
90% of software developers in the US work outside Silicon Valley - cpeterso
http://qz.com/729293/90-of-software-developers-work-outside-silicon-valley/
======
mklim
And the Bay Area is roughly 6,900 square miles vs the 3,806,000 square miles
of the US as a whole. Put another way, Silicon Valley is where you can find
10% of the total number of US developers despite it being only ~0.002% of the
country's landmass. I get the general point the author is trying to make, but
10% in such a small region is still an extraordinarily high number.

~~~
guelo
Landmass is not a useful metric since 75% of the population lives on 3 percent
of the land (according to a quick google search).

~~~
lmkg
A quick Wikipedia search says the whole Bay Area accounts for about 2% of the
population of the US, and Silicon Valley itself a little over 1% (7.65MM &
3.5-4MM total, out of 324MM).

~~~
SilasX
For another metric, I'm getting that the Bay Area GDP is $800 billion [1] vs
the overall US's $18 trillion [2], which would mean the Bay has 4.4% of the
economic activity.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Bay_Area](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Bay_Area)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_States)

~~~
kctess5
Crazy to think that Google accounts for ~10% of that [1].

[1]
[http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/020515/busine...](http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/020515/business-
google.asp)

~~~
acchow
Google also has physical plant properties (think data centers) and offices
around the world that are producing a meaningful portion of their revenue.

Btw, Apple had 3x Google's revenue in 2015.

In any case, Revenue != GDP due to double counting.

~~~
kctess5
Very true. Both are global companies, even though their headquarters are
there. I wonder what fraction of their income can be attributed to the SV
area, and how that translates to their contributions to the GDP.

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steveeq1
Another way to interpret this statistic is "10% of software developers in the
US work in Silicon Valley"

~~~
the_watcher
While only 2% of the US population lives in the Bay Area.

~~~
smb06
The 10% programmers number is for Silicon valley, not Bay Area. So, to compare
apples to apples, we should take the % of US population for Silicon Valley,
not Bay Area.

Which is about 1% of US population (3M people according to google).

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bcheung
This is actually a very surprising statistic to me. I lived in LA and was not
happy with the job offerings at all and moved back to the bay area where I'm
originally from.

I'm also surprised that San Jose has 2x the concentration of software
developers than San Francisco. Maybe its just because I have a startup bias
and that seems to be the trend for startups. Very few startups in SJ compared
to SF.

~~~
twblalock
Most of the established companies are in the San Jose area: Google, Apple,
Intel, Nvidia, Cisco, eBay, Netflix, major defense contractors, satellite
campuses for Amazon and Microsoft, and lots of other companies. Altogether,
they employ more engineers than all of the startups combined.

~~~
Bahamut
Netflix is quite small - some bigger companies include Intuit, Symantec,
LinkedIn, and a slew of major semiconductor companies.

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alanh
The source for this story reports that 89% of software devs work outside the
Valley. 89%. Apparently Qwartz didn't find that number punchy enough.

But yeah, 11% of US software devs live in SV? That is remarkable, although not
surprising.

[http://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=b1c59...](http://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=b1c59eaadfd945a68a59724a59dbf7b1)

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NikolaeVarius
Also a majority of the worlds population lives outside the US. News at 11

~~~
developer2
Haha, thanks for the chuckle. The ability for the US to focus entirely within
their own borders is both depressing and amusing to observe at times. I get
that people will naturally gravitate to caring about their own nation, but
Americans' ability to don blinders that completely disregard the other 95.7%
of the world's population is astounding.

~~~
oldmanjay
What about this article dons blinders in astounding fashion?

~~~
developer2
Aside from the article's title? "90% of software developers work outside
Silicon Valley". Uh, no. 99.99xx% of software developers work outside Silicon
Valley. HN had to adjust its title to include the context of "US". It's part
of SV culture to present themselves as being at _the_ centre of the universe
when it comes to software, when the rest of us know it's the furthest thing
from the truth. SV gets all the attention as the self-proclaimed hub of all
things development, but if you apply a proper global context, SV is hardly a
blip on the radar.

The pride and pure ego involved in having one of the "top 5" on one's resume
is funny to many of us outside the self-flagellating ecosystem.

~~~
geoffmac
A blip? Dude your fooling yourself

~~~
developer2
What does SV represent? As a developer, there is very little difference
between SV and anywhere else. The _business_ money is there. Business money
does not translate to fame and riches to average employees.

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fma
I would be curious to see the percentage change over the years. With the
growth of tech everywhere (note on the map there's lots of big circles) and
cost of living sky rocketing in the Bay Area, Boston, etc...What's the influx
like of people moving to Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, etc...

~~~
irrational
Seriously, I have a very nice house on nearly a quarter of an acre for about
200k and a nice 6 figure programming job in Portland, OR. I can't imagine ever
moving to Silicon Valley and dealing with the taxes, high housing prices,
traffic, etc.

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whybroke
The talent shortage they refer to is merely a shortage of engineers willing to
work at the salaries and under the conditions offered.

In a normal market wages would merely rise to adjust for that. But curiously
it seems to be the only area where there is sudden vehement opposition to
market forces.

~~~
Tempest1981
I doubt employers will boost salaries by much... How can we get companies to
locate in "suburbs" of Silicon Valley, where rents are cheaper: Livermore,
Morgan Hill/Gilroy, Scott's Valley, Pacifica, even Fairfield and Santa Rosa?

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thr0waway1239
If you combine this with studies about the tipping point of ideas starting at
about 10% of the population [1], it means SV already has enough of the
programmer population to create self-sustaining trends in software.

I don't know whether to feel glad or be worried :-)

[1] [http://news.rpi.edu/luwakkey/2902](http://news.rpi.edu/luwakkey/2902)

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flukus
Is this news to anyone not in silicon valley?

Also, the majority of software developers are not in the United States.

~~~
Tempest1981
What is the worldwide distribution?

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dba7dba
Am I reading a tech related article or a political hit piece that spins
numbers to fit an agenda?

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laxatives
This article is terrible. It uses 90% as evidence developers are moving out
without any other statistics, namely the percentage from another period of
time. Its completely baseless. No shit most of the developers don't live in
one city or region.

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internaut
It is not accurate to conceive of Silicon Valley as a geographical place.

It is really the intersection between a collection interesting memeplexes.
Culture basically.

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tn13
The real lesson here is how inequality is part and parcel of world in which we
live.

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known
Sounds like
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle)

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robin_reala
The title confused me until I clicked through and realised it was just talking
about US software developers (and someone’s since edited it - thanks!).

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st3v3r
And yet, 90% of the money is still inside SV.

~~~
erikpukinskis
That might be because a larger share of the moon shots are in SV.

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rhapsodic
This should not be news to anyone in the industry.

~~~
erikpukinskis
What does a judgement like this add to the discussion? Are you trying to shame
people who know less than you?

~~~
rhapsodic
No. Are you trying to shame me?

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meddlepal
No Shit. News at 11. Is this only surprising to SF folk?

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beamatronic
How many 10x developers work inside Silicon Valley vs outside Silicon Valley?

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adrenalinelol
How does one determine a 10x vs a non 10x (outside of anecdotes)?

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mwfunk
You don't. Just wait a minute, and they'll tell you (hopefully before a hiring
decision is made). :)

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
Wow! You really know what you're talking about. How many zeroes do I put on
the end of the check again?

~~~
Joof
10x the zeroes.

000000000.00

