80 msdn magazine
To start my fi ft h year in this space, I want to tell you about a student
who came to Boston for one of my classes. He lives in Miami and I
doubt it violates his privacy to tell you that his name is Jose. Over
drinks at the Harvard Faculty Club (see msdn.microsoft.com/magazine/
dn532211), I asked him how he’d come to the United States. “From
Cuba. On a raft. And now here I am at Harvard having drinks with
the soft ware legend.”
I was (uncharacteristically, you must admit) speechless. But
another student of mine, who left Cuba as an infant on a plane to
Spain, summed up Jose’s journey well: “Th at took cojones.”
America has always been a refuge for immigrants. It holds an
allure and off ers a welcome like nowhere else, especially in techno-
logical fi elds. Th ink of all the scientists and engineers we’ve welcomed
from abroad, and how they’ve enriched our country and the world:
Bell. Fermi. Einstein. Tesla. Von Neumann.
Andy Grove, another immigrant, writes: “By the time I was 20, I
had lived through a Hungarian Fascist dictatorship, German mil-
itary occupation, the Nazi ‘Final Solution,’ the siege of Budapest
by the Soviet Red Army, a period of chaotic democracy in the
years immediately aft er the war, a variety of repressive Communist
regimes, and a popular uprising that was put down at gunpoint.”
(Busy guy, no?) Grove escaped to the United States in 1957 and
co-founded Intel in 1968.
Sometimes our global welcome generates profound ironies. While
welcoming Grove, we also welcomed a prime representative of his
persecutors: rocket scientist Werner von Braun, member of the Nazi
party and the SS. His 1960 biographical movie carried the title, “I
Aim at the Stars.” Cynics suggested a subtitle: “... But Sometimes I
Hit London.” Or as Tom Lehrer sang: “Don’t say that he’s hypocritical
/ Say rather that he’s apolitical. / ‘Once the rockets are up, who cares
where they come down? / Th at’s not my department,’ says Werner
von Braun.” (You can listen here: bit.ly/1lJpABs.) We overlooked von
Braun’s past; he built us a moon rocket. Good trade? Bad trade?
Immigrants drive our technological leadership today as well.
Th ink of Sergey Brin from Russia, co-founder of Google. Or Jer-
ry Yang from Taipei, co-founder of Yahoo (although based on
the performance of Yahoo lately, maybe we shouldn’t count him.)
And it’s not just the Nobel-caliber immigrants that enrich our lives.
Just think of really smart geeks here in the Windows community:
Juval Lowy. Anders Hejlsberg. I’m sure you know plenty yourself.
Immigrants bring us an energy, a zest, that we can’t easily
duplicate in-house. Having the chutzpah to leave your known world
behind for something you hope is better requires enormous levels
of drive and competence. Think of Jose building his raft and
shoving off into the Florida Straits, and the courage that must
have required. Th e Miami Herald in December reported that one
person died and two others went missing attempting the very same
feat Jose managed so many years ago.
Immigrants appreciate what we have here, things that we natives
take for granted. Th ey don’t sweat small stuff , such as shopkeepers
saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” Most of
them fl ed bad governments, usually of a collectivist or totalitarian
bent. Th ey especially admire the U.S. Constitution’s limits on gov-
ernment. Th ey’re quick to smell a rat and sound the alarm when
they see it being violated.
So I say let them in. Th row open the doors to the serious geeks.
Maybe we could hold programming contests every year and take
the top 1,000 entries. Maybe the top 10 teams at the Microsoft
Imagine Cup competition should be off ered green cards. (See my
October 2011 column at msdn.microsoft.com/magazine/hh456410.) Maybe
anyone who earned a Ph.D. in a STEM fi eld could stay here aft er
school, and if they kept their noses clean for 5 years could make that
status permanent. You can probably think of other criteria that
would work. Th is idea is so obvious and sensible, though, that it
has no chance whatsoever of becoming government policy.
“My sons are born here, Americans for life,” said Jose. “Th ey’ll
never have to do what I did.”
May we forever continue to be a refuge for immigrants. Th ey
want our freedom and opportunity. We need their brains. And we
need their cojones, too. Q
DAVID S. PL AT T teaches programming .NET at Harvard University Extension
School and at companies all over the world. He’s the author of 11 programming
books, including “Why Soft ware Sucks” (Addison-Wesley Professional, 2006)
and “Introducing Microsoft .NET” (Microsoft Press, 2002). Microsoft named
him a Soft ware Legend in 2002. He wonders whether he should tape down two
of his daughter’s fi ngers so she learns how to count in octal. You can contact him
at rollthunder.com.
Jose, Can You C?
DON’T GET ME STARTED DAVID S. PLATT
Immigrants bring us an energy,
a zest, that we can’t easily
duplicate in-house.