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It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town

nytimes.com

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Re: It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town

#131

Post by lapnitnelav »

PLenz wrote: post #9
CPLX wrote: post #5

New York is the most important city in the history of world civilization, this shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone. Everything genuinely important in this country ends up run from New York City eventually. People forget the Rockefellers made their money in Cleveland. But that aside NYC has always had a serious tech community since the electric grid was invented in lower Manhattan, or the transistor in suburban New Je…

And even before that, the steamboat was invented here, the Manhattan project was called that because it was originally in Manhattan. Edison was over in Jersey and Tesla on Long Island. Republic had it's plant out on the island too where they built the LEM. IBM's Watson lab is just north of the city and Bell labs a bit west. New York has always been a tech hub but it wasn't as obvious since there was - and is - so muc…

And lest we forget, it is where Jesus made its most infamous miracle, waltzing over the Hudson.

Re: It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town

#132

Post by skybrian »

kissickas wrote: post #65
wefarrell wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Politicians (AOC included) represent their current constituents. Not future potential constituents who might move into their district, but people who live there now. The key issue here is rising rent, and this is something Local politicians (AOC in particular) campaign on. A significant portion of people here would see their rents go up without seeing any additional benefits. How would you expect an elected official,…

I am not an all a fan of how Amazon went about this farcical "search" and haven't deeply researched the deal NYC gave them. That said, addressing rising rents by limiting the number of high-paying jobs in a city seems like one of the worst possible ways to approach the problem.

I don't know, it seems pretty directly based on supply and demand. People move to jobs. Other places would love to have the jobs, but they're not NYC. Let them win. What's wrong with that?

It won't actually change much since Long Island City is still booming, but you could say the same thing about building housing; every little bit helps.

Re: It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town

#134

Post by Apocryphon »

adventured wrote: post #44
meddlepal wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Implying Silicon Valley is affordable compared to NYC is silly. The Californian "Try It" attitude is basically the equivalent of throwing shit against the wall while using other people's money. It works sometimes, but it's a terrible strategy that only works because VCs hit a unicorn that wipes out all the mistakes every so often.

> it's a terrible strategy that only works because VCs hit a unicorn that wipes out all the mistakes every so often The "only" part of that doesn't actually invalidate the fact that it works. What you said is: it's a terrible strategy that has worked extraordinarily well. It's a great strategy that has been shown to work across five decades of tech upheavel, precisely because it does pay for itself over time and keep…

Maybe it's time for some daring innovators to disrupt this rickety archaic model?

Re: It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town

#135

Post by denart2203 »

When a city is dominated by one industry, particularly finance, that can spell ruin for its inhabitants. Good for the wealthy and the people in the industry, mediocre for many others. Tech might smooth things out a bit, but there is no reason we need to give anything to a behemoth for coming here. Many are already make NYC home.

Although not the only one, NYC has some of the best universities, many top-tier companies, pools of talented people, and the best cultural amenities. There was no reason to kowtow to a behemoth to come here. NYC is big and innovative, and it will stay big and innovative for the foreseeable future. Tech was here before and will it be here after, without being dominated by a single company.

Re: It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town

#136

Post by Fnoord »

ChrisArchitect wrote: post #108

I really expected this to be about a hacker movement and JOLT cola

Same. Jolt, apparently actually from New York [1], was the first hacker drink I learned about. The best one though, is the German Club Mate.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolt_Cola

Re: It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town

#137

Post by Scoundreller »

nickelcitymario wrote: post #30

One of the biggest lessons I've taken from New York's approach is not to try and be the next Silicon Valley (as every community is trying to be). You can't beat the Valley at its own game. That's foolish. Instead, look to what industries your community has long been successful in, and develop the tech to disrupt those industries before the Valley does. NYC's example was to focus tech on advertising, finance, and medi…

> I'm from a small mining city in Canada (Sudbury, Ontario).

Yet you got fibre optic to the home (with phone and tv) years before those of us in the south.

Re: It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town

#138

Post by Scoundreller »

etblg wrote: post #81
nickelcitymario wrote: post #30

One of the biggest lessons I've taken from New York's approach is not to try and be the next Silicon Valley (as every community is trying to be). You can't beat the Valley at its own game. That's foolish. Instead, look to what industries your community has long been successful in, and develop the tech to disrupt those industries before the Valley does. NYC's example was to focus tech on advertising, finance, and medi…

I think the most critical flaw in Sudbury's plan, is that people would have to live in Sudbury (no offense) It's a small, cold, somewhat-remote city known for mining, and particularly for having an incredibly tall smokestack visible everywhere in town. You can fund startups, but who is going to move from other places to Sudbury?

> an incredibly tall smokestack visible everywhere in town.

That smokestack was a crisi-tunity: decades of acid rain made the soil incredibly favourable for growing blueberries.

Ignore those blue blobs they sell in supermarkets, they’re garbage.

Re: It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town

#139

Post by 0_gravitas »

etblg wrote: post #81
nickelcitymario wrote: post #30

One of the biggest lessons I've taken from New York's approach is not to try and be the next Silicon Valley (as every community is trying to be). You can't beat the Valley at its own game. That's foolish. Instead, look to what industries your community has long been successful in, and develop the tech to disrupt those industries before the Valley does. NYC's example was to focus tech on advertising, finance, and medi…

I think the most critical flaw in Sudbury's plan, is that people would have to live in Sudbury (no offense) It's a small, cold, somewhat-remote city known for mining, and particularly for having an incredibly tall smokestack visible everywhere in town. You can fund startups, but who is going to move from other places to Sudbury?

If that means low col, than as someone who doesn't go site seeing much to begin with, I'm in (assuming the internet speeds up there are ok)

Re: It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town

#140

Post by Scoundreller »

0_gravitas wrote: post #139
etblg wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the most critical flaw in Sudbury's plan, is that people would have to live in Sudbury (no offense) It's a small, cold, somewhat-remote city known for mining, and particularly for having an incredibly tall smokestack visible everywhere in town. You can fund startups, but who is going to move from other places to Sudbury?

If that means low col, than as someone who doesn't go site seeing much to begin with, I'm in (assuming the internet speeds up there are ok)

Their internet can be the best in Ontario. They have a local provider that overbuilt the incumbents with fibre to the home.
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