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Back in 2005-2006 I was working on Wall St., studying for my CFA exam, working to get a place in our equities group, all while half-diverting my attention to th

Back in 2005-2006 I was working on Wall St., studying for my CFA exam, working to get a place in our equities group, all while half-diverting my attention to the other coast, watching in awe as a whole bunch of upstarts were following in the footsteps of Robert Noyce and crew, building a new future. This new future didn't seem to look like the old way of doing business, like on Wall St., where it was where you went to school, who your neighbors were, who's ass you kissed at work. It was like the wild west, where the fit survived and prospered, where anyone could go and make a new life, and build something that would improve everyone's life. Fast forward 5 years or so and my delusions of "this time it will be different" were all but shattered. Watching Facebook put up walls around the commons, watching Apple fence off their garden, watching Google get into bed with the government and our military. Watching payroll head-counts become more and more dominated by sales teams. Watching founders head for the exit that is Wall St., which is exactly where Noyce and Crew had fled from back in the day. My guess is that it's all about the systemic qualities of our economic system. How could Silicon Valley had become anything else. I mean, if we're honest about it, Silicon Valley's first big customer was the military. And where there is money to be made Wall St. and the Ivy League will soon follow, stamping out cookie cutter companies implementinng their tried and true methodology for extracting the maximum value for shareholders. So sad.

samfisher83 10y ago
I am pretty sure stanford is an IVY school and its been at the heart of SV.
- s_q_b 10y ago
  Stanford is not a member of the Ivy League, although it is a peer institution. I believe the OP's point was that the highest performing students will go wherever the most money can be made, and that elite institutions eventually steer their graduates into the most lucrative path. Right now that is financial services.
- notfromhere 10y ago
  The Ivy league is exclusively an east coast thing.
- verylongaccount 10y ago
  Technically, the Ivy League refers to an athletic conference. All of its 8 member institutions on the East Coast. Stanford is in the PAC-12 conference if I recall correctly.
- throwaway98237 10y ago
  The Ivy League is an anthletic conferrence, similiar to the Big Ten. The Ivy League schools excel at producing financial and business professionals, who then, as the other commentor states, are funneled to the most lucrative careers. They are the most lucrative careers because of the way our financial system is the progenitor and final repository of money and value in our economy up until very recently, up till the age of Big Data and Big Computation. However, what's just as fungible as money? Data. A "New Ivy League" is emerging. One that does not produce business and financial professionals, but instead produces IT professionals. This new group of school similarly funnels their grads to the most lucrative careers in this new medium of wealth creation. Ivy League: Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League
- cloudjacker 10y ago
  Yes, it is just as prestigious.
aaron-lebo 10y ago
All you have to do is follow the money. Where did virtually all of the dominant politicians go? The Obamas, Bushes, Clintons, Cruz, etc all went through a very limited set of schools. Where did virtually all of the leaders of the big companies come from (Gates, Zuckerberg)? A very limited set of schools. Where do the heads of media and Wall Street go? A very limited set of schools. How connected is tech with politics now? Schmidt was an informal advisor and major donor to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, and began campaigning the week of October 19, 2008, on behalf of the candidate.[47] He was mentioned as a possible candidate for the Chief Technology Officer position, which Obama created in his administration,[48] and Obama considered him for Commerce Secretary.[49] After Obama won in 2008, Schmidt became a member of President Obama's transition advisory board and has since become a member of the United States President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).[50] Schmidt has served on Google’s government relations team. How connected is tech with finance now? Google's current CFO was a Morgan Stanley exec. And then there are really shady figures who have operated within these institutions for years like Jeffrey Epstein: He is also a longtime friend of Prince Andrew, Duke of York: they have stayed at each other's homes, and have vacationed together in Thailand. In December 2010, the prince was a guest in Epstein's New York residence for several days, shortly after Epstein completed his Florida sentence for soliciting an underage girl. His dinner with Andrew at the mansion was attended by (among others) Katie Couric, George Stephanopoulos, Charlie Rose, and Woody Allen.[9] The 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m2) 9-story mansion is just off Fifth Avenue and overlooks the Frick Collection. It is reported[by whom?] to be the largest private residence in Manhattan, having originally been built as the Birch Wathen School. You just need to follow the money. There's way too much money at the top controlled by a relatively small group of people.
- jonny_eh 10y ago
  Zuckerberg and Gates both dropped out of school. Steve Jobs didn't go to an Ivy League school.
  - pdeuchler 10y ago
    Woz went to Berkeley
ashark 10y ago
> My guess is that it's all about the systemic qualities of our economic system. How could Silicon Valley had become anything else. Indeed. http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/
dccoolgai 10y ago
So beautiful. The ossification of their cookie-cutter mills is the fertilizer for your new ideas and new ways of doing things to sprout and take hold.
yuhong 10y ago
My favorite is the Altair and the IBM PC. From http://www.virtualaltair.com/virtualaltair.com/mits0011.asp http://www.virtualaltair.com/virtualaltair.com/mits0011.asp : "We should have copyrighted the name or patented the bus, but we never did that." And then remember the IBM MCA bus.
yuhong 10y ago
Wall Street was not that good in the first place. 2005-2006 was when the mortgages that led to the recession in 2008 was probably made.
buzzybee 10y ago
To loosely paraphrase Marx, capitalism tends to destroy itself while self-perpetuating. SV did, and still does, perform a certain benefit in making goods and services flow. It's also a very attractive power center for our generation. The hope we should all have is that disruption does, in fact, prevail and keep any one tech monopoly in check with a new "up-and-comer" always over the horizon; that the government does not become entirely captured by business, can exert the interests of the public and effect a compromise; and that presently marginalized voices - on any issue, from identity to climate to existential threat - are heard and their concerns addressed through the process.

