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Posting a follow-up rather than editing: I also wonder if open-plan offices are a symptom of the increasing centralization of tech companies. These days people
by floren 8y ago
Posting a follow-up rather than editing:
I also wonder if open-plan offices are a symptom of the increasing centralization of tech companies. These days people seem to think the first step of starting a tech company is to move to the Bay Area. If we were founding companies in Redding, Rochester, Yakima, Grand Rapids, or Albuquerque, could we afford to give everyone an office with a real door for the same price as a San Jose hellhole?
We've got better connectivity than ever before, but we insist on clustering up more and more. Cray was out in the Wisconsin woods. Microsoft got started in Albuquerque. DEC and Data General were both well outside Boston in small towns.
- Latteland 8y agoPeople start companies in these clusters because there are lots of programmers (to a lesser extend vc money) in those places, and you are more likely to be able to recruit programmers to those places.
- ghaff 8y agoIn all fairness though, DEC and DG were part of the Route 128 cluster of computer companies. They were just mostly scattered in small towns around the region (as were their manufacturing and other smaller offices) because being located in a city was not really something that tech companies did at the time. [ADDED: AFAIK all of these companies mostly used the typical for the time mix of high cubicles and offices for managers.] Boston metro was still losing population up to around the late 90s and, when Teradyne moved out, that was basically the last major tech employer in the city proper. The current fascination with urban living (in certain specific cities) by a certain young professional demographic is mostly quite recent.
- BoiledCabbage 8y agoI don't understand this comment: > In all fairness though... "In all fairness" to what? What is this referring to?
- floren 8y agoI had used DEC and DG as examples of tech companies starting in small towns, he was pointing out that while they may have been in small towns they were still in a "tech corridor" right outside Boston. Which is a reasonable point to make! I guess he means "in fairness to" the modern silicon valley trends I'm criticizing.