I'm a big cheerleader for NY tech (hence why I live there now), but you see a different flavor of "goofy problems." Instead of social apps, you get advertising

I'm a big cheerleader for NY tech (hence why I live there now), but you see a different flavor of "goofy problems." Instead of social apps, you get advertising or fashion startups. Companies on the west coast (SpaceX, Tesla) are tackling big problems just like companies on the east coast (Foursquare, Tumblr) are tackling "goofy problems." Ultimately, tackling serious problems involves understanding your own values. Some "non-serious" startups handle incredible architectural issues and produce amazing technology (memcached, Cassandra, Solr) that improves our lives in subtle ways. Similarly, serious startups produce can have high-risk, pie-in-the-sky goals (SpaceX) that may not materialize.