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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.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2018/03/05/epidemic-of-car-break-ins-makes-parking-a-nightmare-for-bay-area-drivers/
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — Car break-ins are on the rise across the Bay Area. In fact, 2017 was a record-breaking year for our three largest cities.
We’re seeing record numbers of car burglaries in San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. Chances it has happened to you or someone you know.
San Francisco leads the pack with 31,120 break-ins last year.
In the same period, San Jose reported 6,476 car burglaries. That number is the highest the city has ever seen and a 17 percent increase compared to 2016.
It was also a record year in Oakland with 10,007 reported cases in 2017, up 32% compared to the previous year.
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.
It's not over, Season 5 starts March 25th.
The obvious conclusion from the wave of car breakins in San Francisco is this - not only do we need self driving cars, but we need self-defending cars and a amendment to the second amendment that specifically lays out the right for self driving cars to be armed.
Thus we have the three laws of self-driving cars:
1) A self-driving car may not cause harm to other cars, or through inaction allow humans to damage or scuff the paint job of another car.
2) A self-driving car must obey orders given by the owner except when it would conflict with the protection of itself or other self-driivng cars.
3) A self-driving car must protect its own existence unless self-immolation would protect cars of higher value, or result in a really awesome YouTube video.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I recently took a training at work on the 7 habits of highly effective people. In that I did an exercise where we list what's important to us, big picture and long term. What I wrote down didn't surprise me as much as what was missing; being part of a start-up that was successful. The point of the exercise was to make one really think about what they wanted out of life. You can't go somewhere until you know where you want to go.
Even though I'm not working on anything really exciting that might change the world. Even though I don't earn nearly as much as I would in San Francisco. That's never been my priority. Living in Salt Lake City I earn a hefty income that is more the capable of providing for my family. Cost of living here is fairly low at 108. In all, for me, my life is much better here.
They're not stifling "opposing" views. When one half the population says women and negros are encouraged, while the other half says women and colored folk are not welcome, while those two views are indeed opposing, one side is acceptable and the other is not, no matter where you live in the US.
If we could get rid of the billionaire VC's and 58% of these insufferable millennials, San Francisco could flourish again! Where do I send the vegan doughnuts and coal infused kombucha to help make this happen?
Homo - or Mofo...
Oh yeah.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
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.
Where people say, "I hate Trump", and "I'm not going to work on blockchain and bitcoin."
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.
If they were just moving it in-situ, they'd pick a city and gang up on it. For awhile I thought Austin, TX would be the New Silly Valley, but nope... companies are (at least form what I've seen) moving to New York, Oregon, Washington, Texas, lot of other places...
The days of needing to be in one physical spot are, well, over. All you need is decent Internet infrastructure these days. The same is coming true for startups as it is coming true for tech workers.
I see this as a good thing, and would love to see it accelerate a bit - now all that flirting I get from SV companies won't require me to knee-jerk a "...hell no, I ain't moving to that shithole!" just to do interesting and exciting things in technology.
The only real danger I see form the overarching evolution would be an increase in outsourcing (because if you follow it to its logical conclusion, a remote worker in India or wherever can be just as competitive as one in Utah or Ohio.)
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
This handwaving article only makes these nominal "leaders" sound vacuous in their treatment of the issue. Not saying that these people are vacuous. Or not. However what comes through is a lot of whining while they are coddled during their looking-for-tax-breaks-from-cash-strapped-cities tour.
In a nutshell, if you need to grow a company very quickly for strategic reasons, you need access to many seasoned engineers or you will be throwing your money down the toilet. You cannot just import 5 solid engineers from the Valley and hope that 50 college grads mixed in will figure it out -- that doesn't work.
There are many options if your business model is around organic growth over a decade(s). But that is not really what this article is about.
Works in Oregon and Colorado too! All these places know they need to do something about their regional average IQs.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
once every month or so, there's a story in a new york periodical about how silicon valley is just the worst. they talk about SV a lot. it's almost like they're .. insecure.. about something.
San Diego is beautiful, not yet overcrowded, and more affordable than the other two major CA cities.
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.
Somehow I find your assertion about Texans' view of Californians as "the ruling class" to be unlikely. That said, I'm in a SF suburb and have been giving serious thought to relocating to San Antonio to be near family and to get away from the crowds, the expense, and most importantly the hyper-sensitivity I sometimes see about accusations of sexual harassment here. It's amazing to me that I have worked in the valley for 30 years and have yet to see any of the hype so frequently decried by SJWs here in the greater bay area. This isn't to say it doesn't exist, but maybe it's not so pervasive as some people would have the public believe. My hope is that Texas will offer a respite from all of this madness.
