But that third point seems to be the most controversial — so let me tackle that one now.

After all, this whole episode leaped into hyperdrive when Vivek Ramaswamy dropped his bombshell tweet. In it, he argued that the United States MUST import more tech talent from overseas. His reasoning comes down to this: American culture prioritizes too much shallow, silly nonsense.

And it turns out that all of that shallow, silly nonsense is NOT mass producing world-class talent for the tech sector — at least not at the appropriate scale.

To which I would like to say — officially and formally — “NO DUH!”

Seriously: why is this statement even controversial? Where is the LIE here? Does anyone THINK today’s popular culture IS some kind of geyser of academic excellence, belching forth zillions of math and science whiz kids every day?

If so — where ARE all these little geniuses? I can’t find them.

To the contrary: almost every American parent I know is worried that our TikTok-obsessed, emotionally fragile offspring will NOT be ready for tomorrow’s world of global competition.

So we can all sit here and pretend that nobody knows what the heck Vivek is talking about. But we do. We all do.

And the fact that a lot of progressives (and even some conservatives) dislike his politics or personality, does not change the simple fact: on THIS point, Vivek Ramaswamy is not wrong. He’s RIGHT.

There ARE millions and millions of little nerds overseas, studying their butts off right now — getting ready to kick our kids’ asses in STEM fields. In particular, countries like China, India, South Korea and Nigeria are producing kids who will be formidable.

And some of that DOES come down to the “C-word” – culture. Because it’s not only about what’s happening formally in their classrooms; it’s about what’s happening informally in their homes (cultures). A lot of their best parents are doing things that even the best American parents in general are NOT doing as much. This. Is. A. Problem!

And it should not be a crime to say that out loud. We need to pay attention. Because unless something changes, things might NOT work out very well for the next American generation.

GROW UP! CULTURAL CRITIQUES ALWAYS STING.

Now — could Vivek have said all of that NICER? I guess so. But when conservatives make cultural critiques, they are almost NEVER “nice” or “polite.”

In fact: after hearing right-wingers lecture black people for decades about the deficiencies in “black culture” — I’m surprised at how thin-skinned they are when someone lectures them about their own culture.

Seriously.

How many times have you heard FOX News pundits offer the following advice to America’s urban youth (none of whom, by the way, are watching these shows)?: “Stop wasting your time on foolishness! Stop trying to be cool! Study harder! Focus on things that will bring lasting success! And pull your pants up!”

I think Vivek is just saying to all Americans – it’s time for us to study harder and “pull our pants up.”

I would expect all of MAGA to applaud that message. If you think “fix your culture!” is a great message for SOME Americans, you should love it even more for ALL Americans.

Right? Am I missing something here?

It’s a new year. We have new opportunities to set aside foolishness and do great things. If computer engineers are going to rule this century (and it sure seems like they will), then the United States needs better tech education, a smarter immigration policy and more pro-nerd approaches to child-rearing. In fact, the whole culture needs to be more “nerd positive” – because America is going to need a WHOLE LOT of those little brainiacs to win.

More importantly, to meet these three challenges, us grown-ups will need to listen to each other better. We are going to need to compromise, cooperate and work together – just like we ask our children to do every day.

When the new administration takes over, the immigration/innovation debate will heat up again. When it does, let’s commit to bringing our best selves to that conversation — making room for everyone’s needs, perspectives … and genius.

There’s no better New Year’s resolution than that.

Happy New Year, everyone.

-Van