
Tech’s New (Geographical) Frontier: ‘Silicon Prairie’ - ChrisArchitect
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/us/silicon-prairie-takes-root-in-the-great-plains.html
======
lallysingh
I live in NJ now, but grew up in Northern VA, and went to school in southern
VA. I went back there a little while ago, and realized something. Bare with
me, it's a half-baked theory, but I think it may be on to something.

There are a lot of anti-intellectual places in the US. They drive out their
smart people, who don't want to hide their intelligence on a daily basis. They
have to leave: every time you hear a nonsensical but popular argument, it
hurts not to say something. You can only do that for so long. Now some choose
to stay, mostly by learning to suppress (or avoid learning/thinking about)
intellect in many areas, and then focusing all that in a small area. That way,
they can fit in with everyone else at 90%, and fit in other people's
ontologies as |normal +x|. Of course, that means living a mostly-lobotamized
life.

My concern with Silicon X-type articles are when they're happening in areas
that may be anti-intellectual. Are these funding vehicles for the few "closet
intellectuals" (if you'll forgive me for using the term) who don't want to
leave, combined with a larger population who only see the outputs (jobs,
spending, fame, etc.) without understanding or caring about why the original
Valley formed?

~~~
crwls
Native Iowan, here. And my first post, long-time lurker.

I sincerely believe your "anti-intellectual" comment to be misguided and
uninformed. For a quick and entertaining rebuttal, I'd direct you to this NPR
youtube video titled "Iowa Nice": <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLZZ6JD0g9Y>

If you'd rather not watch the clip, here are a few things you might not have
known about Iowa that may cause you to revise your previous assumption (or
not, and they may/may not be extrapolated to other midwest communities):

\- Iowa has voted Democratic in 5 out of 6 presidential elections (now 6 out
of 7). \- Iowa was the second (or third) state to legalize gay marriage. \-
First woman lawyer in the US emanated from Iowa. \- 4 out 5 Iowans live in
cities. \- Des Moines was ranked 1st richest metropolitan area and 2nd
happiest in the country (not sure by what metric or source here, my apologies)

I feel pretty good about the intellectual capacity of my neighbors.

Disclaimer: I've lived outside the state for 4 years now, primarily in Chicago
and now South Florida. If the weather was nicer, I'd consider making it my
permanent home.

~~~
pyoung
I find it depressing that 'voting Democratic' is used as anecdotal evidence of
intellectualism. I am not disagreeing with your point, just merely pointing
out how absurd it is.

While I am an ardent Democrat, I long for a day when we can have two parties
that run on solid policy proposals, rather than the current "that party is
batsh*t crazy, so I am voting for the other guy".

~~~
pyre
I may be wrong, but I feel like (Christian) religion is at the forefront of
the anti-intellectual 'movement.' The more fundamentalist you are about your
religion, the more likely you are to vote Republican as they pander to the
religious crowd. I can see how "Voting Democrat" could be seen as a barometer
for intellectualism, but I agree that it's a flawed metric.

------
jtbigwoo
If a small company wants to survive against the big guys, they've got to
exploit market inefficiencies. It always surprises me when someone insists
that technology start ups can only exist in a small part of California or
Massachusetts where they're competing directly for every kind of resource
(people, space, etc.) with the richest companies in the world. There are huge
universities all over the midwest that produce tens of thousands of
engineering and computer science grads every year. In my opinion, any one of
the Big Ten college towns would be a great place to build a company to last.
Plenty of grads would stay close to family in the midwest if they could and
it's easy to find cheap space to work. You'd miss certain parts of the startup
infrastructure like specialized lawyers and ridiculous numbers of venture
capitalists, but you'd also cut down on distractions from the hype machine.

~~~
pash
The low cost of living is also an enormous advantage for anyone trying to
start something from scratch. You can rent a decent multi-bedroom house in a
decent area of Omaha or Kansas City for what it would cost to rent a small
room in a shared apartment in SF, Boston, or NYC. In how many places on the
coasts would you see a grassroots group providing free Google Fiber-connected
houses to live in while you work on your startup? [0, 1] It just wouldn't be
financially feasible.

0\. <http://www.kcstartupvillage.org>

1\. <http://www.homesforhackers.com>

------
dmix
There's a new "Silicon x" story every couple months.

