Silicon Valley: Abandoned
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Silicon Valley: Abandoned
1–10 of 47 posts
Re: Silicon Valley: Abandoned
#2Ostensibly, this is good as it means cheap office space.
There's a catch though... have any of you folks actually seen these buildings? They're not exactly in nice neighborhoods (I actually used to work next to one of these). Most of them are over the 101 which means it'll be a 15-20 minute drive to downtown for food. While it's true that Google is also past the 101, they can also afford to hire their own chefs. An apartment off of San Antonio/University/MenloAve/Castro/etc. seems preferable.
The other bit of trouble is that they're all large office buildings. Are they set up so that they can be rented out by a small shop? I'm pointing at the Yahoo campus buildings in particular.
Re: Silicon Valley: Abandoned
#3Ostensibly, this is good as it means cheap office space. There's a catch though... have any of you folks actually seen these buildings? They're not exactly in nice neighborhoods (I actually used to work next to one of these). Most of them are over the 101 which means it'll be a 15-20 minute drive to downtown for food. While it's true that Google is also past the 101, they can also afford to hire their own chefs. An a…
"Ostensibly, this is good as it means cheap office space."
Cheap office space in a dying empire that smart people are increasingly leaving because its citizens are too shortsighted to realize their economy will collapse if they don't pay for what they've purchased, too racist to let in the next generation of innovators, too stupid to educate their own kids, and too apathetic to fix the problem.
Cap-and-trade is probably the last chance to fix the economy of the valley, and frankly it's not looking good right now.
Re: Silicon Valley: Abandoned
#4Ostensibly, this is good as it means cheap office space. There's a catch though... have any of you folks actually seen these buildings? They're not exactly in nice neighborhoods (I actually used to work next to one of these). Most of them are over the 101 which means it'll be a 15-20 minute drive to downtown for food. While it's true that Google is also past the 101, they can also afford to hire their own chefs. An a…
"Ostensibly, this is good as it means cheap office space." Cheap office space in a dying empire that smart people are increasingly leaving because its citizens are too shortsighted to realize their economy will collapse if they don't pay for what they've purchased, too racist to let in the next generation of innovators, too stupid to educate their own kids, and too apathetic to fix the problem. Cap-and-trade is proba…
The Valley will not soon be displaced and will do just fine in spite of the larger economic problems - nowhere else in the world will one find such an aggregation of talented entrepreneurs, monied investors, academic expertise, and, above all, critical relationships with those who know startups well and are integrally involved in launching and promoting them.
With every cycle (I have seen them all), the Valley takes new shape in its economic drivers, and it will likely do so again this time around. But the tech revolution has fundamentally changed world commerce and is not about to slow down. The Valley remains its epicenter, in spite of any bleak short-term issues.
Early-stage startups (my area of specialty) have not slowed but rather increased in the past year, and their quality is up (very often driven by immigrants or first-generation children of immigrants - this is a big change from 25 years ago). The venture-backed part of the startup world has been on hold and will largely remain so for the time being. In time, it too will emerge again, but this will depend on an eventual opening up of the IPO market.
The Valley will survive and emerge stronger than ever, in my view. Opportunities for those seeking to launch new startups are as good as they ever have been (and office space is cheap and plentiful, and certainly not just in large office buildings but everywhere).
Re: Silicon Valley: Abandoned
#5Ostensibly, this is good as it means cheap office space. There's a catch though... have any of you folks actually seen these buildings? They're not exactly in nice neighborhoods (I actually used to work next to one of these). Most of them are over the 101 which means it'll be a 15-20 minute drive to downtown for food. While it's true that Google is also past the 101, they can also afford to hire their own chefs. An a…
"Ostensibly, this is good as it means cheap office space." Cheap office space in a dying empire that smart people are increasingly leaving because its citizens are too shortsighted to realize their economy will collapse if they don't pay for what they've purchased, too racist to let in the next generation of innovators, too stupid to educate their own kids, and too apathetic to fix the problem. Cap-and-trade is proba…
> Cap-and-trade is basically the last chance to fix the economy of the valley, and frankly it's not looking for good right now.
Cap-and-trade is intended to increase govt control and pass out goodies to well-connected folks. It's unclear how either of those will "fix the valley". (Yes, there are well-connected folks in the valley who will benefit, but ....)
Re: Silicon Valley: Abandoned
#6Ostensibly, this is good as it means cheap office space. There's a catch though... have any of you folks actually seen these buildings? They're not exactly in nice neighborhoods (I actually used to work next to one of these). Most of them are over the 101 which means it'll be a 15-20 minute drive to downtown for food. While it's true that Google is also past the 101, they can also afford to hire their own chefs. An a…
It takes a while for office prices to go down (at least it did in 2000-2001 after the first web crash). It's a great time to renegotiate an existing lease (lower price for a longer contract so you won't bolt after your initial lease expires) but most of those landlords of the big buildings would rather write it off than lower their price dramatically (or break it up in smaller chunks).
