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Why Silicon Valley Works

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#61

Post by hugs »

basher wrote: post #34
steven2012 wrote: post #17

No. The reason why Silicon Valley works is because of the intense greed that it provokes amongst everyone that comes here. Maybe "greed" is too strong of a word, because people aren't necessarily selfish, maybe "money-focused" is probably more accurate. And because anyone can come here and become a millionaire/billionaire, it draws in an immense number of hard-working people which just generally increase the level of…

To be fair to Altman - his article touches on costs: "(assuming, of course, that they can afford the wildly-out-of-control housing costs, which is probably the biggest weakness here right now)" Interesting take though, you argue that the issues generally considered the biggest problems of SV, are the cause of its success.

Housing cost is the #1 reason I moved away, and the #1 reason I stay away.

I lived in Mountain View 2007 to mid-2008 for my job at Google. We were renting a house close to campus at the time and contemplated what it would cost to put down roots and stay -- most likely buying a condo or house. Every time we ran the numbers, it made no sense, so we voted with our feet and moved back to Chicago. I would love to live in the Bay Area again (there's a soft spot in my heart for the running trails of Marin County, in particular), but it still makes no financial sense. The lower cost of living in Chicago adds directly to my personal financial runway and allows me to work on what I want, when I want.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#62

Post by dsugarman »

I think the physical location is kind of a fallacy. For example, there are so many super smart and talented developers in DC working for government contractors because they may not be exposed to the startup option. Most people now have to move to Silicon Valley to focus on long term compensation, but often there is a stronger force of their local network (friend, family & significant others) who keep them stationed near by. Having quality startups in new geographical areas is probably the key ingredient to bringing in talent and capital, not the other way around.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#63

Post by smtddr »

beat wrote: post #58
smtddr wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>not wanting a modest house, cars, kids, and retirement savings I'm going to go out on a limb here and say most people in USA don't even have all those things.

But most people want them, and arguably deserve them. The "kill my neighbor's cow so everything is even" is an even more toxic thought pattern than the Prisoner's Dilemma that constitutes our mainstream. Think big, man.

What I'm trying to say is... I'd be more interested in getting a bigger chunk of society to catch up to our level than us complaining, getting more and widening the gap between us and the rest of middle class USA. Basically, I think bayarea tech folks are doing pretty good and the ones who are truly suffering are the ones not in tech. The imagery[1] in my mind is like those 3-legged races where 2 people tie one of their legs to each other... the bayarea-tech guy is in full speed mode and the other person is being dragged on the floor, taking all kinds of scratches. Can we at least give everyone else a chance to catch their breath before we talk about dashing ahead even further than we already are? And we definitely are ahead.

1. http://i.imgur.com/LTZOFlC.png

...and I've talked about this before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8154909

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#64

Post by [deleted] »

steven2012 wrote: post #17

No. The reason why Silicon Valley works is because of the intense greed that it provokes amongst everyone that comes here. Maybe "greed" is too strong of a word, because people aren't necessarily selfish, maybe "money-focused" is probably more accurate. And because anyone can come here and become a millionaire/billionaire, it draws in an immense number of hard-working people which just generally increase the level of…

[deleted]

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#65

Post by Balgair »

steven2012 wrote: post #17

No. The reason why Silicon Valley works is because of the intense greed that it provokes amongst everyone that comes here. Maybe "greed" is too strong of a word, because people aren't necessarily selfish, maybe "money-focused" is probably more accurate. And because anyone can come here and become a millionaire/billionaire, it draws in an immense number of hard-working people which just generally increase the level of…

On the living part: My folks live in Concord and their next door neighbor just moved into assisted living at 95. Her house sold within a week for 700k to a young couple. It's a 3 bed 1 bath single story in Concord with drainage problems, mind you. Lets do the math here shall we: What is the mortgage and taxes(thanks prop13) on a place like? Well, at 4.05%, good credit, and 15% down, it's 2857.80/month just on the loan, then we have taxes at about 729.16/month and ancillary insurance and repair will round us up to about 4k/month (48k/year) on just housing for a 3 bed 1 bath. Since spending about 1/3 of your income on housing is normal, you'd need about 150k/year as a couple to afford the house next to my folk's. You simply cannot get a job out in Concord for that salary, so you need 2 working people at ~75k, which is just out of Concord's range for a young person. The only place you are going to find salary at that price is in the South Bay or the City. So now you have to ride Bart or 680 for an hour each way, putting you at at least 10 hour days. Oh, and the closer you get to SF or the further south you go, the more the houses cost. You can't win.

Mind you, they live next to my folks who pay about 120.00/month for the house since my Dad was a GI and got the house for 70k in the 70's. Same Levit-town style house, 40 fold cost difference. Neighbors with completely different lives.

And they say there isn't a bubble?

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#66

Post by michaelvkpdx »

The premise here is that Silicon Valley "works". What do you mean by "works"?

If you mean creating artificial wealth for a small group of already-rich folk, yes, it works. If you mean transforming one of the most naturally advantaged landscapes on earth into a traffic-choked sea of concrete where people do little more than work at creating new ways to buy and sell stuff, yes, it works. If you mean polluting what was once the most democratic communications vehicle available with social drivel and advertising, it works.

If you mean creating innovations that truly improve humanity, the Valley extremely inefficient. If you mean demonstrating that humans don't need a pleasant natural environment to survive, the Valley is on the right track.

The one thing the Valley works very well at is self-congratulation, especially among the wealthy.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#67

Post by larrys »

"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."

Well legally it's either ok and the contract (written or otherwise) allows you to post a copy or it doesn't.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#68

Post by Dewie »

hawkice wrote: post #18
batbomb wrote: post #14

>> The focus in Silicon Valley on long-term compensation is also important. Nearly everyone wants to get rich but they’re willing to wait to do so. Conspicuous consumption isn’t that cool; not too many people drive Ferraris or talk about their vacation homes. Instead, they talk about how healthy they are, their diets, or the climbing gym.

I'm no fitness master myself, but, far from begrudging the paleo-crossfit-organicos out there on their latest PR (am I using the lingo right?), I'd like to say, from those of us nodding and smiling: Being healthy is great! Keep it up! :)

I think that the point is that it is the new status-symbol.

In my experience (not Silicon Valley), status symbols in the form of material possessions have taken a back seat to status symbols in the form of fitness and "experiential materialism" (frequent travelling, exotic and varied experiences).

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#69

Post by hawkice »

Dewie wrote: post #68
hawkice wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm no fitness master myself, but, far from begrudging the paleo-crossfit-organicos out there on their latest PR (am I using the lingo right?), I'd like to say, from those of us nodding and smiling: Being healthy is great! Keep it up! :)

I think that the point is that it is the new status-symbol. In my experience (not Silicon Valley), status symbols in the form of material possessions have taken a back seat to status symbols in the form of fitness and "experiential materialism" (frequent travelling, exotic and varied experiences).

I don't disagree with the thrust of what you are saying, and I am particularly amused that in the age of almost infinite variation deliverable through the internet there is a kind of odd counter-signalling effect to avoiding that (I also like travel and have been doing it constantly for more than a year, though, so what do I know).

Describing physical fitness as "the new status-symbol" seems pretty bizarre to me, though. As a status symbol it probably predates humanity.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#70

Post by derwiki »

Interesting to hear YC classes framed as "we help each other." I thought there was a fair bit of internal fighting to end up as a "featured startup" from the batch. Conversely, my startup just went through the Hackers and Founders accelerator, where each startup is given equity in the other startups in the class. This is a great incentive to help the other founders in your incubator.
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