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Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

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Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are 28,995,881 people living in Texas vs 39,512,223 in California. There are 151,278 homeless in California vs 25,848 in Texas. Is homelessness a problem in Texas? Yes, but it isn't remotely as bad as California. And of course, then there are states with nearly non existent homelessness.

You still didn't answer why that's the case. If Texas has the answer I'm sure California would love to hear it.

The weather is a big part of it. If you were to live outside, coastal California weather over Texas weather is a no brainer

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... I'm happy to see companies relocate elsewhere. The unbridled growth of companies here without improvements to infrastructure like housing and transportation are what caused many of the problems. This seems like an odd mindset. Why are you happy to drain the local economy, instead of working to fix those problems and support a good economy?

This also seems like an odd mindset. Can’t you have a good economy without overpopulating an area? A saying I grew up with - The frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives.

> overpopulating an area

No place in America is even close to this

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those who've downvoted this comment, can you please explain? Outdoor risk is extremely low, especially when you're walking and wearing a mask.

Read the exceptions in the actual order. https://www.lamayor.org/sites/g/files/wph446/f/page/file/202... It isn't as odious as it's made to seem. You can still grab takeout from a restaurant, buy weed, go to the grocery store, do your laundry, go to an outdoor fitness class, go to youth sports, surf at the beach, do some outdoor lap swimming, get your nails done, go to the zoo, etc. The request to fill out an online…

That >100% of beds can be occupied with COVID should raise some questions about those stats.

ICU beds are flexible, it's more of a designation than a hard constant. Sweden doubled their ICU capacity in a few weeks without much difficulty back in March. So it's normal for ICU to run near "capacity" because it'd be kind of wasteful if it didn't.

Remember also that "COVID patient" means "patient who tested positive for COVID", it doesn't mean that's the primary thing wrong with them. Hospitals are super-spreading sites, lots of patients turn up for something uninfected and pick up COVID in hospital. So the stats have to be interpreted carefully, even if you accept the premise that poor planning in the hospital system is justification to tell people they can't go outside. Also consider that COVID spreads inside, not out!

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#244
post #52

People really want to see California and silicon valley fail. Crab mentality I think, people love these articles

Why do you think this is? I find it really bizarre. My own family in the Midwest kind of passive aggressively implies that they hope I “feel the effect” of these “oppressive laws” and I’m out here shooting guns, enjoying the desert on HOVs, and visiting Yosemite to bask in the beauty. Oppression seems like the last thing I’ve found here, honestly. Like what grinds people’s gears so hard about CA? Really would love a…

I think most of the California gear grinding is probably more politics than anything. Most people I know who don't love SF have no objection to living in a city like San Diego. I think in regards to these specific stories the issue is probably more localized to SV.

Speaking personally, SV is the heavy weight champion of tech areas and people love to cut down proud poppies. This phenomenon exists everywhere. Stories that state Lebron James is overrated or that Tesla has poor build quality always seem to garner attention.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#245
post #16

HP and Oracle don’t exactly represent the heart of Silicon Valley today and what makes it special/unique. I actually think zombie corporations like Oracle, companies that haven’t innovated in decades and instead rely on an army of sales people to sell legacy software, are somewhat the antithesis of Silicon Valley which is really about real technological innovation and disruption at it’s core. I know there are lots of…

Yeah literally nothing about Oracle is useful or innovative. It’s like the WalMart of tech companies; just kind of exists and has rested on its laurels for a decade+.

They did develop GraalVM, which is quite a technical achievement, or so I've heard (not a user).

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#246
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since cities thrive based on network effects, my question is: did everyone in past exoduses move to the same location? If not, is that not a good reason to believe this time will be different? Smart, ambitious people tend to congregate, and capital follows. If during past exoduses, people moved to random places, I can see why SV remained the primary magnet. But, this time everyone seems to be moving to Seattle and Au…

CA still has the advantage of no noncompetes. It's fairly standard for Texas companies to require an enforceable noncompete. These companies are sort of like mules -- born from perhaps many fertile companies, but produce no offspring.

I've heard this and the general borderline unenforceability of "we own all your work, even during off hours" clauses in employment contracts as a major reason that the center of innovation shifted from Boston and the East Coast to Silicon Valley and California.

Boston should have been Silicon Valley. It had all the education and a much deeper history of innovation. It also could have been down in New Jersey where Bell Labs was.

It would be interesting to see a breakdown of where other states stand on this issue. I know Massachusetts implemented some similar reforms a decade or so ago, but that's a little late to the party.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#247
post #16

HP and Oracle don’t exactly represent the heart of Silicon Valley today and what makes it special/unique. I actually think zombie corporations like Oracle, companies that haven’t innovated in decades and instead rely on an army of sales people to sell legacy software, are somewhat the antithesis of Silicon Valley which is really about real technological innovation and disruption at it’s core. I know there are lots of…

Yeah literally nothing about Oracle is useful or innovative. It’s like the WalMart of tech companies; just kind of exists and has rested on its laurels for a decade+.

Don't give Oracle too much credit, Walmart is far more innovative then Oracle.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#248
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Fleeing California" articles are evergreen on HN. I can never tell if there's anything new, or if it's just people voting up the usual nothingburger, presumably to express displeasure with California culture or governmental policies.

They’re evergreen anywhere you find people who low-key wish they could live in CA but can’t. It’s weird; just enjoy your state and do the best to make it better. Truly don’t get why people who don’t live in CA have so many opinions about it. Most states have problems on par with their economic power and population size; not much more too it than that but “hurr liberal policies are gonna ruin the whole country!” get t…

Personally, as someone who doesn't even live in the US, I find these discussions alluring because related topics like homelessness and NIMBY-vs-whatever are so interesting.

Other than that, the "don't bring CA to TX" angle is quite alien to an Australian as laws are fairly similar in each state here.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#249

I am curious if anyone agrees with my take: HP Enterprise and Oracle did not move because Texas is "more tech friendly." Instead they moved because HPE and Oracle are no longer primarily tech companies. While they do substantial technical work, most of that will remain in SV. It's sort of the mirror of Apple, which also has a substantial presence in Austin (finance, etc) but is headquartered in SV because it is prima…

I think this checks out. HPE and Oracle still solve "problems", but they are not problems if technology but problems of sales and organization.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah having a house 3x the size is not great for you or the environment, given that people don’t use most of their houses ;-)

> Yeah having a house 3x the size is not great for you or the environment, given that people don’t use most of their houses ;-) Who are you to cast stones?

Maybe they live in one of the homeless tents?!
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