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A Local Revolution?

paulgraham.com

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Re: A Local Revolution?

#51

Post by pedalpete »

j2d2 wrote: post #38
pedalpete wrote: post #22

At the beginning, there is always a 'center', but that does not negate the influence of the other districts. I suspect that PG has gotten caught up in a bit of the valley hype. There are many more counterexamples. Microsoft (does it not count because it was pre-internet?) was a start-up outside the valley at one point. MySpace didn't start out in the valley. So why skype? because a valley company overpaid significant…

This comment seems to disregard the point of PG's essay. He's describing a network effect. Just as it's hard to create a startup community (not a single startup, as in your examples) you need the types of people who build startups present or on their way. The valley is full of people who are interested in startups and work with them to some capacity. It would be difficult to attract someone interested in startups to…

Does network effect require a hub? Or will their be only one 'connector'?

Re: A Local Revolution?

#52

Post by jodrellblank »

davidw wrote: post #27
mechanical_fish wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government was much smaller at the time of the Industrial Revolution. Is this true? Is it really such an open-and-shut case? In some senses it is obviously true: There were a lot fewer people, a lot fewer filing cabinets and a lot fewer regulations. A lot of the tools needed for our big modern system -- hygiene, communications, literacy -- just weren't there yet. There were essentially no worker protections in the ea…

> Is it really such an open-and-shut case? No, but a reasonable percentage of those convinced that "it's all the government's fault" are going to continue to see it that way no matter what (and get offended when that gets pointed out, apparently). Just like other people think that more government/laws/rules is always the answer. For that matter, I'm pretty convinced of my "radically moderate" views which are somewher…

For that matter, I'm pretty convinced of my "radically moderate" views

Of course you are. If you thought they were wrong, you wouldn't hold them as your views, would you?

Re: A Local Revolution?

#53

Post by jodrellblank »

icey wrote: post #13

Am I the only one who sees the irony that so much localization is required for an industry that specializes in remotely connecting resources?

I do wonder if future improvements in communications technology will render the need to go to Silicon Valley moot.

If FutureHN can provide both a valleyesque enthusiastic social network and a contact with investors, will the benefits of migrating to S.Valley become less important?

Re: A Local Revolution?

#54

Post by anamax »

sharpn wrote: post #41
tjic wrote: post #3

> There are already signs that startups may not spread particularly well. The spread of startups seems to be proceeding slower than the spread of the Industrial Revolution Government was much smaller at the time of the Industrial Revolution. The theory of "regulatory capture" says that government is responsive to those firms that are affected by government regulation and have the money to buy favorable legislation. T…

From Europe, whilst many elements of our culture are less conducive to entrepreneurs than the US, these examples are not among them (except I don't know about the legal docs thing - I agree with earlier replies that critical information providers need to have rigorously maintained qualifications). My mate set up an internet wine company here without any problems, it's easy to pay directors of a company in equity [but…

> it's easy to pay directors of a company in equity [but non-directors get minimum wage protection],

Thus missing the point.

Re: A Local Revolution?

#55

Post by bokonist »

(1) that no government will successfully establish a startup hub

What about the Pearl Delta and Shanghai's Pudong district? Both seem to be smashing successes.

There are two very different types of startup.

I don't buy that there is a hard distinction between different types of startups (or even between startups and small businesses).

Any small business that tries to grow will create a differentiated offering. An ice cream shop might promote a special flavor, a restaurant will develop a certain vibe, a furniture company will create signature ergonomic chairs, a web form company will create an awesome UI, etc. The amount of uniqueness of the offering can be plotted along a continuum. When it passes a certain point, we call it a "tech startup".

The special thing about Silicon Valley is that it attracts a ton of many smart, talented, ambitious people. Therefore the offerings of their businesses tend to be very novel and differentiated. The supply of brilliant innovators is limited so it is not necessarily possible to replicate this everywhere (but I am guessing the world is very significantly under performing its potential).

Edit:

Perhaps another way of saying this is:

1) A startup is a small business that attempts to scale by developing a new technique (that technique can be a product or a way of doing operations).

2) Different sectors of the economy have different opportunities for developing new techniques. It's harder to develop new techniques in agriculture than in software.

3) In the absence of high transportation costs, industries tend to cluster ( autos in Detroit, entertainment in Hollywood, finance in New York, energy in Houston, education in Boston, software in Silicon Valley).

