I think this is fairly mistaken. As a share of the tech economy, SV is almost certainly declining. That's to be expected and embraced as labor economics evolve.

I think this is fairly mistaken. As a share of the tech economy, SV is almost certainly declining. That's to be expected and embraced as labor economics evolve. That doesn't for a moment mean that northern California isn't still the place with the maximum idea flow. Three major things in SV that aren't declining: a) Intelligent risk capital being deployed by scientists and engineers, not MBAs b) Stanford c) Ambitious unmarried 20- and 30-somethings for whom quality of home life is very unimportant I'm not bullish on California politics. Single-party psuedo-progressive rule can, eventually, ruin the state by driving people away. But for density and quality of ideas, it seems to me that the gap between SV and elsewhere is as wide as it has ever been.