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The problem is that most parts of the world, while they want to reap the benefit of a Silicon Valley they don't want to put in place the ecosystem necessary for

The problem is that most parts of the world, while they want to reap the benefit of a Silicon Valley they don't want to put in place the ecosystem necessary for it. It's not a coincidence that Silicon Valley exists on the doorstep of the most diverse community in the US - not just ethnically but in all areas of lifestyle diversity. Many places are not prepared to embrace that. Embrace of failure is incompatible with deep seted cultural values in many parts of the world. Tax regimes... Legal structures favoring equity sharing... At will employment... Most of the places that want to recreate Silicon Valley always seen to add a "But Our Way". Problem is "our way" means keeping in place many of the sources of the failure which those places have had to date in having already created their own Silicon Valley. (Typo apologies via iPhone)

fossuser 14y ago
While I think your point about cultural issues causing problems in other areas has truth to it, I think it's funny to call silicon valley the most diverse community in the US. The valley exists on the doorstep of stanford - an incredibly highly selected (this year the most highly selective) university. In addition to that a large portion of the people I've met here come from fabulously wealthy backgrounds (dynasty money) where failure is largely irrelevant because there is always a near infinite supply of backup money. I think part of the reason the valley does well is because the population is some of the most homogenous and highly selected in the world all living in the same place and there is enough wealth to try things.
- richardjordan 14y ago
  I think it's hard to argue that San Francisco is not the major city most open to cultural diversity in the country. The Bay Area is very diverse ethnically. New York perhaps but its economy is dominated by finance which sucks the air out. The Bay Area's openness is key to the success of Silicon Valley. Stanford certainly has a lot of positive influence, sure, but there's more to the Bay Area than Palo Alto. EDIT: To clarify not just ethnic diversity, but diversity of opinion and openness to all kinds of cultural diversity. For example I see a non-trivial number of non-straight people in startups, and it's pretty easy to argue many parts of the world claiming they want to create a new Silicon Valley are not as embracing as the Bay Area when it comes to sexual identity.
  - rdouble 14y ago
    San Francisco is in the top 10 most diverse cities in the country, but both San Jose and Oakland are more diverse than SF.
    - stephenhuey 14y ago
      Yep, and the Houston area is now even more diverse than LA and NYC. Here's hoping a couple decades from now the kids of the current residents will be thought leaders in a local version of Silicon Valley.
      - richardjordan 14y ago
        So I'll have to respectfully take a different view on Houston having lived there for three years (admittedly returning to the Bay Area in 2007). There's certainly diversity in ethnicity in that there are large population of whites, african-americans and hispanics. Outside of those groups there's a large fall-off. But more importantly a key weakness of Houston is its lack of cultural diversity. I found to be the most parochial city of 4million people I'd ever experienced (and I've lived in a lot of places). It is not really remotely comparable to something like Silicon Valley in that regard, sadly. However, I share your hope that the increased ethnic diversity, and the general nationwide cultural trends of young people being more open to new things and will become thought leaders. Of course my reluctant skepticism comes from what I experienced (great anecdote for another venue) of the control of thought leadership by a very narrow good-ole-boy network which appears pretty well entrenched and able to ride out the best intentions of upcoming potential leaders. I was shocked by the examples of outright corruption while living there. Not to dampen your optimism - I am absolutely cheering you on to be right, as I'd love to see it, but I'm sadly pessimistic.
        stephenhuey 14y ago
        I'll admit you may not have seen the cultural diversity in the area since the city is spread out, but Houston has as many OR MORE ethnicities than LA or NYC since the last decade has seen a huge increase in the number of refugees and students and workers from every little corner of the globe you could imagine. In addition to the Vietnamese and Chinese who have been here for a while, there are now large numbers of Indians and folks from Central Asia and the Middle East who may not yet be counted. Having lived in Nigeria as a kid, I'm excited that as of the last couple of years, there are possibly more Nigerians here in Houston than anywhere else in the world outside of Nigeria--more than NYC, LA or Chicago. I miss the walkability of Boston and how easy it was to run into so many people compared to the seclusion you feel in a driving city. Even though Houston is pouring hundreds of millions into bicycle trails at this moment, I know it will take a long time for this spread-out city to afford as many opportunities to bump into all sorts of people every day outside of a few key areas, and for that reason it's possible to live here and encounter little diversity.