samfisher83 10y ago

I am pretty sure stanford is an IVY school and its been at the heart of SV.

s_q_b 10y ago
Stanford is not a member of the Ivy League, although it is a peer institution. I believe the OP's point was that the highest performing students will go wherever the most money can be made, and that elite institutions eventually steer their graduates into the most lucrative path. Right now that is financial services.
notfromhere 10y ago
The Ivy league is exclusively an east coast thing.
verylongaccount 10y ago
Technically, the Ivy League refers to an athletic conference. All of its 8 member institutions on the East Coast. Stanford is in the PAC-12 conference if I recall correctly.
throwaway98237 10y ago
The Ivy League is an anthletic conferrence, similiar to the Big Ten. The Ivy League schools excel at producing financial and business professionals, who then, as the other commentor states, are funneled to the most lucrative careers. They are the most lucrative careers because of the way our financial system is the progenitor and final repository of money and value in our economy up until very recently, up till the age of Big Data and Big Computation. However, what's just as fungible as money? Data. A "New Ivy League" is emerging. One that does not produce business and financial professionals, but instead produces IT professionals. This new group of school similarly funnels their grads to the most lucrative careers in this new medium of wealth creation. Ivy League: Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League
cloudjacker 10y ago
Yes, it is just as prestigious.

aaron-lebo 10y ago

All you have to do is follow the money. Where did virtually all of the dominant politicians go? The Obamas, Bushes, Clintons, Cruz, etc all went through a very limited set of schools. Where did virtually all of the leaders of the big companies come from (Gates, Zuckerberg)? A very limited set of schools. Where do the heads of media and Wall Street go? A very limited set of schools. How connected is tech with politics now? Schmidt was an informal advisor and major donor to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, and began campaigning the week of October 19, 2008, on behalf of the candidate.[47] He was mentioned as a possible candidate for the Chief Technology Officer position, which Obama created in his administration,[48] and Obama considered him for Commerce Secretary.[49] After Obama won in 2008, Schmidt became a member of President Obama's transition advisory board and has since become a member of the United States President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).[50] Schmidt has served on Google’s government relations team. How connected is tech with finance now? Google's current CFO was a Morgan Stanley exec. And then there are really shady figures who have operated within these institutions for years like Jeffrey Epstein: He is also a longtime friend of Prince Andrew, Duke of York: they have stayed at each other's homes, and have vacationed together in Thailand. In December 2010, the prince was a guest in Epstein's New York residence for several days, shortly after Epstein completed his Florida sentence for soliciting an underage girl. His dinner with Andrew at the mansion was attended by (among others) Katie Couric, George Stephanopoulos, Charlie Rose, and Woody Allen.[9] The 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m2) 9-story mansion is just off Fifth Avenue and overlooks the Frick Collection. It is reported[by whom?] to be the largest private residence in Manhattan, having originally been built as the Birch Wathen School. You just need to follow the money. There's way too much money at the top controlled by a relatively small group of people.

jonny_eh 10y ago
Zuckerberg and Gates both dropped out of school. Steve Jobs didn't go to an Ivy League school.
- pdeuchler 10y ago
  Woz went to Berkeley

ashark 10y ago

> My guess is that it's all about the systemic qualities of our economic system. How could Silicon Valley had become anything else. Indeed. http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/

dccoolgai 10y ago

So beautiful. The ossification of their cookie-cutter mills is the fertilizer for your new ideas and new ways of doing things to sprout and take hold.

yuhong 10y ago

My favorite is the Altair and the IBM PC. From http://www.virtualaltair.com/virtualaltair.com/mits0011.asp http://www.virtualaltair.com/virtualaltair.com/mits0011.asp : "We should have copyrighted the name or patented the bus, but we never did that." And then remember the IBM MCA bus.

yuhong 10y ago

Wall Street was not that good in the first place. 2005-2006 was when the mortgages that led to the recession in 2008 was probably made.

buzzybee 10y ago

To loosely paraphrase Marx, capitalism tends to destroy itself while self-perpetuating. SV did, and still does, perform a certain benefit in making goods and services flow. It's also a very attractive power center for our generation. The hope we should all have is that disruption does, in fact, prevail and keep any one tech monopoly in check with a new "up-and-comer" always over the horizon; that the government does not become entirely captured by business, can exert the interests of the public and effect a compromise; and that presently marginalized voices - on any issue, from identity to climate to existential threat - are heard and their concerns addressed through the process.