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sure Silicon Valley sucks from a housing stand point, and you’d think that you can fire up an AWS instance from anywhere, and you can. However SV has one thing

sure Silicon Valley sucks from a housing stand point, and you’d think that you can fire up an AWS instance from anywhere, and you can. However SV has one thing no place else has, a density of talent and capital unrivaled in the world. That’s why it continues to exist. Compare it to Hollywood. Sure you can make movies anywhere, but you don’t. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-silicon-valleys-success-is-so-hard-to-replicate/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-silicon-valle...

majormajor 9y ago
You do "make" movies anywhere (well, a few places: Atlanta, Vancouver, etc). But so far the companies, business, and performers are still based in Hollywood. Question is: after a distributed generation or two, does that still hold as a natural law?
- ghaff 9y ago
  Not so much a natural law but definitely a natural tendency for a lots of types of businesses to cluster. It's probably particularly pronounced in industries where there is a lot of in-person deal making, "power lunches," etc. (Which is one of the reasons why traditional publishing tends to be pretty centralized as well.) As you say, actual filming has become somewhat more distributed though that is somewhat constrained by the whole ecosystem of associated trades that are needed to setup and do filming.
acchow 9y ago
You usually need to get a ton of people physically together to shoot a scene. Programming isn't like this.
- sedachv 9y ago
  Not only that, but smaller, non-union productions also do everything at the last minute. This is possible in Los Angeles, where there is enough work to go around to support a lot of people in all the specialties - you can call your contacts and someone will be available. Getting custom props or set design on an 8 hours' notice is possible. Only larger projects can afford to have all of the production requirements planned in advance, something that you need if you are planning to film somewhere without a well-established film industry.
wpietri 9y ago
Hollywood's not a great example. Their centrality to the movie industry has been declining for decades. E.g.: https://www.thewrap.com/louisiana-california-movie-making-capital-world-2013/ https://www.thewrap.com/louisiana-california-movie-making-ca... Or an article from this year listing LA as the 3rd-best place, after Atlanta and Vancouver, for moviemakers to live: https://www.moviemaker.com/archives/best_of/best-places-to-live-and-work-as-a-moviemaker-2018-big-cities/ https://www.moviemaker.com/archives/best_of/best-places-to-l... One important factor at work here is the Internet. Effects companies, for example, are all over the place, including London, New Zealand, Vancouver, LA, and even here in San Francisco. Big movies will often use multiple companies, something that would have been very challenging 30 years ago. Silicon Valley does have capital and talent. But it's not like that capital is in doubloons in a vault. It's purely digital. A big reason it's not more mobile is that VCs wouldn't deign to stop in a flyover state. Talent isn't quite as mobile, but a) advances in technology mean talent is less necessary, and b) the rise in remote work means the location of talent is less and less meaningful.
- jrs95 9y ago
  The talent is also considerably more expensive and not substantially better unless you need people in a specific niche. And if you really need talent from SF, you could always hire them on remotely.
- mixmastamyk 9y ago
  Much of this is due to unfair tax credits in various areas. And instead of competing, the geniuses in Cal/LA have been raising taxes.
  - majormajor 9y ago
    Actually tax credits for staying local have been increasing, e.g. http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-amazon-sneaky-pete-tax-credit-20180319-story.html http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-amazon-sn... today
    - mixmastamyk 9y ago
ashwinaj 9y ago
Well put! Instead of downvoting the authors comment, take a moment and think about it... The same analogy can be made for NYC with the finance industry.
sdca 9y ago
>a density of talent and capital unrivaled in the world The Four Asian Tigers have already surpassed SV on that. There's obviously a government-related cultural gap that won't win them any popularity contests.
delecti 9y ago
I would posit that the overwhelming majority of startups don't require "unrivaled density of talent". Most computing problems just need a decent availability of moderately competent engineers. Additionally, locating elsewhere reduces the need for such an abundance of capital.
- jonathankoren 9y ago
  The density isn't just about how much talent and capital you can get, it's about how easy it is to get talent and capital.

majormajor 9y ago

You do "make" movies anywhere (well, a few places: Atlanta, Vancouver, etc). But so far the companies, business, and performers are still based in Hollywood. Question is: after a distributed generation or two, does that still hold as a natural law?

ghaff 9y ago
Not so much a natural law but definitely a natural tendency for a lots of types of businesses to cluster. It's probably particularly pronounced in industries where there is a lot of in-person deal making, "power lunches," etc. (Which is one of the reasons why traditional publishing tends to be pretty centralized as well.) As you say, actual filming has become somewhat more distributed though that is somewhat constrained by the whole ecosystem of associated trades that are needed to setup and do filming.

acchow 9y ago

You usually need to get a ton of people physically together to shoot a scene. Programming isn't like this.

sedachv 9y ago
Not only that, but smaller, non-union productions also do everything at the last minute. This is possible in Los Angeles, where there is enough work to go around to support a lot of people in all the specialties - you can call your contacts and someone will be available. Getting custom props or set design on an 8 hours' notice is possible. Only larger projects can afford to have all of the production requirements planned in advance, something that you need if you are planning to film somewhere without a well-established film industry.

wpietri 9y ago

Hollywood's not a great example. Their centrality to the movie industry has been declining for decades. E.g.: https://www.thewrap.com/louisiana-california-movie-making-capital-world-2013/ https://www.thewrap.com/louisiana-california-movie-making-ca... Or an article from this year listing LA as the 3rd-best place, after Atlanta and Vancouver, for moviemakers to live: https://www.moviemaker.com/archives/best_of/best-places-to-live-and-work-as-a-moviemaker-2018-big-cities/ https://www.moviemaker.com/archives/best_of/best-places-to-l... One important factor at work here is the Internet. Effects companies, for example, are all over the place, including London, New Zealand, Vancouver, LA, and even here in San Francisco. Big movies will often use multiple companies, something that would have been very challenging 30 years ago. Silicon Valley does have capital and talent. But it's not like that capital is in doubloons in a vault. It's purely digital. A big reason it's not more mobile is that VCs wouldn't deign to stop in a flyover state. Talent isn't quite as mobile, but a) advances in technology mean talent is less necessary, and b) the rise in remote work means the location of talent is less and less meaningful.

jrs95 9y ago
The talent is also considerably more expensive and not substantially better unless you need people in a specific niche. And if you really need talent from SF, you could always hire them on remotely.
mixmastamyk 9y ago
Much of this is due to unfair tax credits in various areas. And instead of competing, the geniuses in Cal/LA have been raising taxes.
- majormajor 9y ago
  Actually tax credits for staying local have been increasing, e.g. http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-amazon-sneaky-pete-tax-credit-20180319-story.html http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-amazon-sn... today
  - mixmastamyk 9y ago

ashwinaj 9y ago

Well put! Instead of downvoting the authors comment, take a moment and think about it... The same analogy can be made for NYC with the finance industry.

sdca 9y ago

>a density of talent and capital unrivaled in the world The Four Asian Tigers have already surpassed SV on that. There's obviously a government-related cultural gap that won't win them any popularity contests.

delecti 9y ago

I would posit that the overwhelming majority of startups don't require "unrivaled density of talent". Most computing problems just need a decent availability of moderately competent engineers. Additionally, locating elsewhere reduces the need for such an abundance of capital.

jonathankoren 9y ago
The density isn't just about how much talent and capital you can get, it's about how easy it is to get talent and capital.