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Silicon Valley Is Over, Says Silicon Valley (nytimes.com)
An anonymous reader shares a New York Times report: In recent months, a growing number of tech leaders have been flirting with the idea of leaving Silicon Valley. Some cite the exorbitant cost of living in San Francisco and its suburbs, where even a million-dollar salary can feel middle class. Others complain about local criticism of the tech industry and a left-wing echo chamber that stifles opposing views. And yet others feel that better innovation is happening elsewhere. "I'm a little over San Francisco," said Patrick McKenna, the founder of High Ridge Venture Partners who was also on the bus tour. "It's so expensive, it's so congested, and frankly, you also see opportunities in other places." Mr. McKenna, who owns a house in Miami in addition to his home in San Francisco, told me that his travels outside the Bay Area had opened his eyes to a world beyond the tech bubble. "Every single person in San Francisco is talking about the same things, whether it's 'I hate Trump' or 'I'm going to do blockchain and Bitcoin,'" he said. "It's the worst part of the social network."
[...] Complaints about Silicon Valley insularity are as old as the Valley itself. Jim Clark, the co-founder of Netscape, famously decamped for Florida during the first dot-com era, complaining about high taxes and expensive real estate. Steve Case, the founder of AOL, has pledged to invest mostly in start-ups outside the Bay Area, saying that "we've probably hit peak Silicon Valley." But even among those who enjoy living in the Bay Area, and can afford to do so comfortably, there's a feeling that success has gone to the tech industry's head. "Some of the engineers in the Valley have the biggest egos known to humankind," Mr. Khanna, the Silicon Valley congressman, said during a round-table discussion with officials in Youngstown.
[...] Complaints about Silicon Valley insularity are as old as the Valley itself. Jim Clark, the co-founder of Netscape, famously decamped for Florida during the first dot-com era, complaining about high taxes and expensive real estate. Steve Case, the founder of AOL, has pledged to invest mostly in start-ups outside the Bay Area, saying that "we've probably hit peak Silicon Valley." But even among those who enjoy living in the Bay Area, and can afford to do so comfortably, there's a feeling that success has gone to the tech industry's head. "Some of the engineers in the Valley have the biggest egos known to humankind," Mr. Khanna, the Silicon Valley congressman, said during a round-table discussion with officials in Youngstown.
From TFA: The trip, which took place on a luxury bus outfitted with a supply of vegan doughnuts and coal-infused kombucha, was known as the “Comeback Cities Tour.”
Vegan doughnuts. Coal-infused kombucha. Wherever it is these people think they're going to relocate to, it looks like they're taking Silicon Valley with them.
"I'm a little over San Francisco," said Patrick McKenna, the founder of High Ridge Venture Partners
Said the nobody.
Complaints about Silicon Valley insularity are as old as the Valley itself.
Slow news day huh?
Basically the sky-high prices for property is true for any major city in the world, from London, to Paris, and especially Hong Kong.
San Fransisco is not a major city by any measure, and it is ridiculously overpriced even compared to real major cities.
If the Bay Area were really "over", then the traffic issues and high rents would disappear overnight. The Bay Area is crowded and expensive because (surprise!) people actually want to live, work, and start businesses there!
Good climate, access to research universities (Stanford, Berkeley, etc), a collection of extremely smart, talented people are pluses. In many ways, the area is a victim of its own success.
The whole Left echo chamber statement seems idiotic. Left or worded better liberal views fit the development of technology better than right or conservative views. The word or idea itself (conservative) is not the ideal way to run a small tech start-up for example. Being conservative implies that you don't like taking risks which is the opposite of what's needed to work on new technology. All new technology is by its very nature risky which is why technological centres tend to be left politically. The main reason why I would think Silicon Valley is not an ideal place anymore is the fact that everything is too expensive.
My family has been in San Jose over 100 years. We lived through many tech and population booms, but they were always manageable. Traffic wasn't too bad in the 70's and 80's. Schools were pretty good, housing was affordable, and there was enough space to feel like you could escape the bay area.
90's came, and that's when a huge influx of people started moving in. Every square inch of buildable land was built out. None of it had any of the charm, uniqueness or craftsmanship of the previous architecture. Slowly we started seeing OSB and stucco square boxes everywhere. A lot of places started doing "mixed use" putting retail on the bottom and residential on top. Our politicians, fueled by special interests began dismantling laws meant to keep the growth in check. As more people came in, the freeways congested. Not just Monday through Friday, but every day of the week. We had a small stall during 9/11 as the economic downturn caused a lot of people to lose their jobs, but through the 2000's and into the 2010's the growth was fast and steady.
Today it's very very hard living here. State income tax is sky high. Property taxes, home prices, hell even rentals are so high that it causes everything else to be expensive. Food, gas, clothes, cars, everything is $0.50 higher than it would be in any neighboring state. Even if you wanted to take a drive over the hill for the day to Santa Cruz, you can't, because everyone has the same idea. The gas is sky high, and a night at the movies for your family is a $100 affair. Some people act like $100 isn't a lot of money, well it is when you have a family of 4. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids, and in the words of Goonies Data's father, "My greatest invention" Your prison is basically stay home. At least my family has computers and can keep ourselves entertained, but we can't let the kids go out and play because there are 4 sex offenders on every block. It's not the life I grew up with.
