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Silicon Valley is a place where you have lots of smart people because the smart people all go there because that's where the other smart people are. You can ge

Silicon Valley is a place where you have lots of smart people because the smart people all go there because that's where the other smart people are. You can get them in a room and they can figure out amazing things. It's kind of like Los Alamos for nuclear physics. Sure, you can put a team together elsewhere, but it's never going to be quite the same because those happenstance conversations won't have the right people in them. Let's say for a minute that you could break this thing up into dispirate groups. What's the advantage? You'll be splitting up the best team ever created and hoping they somehow reconstitute. Sounds dangerous to me.

ecf 7y ago
I don’t really enjoy this response because Los Alamos was purpose built by the government to develop the bomb and realistically, could have been constructed in any remote area of the US. The government even used eminent domain to force ranchers out of the area. I feel SV has developed much more organically.
madengr 7y ago
Yeah, but the point if the article is Los Alamos (formerly a desolate plateau built up by Uncle Sam).
munificent 7y ago
> What's the advantage? More affordability for the people in those groups, and thus less separation of tech people from members of other sectors and socio-economic levels. It's good to have enough people concentrated in one region to form great teams and give people options and mobility. But, beyond that, it starts becoming a negative to tech people and non-tech people. SF and Seattle are insanely expensive. Most of my friends here in Seattle are in tech, and over the past few years, I've watched most of my non-tech friends get priced out and be forced to leave the area. I don't think it's good for individuals or humanity as a whole for people to spend all of their time in a bubble surrounded only by people like themselves.
auiya 7y ago
> Silicon Valley is a place where you have lots of smart people because the smart people all go there because that's where the other smart people are. The bell curve in the valley is no different than any other city of comparable size. The only exceptionalism is ego.

ecf 7y ago

I don’t really enjoy this response because Los Alamos was purpose built by the government to develop the bomb and realistically, could have been constructed in any remote area of the US. The government even used eminent domain to force ranchers out of the area. I feel SV has developed much more organically.

madengr 7y ago

Yeah, but the point if the article is Los Alamos (formerly a desolate plateau built up by Uncle Sam).

munificent 7y ago

> What's the advantage? More affordability for the people in those groups, and thus less separation of tech people from members of other sectors and socio-economic levels. It's good to have enough people concentrated in one region to form great teams and give people options and mobility. But, beyond that, it starts becoming a negative to tech people and non-tech people. SF and Seattle are insanely expensive. Most of my friends here in Seattle are in tech, and over the past few years, I've watched most of my non-tech friends get priced out and be forced to leave the area. I don't think it's good for individuals or humanity as a whole for people to spend all of their time in a bubble surrounded only by people like themselves.

auiya 7y ago

> Silicon Valley is a place where you have lots of smart people because the smart people all go there because that's where the other smart people are. The bell curve in the valley is no different than any other city of comparable size. The only exceptionalism is ego.