I felt the effect of being in Silicon Valley the moment I moved out here. The area is not only teeming with endless talent, energy, and enthusiasm, but (and this is important) we have an entire culture that makes this talent, energy, and enthusiasm possible in the first place.
When I moved to San Francisco from Chicago, I felt the change immediately. People simply get me out here. They understand why I'm doing what I'm doing. They ask intelligent, insightful questions. They give me invaluable advice. They share their knowledge freely. And they do all of this because they believe in -- and belong to -- the same amazing culture that I now do.
Funny story: I was sitting at a bar out here in Bushwick, Brooklyn, just finishing up my dinner and sipping on a nice stout. Woman next to me glances up from her book and says, "You aren't a programmer, are you?"
"Um.. yes, actually. I do user interface development. How'd you know"
"Oh, I just moved here from the Valley... I guess I just know the type when I see it."
Northeast Kingdom - Troutman and Wyckoff, right between the two entrances to the Jefferson stop on the L. We've got a Dunkin over by the Dekalb stop, but Wyckoff Starr is better (starr & wyckoff) ;)
The flip side of that is there's a complete lack of any criticism, and to me it feels like that will be its downfall (Detroit met its downfall, and so will Silicon Valley). A recent case in point is the whole DiggBar controversy. I'd suggest that the criticism has come entirely from outsiders or people "not of the valley," Meanwhile there's been a whole tide of "digg is taking over the world," "digg is growing up" from the usual denizens of the echo chamber. And then there's Robert Scoble - a one-man black hole of uncritical praise for all things SV. Add to that the complete disappearance of IPOs or anything resembling an exit (in fact the big trend now seems to be the opposite of exits -- Stumbleupon, Skype) and this piece feels a bit pollyanna-ish.
You must have seen a strange slice of the Valley. People here think much more critically about startups than in the rest of the US. People in Nebraska aren't worrying about Twitter's business model.
You must have spent some time 'out west' during the Viaweb acquisition. How much did you see of the valley in those years? I lived in San Francisco in 1999 and early 2000, and thought things were actually pretty crazy. I don't think I knew anyone who wasn't doing something related to computers, and there was a very unhealthy "free money! wheeee!" attitude amongst a lot of people, so much of it was being sloshed around in a way that obviously wasn't sustainable.
Also, there were virtually no children, no old people, not many "middle class" people... it all just struck me as very out of kilter.
That's not to say that there aren't lots of good things, or that the area is a bad place or somewhere people shouldn't go, just that it has its downsides too. I got the feeling that it has never really cast off the 'gold rush' mentality: get in, get rich, get out. Sure, some do stay and make it their home (you, for instance), but so many move on that I never felt much sense of community, something that I do enjoy over here in Italy, and have found more of in other towns in the US.
> People in Nebraska aren't worrying about Twitter's business model.
They're busy getting rich with more traditional stuff that they understand:
> People in Nebraska aren't worrying about Twitter's business model.
Very true, but we should not be so dismissive of non-startup small businesses. I'm new here, and have worked at tech startups since I got my CS degrees and started my career a few years ago.
Starting a new business on the basis of a great idea and hard work is nothing new. All around me, I see examples of small businesses being creative within their domain, and they are growing profitable businesses using the same tools we use (in theory: great graphic design, viral/word-of-mouth marketing, accessible customer service, and hard work) without any promise of making it big. These businesses see a niche and try to serve it uniquely.
I appreciate SV and the hungry tech culture as much as anyone, but we're not operating on fundamentally different principles.
By voting me up, you guys have proved me at least slightly wrong. The one thing that Northern California is demonstrably great at (over the long term) is providing room for the outsider. It seems like that's being eroded lately.
PG might be on to something here. I used to live in Austin back in the mid-90s. It has has great weather, a great university and several startups that went onto become big (Dell, Pervasive, etc). And yet Austin has failed to compete with Silicon Valley and in the last decade might have even become less relevant in the tech sector.
I've really been amazed at the caliber of people that I meet through the Hackers and Founders meetup that are from Austin. There's really a great little sub-culture here of ex-Austinites that are interested in founding startups.
When I moved to San Francisco from Chicago, I felt the change immediately. People simply get me out here. They understand why I'm doing what I'm doing. They ask intelligent, insightful questions. They give me invaluable advice. They share their knowledge freely. And they do all of this because they believe in -- and belong to -- the same amazing culture that I now do.