Another way to go if you have established connections with some larger companies that have downsized is to sublease some cubicle space from them. You lose some of your own identity by being in the middle of a bigger company, but sometimes it can be super cheap and you get some of the amenities of a bigger company like not dealing with phones, internet, security systems, etc. The company wins by offsetting some of their costs (or getting a tiny bit of equity) and just filling up some cubicles has a positive impact on a company's morale.
Re: Silicon Valley: Abandoned
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Ostensibly, this is good as it means cheap office space." Cheap office space in a dying empire that smart people are increasingly leaving because its citizens are too shortsighted to realize their economy will collapse if they don't pay for what they've purchased, too racist to let in the next generation of innovators, too stupid to educate their own kids, and too apathetic to fix the problem. Cap-and-trade is proba…
The Valley will not soon be displaced and will do just fine in spite of the larger economic problems - nowhere else in the world will one find such an aggregation of talented entrepreneurs, monied investors, academic expertise, and, above all, critical relationships with those who know startups well and are integrally involved in launching and promoting them. With every cycle (I have seen them all), the Valley takes…
"The Valley will not soon be displaced and will do just fine in spite of the larger economic problems"
Which seems more likely in twenty years:
A) The CA/US debt, education, and political problems will be fixed
B) In the near future Boris Johnson or some other politician who 'gets it' is able to convince their government to pass a series of bills that create the same economic/social conditions that created SV, and over the next twenty years this new area catches up to and surpasses SV despite SV's current massive advantage.
As for education, IIRC it was one of the top three issues for every presidential election between 1964 and 2000 and virtually nothing changed. For the past two election cycles it hasn't even been one of the top five issues, and there's no evidence that it's coming back in 2012. The fact is that the vast majority of CA/USians can't read English proficiently, that is well enough to compare and contrast the viewpoints in two different newspaper articles. This means the vast majority of our population is completely useless in the modern economy. Not only are we making zero progress toward fixing this, but there is zero will to fix it. And even in the past when there was tons of will to fix it, it still proved unfixable.
As for the CA/US debt, the vast majority of citizens STRONGLY support increasing the debt. A black-gay-atheist would have a better chance at winning the south in the 50s than a presidential candidate who supports the kind of tax increases needed to fix the debt.
As for our other political problems, our policies are completely based around made-for-TV soundbites and not academic research. That's why our infrastructure is crumbling, we support torture, we're destroying the value of the dollar, etc. And I see zero sign of this changing.
As much as I love SV-- and I still intend on moving there-- let's face the facts, the chances of someplace else catching up to SV are vastly better than the chances of fixing the problems facing the US.
Re: Silicon Valley: Abandoned
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Ostensibly, this is good as it means cheap office space." Cheap office space in a dying empire that smart people are increasingly leaving because its citizens are too shortsighted to realize their economy will collapse if they don't pay for what they've purchased, too racist to let in the next generation of innovators, too stupid to educate their own kids, and too apathetic to fix the problem. Cap-and-trade is proba…
> Cap-and-trade is basically the last chance to fix the economy of the valley, and frankly it's not looking for good right now. Cap-and-trade is intended to increase govt control and pass out goodies to well-connected folks. It's unclear how either of those will "fix the valley". (Yes, there are well-connected folks in the valley who will benefit, but ....)
It's unfortunate that it has proved impossible to get a bill through the house/senate without adding various handouts for specific industries or even companies.
That being said, creating a system that assigns a monetary value to each ton of carbon will still create the biggest economic boom in US history. What's more, like the dotcom boom it will be one that anyone can participate in, not just those who are well connected to the government or whatever.
Re: Silicon Valley: Abandoned
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Cap-and-trade is basically the last chance to fix the economy of the valley, and frankly it's not looking for good right now. Cap-and-trade is intended to increase govt control and pass out goodies to well-connected folks. It's unclear how either of those will "fix the valley". (Yes, there are well-connected folks in the valley who will benefit, but ....)
It's unfortunate that it has proved impossible to get a bill through the house/senate without adding various handouts for specific industries or even companies. That being said, creating a system that assigns a monetary value to each ton of carbon will still create the biggest economic boom in US history. What's more, like the dotcom boom it will be one that anyone can participate in, not just those who are well conn…
Where does the money driving the boom come from? I am unclear how increasing the cost of production of good and energy will generate an economic boom.
Re: Silicon Valley: Abandoned
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Cap-and-trade is basically the last chance to fix the economy of the valley, and frankly it's not looking for good right now. Cap-and-trade is intended to increase govt control and pass out goodies to well-connected folks. It's unclear how either of those will "fix the valley". (Yes, there are well-connected folks in the valley who will benefit, but ....)
It's unfortunate that it has proved impossible to get a bill through the house/senate without adding various handouts for specific industries or even companies. That being said, creating a system that assigns a monetary value to each ton of carbon will still create the biggest economic boom in US history. What's more, like the dotcom boom it will be one that anyone can participate in, not just those who are well conn…
Well, you could explain _how_ this will happen. Many of us, including me, simply don't get the argument. What differs this from assigning a monetary value to, let's say, _any_ new government license? (e.g. for opening a restaurant, or virtually anything)
Seems like a rehash of the broken window fallacy.