- rdouble 14y ago
  Whether or not you think it's funny, Silicon Valley is statistically the most diverse community in the USA.
  - stephenhuey 14y ago
    How do you mean? Fort Bend County in the Houston area is the most ethnically diverse: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Fort-Bend-County-is-nation-s-most-ethnically-4403675.php http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Fort... But I've no doubt Silicon Valley is fairly diverse, although there were a bunch of articles in the last couple of years pointing out how little diversity there is in the management layers of Silicon Valley companies.
    - rdouble 14y ago
      San Jose (the largest city in Silicon Valley) has no demographic group comprising more than 35% of the entire population. http://www.forbes.com/sites/trulia/2012/11/13/finding-diversity-in-america/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/trulia/2012/11/13/finding-divers...
      - stephenhuey 14y ago
        I'll allow a truce. :) I was hanging out with Rice sociologist Dr. Michael Emerson this morning so the topic is near and dear to my heart! FWIW they're all very close right now, and the biggest surprise is that Houston is so diverse--it has undergone the most rapid transformation of any large city in America in the last 3 decades, which means it's on track for rapidly outpacing the others in ethnic diversity (there were few Hispanics and Asians here when I was born, and now there are huge numbers).
        rdouble 14y ago
        Houston has the advantages of affordable property, more jobs for a wider range of backgrounds and few limits to development. It seems natural that new immigrants not specifically involved in the software industry would choose Houston over Silicon Valley. Especially if they already know they can take the humidity.
rayiner 14y ago
Are you joking? Silicon Valley is overwhelmingly suburban middle class white, with a substantial minority of suburban white-washed asians and indians. It's incredibly homogenous culturally. New York is far and away the most diverse place in the country, and only a few places in the world can compare (e.g. London).
- rdouble 14y ago
  San Jose is the main city in Silicon Valley and is the most diverse city in the country. http://www.forbes.com/sites/trulia/2012/11/13/finding-diversity-in-america/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/trulia/2012/11/13/finding-divers...
- richardjordan 14y ago
  > "white-washed asians and indians" I am pretty sure a lot of Asian and Indian people will find that racist and offensive. I certainly do, and I'm neither. As to New York, per my comment NY might be but Wall Street sucks the oxygen out of the talent room, similarly London where the City takes all the tech talent and starves startups of top-tier talent.
  - carterschonwald 14y ago
    Bullshit. Most startups are boring ass websites with none viable business ideas. They do not need baller engineers. If they have a working business eventually, they're competing to hire the smart folks based upon the mix of compensation, work and colleagues. If you can't build a biz that can sustain a compelling mix of those three hiring ingredients, you aren't allowed to successfully hire good engineers. People: you aren't allowed to blame your crap hiring strategy on NYC finance firms scooping up all the smart engineers that wanted to work in finance. There are so many smart engineers who do / want live in NYC and Not work in finance. If you're failing to hire people it's because you have at least one of the following: a work environment that isn't a sane/pleasant place to spend 40 hours a week, crap compensation, or your biz is a CRUD website with the personality of a heavily used smelly sponge. No particular category of business "deserves" smart people, they work hard to get those folks. And frankly, most startups are just crud websites. Additionally, the vast majority of interesting engineering challenges only happen at larger organizations. (That said, there are many small tech businesses that have really cool tech challenges, but that's the exception rather than the rule). Let me restate that: most startups have boring work, terrible hours and crap pay. Tl;dr to quote a favorite phrase of an awesome friend / software engineer: "fuck you, pay me money [if you want me to work with you]" New York is a lovely place to live, one of the most truely urban and actually diverse locales one the planet. Certainly the only city in the US with subways that work 24/7 and good food at all hours. Not having to drive is a beautiful healthy thing.
deleted 14y ago
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ArkyBeagle 14y ago
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/05/houston-most-diverse_n_1321089.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/05/houston-most-divers... Houston is more diverse than New York.

