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Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

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Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#101

Post by ascendantlogic »

daniel-thompson wrote: post #50
neom wrote: post #11

Does climate change play an unspoken role in this? Is California is an increasingly unstable place from an ecology perspective?

To be clear, climate change affects Texas too - it gets hotter here every year. https://www.keranews.org/2019-08-22/austin-makes-top-10-list... And unfortunately we have our share of deadly wildfires as well ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastrop_County_Complex_Fire ), although thankfully not to the same degree that California does.

Some people think if they ignore science hard enough, it'll just make the problems go away.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#103

Post by dannyincolor »

tayo42 wrote: post #52

People really want to see California and silicon valley fail. Crab mentality I think, people love these articles

Why do you think this is? I find it really bizarre.

My own family in the Midwest kind of passive aggressively implies that they hope I “feel the effect” of these “oppressive laws” and I’m out here shooting guns, enjoying the desert on HOVs, and visiting Yosemite to bask in the beauty. Oppression seems like the last thing I’ve found here, honestly.

Like what grinds people’s gears so hard about CA? Really would love a clear answer

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#104

Post by thatguy0900 »

readams wrote: post #7

I wonder if the people fleeing California will end up voting for the same bad policies that are the reason they had to leave in the first place. That is, do they connect the bad policies to the bad outcomes, or will they still favor the bad policies? There is one major area for tech people where Texas may prove a nasty surprise to employees: non-compete agreements. For large employers this may be a bonus though as th…

At least the front page might stop constantly having posts ranting about Californian cities. Reading about Texas not being liberal enough instead will be a refreshing change of pace.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#105

Post by bcheung »

DontGiveTwoFlux wrote: post #73
alexmingoia wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do low property taxes have to do with high rent and lack of housing? Higher property taxes would result in higher rent and property prices...

High taxes incentivizes more productive use of real estate, such as multi family housing.

High taxes are good because people will have less room to live? This doesn't sound like a good justification.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#106

Post by fairity »

sbinthree wrote: post #2

I think it's interesting that people forget anything network based tends to unwind just as fast as it winds up. Decorrelation (e.g. low viral coefficient) can be antifragile. If everyone moves to your city for a different reason, it is more resilient to downturns than if everyone moves to your city for the same reason and conditions change. Facebook may unwind for the same reason it was successful: the lack of privac…

> I think it's interesting that people forget anything network based tends to unwind just as fast as it winds up.

I think that largely depends on market dynamics.

For systems that benefit from strong, direct network effects, the vast majority of users will generally join whichever platform has the largest network. Once you are the clear market leader, you will enjoy fast(er) user growth. Even if your network starts to dwindle, most users will still gravitate to your platform so long as you maintain your market leadership.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#107

Post by wahern »

MAGZine wrote: post #69
chrisco255 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of land in Texas, and they're not opposed to building high rises.

Citation needed? In my experience, SFHowners who live in a primarily residential neighborhood generally don't want condos if they live in Texas or Maine or California.

While Houston doesn't have zoning use restrictions, apparently many neighborhoods have private land covenants that restrict redevelopment: https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/2020/01/09/no-zoning-in-Ho... So in practice large projects usually will only occur in less wealthy neighborhoods where residents aren't savvy enough to enforce restrictions, and patterns of development end up looking pretty much like most of California. I'm sure it's still much cheaper to build in Texas, though, because the real costs in California aren't the restrictions, per se, but the uncertainty and time delays. Time is the real budget killer, and a silent one that helps to hide the externalities that policies create.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#108

Post by emmanueloga_ »

dkobran wrote: post #16

HP and Oracle don’t exactly represent the heart of Silicon Valley today and what makes it special/unique. I actually think zombie corporations like Oracle, companies that haven’t innovated in decades and instead rely on an army of sales people to sell legacy software, are somewhat the antithesis of Silicon Valley which is really about real technological innovation and disruption at it’s core. I know there are lots of…

https://www.graalvm.org/ seems like a great innovation to me, not sure if there are other examples.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#109

Post by dannyincolor »

djohnston wrote: post #83
dannyincolor wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah literally nothing about Oracle is useful or innovative. It’s like the WalMart of tech companies; just kind of exists and has rested on its laurels for a decade+.

Idk if that's fair to Walmart, they are definitely trying to compete with Amazon via new efforts.

You are correct; Walmart actually does have some nice innovation labs around the country doing some great work.

Forgot about that and Walmart is an easy target for a lot of things :)

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#110

Post by bcheung »

thatfrenchguy wrote: post #89
bcheung wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High taxes, high cost of living, and bad policies were the primary reasons I left CA. Property tax assessment was 1/6th of fair market value (thank you prop 13). Still decided to leave. Got a house almost 3x the size for the same price, and no homeless tents everywhere is a nice bonus.

Yeah having a house 3x the size is not great for you or the environment, given that people don’t use most of their houses ;-)

It's people telling me what is good for me that is another reason I left.
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