Why Silicon Valley Works
blog.samaltman.com
Why Silicon Valley Works
1–10 of 252 posts
Re: Why Silicon Valley Works
#2Two sentences early on are problematic:
"One of the biggest misconceptions about us is that you need to have pre-existing connections to get value from the network. Remarkably, you don’t. "
If Sam had said "you need them in Silicon Valley much less than anywhere else" it would be a true statement. But in an article I strongly agree with, this sort of thing... I'm not even sure what to call it, misinformation? Makes the rest ring hollow.
The networks here have vastly lower costs of entry and way fewer secret handshakes. But they still have them, and for many groups of people those costs are much higher than the median. It would have been easy to acknowledge that without diminishing the core point.
Re: Why Silicon Valley Works
#3This is a pretty thoughtful and to the point article. You might summarize it by saying that SV success is defined by Community and Capital. It makes a lot of sense that rich networks backed by money make an area successful. It would be interesting to explore the effect of capital from within the community vs external capital inflow.
Re: Why Silicon Valley Works
#4Two sentences early on are problematic: "One of the biggest misconceptions about us is that you need to have pre-existing connections to get value from the network. Remarkably, you don’t. " If Sam had said "you need them in Silicon Valley much less than anywhere else" it would be a true statement. But in an article I strongly agree with, this sort of thing... I'm not even sure what to call it, misinformation? Makes t…
I took his statement as hyperbole to make the point that those connections are less important in SV. But I don't know him, so its just my inference.
Re: Why Silicon Valley Works
#5'I wrote this for the FT, but it's behind a paywall. Since I wrote it, I feel like it's probably ok for me to post it here.'
If the FT paid you to write it, I feel like it's probably not ok to post it where you'd like.
Re: Why Silicon Valley Works
#6My biggest concern with Silicon Valley is that it will become so expensive that many potential startups are prevented from coming here. Sam also stated that housing costs were the biggest weakness.
I wonder what YC could do about this problem for it's companies. I think it would be interesting for YC to build a few high-rise live-work spaces for smaller YC companies to foster and grow the tightly-knit community. Maybe like a high-tech college campus?
Re: Why Silicon Valley Works
#7Two sentences early on are problematic: "One of the biggest misconceptions about us is that you need to have pre-existing connections to get value from the network. Remarkably, you don’t. " If Sam had said "you need them in Silicon Valley much less than anywhere else" it would be a true statement. But in an article I strongly agree with, this sort of thing... I'm not even sure what to call it, misinformation? Makes t…
I dunno - he explains his reasoning in the same paragraph: "It’s standard practice to ask people you’ve just met for help – and as long as you aren’t annoying about it, they usually don’t mind."
Re: Why Silicon Valley Works
#8My biggest concern with Silicon Valley is that it will become so expensive that many potential startups are prevented from coming here. Sam also stated that housing costs were the biggest weakness. I wonder what YC could do about this problem for it's companies. I think it would be interesting for YC to build a few high-rise live-work spaces for smaller YC companies to foster and grow the tightly-knit community. Mayb…
Not sure where they would build "high-rise" anything - zoning laws would preclude that in most places in the bay area.
Re: Why Silicon Valley Works
#9Good article. It provoked a thought:
In an increasingly digital world, how long will physical proximity be an advantage?
The notion that a region could somehow have its own brand of patriotism centered around startup success merely due to density is somewhat difficult to rationalize. You can't deny SV's success relative to other technology hubs, but I'm wondering how far in the future physical proximity will continue to carry such a steep advantage
Re: Why Silicon Valley Works
#10'I wrote this for the FT, but it's behind a paywall. Since I wrote it, I feel like it 's probably ok for me to post it here. ' If the FT paid you to write it, I feel like it's probably not ok to post it where you'd like.
It's better not to go on feel either way. In most cases, a freelance writer retains copyright and the publication that paid for the work (in this case FT) is given an implicit license to use it.