fossuser 14y ago

While I think your point about cultural issues causing problems in other areas has truth to it, I think it's funny to call silicon valley the most diverse community in the US. The valley exists on the doorstep of stanford - an incredibly highly selected (this year the most highly selective) university. In addition to that a large portion of the people I've met here come from fabulously wealthy backgrounds (dynasty money) where failure is largely irrelevant because there is always a near infinite supply of backup money. I think part of the reason the valley does well is because the population is some of the most homogenous and highly selected in the world all living in the same place and there is enough wealth to try things.

richardjordan 14y ago
I think it's hard to argue that San Francisco is not the major city most open to cultural diversity in the country. The Bay Area is very diverse ethnically. New York perhaps but its economy is dominated by finance which sucks the air out. The Bay Area's openness is key to the success of Silicon Valley. Stanford certainly has a lot of positive influence, sure, but there's more to the Bay Area than Palo Alto. EDIT: To clarify not just ethnic diversity, but diversity of opinion and openness to all kinds of cultural diversity. For example I see a non-trivial number of non-straight people in startups, and it's pretty easy to argue many parts of the world claiming they want to create a new Silicon Valley are not as embracing as the Bay Area when it comes to sexual identity.
- rdouble 14y ago
  San Francisco is in the top 10 most diverse cities in the country, but both San Jose and Oakland are more diverse than SF.
  - stephenhuey 14y ago
    Yep, and the Houston area is now even more diverse than LA and NYC. Here's hoping a couple decades from now the kids of the current residents will be thought leaders in a local version of Silicon Valley.
    - richardjordan 14y ago
      So I'll have to respectfully take a different view on Houston having lived there for three years (admittedly returning to the Bay Area in 2007). There's certainly diversity in ethnicity in that there are large population of whites, african-americans and hispanics. Outside of those groups there's a large fall-off. But more importantly a key weakness of Houston is its lack of cultural diversity. I found to be the most parochial city of 4million people I'd ever experienced (and I've lived in a lot of places). It is not really remotely comparable to something like Silicon Valley in that regard, sadly. However, I share your hope that the increased ethnic diversity, and the general nationwide cultural trends of young people being more open to new things and will become thought leaders. Of course my reluctant skepticism comes from what I experienced (great anecdote for another venue) of the control of thought leadership by a very narrow good-ole-boy network which appears pretty well entrenched and able to ride out the best intentions of upcoming potential leaders. I was shocked by the examples of outright corruption while living there. Not to dampen your optimism - I am absolutely cheering you on to be right, as I'd love to see it, but I'm sadly pessimistic.
      - stephenhuey 14y ago
        I'll admit you may not have seen the cultural diversity in the area since the city is spread out, but Houston has as many OR MORE ethnicities than LA or NYC since the last decade has seen a huge increase in the number of refugees and students and workers from every little corner of the globe you could imagine. In addition to the Vietnamese and Chinese who have been here for a while, there are now large numbers of Indians and folks from Central Asia and the Middle East who may not yet be counted. Having lived in Nigeria as a kid, I'm excited that as of the last couple of years, there are possibly more Nigerians here in Houston than anywhere else in the world outside of Nigeria--more than NYC, LA or Chicago. I miss the walkability of Boston and how easy it was to run into so many people compared to the seclusion you feel in a driving city. Even though Houston is pouring hundreds of millions into bicycle trails at this moment, I know it will take a long time for this spread-out city to afford as many opportunities to bump into all sorts of people every day outside of a few key areas, and for that reason it's possible to live here and encounter little diversity.
rdouble 14y ago
Whether or not you think it's funny, Silicon Valley is statistically the most diverse community in the USA.
- stephenhuey 14y ago
  How do you mean? Fort Bend County in the Houston area is the most ethnically diverse: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Fort-Bend-County-is-nation-s-most-ethnically-4403675.php http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Fort... But I've no doubt Silicon Valley is fairly diverse, although there were a bunch of articles in the last couple of years pointing out how little diversity there is in the management layers of Silicon Valley companies.
  - rdouble 14y ago
    San Jose (the largest city in Silicon Valley) has no demographic group comprising more than 35% of the entire population. http://www.forbes.com/sites/trulia/2012/11/13/finding-diversity-in-america/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/trulia/2012/11/13/finding-divers...
    - stephenhuey 14y ago
      I'll allow a truce. :) I was hanging out with Rice sociologist Dr. Michael Emerson this morning so the topic is near and dear to my heart! FWIW they're all very close right now, and the biggest surprise is that Houston is so diverse--it has undergone the most rapid transformation of any large city in America in the last 3 decades, which means it's on track for rapidly outpacing the others in ethnic diversity (there were few Hispanics and Asians here when I was born, and now there are huge numbers).
      - rdouble 14y ago
        Houston has the advantages of affordable property, more jobs for a wider range of backgrounds and few limits to development. It seems natural that new immigrants not specifically involved in the software industry would choose Houston over Silicon Valley. Especially if they already know they can take the humidity.

