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Why Silicon Valley Works

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#171

Post by azakai »

aantix wrote: post #98
porter wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's so bad, why aren't people moving out of the valley?

I think they are. I've worked here in SF as a Rails consultant for the past four years. It's quite obvious that the work force skews younger. My best friend just became a CTO and his bosses are both 20. He's 41. :-0 When you look to start a family, the pressures of working in the valley are going to bubble to the surface. You can either endure a 60 minute drive (that should really only be 20 based on distance) to a c…

> or you shuttle a car seat to and from an Uber.

Hmm, seems like a business opportunity here, for Uber/Lfyt etc. to offer a car seat as an extra (in which case the car arrives with seat all set up and ready).

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#172

Post by mjmahone17 »

cfallin wrote: post #84
wes-exp wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 spi…

> 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. It's funny you mention Intel here -- since the 70s/80s they've continued to expand in Hillsboro, Oregon (a suburb of Portland), where they bought a lot of cheap farmland. It's worked really well for them and the ~16k people they employ in the state. The only downside is a…

> The only downside is a sort of "employer lock-in" for the employees, especially the more specialized ones.

That downside is not a downside for Intel. Having employer lock-in keeps costs down and turnover low.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#173

Post by 2D »

It strikes me, as do a few other posts and comments from YC that this is an incredibly American centric view of the world. I've heard PG say "just consider moving here" but without a visa as a startup that's very difficult.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#174

Post by johnrob »

WalterBright wrote: post #170
Balgair wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 loa…

> sold within a week for 700k > got the house for 70k in the 70's For perspective, the S&P 500 was at 68.56 in 1975 and began 2014 at 1848.36, a 27 fold gain. You also wouldn't be paying ongoing real estate taxes, etc. So the house bought in the 70's wasn't that great of an investment, long term. http://www.1stock1.com/1stock1_141.htm

Traditionally, real estate was not a great investment. Only recent boom/busts have turned it into a money maker (for some).

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#175

Post by IndianAstronaut »

rdl wrote: post #159
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 live a 20 minute drive (after 10am or 7pm) from ~all the startups in SF (in SOMA or Midmarket). My rent would be ~$1800-2500/mo for a 1BR. (GF owns the condo, so no rent now). While Oakland is moderately "real", I've never "had to use the AK" -- it's realistically about as safe where I live as in SF (I live near a Whole Foods, after all). I do spend about $660/mo on commute ($260 parking, $100 bridge toll, $300 or…

>You can work for a startup knowing that you'd literally have a new job before the day is out if your company imploded in the morning.

While the bubble is still going, yes. Once it pops, not so much.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#176

Post by WWKong »

It does work if you are a VC. Tons of talented folks living in dorm like conditions (some living out their car), working long hours, in the hopes of striking it rich one day. Most fail. Some succeed proped by blogs owned by VCs. It is a nice machinery. The world mostly gets another music discovery app or another ad targeting company.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#177

Post by garry »

axavuj05 wrote: post #126

Throw-away account for obvious reasons: > "Silicon Valley works because there is such a high density of people working on start-ups and they are inclined to help each other" Bull shit. With all due respect to Sam--who no doubt knows what he's doing and saying and has become very successful--he is undoubtedly living in a bubble of his own. While I've found people generally open to the idea of chatting over a coffee, I…

> Complete and utter bull. Maybe in Sam's world, sure! White? 20-something? No-kids? Harvard/Stanford? B2C? Let’s chat! > Early-40's/Late-30's? Not-white? Married w/ kids? Not-Harvard/Stanford? B2B? Nope. (Don't bother to apply to YC either).

YC does not discriminate in this way. We fund lots of people working on B2B and enterprise ideas, who are married with kids, who are in their 30's, 40's and yes older too. This claim is just plain false.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#178

Post by nostrademons »

rconti wrote: post #128
Balgair wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 loa…

Don't live in BFE Concord? Could get a 3/1 on the Peninsula for a bit more (say, 800-850). Less if you're willing to live in Daly City or EPA or something.

Single-family or townhome/condo? In the Mountain View/Sunnyvale/Los Altos area you can get a 3/1 townhome for about $800K, but if you want a single-family home with a postage-stamp yard those start at around $1.2M.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#179

Post by paulsutter »

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…

So you start out criticizing greed, yet seem to judge lifestyle entirely on the cost of creature comforts?

Dude. If you feel purpose in your work, live in Silicon Valley. If you are driven by creature comforts, go live in a place where that's easy to afford.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#180

Post by ninjaplease »

x0x0 wrote: post #60
beat wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, that thought pattern does explain much of the dysfunction in american government The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of who will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn’t ev…

Interesting take on the libertarian-as-socially-enlightened you have there.
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