

Will Silicon Valley turn into Detroit? - xynny
http://baglady.dreamhosters.com/2009/01/26/silicon-valley-and-the-competitiveness-of-america/

======
pj
With all the layoffs over there and the cost of living and the ability for
technomads to live anywhere and build great companies, I see no reason for
Silicon Valley to remain there.

I know they were using the term as a metaphor, but SV people have their head
in the clouds. Startups go there because the VCs are there, but the VCs are
going under. They made bad investments in a lot of Web 2.0 companies with
little value to the world. The cost of starting up is lower so entrepreneurs
need less of their money and are demanding higher valuations. VCs don't call
the shots as much anymore, so, at least internet, companies are starting up in
other places.

But more to the point, as indicated in another article here about the higher
ed bubble, we don't need to be investing more money in higher education.
There's plenty of room to educate more people in the engineering, mathematics,
and practical sciences in the United States. What we need to do is shift our
culture from one emphasizing popularity and entertainment to one of value and
productivity.

Spend more money helping, guiding, and encouraging the best and the brightest,
and start leaving some children behind. It sounds callous, but we have to do
it. We have to think about our future and the achievers and the motivated
students who want to learn need a place to do it. This needs to happen way
before higher education. It needs to start in kindergarten.

Stop the federal subsidies for sports stadiums and start buying books and
computers for our schools. Stop buying gyms and helmets and football fields
and start buying chemistry sets, magnets and tesla coils!

We have to refocus our _culture_ into one that sees benefits of productivity,
intelligence, and rationality instead of entertainment, gluttony, and waste.

------
numair
Silicon Valley is its own culture. If it were to actually die, it would be
gone forever - there would be no replacement. There are enough people
dedicated to the preservation of this culture to ensure that it will survive,
even in the face of such dire economic straits (which will get worse). Every
other place on Earth is, well, culturally unable to replicate the advantages
of Silicon Valley. You can't buy it, you can't build it... Attempts to do so
look like faux Roman statues in the backyard of a McMansion.

That being said, I really wish I could build a time machine and transport
myself to Silicon Valley circa 1999. Felt as though it was the center of the
universe, a place where you could become a mogul overnight, and where anything
was just a Series A away from becoming reality. Yeah, it was totally
ridiculous, but I find ridiculous things to be quite enjoyable.

~~~
davidw
I hated it because it was so silly. I am fundamentally a builder, but that era
wasn't about smart people building cool stuff, it was a gold rush. I was happy
to get out.

------
satyajit
Good article ... though the point made about research scholars going back to
their native land (India/China, particularly) to excel in their field, is
little far fetched. Because in those countries, the daily grind of life is
little overwhelming, so much energy is lost. But its all improving ... The
schooling system and methods of teaching are very different as in India (from
my own experience) and US, at least in elementary/high schools. And in USA,
they have to emphasize on the grade school education system, if they have to
remain competitive globally.

------
jacobscott
no.

Not that we couldn't use better government priorities. Also, per guidelines,
better link would have been to TFA:

<http://www.newsweek.com/id/181392>

------
davidw
Well... other problems aside, SV has some things going for it that won't
change, like climate and topography, that Detroit will never have.

~~~
gravitycop
_SV has some things going for it [...] topography, that Detroit will never
have._

SV is a port area located next to a bay. Detroit is a port city located next
to a river. How is SV's topography better than Detroit's?

~~~
davidw
The highest point in the entire state of Michigan is lower than the hills west
of SV.

~~~
gravitycop
Flat topography would be an economic advantage, would it not?

~~~
davidw
Which is why Detroit is a thriving city, and hilly San Francisco is run down
and derelict...? Maybe 100 years ago that was some kind of advantage, but not
these days in the industries that SV relies on.

~~~
mechanical_fish
_Maybe 100 years ago that was some kind of advantage_

Interesting choice of date. 100 years ago SF was rebuilding from the giant
earthquake that had leveled most of the city three years before.

So, yeah, Detroit's got certain topographical advantages. People just can't
remember that, because essentially none of the current residents of the Bay
Area were living there in 1906, and human memory is short. But there may come
a day when you remember. It'll be one day after one third of the buildings
fall down and the water taps stop working.

And now for the public service announcement: If you live in the Bay Area,
stockpile some drinking water and bolt your shelves to the wall!

~~~
davidw
Seismography != Topography :-) They had a big earthquake in 1989, right? So
it's not that old a memory in any case.

~~~
gravitycop
_They had a big earthquake in 1989, right?_

<http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/prepare/future>

 _There are two things wrong with that. First, Loma Prieta was not the big
one. It was a moderately big one, certainly destructive to some parts of the
Bay Area, but nowhere near the size of the great San Francisco earthquake of
1906. [...] The new report also says that the next one will most likely strike
farther north than Loma Prieta, somewhere between San Jose and Santa Rosa on
either side of the Bay. The epicenter of the October 1989 quake was in a
sparsely populated area. The next one, according to the study, will likely be
centered in a more populated area._

