> ...meet a startup where competence is the only currency that counts. I don't disagree with your overall conclusion that it's going to be difficult for govern

> ...meet a startup where competence is the only currency that counts. I don't disagree with your overall conclusion that it's going to be difficult for government to make itself more attractive to many segments of the labor pool, but this notion that Bay Area startups are pure meritocracies is a myth. Startups pass up highly competent candidates all the time (citing "culture fit") and while there may be somewhat less tolerance at small companies for employees who are completely incapable of carrying some weight (out of pure necessity), there are plenty of crappy, poorly-architected applications being built at Bay Area startups. You just don't encounter them every day because relatively few people actually use them. > It doesn't matter if you're friendly, it doesn't matter how long you've been in that position, here nobody cares about these things, although being friendly is nice it is not enough, and in many places you can get by somehow in a way you can't in the Bay Area tech scene. It's worth pointing out that many folks in the "Bay Area tech scene" would have a hard time getting by in other markets and industries if they could even get into them. Not every company in the Bay Area is Google or Palantir, and not every person who can thrive at the type of companies that are plentiful here is capable of thriving in environments where other types of skills may be more commonly required.