
Why Peter Thiel Is Leaving Silicon Valley - millisecond
http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/15/technology/peter-thiel-leaving-silicon-valley/index.html
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ajeet_dhaliwal
_Peter also thinks the Valley has become too mono-cultural and the cost of
living is making the whole area more sclerotic, less vital._

This is a big problem with many big cities. The cost of living, primarily due
to property and rent prices makes them less innovative and stagnant places to
live. You need to be able to breath, not be stifled.

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danans
> makes them less innovative and stagnant places to live. You need to be able
> to breath, not be stifled.

I accept the critique about cost of living, especially the Bay Area for those
with families, but this statement lacks a coherent line of reasoning, and
seems like a compound non-sequitir. The vast majority of innovations in recent
times have emerged from cities.

~~~
racer-v
Without cheap rent, it's very difficult to experiment. In places where space
is plentiful and inexpensive, you can try setting up a quirky shop or cafe. In
an overcrowded and expensive market like SF, you can't rent commercial
property without a proven business plan. Where rent is cheap, you can spend a
summer "funemployed", work on your hobby project and pick up a couple bucks
doing odd jobs. If you pay $4,000/mo for an apartment, you need to be employed
full-time all the time.

Personally I find that innovative ideas can be brought to maturity in places
where you can find people to develop them, often in cities. But the germ of
the ideas will happen when you have some time and space to yourself. I think
there's a happy medium where there's access to people and infrastructure, but
not the oppressive overdevelopment of Silicon Valley.

~~~
danans
> In an overcrowded and expensive market like SF, you can't rent commercial
> property without a proven business plan.

Unless you have capital from another source (usually arbitraged between
industries or by geography), you can't really do this anywhere without a
business plan. Even in a cheap area, nobody is going to open a deli or
cornershop without a plan for paying the rent.

> If you pay $4,000/mo for an apartment

You don't have to pay this much for housing, unless you are completely
inflexible about the location, the size of the place, or having roommates. And
if that's the case, it's a bit of a lifestyle choice.

> Personally I find that innovative ideas can be brought to maturity in places
> where you can find people to develop them, often in cities. But the germ of
> the ideas will happen when you have some time and space to yourself.

Those sound like very idiosyncratic requirements for innovation, and it sounds
like it's mostly a lifestyle choice. If it works for you, that's truly great.

Many people find that the germs of ideas come from participating in
environment where related ideas are constantly being shared among a group of
people. This can happen in any thriving community. That could be a dense city,
or it could be (and often is) a university campus or research lab. Also, it's
not limited to technology. The same could be said of music, literature, etc.

And if you are in a city, there's nothing stopping you from heading to open
spaces for inspiration. That's also a common practice.

> but not the oppressive overdevelopment of Silicon Valley.

SV has it's issues for sure, but I wouldn't throw all cities under the bus
with it.

~~~
racer-v
> Even in a cheap area, nobody is going to open a deli or cornershop without a
> plan for paying the rent.

Sure, the question is how experimental of a plan can you attempt. In SF 2018:
not very. I know people who pooled their money for an experimental space in SF
several years ago at $1/sq. foot, and broke even. At 5x or 10x those rates
today, this is now a lot harder.

> SV has it's issues for sure, but I wouldn't throw all cities under the bus
> with it.

My critique is specifically of the negative effects of overcrowding and
overcapitalization in the SF Bay Area. By extension this would presumably
apply to other places like Manhattan with similar conditions. I'm definitely
interested in finding other cities with the networking advantages but that
manage to strike a balance with livability. Austin has been mentioned already,
although some folks will complain they're headed in the same direction.

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karmakaze
> L.A. is also less out of touch and it's a better place to connect with the
> rest of the country.

Never thought I'd ever hear that coming from anyone, much less Peter Thiel.

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prepend
Tim Ferriss has mentioned his move from Silicon Valley Ron austin a few times
on his podcast. But hasn’t gone into detail as to why.

Not being in Silicon Valley, what is the best way to evaluate the environment?

~~~
Bucephalus355
This article from BI goes into detail why. It’s basically just ripped from his
Reddit AMA: [http://www.businessinsider.com/why-tim-ferriss-left-
silicon-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/why-tim-ferriss-left-silicon-
valley-for-austin-texas-2017-12)

I’ve lived in Austin for a decade and don’t really find it open minded. I mean
the local Republican group on meetup.com has a private membership because they
are too scared of being doxxed...

FWIW I’ve always voted Democratic but now the party is getting overwhelmed by
those leaving the Republican party and diluting what was once the workers
party with tiny little neoliberal solutions to every large problem.

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moonka
I had thought that he was moving to New Zealand, I guess that was temporary?
Is LA that politically different than SF, or are there other reasons? This is
all coming from an anonymous source, and not Thiel himself which surprises me,
as he doesn't seem to be one who shies away from making his opinion known.

~~~
JimmyAustin
I think he got NZ citizenship as a "the world has gone to nuclear hell/the
proletariat are uprising" backup plan, but never intended to move their full
time.

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Fufjeudndh
Good riddance, if we're lucky he'll move to another _country_.

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CobrastanJorji
tl;dr: he's moving to Hollywood to work on a "media endeavor," and also he's a
pariah for backing Trump.

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xtracerx
Great so what policies does his political ideology have to fix the problems
he's whining about?

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tomlock
Good for him. I guess he's moving from a politically correct place (obviously
negative) to the place that's correct enough, politically, for him (obviously
positive).

/s

