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Paul Graham had this thesis that there was untapped potential by targeting young people. I've always believed that same principle could apply to the midwest.
by swalsh 9y ago
Paul Graham had this thesis that there was untapped potential by targeting young people. I've always believed that same principle could apply to the midwest. Where I grew up everyone wanted to be an entrepreneur. Not because it was hip, but because there were no good jobs (the town was built around a factory that closed down in the 80's).
The exceptional talent moved to the coasts, but what's left is still pretty persistent, and given that the trends of technology have been to lower the barriers to entry in startups, "exceptional talent" isn't required. In fact what the midwest has is a plentiful supply of ambitious, and persistent people... which arguably is more valuable.
- sidlls 9y agoAlmost all the most successful SV companies don't require exceptional talent. Most of the "big names" have a tiny fraction of their engineering organization that has to be truly exceptional. The problem is that, at least based on my experience (I worked in the Midwest and the south east for over a decade ending a few years ago), the vast majority of "talent" in the midwest is below even the mediocre requirements of most SV/VC companies. No amount of persistence can overcome that.
- hylianwarrior 9y ago> The vast majority of "talent" in the midwest is below even the mediocre requirements of most SV/VC companies. The poor education systems out there are to blame, IMO.
- linkregister 9y agoI seriously doubt you've thought this comment through. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, among others, are renowned for producing important research. NCSA Mosaic and LLVM are just two noteworthy technologies coming from research done at UIUC. Alumni have come to form Netscape, AMD, Oracle, and YouTube. UIUC is the most noteworthy of midwestern universities, but is hardly the only excellent education available to undergraduates and grad students.
- askafriend 9y agoI think part of the problem probably starts way before college.
- sidlls 9y agoI doubt it's that. It's more likely that it's a combination of low quantity of software/tech jobs and low quality ones. "All" the people with any talent leave for places where these things aren't true.
- weerd 9y agoI disagree. While you can't deny the supremacy of the elite coastal universities, there do exist great schools in the Midwest: Uni. of Illinois, Chicago, Case Western, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Northwestern, etc. Oh and probably the most prestigious, Carnegie Mellon.
- astrange 9y agoCMU/Pittsburgh is sort of in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Appalachia at the same time, so everyone gets that credit.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]