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Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

nytimes.com

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Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#151

Post by chapmindustries »

dmode wrote: post #144

It seems to me that there is an article like this for every city in America and abroad these days. Is Pittsburg really that hot ? The numbers I could find for 2015 was that Pittsburg attracted $437mn in VC dollars, while the Bay Area attracted somewhere around $27bn. http://www.post-gazette.com/business/tech-news/2015/03/19/Ve... That is a 50x difference.

I think you're missing the point that a lot of big tech companies are moving there. Google has 500 employees there and Uber has hundreds as well. I think that using the amount of VC funding a city receives as a measure of how hot its tech is doing is a bit misleading.

Also to compare anywhere against the Bay Area doesn't make sense. The Bay Area is obviously going to beat out everywhere else. It's like someone saying that they built a pretty big wall and then coming in and saying "Yeah but look how big the Great Wall of China is."

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#152

Post by gorkonsine »

rrdharan wrote: post #40
mcgrath_sh wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the increase in speed limit on the turnpike, DC has become just under 4 hours for me. From my house in the city to the Silver Spring metro stop is 3h 55m on the GPS. Toronto is a 6 hour drive, Charlotte or Chicago are also only a 7 hour drive. I know many people prefer to fly, but between getting to the airport, getting there in enough time (1.5 hours or so), probable delays, actually flying, getting out of the…

Agree if you are just concerned about travel time but there's also the opportunity to get work done, sleep, or watch a movie on a plane. I generally avoid driving these days just because I find myself increasingly dreading the level of concentration and focus required to drive safely for more than two or three hours at a stretch.

Unless you have a private jet, or perhaps you only fly first-class, I'm not sure how you actually sleep or get any work done on one. As someone who's over 6 feet, I'm so cramped in a modern plane that that alone makes it pretty hard to get a computer out and do anything useful with it; add to that people reclining their seats (now I can't use my laptop at all), kids kicking the back of my seat, people crawling over me to go to the bathroom if I'm not in the window seat, and worse, on a short flight, the fact that you're not even allowed to have your laptop out for a large portion of the flight--by the time you're finally allowed to get it out because the plane has reached altitude and you get started with something, now the plane is coming in for a landing and you have to put it away again.

Substitute "on a plane" for "on a train" and you'd be correct. Trains are great for bringing a laptop and getting work done while you travel: the seats have reasonably generous space, there's power outlets (many planes still don't have these in economy), and you're allowed to get your laptop out as soon as you sit down, well before the train even leaves the station, and you don't have to put it away until you're ready to get up and walk off the train.

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#154

Post by pjlegato »

Hydraulix989 wrote: post #29
theYipster wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've long found a third drawback, which may be linked to the access to capital issue, is Pittsburgh's geographical isolation compared to the Bay Area and other tech hot spots. There's no major international air hub (anymore) and flights even to nearby cities such as NY, DC, and Philly are relatively pricey with limited schedules. There's no meaningful international service either anymore. This is in comparison to SFO…

I totally agree. I wrote to the mayor about this, and we could definitely use more help raising awareness to the city about this very pressing issue (@billpeduto on Twitter if you're also affected)... I've never had an SFO PIT flight without layovers. Also, we ask everyone here to please continue to refrain from using the pejorative "rust-belt" to describe our beloved hometown and emerging tech center. It is a very u…

I'm from Pittsburgh, too.

Not only do I find the term "rust belt" perfectly acceptable, I find your scolding strangers on the internet about its use to be pompously absurd.

You are not "our" spokesman invested with some kind of moral authority to publicly sermonize about "our" identity. Please refrain from doing so on "our" behalf, and speak only for yourself.

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#155

Post by pjlegato »

Avshalom wrote: post #84
closeparen wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is great for the people living off that income, and not great for investors unless it's also valuable. VCs would need to take fewer, smaller risks if they're expecting smaller rewards per success story.

I feel like it's a pretty recent development that investors don't expect their investments to turn a profit.

VCs by definition are looking for the Next Big Thing, not to finance someone's lifestyle business. The returns are too low to justify the huge risk. There are many other lower risk ways to get lifestyle-business sized returns for an investor.

VC limited partners invest because it has low correlation to other investments and the potential for 100% returns. If they're just getting a potential 7% (or whatever), they can buy stocks or real estate etc. at much lower risk.

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#156

Post by [deleted] »

pjlegato wrote: post #154
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree. I wrote to the mayor about this, and we could definitely use more help raising awareness to the city about this very pressing issue (@billpeduto on Twitter if you're also affected)... I've never had an SFO PIT flight without layovers. Also, we ask everyone here to please continue to refrain from using the pejorative "rust-belt" to describe our beloved hometown and emerging tech center. It is a very u…

I'm from Pittsburgh, too. Not only do I find the term "rust belt" perfectly acceptable, I find your scolding strangers on the internet about its use to be pompously absurd. You are not "our" spokesman invested with some kind of moral authority to publicly sermonize about "our" identity. Please refrain from doing so on "our" behalf, and speak only for yourself.

[deleted]

Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#157

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Re: Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover

#158

Post by rrdharan »

gorkonsine wrote: post #152
rrdharan wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree if you are just concerned about travel time but there's also the opportunity to get work done, sleep, or watch a movie on a plane. I generally avoid driving these days just because I find myself increasingly dreading the level of concentration and focus required to drive safely for more than two or three hours at a stretch.

Unless you have a private jet, or perhaps you only fly first-class, I'm not sure how you actually sleep or get any work done on one. As someone who's over 6 feet, I'm so cramped in a modern plane that that alone makes it pretty hard to get a computer out and do anything useful with it; add to that people reclining their seats (now I can't use my laptop at all), kids kicking the back of my seat, people crawling over m…

I'm only 5'6" so I can sleep like a baby and work comfortably as well.
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