4 ms·

I get annoyed by the lack of understanding. Most of the anti-SV crowd want the VC funding and the same essential culture. They just want to move it to another

I get annoyed by the lack of understanding. Most of the anti-SV crowd want the VC funding and the same essential culture. They just want to move it to another place in the country. That would be a marginal improvement-- and massively beneficial to me as a 30-year-old who'd be able to get in on the ground level and buy housing-- but it wouldn't fix the underlying problem. It's like a revolution where the people revolting want the same damn system but with themselves on top. You can't have it both ways. Silicon Valley is defective because of its culture. If you copy the VC feudalism and the California softie NIMBYism somewhere else, that place will become just as broken in a matter of a few years (assuming that copy operation is successful, which it almost certainly won't be).

stcredzero 13y ago
If SV is as severely broken as you say, then it should be possible to repeat the same phenomenon elsewhere, but better, provided you can manage to attract true talent which has been cast-off by SV for the wrong reasons. Create an alternative without the sexism, ageism, and groupthink, and it will attract the mistakenly rejected talent. Getting the right ingredients together might take the resources of a state, however.
- potatolicious 13y ago
  I can't speak for michaelochurch, but I have been reading his comments for the last while. I think his point is that the root problem of Silicon Valley isn't the sexism, ageism, groupthink, etc - those are just symptoms of a larger core systemic problem. By putting all the power and attention on a few extremely wealthy key funding players (aka VCs) the cultural distortion is all but inevitable. Picking up and setting up shop elsewhere is in the long run pointless if we're just going to mint a few new extremely wealthy VCs and continue to cycle.
  - stcredzero 13y ago
    I think his point is that the root problem of Silicon Valley isn't the sexism, ageism, groupthink, etc Of course, but it is such alienation that provides an opening for the establishment of alternative scenes. The real difficulty is setting up the right context. (Culture that attracts creatives, high quality educational institutions with enlightened attitudes about IP, presence of capital.) hence the need for the "resources of a state."
walshemj 13y ago
yes I want that 100k job right in my local town - unfortunately the real world isn't like that.
logfromblammo 13y ago
Not quite. What I want is to be able to easily find a new job on the strength of my skills and aptitude rather than my social connections, without having to move my entire household. Again. I want to be able to work with both younger people and older people, with managers that used to do what I do, even if they weren't as good at it. And I want a 40-hour work week or less. That isn't exactly a tall order. It is possible to find companies that do treat employees like people with lives outside the office. Larger and more dysfunctional companies apparently like to swallow them whole, digest them, and crap out the useless cost centers. It would be nice to not have to uproot and relocate every time that happens.
- michaelochurch 13y ago
  I agree with everything you just said. Do you think the existence you described is the norm in the Valley? Or elsewhere? Or nowhere? I guess I'm cynical, but my sense is that most people bashing the Valley are advocating for making that same VC culture more geographically available. Obviously, there are people like you and me who have more insight into the problem.
  - logfromblammo 13y ago
    No, I don't. I have worked for a few companies that were good, and a few that were bad. I very much prefer the former, but every single one of those jobs were purchased by a bad company and subsequently piped to /dev/screw-you-buddy . If I were in SV, I could probably jump right into another similar job without too much disruption. But I wasn't. Two of the three times, I had to move to a different state of the US to even come close to what I had before. And where I am now is mired in endemic mismanagement thanks to all the military-industrial complex money flowing through the streets. Since companies don't seem to have any inkling of loyalty to employees any more, I need to find my job security in the ability to quickly find a new and similar job on short notice. That is a poor substitute for just one company that does not have its head up its own backside, but those seem increasingly hard to find.
    - michaelochurch 13y ago

stcredzero 13y ago

If SV is as severely broken as you say, then it should be possible to repeat the same phenomenon elsewhere, but better, provided you can manage to attract true talent which has been cast-off by SV for the wrong reasons. Create an alternative without the sexism, ageism, and groupthink, and it will attract the mistakenly rejected talent. Getting the right ingredients together might take the resources of a state, however.

potatolicious 13y ago
I can't speak for michaelochurch, but I have been reading his comments for the last while. I think his point is that the root problem of Silicon Valley isn't the sexism, ageism, groupthink, etc - those are just symptoms of a larger core systemic problem. By putting all the power and attention on a few extremely wealthy key funding players (aka VCs) the cultural distortion is all but inevitable. Picking up and setting up shop elsewhere is in the long run pointless if we're just going to mint a few new extremely wealthy VCs and continue to cycle.
- stcredzero 13y ago
  I think his point is that the root problem of Silicon Valley isn't the sexism, ageism, groupthink, etc Of course, but it is such alienation that provides an opening for the establishment of alternative scenes. The real difficulty is setting up the right context. (Culture that attracts creatives, high quality educational institutions with enlightened attitudes about IP, presence of capital.) hence the need for the "resources of a state."

walshemj 13y ago

yes I want that 100k job right in my local town - unfortunately the real world isn't like that.

logfromblammo 13y ago

Not quite. What I want is to be able to easily find a new job on the strength of my skills and aptitude rather than my social connections, without having to move my entire household. Again. I want to be able to work with both younger people and older people, with managers that used to do what I do, even if they weren't as good at it. And I want a 40-hour work week or less. That isn't exactly a tall order. It is possible to find companies that do treat employees like people with lives outside the office. Larger and more dysfunctional companies apparently like to swallow them whole, digest them, and crap out the useless cost centers. It would be nice to not have to uproot and relocate every time that happens.

michaelochurch 13y ago
I agree with everything you just said. Do you think the existence you described is the norm in the Valley? Or elsewhere? Or nowhere? I guess I'm cynical, but my sense is that most people bashing the Valley are advocating for making that same VC culture more geographically available. Obviously, there are people like you and me who have more insight into the problem.
- logfromblammo 13y ago
  No, I don't. I have worked for a few companies that were good, and a few that were bad. I very much prefer the former, but every single one of those jobs were purchased by a bad company and subsequently piped to /dev/screw-you-buddy . If I were in SV, I could probably jump right into another similar job without too much disruption. But I wasn't. Two of the three times, I had to move to a different state of the US to even come close to what I had before. And where I am now is mired in endemic mismanagement thanks to all the military-industrial complex money flowing through the streets. Since companies don't seem to have any inkling of loyalty to employees any more, I need to find my job security in the ability to quickly find a new and similar job on short notice. That is a poor substitute for just one company that does not have its head up its own backside, but those seem increasingly hard to find.
  - michaelochurch 13y ago