Jimmy Wales: London Is Better For Tech Than "Dreadful" Silicon Valley

Mickeycaskill writes: Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has praised London as a tech hub, saying its cultural assets make it an ideal place to do business and superior to Silicon Valley as a place to live. “I meet people around London and they ask ‘when do you go back to San Francisco?’ assuming I’m here for a few days, but I live in London,” he said at the launch of Tech.London. “There’s always this bit of British self-deprecation about ‘oh well, things are so great in Silicon Valley’. But I can tell you, things aren’t that great in Silicon Valley. London has all these incredible advantages of a tech scene, but it’s also a place people want to live. Nobody wants to live in Silicon Valley – it’s dreadful out there. London is this incredible cultural city, it’s at the crossroads of the world. In the US you have San Francisco for tech, Los Angeles for movies and Washington for politics. In London you have all these things. It’s a great place to do business.”

Comments

Depends on your perspective and tastes

[Chrisq]

If you like "high culture", have money, and don't mind crowds then London is great. If you prefer other things not so much.

Re:Depends on your perspective and tastes

[AmiMoJo]

Yup. If you are already very rich then London can be nice, but for everyone else it's just expensive and dirty. Property prices in particular are insane. Its' grimy, overcrowded and generally not a very nice place to live.

Not that Silicon Valley is necessarily much better, but if you are not obsessed with living in a "tech hub" then there are plenty of much nicer places to be.

Re:Depends on your perspective and tastes

[Xest]

Someone I once worked with put it best regarding living in London, there are two groups of people, there are those who have lived there for a short time, i.e. only a year or two who think it's the best thing ever because they've not yet exhausted all the attractions, and then there are the people who lived there all their lives, and know that once the attractions are done, and you've eaten at all the cool places to eat, it's an incredibly shit city to live in. I suppose you're right, you can add the ultra-rich as a third category who will love it because they have the money to paper over it's problems (i.e. they can get their kids out of there and send them to private school, they have chauffeurs so don't have to deal with overcrowded transport, and they can have a country home to get some actual fresh air on weekends).

It's anyone's guess why Cameron chose London as the UK's tech hub, when London inherently writes off a good portion of the UK's population as willing candidates either because they can't afford to live there, or simply don't want to live in a shit hole. Cambridge was always the obvious choice, but there are other lesser considered yet far better choices too that have rapidly growing tech scenes that have developed naturally without need for government intervention to try and force it as London's "silicon roundabout" has (e.g. Bristol, Sheffield, Edinburgh).

Other capital cities like Ottawa and Wellington might not have as much upfront to do as London, but at least they're places you'd actually want to live if you had a choice and are the sorts of places you'd actually want to bring up children.

Re:Depends on your perspective and tastes

[allcoolnameswheretak]

I see your point... I'm actually left on the political side of things. But I'm not a huge fan of political correctness. And fact is, that there is alot of African immigration in Paris, the overwhelming majority of them are very poor, and it has a noticeable impact on the city.

I was quite shocked when I returned to Paris after a long time, and saw people lying on matresses on the streets, some living in tents, people constantly trying to sell me drugs in parks, shabby characters approaching you asking for money or cigarettes... 90% of these people are immigrants, they bring alot of poverty and it doesn't make the city any nicer.

That's just the way it is. It doesn't mean I hate immigrants, or that I'm a racist. It does mean that immigration is a problem that is being neglected in Europe and needs some serious attention.

Re:Depends on your perspective and tastes

[Ol Olsoc]

I've visited London for 2 weeks, and while it was good to see it, my overall impression was that I wouldn't want to live there.

For example - I love New York City. I find it incredibly invigorating and inspiring. Awesome food, a great change of pace from my normal environment, and I like most of the people.

The maximum time I have been able to actually stay in the city is a week. But 6 months later I'm jonesin' for it again. The old "Love to visit, but don't want to live there" is hackneyed but true.

Re:Depends on your perspective and tastes

[beelsebob]

Speaking as someone who moved to Silicon Valley from London...

Oh god, no, no one wants to be in London.
1) People in the bay area think it's expensive - no, London is expensive. Rents there can be up to 4 times rents in SF. The average is double SF.
2) Pay is lower in London, despite the place being more expensive.
3) The weather is fucking terrible.
4) The people are rude, and unfriendly. Sure, it's not as bad as Paris, but it's much worse than the bay area.
5) It's impossible to get out of the city without travelling for multiple hours (while in the bay area it's typically 10-20 minutes to some open space).

Frankly, I'm very glad that the tech industry is all in the bay area, not in London.

Re:Depends on your perspective and tastes

[funwithBSD]

Come on guys, everyone knows the CCTVs are really there for CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN

Want tech? Go Africa, Latin America and Asia

[Taco Cowboy]

I have investments in various countries from India to Kenya to Colombia, amongst other countries

I am not saying that the West is not doing anything breathtaking - what I am saying is, if you guys are looking for fresh perspective on the tech scene, it's the places outside of the traditional Western sphere which is filled with real excitement

But of course, what I am saying is based on what I am experiencing --- YMMV

Re:Want tech? Go Africa, Latin America and Asia

[dave420]

They're not talking about a "fresh perspective", but working in a city with amazing infrastructure, which is the financial capital of the world, in the EU (for now :)), and in a great timezone whose business day overlaps with that of the US east coast and many Asian markets. All those things are simply not available in Africa, Latin America, or Asia. What you are saying, regardless of how accurate it is, has very little to do with this discussion :)

London born & bred

[DanJ_UK]

I was born and bred in London before living in Stockholm for a few years, Dusseldorf for 2 etc. I've worked and stayed for extended periods in Amsterdam, Berlin, Budapest, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Valencia, Rome, Florence, New York, Istanbul...(the list goes on)....

Every international city has it's own characteristics but ultimately they all share 2 common things, a unique cultural 'vibe' / identity (the style of the buildings, the food you can eat there etc) and 1 other thing: tourism.

London is unique in the fact that it has everything from every place you could ever imagine. London evolved as a series of smaller villages ("hamlets") that all had their own unique characteristics that slowly grew to merge together. Combine that with the British empire and the way the country was in essence founded over many centuries of immigration and pooling of resources from every corner of the world and you have one big melting pot of culture where you can pretty much see, do, buy, eat anything you want to.

They say if you're bored of London you're bored of life, in 30 years I haven't seen everything and I was born here, so how anyone could ever see everything in a week, 2 weeks, month, year I have no idea, you can't call it shit, you're just in the wrong part of London.

I've lived North, South, East and West and I live in Chiswick as of the past 2 years, down the road from where I was born, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else now. There are parts of London I hated living in (especially East London), but each area is so drastically different from another there's always somewhere that will suit someones personality.

The same applies to every other city I've visited, Amsterdam for example is an awesome city in the centre, go to west Amsterdam though and it's a completely different place, it's a fucking shit hole. Does that make Amsterdam shit? No, it doesn't.

Contrary to what people think we're a very chatty city and we do talk to people (it's true everyone's always in a hurry though), all too often people rely on tour guides and manufactured tourism maps to direct them to the usual crap instead of telling you to go off the beaten track, the best way to see a city this size is by asking someone who's from here.