Seems to be based on whoever has a good PR firm at the time.

~~~
jslampe
I agree, but it's a rallying cry and a starting point for the community to
cling to, if only momentarily. As a region evolves, the tech, talent, and
culture will rise above the name.

------
strlen
One thing to keep in mind is that these kind of features articles (describing
a new Silicon-X, talking about specific startups, talking about how "the suit
is back", etc...) are almost often being written due to efforts of paid PR
agencies rather than through organic efforts of journalists.

While pg has written many amazing essays, my favourite is still ``The
Submarine'' which describes this dynamic:
<http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html>

This doesn't negate the argument: whether the conclusion follows from the
premises is not contingent on who presents the premises, but it does mean we
have to evaluate these kind of articles critically.

------
rdl
The Bay Area seems like the best place for a 0-10 person startup, but a
horrible place for a new 100+ person company.

For the first few employees, you can weight compensation heavily on equity, so
taxes don't matter, and high wages mean people have enough savings (often) to
cover cost of living -- people will accept lower quality of life and lower
relative cost of living for a few years at a startup, anyway. And of course if
the 0-10 person company fails, it becomes easy to sell the business as an
acquihire or whatever; hedging the downside is important.

For a new 1000 person company, it would be really hard to compete in tbe Bay
Area -- the non-crappy parts have a shortage of real estate, and

The best plan seems to be to startup wherever you are now, but maybe in the
Bay Area if you can easily relocate, and then set up a presence in a lower-
cost (lower costs overall; taxes are a part, but probably not even the major
part) part of the country, or international. International also allows you to
avoid some stupid US immigration rules.

Less competition, so people will remain at your company longer.

I personally would love to eventually set up a second office in Seattle, Las
Vegas, somewhere in Texas (Austin? Dallas?), and then a third in Vancouver
(BC), Cambridge (UK), Berlin, Eastern Europe, Israel, Hong Kong, or maybe
AU/NZ.

~~~
w1ntermute
I think that Seattle would be a great place to have your first office - you
get access to local talent from companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Valve.
But also, when it comes time to set up your second office, you can do that in
Vancouver. Then you can hire international employees and take advantage of
Canada's more friendly immigration policies to relocate them to Vancouver. And
then when you need to have in-person contact, Vancouver is just a 2.5 hour
drive from Seattle, and all the American citizens working in Seattle can
easily hop the border for any such meetings.

------
jivatmanx
FTA: "About a dozen start-ups have flocked to a single neighborhood in Kansas
City, Kan., alone after Google Fiber installed its first ultrafast Internet
connection there last week."

Wow, I had no idea that fiber would have such an effect.

Now, I'm surprised that all of the cities/countries that are spending millions
and want to establish their own silicon x don't do do this simple move.

------
cllns
It may be hard to find software engineers in the mid-west but it should be
easier to find ones working remotely.

~~~
spamizbad
Well, if you're willing to pay for it, you could probably poach engineers by
offering better salaries. I've noticed job listings outside of the Chicagoland
area that are easily 15-25K less than what I could get in Chicago... and
Chicago is low compared to NYC, Boston, SF, etc.

~~~
March_Hare
In some places, Kansas City for example, cost of living may make up for that
15k.

------
programminggeek
Working in the Silicon Prarie (Lincoln, NE), there are some cool tech
companies getting started in the midwest for sure, but a lot of these articles
are overblown. There are certainly a handful of companies doing tech, but
there isn't nearly the "startup culture" here yet.

There has yet to be a Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Microsoft, or even a
Github or Heroku started here yet. A lot of the companies that do tech in the
midwest are tied more to traditional enterprise software like banking
software, insurance, etc. That's not a bad thing, but the idea of "Silicon
Prarie" is as much spin as it is substance. Perhaps it will end up being a
self-fulfilling prophecy where eventually the midwest becomes a bigger startup
hub, but I don't see that yet.

That being said, I love the midwest and living and working in Lincoln.

------
27182818284
Even in the cities not listed there, it is certainly in the air. People talk
about start-ups routinely now. A lot of younger people are involved in start-
ups or know someone who is.

------
jsiarto
Great comments above on the "sorting" that seems to be happening in America.
Personally, these Silicon-X names are dumb. I especially dislike New York
being called "Silicon Alley" as there aren't really any alleys in NYC (this is
why the trash is put on the street). Chicago, however, has alley ways and so
that name might be more fitting for the windy city.

~~~
potatolicious
"Silicon Alley" specifically refers to the thin stretch of Broadway between
the Flatiron and SoHo, which were home to a large number of startups. NYC's
startup scene is now substantially more spread out but the name stuck.

The "alley" refers specifically to the original thin corridor, not any literal
alleys.

------
stcredzero
In the article's first photo: two people sitting on an orange leather IKEA
Klippan couch. Stylish for not a lot of money, but does anyone in the world
find those things at all comfortable? (I say this as the owner of a blue one.)
Form over function vs. form follows function?

