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How Being Outside the Valley Shrinks Your Brain

16 points by MediaSquirrel 17y ago

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
- natrius 17y ago
  Read the article. It isn't inflammatory, and the title used here isn't the original title, though the phrasing is indeed used in the article.
  - andrewcooke 17y ago
    eh, it was just a joke. if you read the article you'll see that the author says, as a refrain throughout the paper, "fuck me". but obviously it's not the kind of thing that works in text. i'll delete it.
gyardley 17y ago
I can't quite get a read on this guy. He seems smart, but he also seems very bitter about his experience in New York, and seems to think everyone's experience is the same. New York's options for early-stage funding have been growing rapidly - there's a lot more options out there than Chris Dixon and Fred Wilson. And meeting whoever you want to meet is pretty easy. Not sure why this guy had such a different experience, but something feels off here.
RodgerTheGreat 17y ago
"There's two kinds of investors in this world. The ones who think big, and the ones who don't; the ones with a Valley mindset, and everyone else." Perhaps there are startup founders with a realistic perspective on their contributions to the internet, and there are startup founders who believe their own marketing lines?
- angelbob 17y ago
  The problem with a realistic perspective is that it keeps you from shooting for anything really big. Aim for the stars, hit the trees. Aim for the trees, hit the mud. And being around people who aim for the stars just feels better, you know?
aliston 17y ago
Interesting contrast with this thread... http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1210972 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1210972 Perhaps the issue with VCs pushing for the "1 in 20" exit is more of a silicon valley thing?
rauljara 17y ago
Shrinking your ambitions isn't the same thing as shrinking your brain. Living inside the valley means your surrounded by people whose insane ambitions are much more likely to have paid off. You only see the successful ones, because the failures either never make it in, or have left. In general, living anywhere else means you are surrounded by people whose insane ambitions didn't pay off, and who have achieved whatever success they have by being more modest.
whyleyc 17y ago
This all pre-supposes that you're shooting for VC funding. You could argue that it's small-minded to think that's the only way to make a go of your big dream.
jlees 17y ago
Inflammatory title, but it rang true with me. One of the dangers that first time founders living outside of the Valley (like me) face is that our minds get poisoned and our ambitions shrunk by the parochial leaders I think there's a healthy balance. In Scotland, things needed to be scaled back, explained/analogies made to things people already did or understood, conservative was the watchword. Here (the Valley) it's all 'wow, you can change the world, ask for $1M not £50k'. Neither is healthy. Strike a midpoint: get an informed perspective with a realistic idea of an achievable v1 launch, don't raise millions and inflate beyond belief, and listen to the negatives. Get perspectives from an international viewpoint as well as the echo chamber -- but don't let others squash your dreams.
oldgregg 17y ago
There are two kinds of blog posts in this world: posts that are helpful and posts that take one person's narrow range of experience and try to build some grand theory of the universe. The latter shrinks your brain.
theBobMcCormick 17y ago
Maybe it's because I'm outside the valley (grin), but I'm completely failing to see how a mechanical turk driven transcription service is gonna "revolutionize how people interact with audio and video on the web". It sounds like a nice service. I'm betting you could build a pretty kick ass lifestyle business off it (I wish I had thought of it actually), but revolutionary? err.. I'm doubtful. Particularly when Google has already started to do search within audio and video files, and has started testing automated close captioning for youtube videos.

16 points by MediaSquirrel 17y ago

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

natrius 17y ago
Read the article. It isn't inflammatory, and the title used here isn't the original title, though the phrasing is indeed used in the article.
- andrewcooke 17y ago
  eh, it was just a joke. if you read the article you'll see that the author says, as a refrain throughout the paper, "fuck me". but obviously it's not the kind of thing that works in text. i'll delete it.

gyardley 17y ago

I can't quite get a read on this guy. He seems smart, but he also seems very bitter about his experience in New York, and seems to think everyone's experience is the same. New York's options for early-stage funding have been growing rapidly - there's a lot more options out there than Chris Dixon and Fred Wilson. And meeting whoever you want to meet is pretty easy. Not sure why this guy had such a different experience, but something feels off here.

RodgerTheGreat 17y ago

"There's two kinds of investors in this world. The ones who think big, and the ones who don't; the ones with a Valley mindset, and everyone else." Perhaps there are startup founders with a realistic perspective on their contributions to the internet, and there are startup founders who believe their own marketing lines?

angelbob 17y ago
The problem with a realistic perspective is that it keeps you from shooting for anything really big. Aim for the stars, hit the trees. Aim for the trees, hit the mud. And being around people who aim for the stars just feels better, you know?

aliston 17y ago

Interesting contrast with this thread... http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1210972 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1210972 Perhaps the issue with VCs pushing for the "1 in 20" exit is more of a silicon valley thing?

rauljara 17y ago

Shrinking your ambitions isn't the same thing as shrinking your brain. Living inside the valley means your surrounded by people whose insane ambitions are much more likely to have paid off. You only see the successful ones, because the failures either never make it in, or have left. In general, living anywhere else means you are surrounded by people whose insane ambitions didn't pay off, and who have achieved whatever success they have by being more modest.

whyleyc 17y ago

This all pre-supposes that you're shooting for VC funding. You could argue that it's small-minded to think that's the only way to make a go of your big dream.

jlees 17y ago

Inflammatory title, but it rang true with me. One of the dangers that first time founders living outside of the Valley (like me) face is that our minds get poisoned and our ambitions shrunk by the parochial leaders I think there's a healthy balance. In Scotland, things needed to be scaled back, explained/analogies made to things people already did or understood, conservative was the watchword. Here (the Valley) it's all 'wow, you can change the world, ask for $1M not £50k'. Neither is healthy. Strike a midpoint: get an informed perspective with a realistic idea of an achievable v1 launch, don't raise millions and inflate beyond belief, and listen to the negatives. Get perspectives from an international viewpoint as well as the echo chamber -- but don't let others squash your dreams.

oldgregg 17y ago

There are two kinds of blog posts in this world: posts that are helpful and posts that take one person's narrow range of experience and try to build some grand theory of the universe. The latter shrinks your brain.

theBobMcCormick 17y ago

Maybe it's because I'm outside the valley (grin), but I'm completely failing to see how a mechanical turk driven transcription service is gonna "revolutionize how people interact with audio and video on the web". It sounds like a nice service. I'm betting you could build a pretty kick ass lifestyle business off it (I wish I had thought of it actually), but revolutionary? err.. I'm doubtful. Particularly when Google has already started to do search within audio and video files, and has started testing automated close captioning for youtube videos.