At some point, maybe you do get a vacation. You pack your wife, kids, and dog into the car to drive up the Oregon coast. You realize that slower life you had, the decent people, the lack of trash, graffitti and income inequity simply don't exist. People don't go 15 miles under the speed limit in the fast lane, and if they do, they move over. Traffic doesn't crawl to a stop because of a little rain. Nobody tries to run you over in a crosswalk. You can all go to the movies for $40 less than in the bay area. Gas stations actually have employees that fill your tank so you don't have to get out of you car.. It's such an odd feeling NOT having to pump your own gas. As if.. customers were important up there. Please, thank you, you're welcome aren't considered quaint little constructs, but are demanded.
I'm really getting tired of living and working here. I just don't feel it anymore. I'm tired of the tribal politics. Tired of my neighbors constantly trying to get into my business, or my employer spying on my social media. I have to have some forms of "social media" now, every employer needs linkedin as a minimum. You also need indeed, monster, dice, all told at least a good 6 profiles so your employer knows you're a real person here.
It's not all bad, there are some good points, but are they even worth mentioning? Crime, cost of living, homeless suffering, bad schools, the list goes on. Not sure if it's worth the salary anymore.
But you get the same talk about other places like NYC, London, etc. It's too expensive, traffic is terrible, its crowded. But those places and their respective industries still thrive despite some firms leaving, and others setting up shop. Nothing is forever, but for our respective generations things won't change that dramatically. Heck, even Hong Kong was supposed to empty out after China took over, but it's as strong as ever. Just that those people now have vacation homes in Vancouver too.
People should just be content with where they want to live and work not worry about everyone else. It's exhausting. You want to live in the countryside and telecommute, kudos to you. You want a three car garage in the burbs, good for you. Wanna spend $3k/mo for a 1 BR in SF, why not.
It wasn't the weather - that was great.
It wasn't the traffic - I grew up outside of chicago and lived all over the country. It's not fun, but it's not a big deal.
It wasn't the cost of living - pay was commiserate with the increased costs.
I loved that the Frys was right down the street, that I could get great food from a million different cultures easily, and that there was so much to do and see and hear.
It was the people, though, that made it horrible. Shallow, money-oriented, image-driven, always so focused on labeling everyone: Suit, Hippy, LGBT Activist, Clubber, Gang Member, Artist, etc.
Story time: I worked at a big company in the area, we had 3 buildings on the campus I was on, each 3 floors, each with at least 1000 employees. At 4:30, I was working on my floor by myself. How do I know? The overhead fluorescents were sensor based, and only the one by my cube was still on. I was organizing test results in an excel sheet when I heard the mechanical 'ka-chunk' and humming noise that indicated another group of lights had just spun up.
It was the cleaning staff. I watched as each bank of lights turned on as they made their way down the path, a slow snake of lights as they explored the bin in each cube, till they arrived at mine.
He was an illegal. I'm not judging. He radiated it without shame. He wore that identity like a comfortable sweater, and exuded it in his body language and broken english. Folks like that probably don't get the acknowledgement they deserve, so I made it a point to always smile, make eye contact, and nod to them when I see them.
So I smile, make eyecontact, and nod at him. He looks at the screen, sees numbers, looks at me - young, working late by the standards of my coworkers - makes some sort of decision about social interactions - and starts giving me quetionable stock market tips in a thick Latin (or maybe Portuguese) accent.
So I thank him for that, smile broadly and make sure to include my eyes in the smile so he knows I appreciate it, make some statement about how work never seems to end for folks like us, and go back to it.
But internally, I'm putting him in the bucket with everyone else. He can't even speak english, and what he wants to do is talk stocks? This is a guy who - and yes, I am judging here a bit - probably hasn't got a legitimate bank account, much less trading account, and he vacuums office buildings for a living. Given his current situation, he does not instill within me the belief that he is a highly successful backchannel stock market advisor. ... but that's not his fault. He seemed like a hard working, genuine person in all other ways. See, that's what this area does to you. You end up getting hollowed out, till you're focused on the money and outer appearances. You start thinking those are the most important things, the things that defines you and allows you to relate to others.
The mail guy (we were big enough to have an actual mail department) bought an 80,000 dollar car. He HAD to. He couldn't afford it, but he HAD to have it. He couldn't justify it any other way except that it was expected, knowing he had to, to be known, caring that others cared about him for his car.
That's my takeaway from the bay area. Nice place to visit, but for the people.
Wrong. Our appeal was denied (!) and we were told we had to pay. We could go to their meeting in person to appeal again but I don't have the patience or time for that. It wasn't that expensive, so we paid the f-ing thing.
This is probably the reason they denied your appeal....they "knew" you would pay it rather than deal with the hassle. Its just another form of robbery imo.
I've always said English was my second language. Had Romeo and Juliet been written in C, I might have understood it.
Mitigating failure and taking fewer risks costs you time and opportunities. That's radioactive rat poison in the fast-paced tech company world. You get your lunch eaten moving slowly and deliberately as more agile and stupid companies innovate ahead of you. Fast paced innovating start-up companies aren't being run by conservatives and that's a basic statement of fact. I think you can ascribe risk taking to political bent though I would more classify it as philosophy than one's own politics. I do this simply because big C Conservatism as a political force has been deviating far from little c conservatism as a philosophy.
I've seen this attitude cripple and break more startups than I care to count. Its great to innovate, but first do the basics correctly and without those basics your innovation means shit. Example, spending all your time experimenting with Machine Learning while your site has > 4 sec latency costing the company over a billion dollars a year in revenue. And this isn't the unique weird case, this is the typical case. You are making the classic mistake of thinking you can learn from other's success. That's proof by induction (which isn't valid) and very prone to missing the reasons for success. Learning happens best after failure, not success and perhaps that's your real problem, you don't learn from your failures very well and repeat them often which is something SV has done quite a bit.
"Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
If by "real city", you mean "ant farm for humans", I'll pass.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba