Why am I envious of Hadoop and Big Data geeks in the Valley?

I work in this field and I have to agree with you. I think most serious engineers and statisticians would too. It's just that decision makers are nervous that they are not doing "big data" or need a "data scientist" (which from their descriptions to me sounds like a fairy god mother who magically makes fundamental weakness in your business model disappear) and therefore try to get into it. Of course there are a huge bunch of players who have sort of adopted the red hat model and try to sell a Hadoop solution by rebadging it as "enterprise-ready" or "business analyst friendly". I guess one just rides the wave and prepares for winter...