I'm inclined to say that it's on-topic. I've never been to SF or Silicon Valley, certainly never worked there, but it's the region that Hacker News and the star

I'm inclined to say that it's on-topic. I've never been to SF or Silicon Valley, certainly never worked there, but it's the region that Hacker News and the startup world in general (the computing world in general?) is centered on; call it future-historical-interest as much as anything else.