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Without cheap rent, it's very difficult to experiment. In places where space is plentiful and inexpensive, you can try setting up a quirky shop or cafe. In an o

Without cheap rent, it's very difficult to experiment. In places where space is plentiful and inexpensive, you can try setting up a quirky shop or cafe. In an overcrowded and expensive market like SF, you can't rent commercial property without a proven business plan. Where rent is cheap, you can spend a summer "funemployed", work on your hobby project and pick up a couple bucks doing odd jobs. If you pay $4,000/mo for an apartment, you need to be employed full-time all the time. Personally I find that innovative ideas can be brought to maturity in places where you can find people to develop them, often in cities. But the germ of the ideas will happen when you have some time and space to yourself. I think there's a happy medium where there's access to people and infrastructure, but not the oppressive overdevelopment of Silicon Valley.

danans 9y ago
> In an overcrowded and expensive market like SF, you can't rent commercial property without a proven business plan. Unless you have capital from another source (usually arbitraged between industries or by geography), you can't really do this anywhere without a business plan. Even in a cheap area, nobody is going to open a deli or cornershop without a plan for paying the rent. > If you pay $4,000/mo for an apartment You don't have to pay this much for housing, unless you are completely inflexible about the location, the size of the place, or having roommates. And if that's the case, it's a bit of a lifestyle choice. > Personally I find that innovative ideas can be brought to maturity in places where you can find people to develop them, often in cities. But the germ of the ideas will happen when you have some time and space to yourself. Those sound like very idiosyncratic requirements for innovation, and it sounds like it's mostly a lifestyle choice. If it works for you, that's truly great. Many people find that the germs of ideas come from participating in environment where related ideas are constantly being shared among a group of people. This can happen in any thriving community. That could be a dense city, or it could be (and often is) a university campus or research lab. Also, it's not limited to technology. The same could be said of music, literature, etc. And if you are in a city, there's nothing stopping you from heading to open spaces for inspiration. That's also a common practice. > but not the oppressive overdevelopment of Silicon Valley. SV has it's issues for sure, but I wouldn't throw all cities under the bus with it.
- racer-v 9y ago
  > Even in a cheap area, nobody is going to open a deli or cornershop without a plan for paying the rent. Sure, the question is how experimental of a plan can you attempt. In SF 2018: not very. I know people who pooled their money for an experimental space in SF several years ago at $1/sq. foot, and broke even. At 5x or 10x those rates today, this is now a lot harder. > SV has it's issues for sure, but I wouldn't throw all cities under the bus with it. My critique is specifically of the negative effects of overcrowding and overcapitalization in the SF Bay Area. By extension this would presumably apply to other places like Manhattan with similar conditions. I'm definitely interested in finding other cities with the networking advantages but that manage to strike a balance with livability. Austin has been mentioned already, although some folks will complain they're headed in the same direction.

danans 9y ago

> In an overcrowded and expensive market like SF, you can't rent commercial property without a proven business plan. Unless you have capital from another source (usually arbitraged between industries or by geography), you can't really do this anywhere without a business plan. Even in a cheap area, nobody is going to open a deli or cornershop without a plan for paying the rent. > If you pay $4,000/mo for an apartment You don't have to pay this much for housing, unless you are completely inflexible about the location, the size of the place, or having roommates. And if that's the case, it's a bit of a lifestyle choice. > Personally I find that innovative ideas can be brought to maturity in places where you can find people to develop them, often in cities. But the germ of the ideas will happen when you have some time and space to yourself. Those sound like very idiosyncratic requirements for innovation, and it sounds like it's mostly a lifestyle choice. If it works for you, that's truly great. Many people find that the germs of ideas come from participating in environment where related ideas are constantly being shared among a group of people. This can happen in any thriving community. That could be a dense city, or it could be (and often is) a university campus or research lab. Also, it's not limited to technology. The same could be said of music, literature, etc. And if you are in a city, there's nothing stopping you from heading to open spaces for inspiration. That's also a common practice. > but not the oppressive overdevelopment of Silicon Valley. SV has it's issues for sure, but I wouldn't throw all cities under the bus with it.

racer-v 9y ago
> Even in a cheap area, nobody is going to open a deli or cornershop without a plan for paying the rent. Sure, the question is how experimental of a plan can you attempt. In SF 2018: not very. I know people who pooled their money for an experimental space in SF several years ago at $1/sq. foot, and broke even. At 5x or 10x those rates today, this is now a lot harder. > SV has it's issues for sure, but I wouldn't throw all cities under the bus with it. My critique is specifically of the negative effects of overcrowding and overcapitalization in the SF Bay Area. By extension this would presumably apply to other places like Manhattan with similar conditions. I'm definitely interested in finding other cities with the networking advantages but that manage to strike a balance with livability. Austin has been mentioned already, although some folks will complain they're headed in the same direction.