

What's the dark side of Silicon Valley? - joeldidit
https://www.quora.com/Silicon-Valley/Whats-the-dark-side-of-Silicon-Valley?snids=3290933243

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api
I am yet again reminded that I made the right decision to not go there.

I really think the Valley is coasting on its 90s mythos of being a hotbed of
genuine creativity, real opportunity, and interesting cutting-edge culture.
Today it sounds like an overcrowded, overbought, overpriced workaholic golden
handcuff treadmill. The radical futurist "burning man" culture seems almost
gone, having been priced out or workaholiced out-- no time to do interesting
"maker" things or create culture when you're doing 80 hour work weeks. I know
a few people who live there and they say the same.

A few replies mentioned Modafinil/Armodafinil and Adderall. I have nothing
against nootropic stacking, but feeling like you _have_ to take something just
to keep up with the baseline is a sign of a deeply dysfunctional workaholic
culture.

Many other large overhyped cities are not much better. If I wanted a mega-city
I'd pick New York-- expensive as fsck but tons of culture and a deep, diverse
economy. Also genuinely not needing a car cuts into the cost somewhat.

A lot of the downsides mentioned apply to startup culture no matter where you
are. Fake mentors, incubator gators, networkaholics, and sanctimonious self-
righteous sociopaths are major potholes on the entrepreneureal highway.

Where to go to do genuinely innovative work or really bootstrap a labor of
love?

The former, I'd say hard to say. Maybe academia if you can handle a vow of
poverty, or maybe an established company with a lot of R&D going on.

The latter? I'd look at smaller tech centers like Austin or Boulder, less
overbought cities like Seattle, Chicago, and Toronto, or towns and smallish
cities with a tech, R&D, geek, or major university presence or just a nice
quality of life.

Some examples of the latter include Bloomington (IN), Lansing (MI), Ann Arbor
(MI), Asheville (NC), Oak Ridge (TN), Orlando (FL), Roswell (NM), Santa Fe
(NM), Huntsville (AL), etc. Note that a lot of these are in the South or the
Midwest, not the trendiest of places.

Then there are total contrarian choices: Detroit (cheap real estate,
interesting maker subculture) or bumblefuck nowhere.

