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Cornell Graduate School Helped Make New York Appealing to Amazon

nytimes.com

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Re: Cornell Graduate School Helped Make New York Appealing to Amazon

#21
post #18

New York made New York appealing to Amazon. Snark aside, it’s unlikely one can link Amazon’s decision to a single factor. New York being what it has has a large number of assets in its favor: a huge, mobile workforce, strong business community, strong sales community, deep tech pool, a strong transit system, legitimately a world-class city...

New York is definitely a world-class city, but Amazon had the opportunity to attract talent to make a city that is not currently a world-class city into one but instead selected an already established one

[deleted]

Re: Cornell Graduate School Helped Make New York Appealing to Amazon

#22

There is basically nothing mentioned about Amazon in this article. And it ignores one of the few unique elements that may have attracted Amazon, the Jacobs institute's new intellectual property policy.

That's because the article is primarily about Cornell Tech HELPING make New York appealing, not Cornell Tech as the causal reason. The piece is much more about Cornell Tech than about Amazon's decision.

>The piece is much more about Cornell Tech than about Amazon's decision.

Sure, but why does the article title mention Amazon and not Cornell Tech? It's dumb.

Re: Cornell Graduate School Helped Make New York Appealing to Amazon

#23

New York made New York appealing to Amazon. Snark aside, it’s unlikely one can link Amazon’s decision to a single factor. New York being what it has has a large number of assets in its favor: a huge, mobile workforce, strong business community, strong sales community, deep tech pool, a strong transit system, legitimately a world-class city...

strong transit system? no

Re: Cornell Graduate School Helped Make New York Appealing to Amazon

#24

New York made New York appealing to Amazon. Snark aside, it’s unlikely one can link Amazon’s decision to a single factor. New York being what it has has a large number of assets in its favor: a huge, mobile workforce, strong business community, strong sales community, deep tech pool, a strong transit system, legitimately a world-class city...

The $4.6b in subsidies also helped make NY more appealing to Amazon.

>“The taxpayer costs of these two deals is high, both in absolute terms and on a per-job basis, contrary to Amazon’s artful spin. Together, we believe they exceed $4.6 billion and the cost per job in New York is at least $112,000, not the $48,000 the company used in a selective and incomplete press release calculation. [1]

[1] https://www.goodjobsfirst.org/news/releases/amazon-hq2-hq3-s...

Re: Cornell Graduate School Helped Make New York Appealing to Amazon

#25
post #18

New York made New York appealing to Amazon. Snark aside, it’s unlikely one can link Amazon’s decision to a single factor. New York being what it has has a large number of assets in its favor: a huge, mobile workforce, strong business community, strong sales community, deep tech pool, a strong transit system, legitimately a world-class city...

New York is definitely a world-class city, but Amazon had the opportunity to attract talent to make a city that is not currently a world-class city into one but instead selected an already established one

Amazon's already had to go through the growing pains of doing that once (in Seattle) and probably learned that they didn't want to do it again.

Re: Cornell Graduate School Helped Make New York Appealing to Amazon

#26

I'm going to be a Visiting Professor there in 2019, and I'll be teaching a deep learning course. One interesting thing about Cornell Tech is that the faculty all work in an open office space, and I think that's to embrace start up culture. Faculty have "huddle" rooms for meetings. At my home institution, I spend 20 hours per week in meetings. Faculty do have dedicated huddle rooms, though.

Why embrace the bad parts of startup culture (open plans)? Seems cargo cultish: open plans exist as a cost control measure, and make it easier to grow/shrink. Academia has endowments and tends to have a more stable labor force.

> Why embrace the bad parts of startup culture (open plans)

That's really just your opinion, not a fact. I for one love open plans, I find they make working a more social activity, which suits me.

Re: Cornell Graduate School Helped Make New York Appealing to Amazon

#27
post #18

New York made New York appealing to Amazon. Snark aside, it’s unlikely one can link Amazon’s decision to a single factor. New York being what it has has a large number of assets in its favor: a huge, mobile workforce, strong business community, strong sales community, deep tech pool, a strong transit system, legitimately a world-class city...

New York is definitely a world-class city, but Amazon had the opportunity to attract talent to make a city that is not currently a world-class city into one but instead selected an already established one

> Amazon had the opportunity to attract talent to make a city that is not currently a world-class city into one

Not really. Big cities operate at scales and complexities far above what Amazon can bring. Density begets density. Meanwhile, that cities have largely been built—and remained—in similar places (protected harbours with navigable rivers and ideally shallow bedrock) implies there are deeper reasons for why density exists where it does.

Re: Cornell Graduate School Helped Make New York Appealing to Amazon

#28

I'm going to be a Visiting Professor there in 2019, and I'll be teaching a deep learning course. One interesting thing about Cornell Tech is that the faculty all work in an open office space, and I think that's to embrace start up culture. Faculty have "huddle" rooms for meetings. At my home institution, I spend 20 hours per week in meetings. Faculty do have dedicated huddle rooms, though.

honest question: Do you think open offices are or should be an "embraceable" aspect of start-up culture? Are the common activities of faculty compatible with rows of desks, no privacy and constant interruptions? I'm thinking about administrivia and deep, contemplative thought. The only (perhaps) valid use-case I've seen for open office is highly collaborative tactical execution. The minute you need individual thought…

I'm a professor at CMU. I have a lovely office.

I don't use it except for holding office hours and 1:1 meetings that require confidentiality. I spend most of my time near the entry of an open plan area where I bump into people at a much higher rate. I love it.

I do sometimes hide in my office or home for some things, but much less than you'd probably guess. I also spend a lot of time walking around - I find that things like reviewing papers is best done away from all distraction, including electronic , so I'll walk over to a nearby park while reading. I often do the same for editing my student's papers.

Re: Cornell Graduate School Helped Make New York Appealing to Amazon

#29

New York made New York appealing to Amazon. Snark aside, it’s unlikely one can link Amazon’s decision to a single factor. New York being what it has has a large number of assets in its favor: a huge, mobile workforce, strong business community, strong sales community, deep tech pool, a strong transit system, legitimately a world-class city...

strong transit system? no

Come to SF then you will think nyc transit is quite strong in fact
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