3 ms·

I generally agree with the author. I don't have hard evidence but basically feel that the culture, ethos, magic, whatever you want to call it is gone. Does this

I generally agree with the author. I don't have hard evidence but basically feel that the culture, ethos, magic, whatever you want to call it is gone. Does this mean innovation is dead? Of course not! As the author pointed, it will just likely be more spread out. Also, I think it's important to appreciate that the formation and growth of Silicon Valley was a remarkably special thing but was bound to eventually hit the diminishing returns phase of faster compute, faster internet, smarter software, etc. Silicon Valley started with a transformative and enabling technology (the transistor) and from there we built a remarkable hardware and software ecosystem over the span of a few decades around that technology. Those seem to be the two elements in order to 'replicate' SV: a transformative technology that spurs an ecosystem of technologies, all of which interconnect and benefit from each others innovation.

joaomacp 6y ago
> a transformative technology that spurs an ecosystem of technologies, all of which interconnect and benefit from each others innovation. Biotech, especially gene editing, comes to mind as a fast developing field. However, because it's health related, extensive testing and regulations means it will never evolve at the same pace as hardware and software did.
- Balgair 6y ago
  Maaaybe? The one silver lining of this catastrophe of covid is that the FDA process has been turned up to 11. There is some hope that it'll stay that way after/if a vaccine is made. The ModeRNA vaccine is looking to be some amazing stuff and it would have taken at least a decade to get through before covid. CRISPR-CAS9 technology and a faster FDA should result in some very good outcomes for all humans. The biotech centers of San Diego, Boston, NC Research Triangle, and Denver should see growth from that kind of a boom.
thinking2smll0 6y ago
Come together in SV, Big Crunch. Covid-19 was a biological/social Big Bang? Strange loops indeed.
foobiekr 6y ago
I generally agree with the author, but his timeline is completely wrong. Silicon Valley as an ethos and as a concentration of free-wheeling globally-uniquely-great-at-their-jobs engineers in aggressive, innovative companies has been dead since at least the late 90s. Naming Musk as a key example of innovation just shows how far we have fallen. Contrast with SGI, Sun, 3dFX, Nvidia, Cisco, maybe Google, etc. Yes, many of these are unglamourous or dead now, but their lives are totally different than the Teslas (heavily reliant on government subsidies), the Ubers (mostly just matchmaking playing chicken with regulations), and so on.

joaomacp 6y ago

> a transformative technology that spurs an ecosystem of technologies, all of which interconnect and benefit from each others innovation. Biotech, especially gene editing, comes to mind as a fast developing field. However, because it's health related, extensive testing and regulations means it will never evolve at the same pace as hardware and software did.

Balgair 6y ago
Maaaybe? The one silver lining of this catastrophe of covid is that the FDA process has been turned up to 11. There is some hope that it'll stay that way after/if a vaccine is made. The ModeRNA vaccine is looking to be some amazing stuff and it would have taken at least a decade to get through before covid. CRISPR-CAS9 technology and a faster FDA should result in some very good outcomes for all humans. The biotech centers of San Diego, Boston, NC Research Triangle, and Denver should see growth from that kind of a boom.

thinking2smll0 6y ago

Come together in SV, Big Crunch. Covid-19 was a biological/social Big Bang? Strange loops indeed.

foobiekr 6y ago

I generally agree with the author, but his timeline is completely wrong. Silicon Valley as an ethos and as a concentration of free-wheeling globally-uniquely-great-at-their-jobs engineers in aggressive, innovative companies has been dead since at least the late 90s. Naming Musk as a key example of innovation just shows how far we have fallen. Contrast with SGI, Sun, 3dFX, Nvidia, Cisco, maybe Google, etc. Yes, many of these are unglamourous or dead now, but their lives are totally different than the Teslas (heavily reliant on government subsidies), the Ubers (mostly just matchmaking playing chicken with regulations), and so on.