Cities and Ambition (2008)

Intensified credentialism has the effect of diluting classrooms that could be engaging with a bunch of people who are just XP-grinding to level up to a job in 4 years. I do feel bad for people who are there due to distorted economic incentives rather than genuine interest. I also resent them for polluting the intellectual environment of students who are actually interested in the material.

I'm a traditionally educated engineer (comp eng degree from big 10 midwestern school) who was what I'd call medium ambitious. I knew I didn't want to end up somewhere in some small backwater in suburban Chicago (where I'm from) doing IT for a bank. I always wanted to make great products and sell them for money.

Silicon Valley has changed a lot in the 7 years I've lived here. It's crazy how much venture capital is getting raised today. It seems like almost every week, there's yet another record broken in VC. Instacart just raised 400 million dollars recently. And now Justin Kan's Atrium is doing $10 million on a story and it seems practically every day another self-driving car startup is doing a nine-figure raise.

Looking back, pg is right. For as much as SV claims to be about technology/innovation, it's really all driven by the fastest route to economic power. The place has become noticeably more driven by business guys, "growth hacking", virality, etc. than actual product innovation. Maybe it's for the best, as a lot of innovation is actually in distribution (not just product). But it does make me wonder, what's next for this place?

The big question I'm trying to figure out for myself is, do I want to play the big-money startup game or be a small business owner? The distinction is getting sharper each day. I never really wanted to be a billionaire but realistically, "having a big effect on the world" is absolutely how things are measured here, and if you aren't trying to dent the universe, you're basically viewed as a zero here.

It's interesting what guys like tom preson-werner have done. He could probably be a famous brand-name VC (has the resume and connections for it) but instead, he's doing a second company in language learning. I really respect that he wants to build good stuff, even if it doesn't mean raising a bazillion dollars. I'm not surprised the company isn't HQ'd here.

EDIT: It's also interesting how just "doing something big" impresses SV, even if you don't succeed. Examples: Slava (rethinkdb), Dalton Caldwell (several failed startups, now partner at YC), Adora Cheung (also partner at YC after Homejoy crashed and burned), etc. They seem to respect ambition perhaps even more than building a solid business or company. It's really bizarre.

That being said, if you got a critical mass of young techies down here that loved the culture, why not? It’s not that much dirtier or more dangerous than SF

Naturally, there are motivated people and pockets (that will probably comment on this), but those are exceptions. That's what caused me to move.