Along similar lines, albeit with a more international slant - I worked in California tech companies, and even was involved in building a few of the big ones, fo

Along similar lines, albeit with a more international slant - I worked in California tech companies, and even was involved in building a few of the big ones, for 20 years before leaving the US in 2001 and moving to Europe. The scene is a lot different. I've watched European tech startups come and go - not as high frequency as those I observed in California, due to government subsidies/welfare being a much more influential aspect in Europe than in America. American startups are hungrier, and tend to fail faster - or indeed, succeed through hard work, whereas there is a decadence to the European tech sector that is truly difficult to avoid. European tech businesses prefer to have a safe and tidy lifestyle - American tech companies don't put as much emphasis on it. This has both good and bad repercussions on both sides. I do miss the go-get'em/gung-ho nature of American tech businesses. You don't get much gung-ho in Europe, or if you do its very unusual. Conservative attitudes abound in the Euro tech scene; Americans still very much have a degree of frontier spirit you won't find elsewhere. I think this is why most big tech companies are American. Anecdotally its my observation that Americans work much, much harder than Europeans, and tolerance for ineffective activity is very definitely different between the two spheres. American tech businesses will solve problems that will make profit - European tech companies will work harder to avoid problems, in order to save a bit more from the subsidies they apparently 'work to deserve'. Still, European tech companies don't seem to have the identity confidence that Americans do. Americans are much, much better at creating a brand out of the ether and then adding value to it, whereas this seems to be distasteful to the Euro mindset. I've had the opportunity to be involved in a few 'big' European startups, and those who have been successful seem to model themselves after American companies. Too often I've seen a European tech founder gain just enough success to move their asses to California - this definitely is a thing. The American tech market seems to be a lot more resilient to the life/growth/death of smaller tech industries than in Europe, where things are homogenised by regulation and bureaucracy. Its not that American doesn't have bureaucratic impairment in the tech industry - just that Americans are far more willing to route around it as a source of damage. I miss the California 'cottage tech' industry, but on the other hand I much, much prefer European hackerspaces.