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Why Silicon Valley Works

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#181

Post by throwmeaway21 »

garry wrote: post #177
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…

While that may be true to a certain extent I'd be willing to bet a sizable amount of money that the majority of founders that YC funds are in fact white, male, hailing from a wealthy family, graduated from a prestigious college, and are under 30 years old.

And while you or other YC partners may defend that fact with the fallacy that it's just a numbers game, as in those are the majority of applicants, I can't help but remind you that age discrimination and class warfare is rampant in the valley.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#182

Post by throwmeaway21 »

dsugarman wrote: post #62

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 n…

> so many super smart and talented developers in DC

As one of those developers working in DC I can tell without a doubt that the majority of us do it because we get paid a large amount of money.

I make more here than I ever could in Silicon Valley. Plus the cost of living is around half. Last I checked a one bedroom in SF was around $4k per month. I pay just over $2.5k here in DC (with a parking spot!).

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#183

Post by FranOntanaya »

porter wrote: post #86
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…

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

Everybody expects a greater fool will move in after them, it's the standard response.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#184

Post by quanticle »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #120
nilkn wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All this is part of the reason why I've strongly been thinking of going back to school to become a doctor. What follows is mostly a rant, just to be upfront about it. It's a really radical transition, but I really, really dislike the city-centric focus of software engineering. I hate the idea of being a contractor (I just want stable, life-long work), and I can't tell you how tired I am of crippling traffic causing m…

Uh - remote? I've spent most of my professional life working from home. With some extra effort, you can earn an SV salary but live in an area that has a very un-SV cost of living. Traffic isn't an issue either. You can network remotely. You can build companies remotely. You can even find investors remotely. A few people are doing this already. More and more will in future. (Are we really supposed to believe it's alwa…

Honest question: how does one get started working remotely? I understand that it's easy to keep finding remote work once you've already done a few remote gigs. But how do you break in?

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#185

Post by alva »

rgbrgb wrote: post #51
x0x0 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't understand what it costs to live here. Keeping up with the Joneses means envy for new and shiny, not wanting a modest house, cars, kids, and retirement savings. And here, that means an income of $250k is tough to do -- one bedrooms in sf are $3500; condos in the peninsula sell for $700k+ and houses cost $1100/ft^2. $240k married filing jointly w/ 2 kids means $5900 hits your bank account twice a month. Esse…

To reinforce this point, here's a 2BD in the up-and-coming (e.g. highest crime-rate) Mission neighborhood priced at $1030/sf: https://www.openlistings.co/p/2558MISSIONST94110-2 Anecdotally, I know a gainfully employed senior engineer who was literally couch surfing with his wife and daughter for a month after losing their house. The excessive price of living caused by the housing shortage in the bay cannot be underst…

ridiculously cheap compared to London!

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#186

Post by potatoyogurt »

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).

Totally. I'm so sick of hearing people talk about the twenty countries they went to last spring. If you like traveling, that's totally fine, but with a lot of people, it just feels like they're checking boxes to try to seem more interesting.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#187

Post by j_lev »

ThomPete wrote: post #56
coldcode wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SV is like the 1849 California gold rush. A few people got rich and everyone else just got dirty.

Which why the clever entrepreneur sell tools for the gold-diggers.

One of the Lectures encouraged new startups to come up with something that other startups would find useful. Indeed, it seems like a good 60-70% of startups fall into this "startup tools" category.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#188

Post by mtrimpe »

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

You can't also live in the S&P 500 though.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#189

Post by [deleted] »

rgbrgb wrote: post #143
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…

I'm sorry you're having a bad time, but you sound like you're caught up in a few delusions. When someone gets coffee with a stranger they are "going out of their way to help". What more are you asking for in these conversations? Agreed, nobody's going to fund some random biz guy with no track record and "an idea" (my guess from your post, sorry if I'm wrong). Reading that as racism/elitism is counterproductive and mo…

[deleted]

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#190

Post by [deleted] »

quanticle wrote: post #184
TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh - remote? I've spent most of my professional life working from home. With some extra effort, you can earn an SV salary but live in an area that has a very un-SV cost of living. Traffic isn't an issue either. You can network remotely. You can build companies remotely. You can even find investors remotely. A few people are doing this already. More and more will in future. (Are we really supposed to believe it's alwa…

Honest question: how does one get started working remotely? I understand that it's easy to keep finding remote work once you've already done a few remote gigs. But how do you break in?

[deleted]
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