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[...]policy revisions will make it harder for entry-level computer programmers to qualify for an H-1B visa, tightening the requirements to favor those with greater skills and education, according to a new U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) memo. Ironically, if the development community understood its bad practices and actually changed them, we’d need fewer H-1B visa holders to fill jobs-too many developer jobs exist to paper over the numerous cracks in the system. According to a Glassdoor survey, it may be even more expensive, depending on the field. In my experience, if you had the lawyers and were willing to commit outright fraud, you could simply use the bizarre prevailing wage data with job descriptions that appear to have been written by IBM in the 1990s to justify hiring anyone for anything. Having interviewed hundreds of people, I can assure you that a candidate with an American bachelor’s degree in computer science knows what a semaphore or thread is, as well as the average performance of a tree versus a map. Terrible practices permeate software development Regardless of a programmer’s skill levels, salary, or national status, the tech industry makes it too hard to do good work efficiently and cost-effectively. When projects are late, when problems need to be solved, and when things are “on fire,” people still think having more people in the room or on a conference call is productive. [...]people think that having more frequent status calls when there is a problem actually accomplishes something.