No, you should stay there. Really. Please.
"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."
So, you're going to stop talking that way when you go elsewhere?
I'm surprised that no one has tried to turn Detroit into the next SV. You've got a decent sized city that's on the rebound (although it still needs A LOT of work), a large and affluent suburban ring around the city, and tons of well educated people already in tech with the car industry. Not to mention you have the uber liberal Ann Arbor and U of M a half hour away. The only major thing holding Detroit back is the lack of good infrastructure, but that could be remedied if someone was willing to pay for it. Land is beyond cheap in Detroit, in fact a savvy tech investor could probably buy what's leftover from Dan Gilbert's shopping spree and split the city with him. True the weather isn't the best here (although it's not the worst) but is is right next to Canada and all they have to offer. Maybe it's just easier to move into a sparsely populated area and build it up rather than tear down and rebuild?
It depends on where Middle Class lives. So lets go by the standard rule of thumb of purchasing a house for 3x your salary.
A house in Rural Upstate NY with 2,000 sq/ft and an acre of land is about $250,000. So a home like that would require a Salary of $83k (Well into middle/middle class for the area, bordering on upper middle class)
A house in SF with the same properties will be 3-4million dollars. So you would need a million dollar salary to life the same type of life style as someone making 1/12 the salary.
That being said, not everything scales proportional to you salary in the SF area. The cost of an automobile isn't 12x as much, nor is the cost of Food and Fuel 12x more. So while I may be living in a Larger home, I have a smaller car, will need to budget more carefully extra expenses, food and fuel take up a good part of my budget. A $1000.00 iPhone, is considered a major purchase, which I plan to keep for years, and not until the next model comes out. New Furniture and repairs need to be budgeted and planned for. So my larger home, may not be as nice as the smaller SF home, and perhaps a decade behind the times.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
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.
SF may be a little more liberal than most of America, but hating on Trump is a pretty mainstream opinion you'll find coast-to-coast (even among the 49% of America that voted for him).
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
That is totally wrong. It means conserving energy for things that are important. So risk taking is fine, but you can be prepared for failure or alternative paths before you take risks, not just jump in blindly.
It can also mean taking BIGGER risks, just fewer of them. Basically you cannot ascribe risk taking with a political bent, as people of all persuasions are happy to take risks, they just have different approaches or conditions.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Incompetent city and state government is what prevents any significant tech investment in Michigan or Wayne County. A large portion of the technology and industry is attached to the auto industry, and most of the nice things we have in our schools are because Ford or GM donated. Betsy DeVos is from my part of Michigan. She works hard to ruin public schools for the middle and working class. Not that they were so great before she got involved.
Operating a business in Michigan is about making sure every little pissant gets their cut. And while your business taxes will be lower, that most of the infrastructure is missing or broken means you'll end up having to spend money to work around it. In rich parts of California like SF Bay or LA you can find real infrastructure for businesses, shipping, schools, and commuting. (even if just highways that are in perpetual gridlock, it's still better than what I used to do in Michigan)
Also I think most people would rather live where you can grow orange and lemon trees in your yard rather than where you have to shovel snow. (although if I didn't have to work for a living I would love to live on the lakeshore in West Michigan)
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
San Diego is beautiful, not yet overcrowded, and more affordable than the other two major CA cities.
And yet it sounds like you are advocating for high paying companies to locate there, driving up the cost of living for the average San Diegan.
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
"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."
Stop surrounding yourself with people just like yourself - if you want diversity, seek it out. But don't hang out in a tech-heavy bar sipping $18 hand crafted artisanal cocktails and bemoan the lack of diversity there. There are still a *lot* of people in SF and the Bay Area that don't work in tech.
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.
No, I was mentioning it as an option for PEOPLE who don't want either LA or SF. A bit more livable, and sharing a border with a foreign country for day trips is also nice,
Immediately to the north/northeast of Detroit is Oakland County. Population 1.2M, one of the 25 richest counties in the country by median household income (top 10 if you only consider counties with >1.0M people), one of the largest concentrations of engineering jobs in the country. When a new research or design center is opened in the area -- and that happens from time to time -- they very carefully site it in Oakland County, where the real estate prices are much closer to an Austin or Denver than to Detroit.
