

Stanford Pulls Bid for New York Tech Campus - flahertyiv
http://www.betabeat.com/2011/12/16/breaking-stanford-pulls-bid-for-new-york-tech-campus/

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droithomme
"we’re not exactly chomping at the bit to see New York squander its funding on
students who spend their time building Star Wars simulations"

So, a New York based venture capitalist booster says that Stanford engineering
students are "not tapped into the current tech scene", and ridicules that they
know how to built robots.

Fascinating.

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kenjackson
Is that in the story? I can't find it.

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citadrianne
It's in this story, [http://www.betabeat.com/2011/07/18/stanford-students-
dont-wa...](http://www.betabeat.com/2011/07/18/stanford-students-dont-want-a-
new-york-campus/), which was linked.

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droithomme
Oops, thanks, sorry about attributing to the wrong story, I must have just
fluidly slipped into that other one.

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leot
It wasn't said by a VC booster though. It was said by one of betabeat's
writers.

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droithomme
Maybe I'm wrong, my understanding is that betabeat is a NY tech advocacy site,
their about page pretty much says that and admits they engage in boosterism.
And it kind of follows that NY tech advocacy is pretty much all about the
financing angle, hence my seeing their NY tech boosterism as fundamentally NY
VC boosterism.

Anyway, I found the quote interesting and kind of highlights that there is
something of an irreconcilable major cultural mismatch between the scenes on
each coast, which may have been an issue with Stanford pulling out. I thing
west coast entrepreneurs often don't realize the extent to which east coast
people don't think the same at all about tech and business. As the author
pointed out, he didn't see much value in Stanford seeding their point of view
regarding technology and entrepreneurship to the east, he thought the greater
value was in Stanford learning their perspectives about fashion and high
finance instead. Those are things he sees as more valuable than using star
wars metaphors for designing robots, not seeing that there is utility in
research and research can sometimes be made fun. Star Wars is not the only
influence on the west coast, there is also the very major influence of Star
Trek devices on Apple's entire current business model since we've been seeing
iPads on west coast produced TV programs since the 1980s and Siri since the
1960s. New Yorkers, as is evidenced by the comments, see that stuff as a bunch
of stupid childish geek stupidity which they have contempt and disdain for.
Getting bailouts, buying jet airplanes, and having servants are what proper
adults should be interested in. Hah, I guess you can tell which coast I favor,
I'm biased as well.

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listerhome
A little over the top, no? You're quoting one dude.

MIT, not exactly a bastion of west coastism, also declined to bid for a campus
in New York City. John Hennessy's Ph.D. is from SUNY for heaven's sake. I'm
sure many people in California also enjoy "Seinfeld" and the New York Times
without feeling like traitors, and nobody can doubt that NYC is sincere in
wanting to emulate Silicon Valley's success in high tech.

In any event, a true east coaster from the right sort of family would know how
to spell "champing at the bit."

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droithomme
I'm not east coast but chomping is also correct and predominant in the US.
Chomp dates back to 1645, champ to 1577. Both are centuries old. In the last
300 years chomp has been much more dominant. I suggest those interested peruse
reputable dictionaries rather than rely on wikipedia and blogs as they are not
authoritative sources.

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Erwin
Fun fact: Stanford President Hennessy is the same Hennessy who with Patterson
wrote that great computer architecture book: Computer Organization & Design:
The Hardware/Software Interface. Oh, he also co-founded MIPS

Although as my first job was doing MIPS related stuff I may be biased about
usefulness of the book. Amusingly the first featured 5-star review on Amazon
is from John Mashey whom older readers may remember from comp.arch on Usenet.

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whiletrue
I have that book!

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GuiA
So does pretty much anyone who has taken a decent computer arch course :)

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west1737
That's good, I never thought Stanford made sense as a choice for NYC. Don't
get me wrong, Stanford is an exceptional school, with great tech credentials,
and has spawned a unique startup environment.

But the thing that makes the SF area great for startups is the proximity (and
thus density) of startups and tech in general. While long-distance networking
has come a long way, it's still no replacement. If NYC's goal is to build a
stronger tech community, I think they're better off building their own East
Coast tech culture vs. trying to import a culture from SF.

Disclosure: as a Cornell grad, I'm definitely biased and psyched about it
getting more involved in supporting a tech community (a $350M donation didn't
hurt either)

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csmajorfive
Cornell received a $350M gift to build their campus. It looks like Stanford
withdrew in response.

