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Silicon Valley - Still Important To Tech Advances
mrspin writes "This week the The New York Times sparked a lively debate by publishing an article which argued that, when it comes to creating innovative technology, geography still matters — and that Silicon Valley is the place to be. It's certainly true that Silicon Valley, compared with other innovation hot-spots, has the much needed Venture Capital and the connections that enable money to flow from one new company to another. Want proof? ZDNet takes a look at LinkSViewer, a new web-based visual networking tool for exploring capital relationships in Silicon Valley." Is the success of Valley-area projects the result of a more creative environment, or is the cachet of the area (and the resulting money) the reason behind their success?
It's like New York and London that have become the major financial centers over the years. These things could move anywhere around the globe, but the connections, infrastructure, and history continue to keep these areas vital. Silicon Valley could remain vital for a long time for all sorts of new technology.
Silicon Valley is better for "brave, new world" revolutionary innovation, but not necessarily for "better, faster, cheaper" evolutionary innovation. Advances that require building on years of previous knowledge require more stability than the Silicon Valley environment can provide. Example: more successful microprocessor design is done in either Oregon, Haifa, Austin, New York (IBM), etc. than in Silicon Valley.
Back in the 90s? You realize that the tech boom started literally decades ago right? The 90s themselves were the result of the investment infrastructure from the previous tech boom - the personal computer.
Thalasar
Basically what it boils down to is that these areas benefit from the fact that there's already a bunch of people with the needed resources already there. As much as we'd like to think the Internet makes location irrelevant, the reality is that we're social creatures and we'll always have an affinity for meeting people in person. We get jobs, build companies and get investment, primarily, through the social networks we create. It's possible to do these things without social networks but it is WAY harder.
In my career since College I've worked in two cities and have worked in five companies. Of those five companies, I was hired totally cold by only one of them. In all the other cases, I knew somebody who worked for the company who I'd worked for/with in the past and was able to use that to get my foot in the door. Now take that concept and multiply it thousands of times amongst the social networks that develop in a limited geographic area with a strong focus on a particular kind of business.
So I think ultimately it's less about the cash in the valley, and more about the people there. The cash follows the people and the ideas.
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Sure, entrepreneurs are the ones that think up of the new ideas and lead the innovations, but nothing would get done without talented developers. It just happens that skilled developers tend to migrate toward the Bay Area because of the high density of good companies. This in return, encourages more startups and we start seeing even more talented developers flocking to the Bay Area. It's kind of self-renewing and I don't see it going away any time soon (save some catastrophic earthquake...).
Alabama is proof. We have one of the top research hospitals in the United States. We have a whole city full of freaking rocket scientists which incidentally has the nation's highest concentration of engineers. Jimmy Wales grew up here. We had three winners on American Idol (who no one cared about until then) and lots of good local bands (who no one cares about now.) Every generation, Alabama produces enough interesting people to completely replace the asshats who are responsible for Alabama's history - but then they all move, leaving the same old rednecks in charge.
Reputation is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's the sole reason why Alabama is still socially conservative.
Step into a huge movement. Don't Tread In Me.
The positive feedback loop is a big part of it. It produces a pool of trained people from whom you can hire the skills you need on short notice and without paying relocation expenses and "moving away from where the action is" penalties.
But another factor is a small but very important piece of IP law in California:
If an employee makes an invention, on his own time, without using company materials or resources, and it's not in the company's immediate or likely future business path, it belongs to the employee. No matter what the employment contract says. (The contracts generally explicitly include one page which IS this provision.)
The result is that people who invented something that their company wouldn't be developing could rent the building across the street and build their own startup to develop and market it. And many of them did - and did it again a couple years later - repeat for decades.
The result is that startups budded off and grew like a yeast culture.
Any other state that wants to build its own version of Silicon Valley needs to clone this provision into their own state law.
If this is done, and they can provide an alternaive to California's high crime, high tax, and oppressive political-correctness, they might see an even bigger boom in one of their major university towns.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Wow, no matter how many times I read that I think your making a different point. You should go into politics.
OTOH, maybe this cold medicine is screwing with me.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Technology is forcing people there by eliminating anything that doesn't require face to face communication. To be employed, you have to do things that require physical presence in the same place as your peers. Otherwise, you might as well be in Siberia.
Maybe your engineers would rather live in the Bay Area, despite the cost of living* -- to enjoy the world-class cosmopolitan atmosphere and cultural amenities, recreational opportunities, natural beauty, and freewheeling cultural vibe that embraces freethinkers and innovators.
Frankly, I can't think of any place more boring, stifling, and backward than the suburban sprawl of North Carolina.
*There's a reason the Bay Area cost of living is so high -- it's called supply and demand.