Ask why none of those firms are willing to go into Detroit.
San Antonio isn't a bad town to move to. It has two (going on three) loops, where even at 5:30 rush hour, you can still get around town at a reasonable clip. Yes, it has crime, but it is nowhere what it used to be. Only real notable thing to watch out for are uninsured motorists, so bump up your PIP and underinsured/uninsured coverage.
What made silicon valley is the 3 large and very many small universities producing a large "high-tech" labor force ready to be exploited....er...disrupt industry at a particular time in history where we were going though an economic revolution, and in a location where people wanted to live, with extremely good infrastructure already in place, where there were already several world-class research operations running (ie. Xerox PARC and DoD/NASA $$).
So you can't just say "but the land's cheap!" or "we've got a liberal enclave" or "taxes are low!" and create a new Silicon Valley.
You need a large stream of new graduates (more than one major university can produce). You need the place to be desirable to move to before your "tech center" is up and running (or the executives aren't going to even fly there to take a look). You need good infrastructure already in place (they're not willing to wait a few years for it to be built). You need some major R&D dollars already in place for people to meet and start inventing stuff (doesn't happen in today's corporate governance).
And even then, you aren't at the right moment in history. We aren't in 1960, about to totally reinvent how every first-world worker does their job (even ditch digging involves computers now).
There isn't going to be another Silicon Valley. Instead, we'll invent some other radical change to humanity's existence, and that will produce another "hotbed" with the right mix of inputs.
There is also one commodity Michigan has, which California doesn't... water.
No, I was mentioning it as an option for PEOPLE who don't want either LA or SF. A bit more livable, and sharing a border with a foreign country for day trips is also nice,
Yeah, it's nice down there. A little too nice. I would be perpetually afraid of it becoming the new hotness and getting expensive and crowded. Best weather in the state, best park in the state with (arguably) the best zoo in the world, interesting geography, lots to do, very good public transit for its size. No more NFL team but I'm not a sports guy and, anyway, at least you have the Padres.
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
Oh, they JUST NOW figured out the cost of living and tax rate in California is awful, not to mention the overreacting governmental decisions. They really are the best and brightest apparently.
It is the same reason why many places cannot build enough housing any longer. Those who build housing have little incentive to try to collapse prices with new supply, so they rather predictably don't.
The problem isn't the lack of appetite from builders...they're putting the finishing touches on a housing development on Treasure Island between SF and Oakland that literally sits atop a former radioactive waste spill. As long as land acquisition + construction + taxes + profit > sale price, they'd build atop a pile of dogshit floating in the Bay if they could. I think the locals in South Bay refer to that concept as "seasteading".
In my part of the woods (Lafayette, just east of Berkeley/Oakland) our local species of NIMBY have waged a thus-far successful fight for almost two decades against a proposed development at the other end of town. Although the stated objections have included traffic, quality of life issues, school capacity, and environmental concerns, the real reason is that no elected official wants to be responsible for telling their constituents that $1M in equity just evaporated like a fart in the wind so that their kids (or, more likely, someone fleeing SF or Oakland) can afford a starter house.
Lack of NFL team to suck at the teat of public funds (most NFL stadiums receive heavy public funding) is a feature, not a bug. The city of SD should have let the Chargers leave a lot sooner, and not spent money negotiating with their owner. Buh-bye, nice knowing 'ya.
"Nobody does business there any more, it's always too crowded."
Detroit's infrastructure is weak and crumbling and the weather is god awful for a big piece of the year. No chance.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It's the "new" New York city. Newer York? You don't work in NY city because you want a big house with a white picket fence, you work in NY because you want to be "where the action" is.
Table-ized A.I.
You beat me to it with the echo chamber comment. South Cali has gotten intellectually incestuous. Thou shall not deviate from the group think!
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
Depends on your definition of 'god awful' is. Sure we get snow but we don't get blizzards or a foot of snow dumped on us at a time like some other parts of the state. SE Michigan is actually a micro-climate of sorts. Check any planting map and you'll see it listed a zone 5a instead of just zone 5. The lack of sunshine for much of the winter is a killer though. We get a lot of gray overcast days, but if that were that big of a deterrent to people then Seattle would be a ghost town.
Oh and you can thank our corrupt as sh*t road commission for the crumbling roads. It doesn't matter who is in charge, Republican or Democrat, the road commission will continue to do the absolute minimum they can as cheaply as they can. Budget doesn't matter, that all goes into kickbacks and contractor pockets.
