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I see that myself. And I mean this as absolutely no offense to anyone in the area. I've met incredibly intelligent people there, among the best. Though, I be
by axaxs 8y ago
I see that myself. And I mean this as absolutely no offense to anyone in the area. I've met incredibly intelligent people there, among the best. Though, I believe the very best are distributed throughout the world, and command the ability not to move.
All that said, first, well, the silicon part is all but gone. I find the signal to noise ratio pretty low. For every 10x developer, there are 50 people who did a bootcamp and/or moved for the easy jobs. Salaries are high because the cost of living is on the breaking point. People complain about the area because of high taxes, high cost of living, and of course the homeless epidemic. And to top it off, everyone who can seems to leave the area when they get the chance.
Again, I mean no offense, I think it's a nice area on the whole. But if I were in need of a lot of good engineers today, I'd first offer remote only. If I needed collaboration or a lot of people in one area, I'd look to New York or Northern Virginia before the bay area.
- rapsey 8y agoThat is only one aspect and I think a minor one. What made silicon valley is access to capital, proximity to stanford and a feedback loop of successful entrepreneurs using their experience to create the next generation of successful entrepreneurs
- heyoni 8y agoAll of which can (and have) been emulated in places like New York.
- rapsey 8y agoOnly to a degree
- JauntTrooper 8y agoI wonder why Boston hasn't risen further, with Harvard and MIT both at their doorstep along with a lot of other really great universities and good companies.
- jjav 8y agoMA allows non-compete restrictions on employees which severely stifles the startup economy. Silicon Valley is what it is largely in thanks to the continuous cross-pollination of talent which is possible due to the lack of non-compete issues.
- XenophileJKO 8y agoJust saw you said the same thing I did. I think people under attribute just how much oppressive non-competes destroy the market.
- rapsey 8y agoStanford was unique in the aspect of students being encouraged to take their research and make companies out of it. The vast majority of universities are not as selfless.
- rapsey 8y agoThere are lots of places with a wealth of well educated talent and poor to non-existent amount of startups coming from there. Access to capital is probably the largest factor.
- tinyhouse 8y agoBoston is doing pretty well and many things started in Boston such as YC, Facebook, Dropbox, etc. Boston is small and already expensive. Plus the weather. I also think it doesn't have a lot to offer for single people. It has much more to offer for families. Boston is also more diverse in terms of opportunities. If you're a researcher or biologist let's say, you are more likely to find a good job in Boston than SF.
- XenophileJKO 8y agoI actually feel like a MAJOR factor is the way in California non-compete clauses are largely non-enforceable. This allows the top performers to cycle out of an organization when it stagnates and greatly increases the velocity of innovation.
- BurningFrog 8y agoWhere in Northern Virginia?
- axaxs 8y agoAshburn, Tysons, Reston, Sterling, McLean. Where the original kings of the internet existed. The area is full of talent, though not as flashy as the bay area.
- BurningFrog 8y agoThanks! Sometimes I too think about moving elsewhere...
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]