[Genghis Khan]

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/...act_packer

Great critique of Silicon Valley and the bubble it lives in. I'm sure a a lot of people here will appreciate the article.

Best paragraph:

Quote:

It suddenly occurred to me that the hottest tech start-ups are solving all the problems of being twenty years old, with cash on hand, because that’s who thinks them up.

Finally, a proper critique of Silicon Valley. As an engineer (hardware), I've met far too many kids with this mentality of 'let's change the world' using iPhone apps. Don't get me wrong, I like software, but it isn't really helping poor people in 3rd world countries that much.

Quote:

Sam Lessin, who leads Facebook’s “identity product group,” which is in charge of the social network’s Timeline feature, posited that traditional measures of wealth might not be applicable in the era of social media. He said, “I think as communication technology gets less expensive, and people can entertain each other and interact with each other and do things for each other much more efficiently, what’s actually going to happen is that the percentage of the economy that’s in cash is going to decline. Some people will choose to build social capital rather than financial capital. Given the opportunity to spend an extra hour or an extra dollar, they will choose to spend time with friends. It might be that the G.D.P., in the broader sense, is actually growing quite quickly—it’s just that we’re not measuring it properly.”

Right, because the middle-class hasn't been getting slaughtered the past decades.

I apologize if this has been posted before, but I did extensively used the Search function and couldn' find anything.

[Roosh]

Silicon Valley has the lottery mentality of wanting to come up with that killer, disruptive app that makes everyone a billion dollars. It meshes well with American culture.

German culture, on the other hand, works on incremental change and improvement, that while much less glamorous, has a stronger economical foundation.

This article looks into Germany's rise in economical power:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives...-question/

It actually suggests that they should adopt the American model more, but I'm not convinced.

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

I don't know if it's about Silicon Valley, but this "imaginary solution" problem does exist in startups. I've recently been to a conference with 30 fresh and promising projects, and over 25 were some kind of Ponzi scheme that has no intrinsic value, but only depends on having a huge number of people join and then doing something with them. It's a huge problem. I am also seeing ideas with real solutions, such as electricity saving devices, that never move beyond the app stage.

[Blaster]

The trick is finding the right point to interface new technology with real world things people care about. Airbnb, Amazon, Google Streetview, etc.

I think the focus will be soon shifting away from cheesy internet startups towards cheap automation/robotics companies based on technology similar to Arduino and Rasberry Pi.

[Therapsid]

Paypal founder and Facebook investor Peter Thiel has a good response to criticisms of Silicon Valley.

He agrees that the Valley has become unduly focused upon trivial mobile apps and social media.

However, he points out that the reason why what the press calls "tech" has narrowed to these domains is because the rest of technology has not made the same sort of progress.

He has a funny quote on this issue referring to Twitter: "We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters."

So, while I think Silicon Valley is fair game, ask yourself this: why aren't there more technology centers in America? Why aren't there 10 or 20 Silicon Valleys? We live in a country of 314 million people, yet technological innovation seems to be extremely narrowly confined to a handful of urban centers and universities.

It's funny that that the New Yorker should publish a critique of Silicon Valley considering New York City, despite trumpeting itself as the unofficial capital of the world, produces remarkably little in the way of new technology.

Considering all the smart and affluent people in NY, why aren't whole new industries emerging from that region? That's a much more interesting question than any armchair critique of Silicon Valley.

[Blackhawk]

What makes Silicon Valley, and California in general, so special?

Non-competition agreements aren't legal in California. During the Gold Mining days, immigrant mining engineers that switched employeers were sued... and the jury laughed at them and told them to go to hell, talented employees that had traveled all the way from Cornwall's tin mines to work on gold mines in California could work for whoever they wanted, and mine owners shouldn't treat them as slaves that they owned. That legal legacy remains today.

Employer non-competition restrictions are standard in every other state of the USA, and actively enforced. And the only way to get away from them ...is to move to California, where these regularly get thrown out of court. A hell of a lot of people live here waiting for those agreements to time out (they're typically "for two years after employment"). When I heard Roosh was travelling the world, I immediately assumed he was waiting for his non-competition agreement to time out.

Other states talk about creating "tech corridors" and "start up campuses". But the important ingredient they're always missing is they're never willing to change their laws to give the same legal freedoms to employees that California offers. In all other states, employers actively sue every ex-employee that leave their job and goes to work for another company, much less a competitor. Hell, the entire conclusion of the 3rd season of MadMen was about how could Don Draper get out of his non-competition contract he had with his current firm. It's that much of a problem.

Meanwhile, in Silicon Valley it's considered normal to switch between competitors. Worked for Google? You can now be head of Yahoo! Does anyone sue you? Nope, can't under California state law.

I simply mention this should anyone actually be in a position they can help their state's economy. Don't waste your time building campuses and infrastructure. Repeal non-competition employment laws, and the rest will happen on its own.

[Genghis Khan]

(08-29-2013 09:24 AM)Therapsid Wrote:  

Paypal founder and Facebook investor Peter Thiel has a good response to criticisms of Silicon Valley.

He agrees that the Valley has become unduly focused upon trivial mobile apps and social media.