Source: [http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/stanford-
drops-...](http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/stanford-drops-bid-to-
build-high-tech-campus-in-city/?hp)

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jpdoctor
The Manhattan Project was so named because of Columbia's involvement. Yet
somehow NYC never landed the geek culture, almost as if it is squeezed out by
squishier disciplines.

Good call Stanford.

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rayiner
Sad. It would be refreshing to get some west-coast culture to NYC.

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simonsarris
I ask sincerely, what is west-coast culture?

(I have lived in New Hampshire all my life.)

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ArbitraryLimits
Here's my favorite example of how it's not really so different, at least among
status-conscious people:

I live in California and work with someone who recently moved here from
Baltimore. He's kind of an older gen-X guy, and he likes to go to thrift
stores, buy old suits for < $10 and wear them ironically, like with dress
shoes but ankle-length white socks and the sleeves pushed up, and the front
end of the tie shorter than the back end.

Every few months, a manager will pull him aside and say in a trying-to-be-
friendly way, "You know, you really don't have to wear a suit around here." To
which he'll respond, "Yeah, I know, it's just my thing, man." And then there
manager will stare at him a little harder and say something along the lines
of, "No, I mean you _really_ don't have to wear a suit around here."
Eventually the manager gives up and writes him off as an incorrigible free
spirit.

TL;DR The West Coast is a place where you can wear whatever you want to work,
as long as it's a Hawaiian shirt.

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geebee
Huh. I thought the counter culture of suits was well understood. Though
honestly, why would a suit have to be worn ironically in the first place? I
love how suits look. Was I the only guy who watched Gattaca and found myself
wishing that it were more socially acceptable to wear a suit to my job? ;) I
wouldn't want to emulate much about that world, but man did they look good in
their suits.

Anyway, I agree with you that the tech industry, especially in the west,
rigorously enforces the presence of the absence of a dress code. Even PG said
"Nerds don't just happen to dress informally. They do it too consistently.
Consciously or not, they dress informally as a prophylactic measure against
stupidity."

Bummer, cause I actually kind of like it when people dress with some style.

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tlack
I think he meant that the quirky individual was wearing frumpy "1980s English
professor"-style suits, not some sleek expensive architectural thing.

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brudgers
Personally, I thought it a bit of an odd idea based on the large geographic
and cultural distances between Palo Alto and NYC. It just didn't seem like the
right ecosystem for a transplant. On the east coast, even Boston would seem
better suited from a cultural standpoint - there is much more of a public
emphasis on technology.

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untog
Surprising, given the amount of time it's taken to get to this point.

As a New Yorker myself, I'm not sure what I should think of it. _Someone_ is
going to make a campus, be it Cornell or NYU.

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geogra4
Why not Columbia?

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chimeracoder
Why not Columbia, indeed? As pointed out elsewhere in this thread, let's not
forget where the Manhattan Project - an project that spanned multiple
countries - got its name!

Columbia's always been a top-tier research institution - in fact, it has more
Nobel laureates than any other university in the world. As far as computer
science is concerned, let's not forget that a number of great achievements in
tech & computer science (past and present) are the work of people who are or
were in some way affiliated with Columbia. I can't find a comprehensive list
at the moment - unfortunately the Columbia CS department website doesn't brag
about itself enough for that - but it's not too hard to think of examples.

Columbia already has an engineering school (the Fu Foundation School of
Engineering and Applied Sciences). The school is known for the strength of its
graduate _and_ undergraduate programs - its selectivity rate for undergraduate
admissions, for what it's worth, is lower than any other school in the country
except MIT.

Is there room for improvement? Absolutely - I can think of a number of ways.
But the tech scene in New York is young and looking to grow quickly. It makes
more sense to me to take advantage of the tremendous resources already here
and amp them up, rather than start from scratch.

Unfortunately, for reasons that are more political than they are logical, I'd
be surprised if Columbia actually won this contest. But it would be a pleasant
surprise, knowing that they made the right decision.

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BadassFractal
It's interesting how schools expand their reach to the other coast. CMU has a
SV branch and Wharton has SF.

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forgotAgain
I really don't see Bloomberg standing on stage announcing a choice with anyone
else but Stanford. He would consider it a personal failure and embarrassment.
The project is basically dead at it's original scope. Maybe something much
smaller will be announced but it will be low key and with a deputy mayor
filling in.

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100k
Too bad. I thought the Roosevelt Island renderings looked pretty cool.

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steventruong
Maybe now Stanford and MIT can consider a merger ^_~ j/k

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ChristianMarks
Someone offered a $350,000,000 gift to Cornell, at which point Stanford
decided to drop out.