I'll reserve judgement until the big one hits. It's actually very interesting. Everybody KNOWS that a big earthquake is due in SF, but people seem to be able to arrange their minds so that somehow when it happens, THEIR livelihood and real estate will not be affected.
Yes. And I never hear anything like that from Californians. Never. Ever.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
Unfortunately high home prices tends to create a self-reinforcing anti-virtuous cycle. The heavy financial burden of home buying creates enormous anxiety about anything and everything that could possible cause the price to dip or even rise less quickly. The more financially successful an individual person, family, or community is, the more likely they are locked into this mindset.
Thus NIMBYism is on the rise, and it only seems to be getting worse.
The topic just makes me sad.
How do you deal with being on the Internet when lurking around every corner might be a comment or idea you disagree with?
Are those like bundles of chick-lets. I'm always running out of bubble gum.
There's a vast difference between disagreeing with people, and living and working alongside Nazi sympathizers and overt racists.
I don't respond to AC's.
When you start seeing 30% of under 30 billionaires in North Dakota, try this one again.
Old, old, fake news
I have to admit that I find it amusing that the NY Times is, in effect, going to lecture me about how the Midwest will reverse a >60 year pattern of migration and "brain drain", and take a significant number of jobs from California and the West.
Just as supporting evidence that the flow hasn't slowed particularly in recent years, the Midwest and Northeast states are currently projected to lose eight seats in the US House to the West and South after the 2020 census.
No. Typical SF/Silicon Valley arrogance. We've all seen the private bus services provided for SV workers who _simply_must_ live in SF and commute. Living south or west of SV could probably get you a shorter commute for less money. But not the San Francisco hipster badge.
Have gnu, will travel.
I moved to San Francisco in the mid-90's for the culture, politics, and community. I did have a job waiting for me in Silicon Valley, but I was determined to not make it the sole focus of my life.
Now, many of my newer neighbors just hate it here. Their focus is solely on the job and the money they're making. They only want to make their first or second million and then get the hell out.
To which I must reply, please hurry!
The other missing ingredient is worker mobility. California is both at-will employment (so employers can ditch people fast if needed) AND effectively banned non-competes (so employees can ditch employers fast if needed).
Seems to produce the most equitable thing for both sides, leading to stiff competition and ideas flowing to where it is rewarded, instead of the paltry joke of a bonus most companies give out for patent submissions (usually less then 3k total, assuming it gets accepted by Patent Office).
Both of those are after Silicon Valley was starting to become Silicon Valley.
At-will employment got legally codified in 1959, and CA started adding exceptions to in the next year or so.
Non-competes were almost unheard of in the 1960s, and were not really banned until far more recently.
So while those features are relevant today, they didn't make Silicon Valley.
It's cold. The available houses have had all their copper stolen. It's not a coastal city. And this... And that... No.
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Aha!
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There is nothing like pigeon holing half the country by claiming they all hold the same beliefs. You should actually talk to people who disagree with you and see what they actually believe before assigning them into one of your predetermined classifications based on stereotypes. You could learn something.
Nazi sympathizers? Other random racists? People who worship money and stupidity? Nah, I'm good.
I don't respond to AC's.
In case you haven't figured it out yet, those you opposed don't fit neatly into any of those categories.
I don't want to have anything to do with anybody who thinks that Trump is an acceptable human being. Kinda' like I also don't like to have anything to do with people who think that Hitler wasn't such a bad guy.
I don't respond to AC's.
such as the time I brought up the (then new) Lord of the Rings movie in passing to an as it turned out Christian Conservative who now thought depictions of magic were evil and against God.
Too bad, should have told him that Tolkien was Christian, that LotR is quite Christian-compatible, and that the only uses of magic in the series are by angels sent by God to guide mankind against the fallen (like Gandalf, Radagast, those two blue magi you never heard from again) or fallen angels and their corrupted evil (Saruman, the Nazgul). The only exception would be elves, but they are also the chosen of Illuvatar, and as such were called to leave the world of man over the sea. By that point when he wrote the Lord of the Rings, Tolkien was already deemphasizing the "fairy tale" playful-magic elements that were more prevalent in the Hobbit, also bringing it a little more in line with Christian theology. I would suspect C.S. Lewis had a little to do with this, but that's nothing more than suspicion.
Oh yeah, you can also tell him that it's a WORK OF FICTION and as such is not actually magical. Depiction is not practice.
Most Trump supporters don't support the person, they support his policy positions.