However, he points out that the reason why what the press calls "tech" has narrowed to these domains is because the rest of technology has not made the same sort of progress.

He has a funny quote on this issue referring to Twitter: "We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters."

So, while I think Silicon Valley is fair game, ask yourself this: why aren't there more technology centers in America? Why aren't there 10 or 20 Silicon Valleys? We live in a country of 314 million people, yet technological innovation seems to be extremely narrowly confined to a handful of urban centers and universities.

It's funny that that the New Yorker should publish a critique of Silicon Valley considering New York City, despite trumpeting itself as the unofficial capital of the world, produces remarkably little in the way of new technology.

Considering all the smart and affluent people in NY, why aren't whole new industries emerging from that region? That's a much more interesting question than any armchair critique of Silicon Valley.

Historically speaking, the universities in California took the lead with technology (semiconductor industry). They had the infrastructure to build microchips (fabrication facilities, cleanrooms, etc.). Which is why Silicon Valley came about. That being said, the money always came from NY. I'll emphasize it again, CA had the infrastructure, NY had the money. It's effectively been a first-mover advantage for CA. Cleanrooms and fab facilities cost billions of dollars. It was easier to invest in CA than build everything in NY. This is why there aren't 10 or 20 Silicon Valleys and technological innovation seems to be extremely narrowly confined to a handful of urban centers and universities.

Now, things have changed. I know a bunch of start-ups that are brewing in NY. Why? Because you don't need the same kind of infrastructure you did 30-40 years ago. Now anyone can build apps from anywhere. You still can't build microchips from anywhere, you need dedicated facilities. And investors are more than glad to invest closer to home. NYC is building a tech corridor. Cornell has surpassed Stanford in cleanroom facilities. It's happening.

[Cattle Rustler]

(08-29-2013 09:42 AM)Blackhawk Wrote:  

I simply mention this should anyone actually be in a position they can help their state's economy. Don't waste your time building campuses and infrastructure. Repeal non-competition employment laws, and the rest will happen on its own.

Someone call the ROFL-copter.

While non-competes are non-existent in California many tech companies have made indirect clauses with one another, promising not to recruit another partner's employees. Companies found a loophole to exploit.

http://gawker.com/5279072/email-details-...-employees

Quote:

A December 2007 e-mail message written by a Google recruiter and obtained by The New York Times suggests that the company might have had an agreement with Apple on recruiting.

Laura Sheppard, a contract recruiter at Google, sent the e-mail message to a job candidate asking him to put her in touch with another potential candidate. "It is a bit touchy since he works for Apple," Ms. Sheppard wrote, adding that Google had "a nonsolicit agreement with them."

-----------------------------------------------------
My problems with SV and start-ups are:

1. Sense of superiority (body language, speech, attitude)
2. Lack of awareness (There's poor people? OMG!)
3. Unable to solve actual problems (hobos haven't been disrupted nor want to acknowledge their existence)
4. Entitled attitude (I work in tech, you don't)
5. Invasion of bro-N-hos (frat guys moved from Wall Street to SV)*
   

* - These guys diluted a bit of the vibe going on, real techies are different than these guys.

[Bad Hussar]

(08-29-2013 08:55 AM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

I don't know if it's about Silicon Valley, but this "imaginary solution" problem does exist in startups. I've recently been to a conference with 30 fresh and promising projects, and over 25 were some kind of Ponzi scheme that has no intrinsic value, but only depends on having a huge number of people join and then doing something with them. It's a huge problem. I am also seeing ideas with real solutions, such as electricity saving devices, that never move beyond the app stage.

I think investors are blinded by the "potential" of software in general. Because a social network, website or app can theoretically be "scaled" quite easily there is a theoretical possibility of astronomical returns. These theoretical returns would be difficult to achieve with a real physical product were scaling up would require much more money (plnt, machinery etc.) and therefore involve more risk.

Not that I don'y like a lot of the successful web based businesses. IMO "disruption" is the best thing to happen to any economy. As a "libertarian" I know full well that my views will never be represented at the top political level in any country in the foreseeable future. It doesn't mean that people can't profit from the results of inane government regulation, which is really what "disruption" is all about. If you can't beat them (politically), beat them up (economically by gunning for their special economic interests.

[Blackhawk]

(08-29-2013 10:02 AM)Cattle Rustler Wrote:  

While non-competes are non-existent in California many tech companies have made indirect clauses with one another, promising not to recruit another partner's employees.

All this means is they don't have their HR departments actively dialing eachother's phone banks to recruit. Instead, there's third party "independent" recruiters doing this for them. And of course if you see a job you like and apply, that's you coming to them, not them coming to you.

There's also a lot of "Lets have our employees work together for this co-project" and the largest politics about these are poaching employees from each side. Again, the rule is, they can't ask you, but you can ask them. And if they do ask you, it's unofficial and off campus to try to not blow up the co-project. Or a former co-worker asked you at a party --which is almost always a beer bash after work.

You may stand down the ROFL-copter of cynicism, sir. In general, contradicting people's first hand, personal experience by quoting internet articles will not get you far in this community. Quoting sensationalist articles from 2009 that purport to quote secret emails from 2007, even less.