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Why Silicon Valley Works

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#71

Post by mathattack »

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…

Having lived in NYC too, the greed there trumps the greed in Silicon Valley. The greed in NYC is money for it's own sake. The greed in Silicon Valley at least has the pretense of creating good products. The greed in Silicon Valley requires creation of value in addition to capturing it. NYC is all about capturing in.

A $4,000/month apartment in Silicon Valley gets you a good school. A $5,000/month apartment in NYC gets you a public school where 90% of the kids fail the state exams.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#72

Post by mathattack »

anateus wrote: post #2

Two 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…

My impression is that Silicon Valley (like NYC) is a destination. Move to St. Louis and everyone asks where you went to high school. Not here. It doesn't take long to make a name, and there's a tradition of helping "the next one."

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#73

Post by graycat »

From

http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2013/02/venture-capital-returns.html...

at least on average, there is some serious question if Silicon Valley "works" at all well.

For

> 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.

Well, as I recall, Sam, from one of your lectures in your current course at Stanford, both Marc Andreesseen and Ron Conway made it quite clear that they no longer take proposals from "over the transom" and, instead, learn about new investments only from their "network". Sounds quite closed and not very "open" and, instead, like an echo chamber from the past with not a very good view of the future.

Or, NSF, NIH, and DARPA will take proposals from strangers, but not Sand Hill Road.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#74

Post by kiyoto »

ig1 wrote: post #46
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…

It's vastly easier to become a millionaire in finance than in tech.

I agree. I am an ex-trader in his late 20s, and most of my peers who stayed in finance have at least a million dollars in savings+assets.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#75

Post by Omniusaspirer »

joshhart wrote: post #6

My 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…

Silicon Valley is already a dubious value proposition for most startups, if not outright terrible.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#76

Post by kiyoto »

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…

I think it's witty/funny that the OP is "Why Silicon Valley Works" while your comment aptly describes "How Silicon Valley Works".

Also, I totally agree with your comment on Japan. I think start-ups have a very tough time sustainably generating value through innovation in Japan. Taking the national psyche and tendency for risk aversion into consideration, most likely, it needs to come from either big companies or government programs (like in the 60s-80s).

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#77

Post by jgwest »

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…

Dude. You come to SV to make it. Kids, house, schools... they all need to be taken into consideration, sure... but you can't just choose one part of your lifestyle while assuming that you'll be able to continue on with no effect on the other...

Yes, it's a cooker. So what? You want the cooker, sign up... You don't want it, then pass, and start counting your already-existing chickens...

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#78

Post by wes-exp »

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…

I strongly disagree that the high cost of living is beneficial for startups. Keep in mind the very term Silicon Valley comes from chip companies (Fairchild, Intel, etc.) who came to SV because it was cheap, open farm land. There isn't a business in the world that doesn't want to optimize on costs.

Take a look at a modern SV company now: Apple. It creates lots of jobs in SV, but far more in China.

SV succeeds in spite of the costs, not because of them.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#79

Post by driznar »

ig1 wrote: post #46
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…

It's vastly easier to become a millionaire in finance than in tech.

Can you elaborate? I'm genuinely interested in hearing from someone with experience in both industries to weigh in on this. Especially once the risks on both sides have been calculated in, since otherwise the comparison is largely meaningless.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#80

Post by tim333 »

michaelvkpdx wrote: post #66

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…

>truly improve humanity, the Valley extremely inefficient

I think Intel, Google and Facebook have improved humanity though your tastes may vary and I enjoy Apple's shiny stuff. Those have a market cap of $1.4 tr and it's hard to think of anywhere else with similar output. Maybe like democracy it's the worse possible system apart from all the other ones?

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