Silicon Valley - Still Important To Tech Advances 77
mrspin writes "This week the The New York Times sparked a lively debate by publishing an article which argued that, when it comes to creating innovative technology, geography still matters — and that Silicon Valley is the place to be. It's certainly true that Silicon Valley, compared with other innovation hot-spots, has the much needed Venture Capital and the connections that enable money to flow from one new company to another. Want proof? ZDNet takes a look at LinkSViewer, a new web-based visual networking tool for exploring capital relationships in Silicon Valley." Is the success of Valley-area projects the result of a more creative environment, or is the cachet of the area (and the resulting money) the reason behind their success?
Like financial centers in New York and London... (Score:3, Insightful)
It's all about networking (Score:5, Informative)
In my career since College I've worked in two cities and have worked in five companies. Of those five companies, I was hired totally cold by only one of them. In all the other cases, I knew somebody who worked for the company who I'd worked for/with in the past and was able to use that to get my foot in the door. Now take that concept and multiply it thousands of times amongst the social networks that develop in a limited geographic area with a strong focus on a particular kind of business.
So I think ultimately it's less about the cash in the valley, and more about the people there. The cash follows the people and the ideas.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
And I bet that's the company you would go back to if given a choice?
I find that employment through a rigorous process, i.e. cold, yields a better long term career--you work hard at it and you expect the company to follow up and treat you well. And you don't have the social ills that come with using your network: your rated by merit and if you leave, you'll be sure why you did vs. the politics of a network. A lot
Well... (Score:2)
Also, I think a lot of it depends on the nature of the network and how you use it. My take is to use those relationships to establish credibility, that is, I expect I can get the jobs on my own skills, but knowing somebody helps establish that when you say you can do something you're in fact capable of it.
New Silicon Valley is not in the USA (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Like financial centers in New York and London.. (Score:1)
In the late 90's people were flocking to the valley to write web pages for 90 and 100 thou. They got there and found rent on an apartment took a big chunk and then they were spending hours in traffic. And each and everyone that showed up drove prices higher and made traffic worse. Part of the tech crash was simpl
It's all about the benjamins (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Don't you mean 1980's? The 90's tech bubble seemingly came out of Silicon Valley because it was already important to computer technology. Moreover, it had already been in the public eye for a very long period of time. If you don't believe me, go rewatch the pilot episode of Knight Rider: Knight of the Phoenix.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
I disagree (Score:2, Funny)
Lovely view of the hills (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Geography ALWAYS matters (Score:1)
Example (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Yeah, right. Get real.
KFG
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
OTOH, maybe this cold medicine is screwing with me.
Re: (Score:1)
not good for long term development (Score:2, Interesting)
Silicon Valley is a classic (Score:2)
Combined with a California IP law. (Score:4, Interesting)
But another factor is a small but very important piece of IP law in California:
If an employee makes an invention, on his own time, without using company materials or resources, and it's not in the company's immediate or likely future business path, it belongs to the employee. No matter what the employment contract says. (The contracts generally explicitly include one page which IS this provision.)
The result is that people who invented something that their company wouldn't be developing could rent the building across the street and build their own startup to develop and market it. And many of them did - and did it again a couple years later - repeat for decades.
The result is that startups budded off and grew like a yeast culture.
Any other state that wants to build its own version of Silicon Valley needs to clone this provision into their own state law.
If this is done, and they can provide an alternaive to California's high crime, high tax, and oppressive political-correctness, they might see an even bigger boom in one of their major university towns.
Developers, developers, developers (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Reputation Matters (Score:4, Interesting)
Alabama is proof. We have one of the top research hospitals in the United States [wikipedia.org]. We have a whole city full of freaking rocket scientists [wikipedia.org] which incidentally has the nation's highest concentration of engineers. Jimmy Wales [wikipedia.org] grew up here. We had three winners on American Idol (who no one cared about until then) and lots of good local bands (who no one cares about now.) Every generation, Alabama produces enough interesting people to completely replace the asshats who are responsible for Alabama's history - but then they all move, leaving the same old rednecks in charge.
Reputation is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's the sole reason why Alabama is still socially conservative.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I may.
There are advantages to living here. The cost of living is very low. I like my job. Should I lose it, I know a number of people in the local industry. And if I'm moving to find a different culture, that's going to have to be a long move.
On the other hand, I might discover I have people skills if I move somewhere with different people.
Re: (Score:2)
Not that there's anything wrong with wanting to live amongst people who think similar to you, just saying that you might find yourself well-served by honing your people skills in an area where it really is a challenge to do.
Re: (Score:2)
Bravo. If you can't get along with someone of a different political persuasion, then you're taking life WAAAAY too seriously. Take the cork out your ass and start acting human.
