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Is Silicon Valley Reproducible?
sunil99 asks: "Paul Graham, in his latest essay, looks at the ingredients which make Silicon Valley what it is. From the essay: 'Could you reproduce Silicon Valley elsewhere, or is there something unique about it? It wouldn't be surprising if it were hard to reproduce in other countries, because you couldn't reproduce it in most of the US, either. What does it take to make [a Silicon Valley]?'. In his opinion: 'I think you only need two kinds of people to create a technology hub: rich people and nerds'. He concludes that if a city can attract these people, it can stand a chance of replicating Silicon Valley. What do you think of Paul's opinions? If you would like some changes to the current Silicon Valley, what would those be?" While the people are an important part to the Silicon Valley experience, they are only part of the requirement. What local characteristics must also be present, even if Silicon Valley is to be duplicated on a smaller scale? What draws technology companies to a specific location?
Is Silicon Valley Reproducible?
Not without a large influx of desperate women.
tanford is certainly a great source for alpha nerds, but the founding technology seeds of Silicon valley were not started by Stanford grads. Think HP, Varian, Xerox PARC, National labs, Nasa, Apple, ... Stanford fuels the fire but isn't necessary.
Well it isn't just Stanford, but Stanford and Berkeley. After all, who wants to live in the East Bay after graduating from Berkeley. Look at some of the companies who drove the emergence of Silicon Valley:
HP - Stanford grads
Apple - Woz went to Berkeley (eventually graduated)
Intel - Moore graduated from Berkeley
Sun - Stanford grads
Not to mention the thousands of other Cal and Stanford grads who worked here. There are a number of other good universities in the area, but those two far and away were behind the growth.
I live and grew up in a suburban/rural area.. over the past 10-12 years or so I've been witnessing exactly what you're talking about, if to a lesser degree. When I was younger, riding my bike everywhere, it was kind of interesting. I knew some people who lived out in these new developments, they were a bit outside town.. it was neat to ride around and see all the land that was torn apart, trenches for pipes, stone laid where roads would be. Still, the developments were relatively small, and much farmland remained in all directions. I started driving a few years later and the developments were still growing. A few of them grew to completely fill fields. In the 2 years between getting my license and graduating, traffic through this crappy little town with its 2-lane, 4-red-light main road probably doubled, at least. It FELT cramped, something that had been absolutely foreign for the 18 years previous. Not only that, but thanks to some retarded goddamned federal regs dealing with developments, NONE OF THE ROADS ARE STRAIGHT. Nothing better than a town doubling in size with the outlying areas all having roads that are nothing but curves. Yeah, that's great. Awesome. Enjoy your 1-car garage and lack of curb-side parking because you're on a constant curve that already reduces what should be wide enough for 2 cars to pass, to a 1-way street because everyone is constantly turning one way or another. No, I'm sure there'll never be a problem with people hitting things because they're always in a turn. Nah, who cares if it's icy -- I'm sure the borough which never could keep its few roads cleared of snow will have no PROBLEM dealing with these new developments! Now? Well, some of the areas that were started when I was on my bike are STILL getting bigger. The field across from my high school is being turned into housing. Funny, too. The development has "arbor" in its name. It's been farmland for at LEAST the past 2 decades. I'd wager for at a score of decades before that, too. Matter of fact half the developments have something dealing with trees in their name, but they're all nothing but farmland. Were.. nothing. So now this area is burdened with a friggin order of magnitude more traffic than less than a decade ago, with absolutely no improvement to existing roadways underway or in planning. We just have to deal with it. And then these idiots have the nerve to complain about the train tracks that have been there since the town was FOUNDED that they moved next to. Or that the field stinks in the spring when the farmer's spreading manure. Well you know what, shove it up your ass, doucheface. ps: SCREW YOU TOO MR. FORMATTING
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.