4) Silicon Valley has a cluster of industries that natural have a high level of new technique development (software and electronics). Therefore Silicon Valley has many startups.

That said, now I'm not sure I buy my own argument. Silicon Valley seems to have the most innovative companies in every industry. In addition to software startups, there are energy startups, automobile startups, etc. So Silicon Valley really is a cluster of companies that specialize in innovation. Perhaps the thing that limits the spread of Silicon Valley magic is that there are only so many innovative people, and only Silicon Valley has been able to attract a critical mass.

Re: A Local Revolution?

#56

Post by ojbyrne »

ChristianPerry wrote: post #4

I felt the effect of being in Silicon Valley the moment I moved out here. The area is not only teeming with endless talent, energy, and enthusiasm, but (and this is important) we have an entire culture that makes this talent, energy, and enthusiasm possible in the first place. When I moved to San Francisco from Chicago, I felt the change immediately. People simply get me out here. They understand why I'm doing what I…

The flip side of that is there's a complete lack of any criticism, and to me it feels like that will be its downfall (Detroit met its downfall, and so will Silicon Valley). A recent case in point is the whole DiggBar controversy. I'd suggest that the criticism has come entirely from outsiders or people "not of the valley," Meanwhile there's been a whole tide of "digg is taking over the world," "digg is growing up" from the usual denizens of the echo chamber. And then there's Robert Scoble - a one-man black hole of uncritical praise for all things SV. Add to that the complete disappearance of IPOs or anything resembling an exit (in fact the big trend now seems to be the opposite of exits -- Stumbleupon, Skype) and this piece feels a bit pollyanna-ish.

Re: A Local Revolution?

#57

Post by icey »

jodrellblank wrote: post #53
icey wrote: post #13

Am I the only one who sees the irony that so much localization is required for an industry that specializes in remotely connecting resources?

I do wonder if future improvements in communications technology will render the need to go to Silicon Valley moot. If FutureHN can provide both a valleyesque enthusiastic social network and a contact with investors, will the benefits of migrating to S.Valley become less important?

It'll certainly be interesting to watch. I'd like to move to SV, but it's not really practical for me for a variety of reasons. So I'll keep plugging away out here; I don't really need investors (yet), but the idea of having so much technical talent in one place is really what makes Silicon Valley so unique in the world.

Re: A Local Revolution?

#58

Post by dbul »

old-gregg wrote: post #35

When you interpret Paul's "startup" as a "newborn Internet media company" the essay makes a lot of sense, especially the comparison to movie business. But if you interpret "startup" as "newborn consumer electronics company" or a "newborn software company" or anything else more generic not squeezed into a web page it falls short: first, the percentage of GDP generated by internet media is miniscule, the whole thing is…

Robotics other than military, industrial, and medical is really nonexistent at this point. Japan's robotics are cosmetic and hardly taking over anything. With something like robotics it is difficult to weigh who will end up funding you. The answer today is probably the government, not VCs, so location is irrelevant.

Re: A Local Revolution?

#59

Post by zandorg »

abhinav wrote: post #48

I wonder if a smaller local revolution has happened before: formation and spread of great research universities. Govts have tried to set up great research universities by will, China is trying hard, India is making small steps, so are places like Germany. But they have not succeeded yet. Even in a small country like UK, only 3 great universities have emerged. Within US, Stanford is today a great research university b…

"only 3 great universities have emerged."

Do you mean Oxford, Cambridge, UCL?

Oxford & Cambridge are not 1 university, there are a lot of different colleges.

Re: A Local Revolution?

#60

Post by dbul »

pedalpete wrote: post #23
dbul wrote: post #2

I appreciate the caution expressed in the essay; that it is unclear both that an event is on its way and that location is necessarily decided. No doubt SV is the capital of startups, but I still think in the world of startups it is slightly different than Hollywood or Wall Street because you can do it with little money or connections. The distribution of startups across the world remains to be seen, but I agree often…

You must have posted this while I was putting out my rant below. I agree, though I'm confused by your last 'desktop software' comment.

Which part?

Just as an example, let's say a school teacher uses her computer for email, web browsing, managing files, photo editing, and maintaining her second grade web site. Gmail, (some browser), dropbox, snipshot, and splashup/weebly would be all she needs.

If all these websites were somehow organized in a way that said teacher can easily find them, then I think a 'startup revolution' would be more likely: people could go to a central website to browse for startup that meets their needs.

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