I'm a radical libertarian. My best friend in college was an affirmed and unashamed marxist. We had no problems getting along, even when discussing politics. But something has happened in the subsequent years. People on the left stopped talking to people on the righ
Re: (Score:2)
I'm a radical libertarian. My best friend in college was an affirmed and unashamed marxist. We had no problems getting along, even when discussing politics. But something has happened in the subsequent years. People on the left stopped talking to people on the right, and vice versa. They isolated themselves into insular enclaves.
Radical libertarians and Marxists have a lot in common. Both think that the current economic system is crap and should be replaced with a radically different system. Both decry the way that big business uses government to maintain itself (although they have very different views on how to fix that; i.e. reducing government power versus shifting the flow of control towards one where the government runs the business). Depending on the brand of Marxist, both may believe that government should stay out of pe
Re: (Score:2)
It doesn't take skill to get along with people who think just like you.
I can get along with people who disagree with me. The problem comes in when all the people who disagree with me agree with each other.
Re: (Score:2)
Self-promotion (Score:2)
"ZDNet did not take a look at this. You took a look at this, and posted it to your ZDNet blog.
Full disclosure = A good thing."
Everynickelstaken's post is a little lost down there. I think it should get more play.
Click on: "ZDNet take a look at this and you get: http://blogs.zdnet.com/social/?p=93 [zdnet.com]
and you get "Steve O'Hear," ZDNet blogger extraordinaire.
Click on "mrspin" and get this: http://www.insearchofthevalley.com/ [insearchofthevalley.com]
and you get "Steve O'Hear" again!
Kind of recurs
Re: (Score:2)
I see nothing wrong with some self-promotion, and if ZDnet lets you blog for them then ZDnet is publishing it. Companies don't say things, people do. People will always bag on you but they're not usually doing anything but complaining anyways.
I also think the topic area's very interesting and too often people just think there's this random crowd out there that's doing things in the Valley when really there are a lot more connections than are public. There's also the
Money in a given area ... (Score:2)
The Valley will continue to be important for as long as California can keep the funding and investment laws in place.
Nerd celebrity status (Score:1, Interesting)
It's turned in to a cyclical thing now as the VC's came here to be bigwigs in something else besides entertainment and, of course, they want to be close to their money, so they make sure the companies they're pushing stay local.
Plus, Northern California is a pretty decent pla
I'm not a panhandler, I'm an alms collection agent (Score:1)
"exploring capital relationships"???
Whatever happened to the good, old, straightforward begging for cash???
Re: (Score:1)
I'm planning to make the move out there in about 4 months. I'm currently on the job hunt.
Are you looking for work out there as well?? If so, how is the hunt going?
I know when I visited Palo Alto I had a great time just walking around. It was a really nice area, and I could just hop back on the train to get back to San Francisco.
good luck!
Outsourcing killed the heartland (Score:3, Interesting)
Easy answer (Score:2)
Neither. It's the fact that there is a concentration of engineers here. As simple as that. If you start up a software development company, you want to hire software developers. Guess where you'll find software developers? In Silicon Valley! That's also where you'll find sales and marketing folks with a software development background. Most p
importance of Silicon Valley and Queen of England (Score:1)
As a geographical location.
The same as Queen is important for England today.
Yet it does not mean that Silicon Valley location is a panacea, or some sort of passing score.
The really successful startups don't even need venture money. Did you hear that?
Some companies are in Chicago, others are in East Coast, and some are in garages.
What really important is who in this garage, and not where it is located.
It's where the money (and the cost) is (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Frankly, I can't think of any place more boring, stifling, and backward than the suburban sprawl of North Carolina.
*There's a reason the Bay Area cost of living is so high -- it's called supply and demand.
Re: (Score:2)
This sort of tripe usually comes from people who have either never lived in North Carolina, or never bothered to leave the confines of CARY. The Triangle is actually a pretty great place to live. We have lots of great things to do, a very diverse population, high concentration of tech geeks, and a rapidly building undergound art/music scene.
If you come here with preconceptions of what to ex
The SV is like a homerun leader (Score:2)
I think that the dot-com dumbness was mostly confined to the SV (except for the investors). At least I didn't see those software developers that were in it only for the money in my area.
used to live there (Score:2)
One can make a case for living within a local UPS radius from SV to make ordering stuff (as in physical) out of there, but if one has the good fortune to live within a reasonable distance of a Fry's, that's almost as good.
I think that unless one's VCs insist that one put the startup in SV, it's a lot more cost-effective to find a place f
Re: (Score:1)
the "relationship network" (Score:2)
The problem here is that the "low hanging fruit" in terms of ideas within that network got mined out years ago, and if you're outside the network, good luck in getting a hearing regardless of how "outside the box" or how good it is, you'll need it.
Boston area too... (Score:1)