
How Remote Work Could Destroy Silicon Valley - muzz
https://marker.medium.com/what-silicon-valley-loses-if-everyone-goes-remote-761b398dc9fb
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linguae
I have a somewhat contrarian opinion. I'll speak from the standpoint of an
American citizen. Yes, remote work will obviate the need to live in Silicon
Valley for many engineers. I'm also concerned that the shift to remote work
may be used as justification by anti-immigration politicians to reduce
immigration on the grounds that highly-skilled immigrants could work remotely
for American companies from their home countries.

However, engineers in America still need to live _somewhere_. Silicon Valley
is very expensive to the point where $500,000 won't purchase anything except
for maybe a one-bedroom condo, but unfortunately many other coastal metro
areas in the United States are not affordable, either; Seattle, Portland, Los
Angeles, New York, and Boston are expensive places. While I see some engineers
moving to more rural parts of America as well as other less expensive portions
of the country such as the Midwest, the South, and the "Rust Belt," for some
engineers who grew up in or near America's coastal metro areas it's going to
be a major adjustment moving to the places I listed due to the differences in
cultural values and politics. For these reasons I can see many engineers still
opt for living in or near Silicon Valley despite the major challenges
regarding housing prices.

For these reasons I think Silicon Valley is still going to remain a desirable
place to live for some engineers for many years to come.

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bdcravens
Electric cars and the decline of oil dependence could also destroy Houston.
The Internet has led to the decline of print media. Progress has a cost, and
nothing in life is guaranteed.

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gedy
I like the articles comparison of the valley's belief in serendipity and
hallway conversations to Feng Shui. Some folks think it's absolutely critical,
but others in the same space.. don't see it. Been in the industry for 15+
years and the "important hallway conversation" thing just doesn't seem to
matter all that much? I see the point if an individual's main contribution is
talking to people and schmoozing. But that is individual, not business value
either.

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dkdk8283
Making friends over beers after work is the only value of an office to me.
Hallway convos for work purposes aren’t really all that great.

However, they’re great for personal enrichment.

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Schiendelman
I think the idea is that it’s the personal enrichment that’s the petri dish
for the next company or idea.

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Clubber
That's probably a good thing considering computer innovation has become pretty
stale. A lot of it is large companies are unable to do it and smaller
companies are too vulnerable by themselves (note the copy or buy line, copy is
a serious threat). iPhone was the last groundbreaking thing I can remember and
that came out 13 years ago, well before the Snowden revelations.

Elon Musk has done some pretty incredible things, but he's an outlier.

"copying the breakthrough or attempting to buy the startup outright, such as
Facebook’s acquisitions of..."

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aSplash0fDerp
Revenue per square foot does not directly apply to this (yet), but just like
the casino/gambling industries going online, the serendipity still exists for
all involved.

Somethings in life are about the "Fantastic User Experience"... Silicon Valley
can be digitized in much the same way with all of the best parts intact.

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dasil003
Wow Medium has some audacity to through a paywall-style signup in front of
their sharecropped content.

