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Comment by dep_b | Hacker News Reader

Argentina is brimming with talent and the economic and social realities mean you need an entrepreneur mindset even to just get through with your daily life. At the same time the level of the education system is quite high and it's free to boot. The next wave of talent also speaks English at a much better level than the people before.

I knew many more people with businesses, products and side hustles there than I know in Western Europe, where lots of people live in the warm comfort of a secure, daily job and avoid any risk or opportunity outside of that.

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> Argentina is brimming with talent and the economic and social realities mean you need an entrepreneur mindset even to just get through with your daily life. At the same time the level of the education system is quite high and it's free to boot. The next wave of talent also speaks English at a much better level than the people before.

You have to get creative in Argentina, otherwise you won’t survive. Also, a lot of people leverage the education and English level and leave the country, as it’s easier than dealing with it. Over the past 4 years there has been a huge migration of well educated professionals who got tired of dealing with all the uncertainty.

On a personal note, most of college friends left for Europe and the USA, as I also did.

Replace Argentina with Brasil and the sentence is as valid :-(

No, Argentina and Brazil are very different. For example, Mercado Libre and other unicorns started im Argentina and are serving Latam. Brazil has a large population and local market to serve while Argentina has a relatively small population, lot of land, and needs to look outside to growth.

Not at all, Brazil doesn’t have +100% yearly inflation. It’s so bad that the government started reporting weekly inflation trying to trick people to think because the number is smaller, there is less inflation.

I heard the same thing from a colleague from Brazil, I can imagine that after containing inflation there are many more problems left to solve that are probably not taken care of either in Brazil.

The flow of talent from Argentina to other countries has happened many times before in difficult circumstances.

While it is true that the difficulties increase creative endeavours, it is also true that Argentina has a tradition of creative endeavours in the region that are not connected to the harsh situation but older traditions and inmigrations.

To give outsiders a quick look: Argentina has advanced nuclear capabilities comparing to other countries in Latam.

Yes, that’s right. However, Argentina has been continuously getting worst since I was born. There is a common phrase there used to describe this, “today you are better than tomorrow”, most people default to that line of thinking.

If you ask, most probably, older people than you they will give the same answer although there are specific time periods that are remembered positively by a big amount of people. Besides if they trascended historically.

The idea of old times were better is a global classic. Specifically to Argentina there are other classic sayings like:

- "In Argentina, everything can change in a day, but nothing changes in a decade"

- "There are four kinds of countries: developed countries, undeveloped countries, Japan, and Argentina." [1]

[1] https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/03/28/h... (https://archive.is/Ayiuu)

> In Argentina, everything can change in a day, but nothing changes in a decade

Right now, if you pick news from the late 80s and now, it might be hard to differentiate them except for the names.

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