3 ms·

I think if you take a look, you'll find that the history of Silicon Valley goes back more than 100 years, and it has continued to boom despite short-term boom/b

by rjurney 17y ago

I think if you take a look, you'll find that the history of Silicon Valley goes back more than 100 years, and it has continued to boom despite short-term boom/bust cycles.

davidw 17y ago
Bingo! I would peg the gold rush as the real beginning of "the California mentality". It's interesting to compare and contrast California with Oregon, where I'm from. Oregon was settled by boring farmer types who set about creating schools and churches and gave dull names to everything[1]. That mentality is still there... people lead good, and often quiet, happy, modest, productive, lives, but there is nothing like the "big bet" startup mentality in the bay area. Even Portland, which has lots of bright tech folks, and isn't that far away from the bay area (flights are plentiful and relatively short) doesn't strike me as having much of a startup scene. And where I'm from, in Eugene... it always seemed to me that no one did much of anything outside of protesting for the cause du jour, despite having a reasonably large, and reasonably good university. Perhaps not in terms of companies/startups, but people are far more "doers" here in Padova than there, to say nothing of the bay area. [1] I would love to do research/find articles on surveys of place names. For instance, the Willamette valley is full of boring biblical/someone's daughter/back home names, but once you get to mining country in southern Oregon, you get more names like "Jumpoff Joe Creek" (look for it driving on I-5 north of Grants Pass). Even the geographical terms change: there are no 'gulches' around Eugene, but plenty in southern Oregon. I wonder about the significance of that.
- defen 17y ago
  Don't forget Boring, Oregon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boring%2C_Oregon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boring%2C_Oregon

3 ms·

I think if you take a look, you'll find that the history of Silicon Valley goes back more than 100 years, and it has continued to boom despite short-term boom/b

by rjurney 17y ago

I think if you take a look, you'll find that the history of Silicon Valley goes back more than 100 years, and it has continued to boom despite short-term boom/bust cycles.

davidw 17y ago
Bingo! I would peg the gold rush as the real beginning of "the California mentality". It's interesting to compare and contrast California with Oregon, where I'm from. Oregon was settled by boring farmer types who set about creating schools and churches and gave dull names to everything[1]. That mentality is still there... people lead good, and often quiet, happy, modest, productive, lives, but there is nothing like the "big bet" startup mentality in the bay area. Even Portland, which has lots of bright tech folks, and isn't that far away from the bay area (flights are plentiful and relatively short) doesn't strike me as having much of a startup scene. And where I'm from, in Eugene... it always seemed to me that no one did much of anything outside of protesting for the cause du jour, despite having a reasonably large, and reasonably good university. Perhaps not in terms of companies/startups, but people are far more "doers" here in Padova than there, to say nothing of the bay area. [1] I would love to do research/find articles on surveys of place names. For instance, the Willamette valley is full of boring biblical/someone's daughter/back home names, but once you get to mining country in southern Oregon, you get more names like "Jumpoff Joe Creek" (look for it driving on I-5 north of Grants Pass). Even the geographical terms change: there are no 'gulches' around Eugene, but plenty in southern Oregon. I wonder about the significance of that.
- defen 17y ago
  Don't forget Boring, Oregon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boring%2C_Oregon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boring%2C_Oregon