Sarah Lacy posted on Techcrunch about the declining number of foreign students applying for grad schol in the US. It should come as no surprise. Not only is the economy favoring other parts of the world, moving to the United States to study (or work) is also a not task for the faint of heart. Being a european citizen it shocks me how the american government didn’t a) see this coming earlier, and b) take a few cues from the old continent.

What was once considered the land of opportunity is now land of H1B and immigration quotas. People who have clearly played a role in relevant projects in the past couple of years (Tara comes to mind, she’s now back in Montreal) are either forced to move out or go through hoops to continue giving american companies (and the american government) the fruits of their labor (in both money and work). That has got to be awkward for a country that actively promotes “the american dream”.

This is not a blog on politics so I will not comment on Obama’s immigration reform plan (I wouldn’t be informed enough), but I will link to Alexander Muse’s proposed rules of immigration back from 2006 (and his post from today on this matter). I would love to see change in the US immigration policy, however. Mostly because Silicon Valley will surely start seeing the effects of the downsized work pool in the next few years – and with it being an innovation engine for the world at large, I find that thought quite worrying.

I’ve been mulling over quite a few projects, posts, presentations; preparing for the future, one might say. And reading one of my favorite blogs (Cityofsound, by Dan Hill, mind you) I came across this great post from Russel Davies on slow projects. Here’s a piece of it – although I believe you should spend 2 minutes of your time reading the full thing):

So you learn patience, and you realise that those long pauses are opportunities for reflection and that extra goodness might result from all that extra mulling, from stepping away for a while. The excitement and energy of a headlong sprint to execution is addictive and it can get a lot done, it’s mostly what my working life has been about. But I’m enjoying the slow way, it’s almost like craft.

Ah, how it resonated with my current status. There will be obviously be an opportunity for me to talk in greater detail about the things I’ve been working on (or just thinking about). I promise to be more proactive at updating this blog – apologies, dear readers, I know I have been failing you. There’s a few posts lined up that I want to go over just a couple more times, but keep an eye on this space. Be sure to enjoy the summery days.