rayiner 14y ago

Are you joking? Silicon Valley is overwhelmingly suburban middle class white, with a substantial minority of suburban white-washed asians and indians. It's incredibly homogenous culturally. New York is far and away the most diverse place in the country, and only a few places in the world can compare (e.g. London).

rdouble 14y ago
San Jose is the main city in Silicon Valley and is the most diverse city in the country. http://www.forbes.com/sites/trulia/2012/11/13/finding-diversity-in-america/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/trulia/2012/11/13/finding-divers...
richardjordan 14y ago
> "white-washed asians and indians" I am pretty sure a lot of Asian and Indian people will find that racist and offensive. I certainly do, and I'm neither. As to New York, per my comment NY might be but Wall Street sucks the oxygen out of the talent room, similarly London where the City takes all the tech talent and starves startups of top-tier talent.
- carterschonwald 14y ago
  Bullshit. Most startups are boring ass websites with none viable business ideas. They do not need baller engineers. If they have a working business eventually, they're competing to hire the smart folks based upon the mix of compensation, work and colleagues. If you can't build a biz that can sustain a compelling mix of those three hiring ingredients, you aren't allowed to successfully hire good engineers. People: you aren't allowed to blame your crap hiring strategy on NYC finance firms scooping up all the smart engineers that wanted to work in finance. There are so many smart engineers who do / want live in NYC and Not work in finance. If you're failing to hire people it's because you have at least one of the following: a work environment that isn't a sane/pleasant place to spend 40 hours a week, crap compensation, or your biz is a CRUD website with the personality of a heavily used smelly sponge. No particular category of business "deserves" smart people, they work hard to get those folks. And frankly, most startups are just crud websites. Additionally, the vast majority of interesting engineering challenges only happen at larger organizations. (That said, there are many small tech businesses that have really cool tech challenges, but that's the exception rather than the rule). Let me restate that: most startups have boring work, terrible hours and crap pay. Tl;dr to quote a favorite phrase of an awesome friend / software engineer: "fuck you, pay me money [if you want me to work with you]" New York is a lovely place to live, one of the most truely urban and actually diverse locales one the planet. Certainly the only city in the US with subways that work 24/7 and good food at all hours. Not having to drive is a beautiful healthy thing.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

ArkyBeagle 14y ago

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/05/houston-most-diverse_n_1321089.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/05/houston-most-divers... Houston is more diverse than New York.