Old companies in France don't build anything new. Maybe we do have startups, but do we have successful ones?
Concerning your last point, saying that the current 3000-pages laws are just "preventing you from treating people like shit" is a simplification.
Arianespace and SpaceX are not even playing in the same court. Ariane 6 is made for heavy payloads, SpaceX can barely lift medium weight satellites.
Yann LeCun? He was literally already studying in Toronto in the 80s, he didn't flee France for Facebook.
As for startups, yes, we do. Are they unicorns? No, because contrary to HN's belief, they're an absolutely awful idea. Hell, I'm working in one, that's raising 5 millions, has clients throughout european countries and serves millions of daily users.
>Concerning your last point, saying that the current 3000-pages laws are just "preventing you from treating people like shit" is a simplification.
No, really, repeating the MEDEF's talking points without even fact checking them makes you look bad. Especially when it comes from Gattaz. 3000 pages includes the legislation AND the reglementation, including every single decree, as well as copies of the main jurisprudences. And the final 400 or so pages are mostly about what corresponds to what between versions of the law.
I literally have a copy of the work code with me. It's a sizeable book, yes. It's not 3000 pages.
However, there is a lot of added complexity because private entities want to add their own set of rules. So, instead of only knowing work law, you also have to know the 180 pages or so of Syntec when you start working in a french company that does IT. enjoy.
Ariane 6, which isn't even flying yet, is projected to lift 10350 kg - 21650 kg to LEO, depending on the version [0].
Falcon Heavy can lift 63800 kg to LEO in expendable mode [1].
You were indeed correct that they are not playing in the same court.
In practice, their payloads have been a few tons at best. Whereas Ariane's track record with Ariane 5 is almost flawless and actually hitting those announced maximums.
But sure, trust the company that has regularly been lying on their abilities :)
You can't be fucking serious.
Falcon Heavy launched 6465 kg satellite to GTO, while landing all 3 boosters.
Maybe am I wrong on the root causes. France's leadership in technology is still poor though: all the consumer hardware we use comes from Asia with software coming from the US (I'm sure you can find exceptions to that, and I'm genuinely curious about it), and that's a big problem. The only two french apps I use are the RATP's app and BlaBlaCar once every year.
You can't deny that we're too dependent on key technologies coming from abroad.
Unfortunately, legal battles with employers tend to cause that :)
> France's leadership in technology is still poor though
This is the root cause. It's not that France is bad technology wise. It's not that France lacks entrepreneurs. It's not that there's rules and laws. We literally have some of the best engineers in the world. Ask SF companies how happy they are to receive french employees. The level of someone coming out of an engineering school in France is much higher than most of the US.
It's that we have a mix of large companies capturing everything (hello Capgemini) and leaders that have no interest in technology (and helping said large comapnies capture everything).
The good news is, you can just wait for those decision makers to die off and we'll be good. By the time you come out of a DUT/Licence or engineering school if you're heading this way, many will be gone. And more will be gone with time.
Although, I am friend with lots of people who are starting careers in politics, and they're all coming from Business School or Sciences Po. None of them knows about the fundamentals of nature and technology and I have no hope that they will be better than the current leaders we have :/
