> Not only do I not think that is true, I think there's real danger that people conclude that more risk is better
I don't think people in general consider more risk being better. Rather, higher reward often comes with higher risk. People aim for higher reward obviously have to accept the risk associated with it. It just so happens that, as you said, SV is the place to be for the tech industry.
> SV is in many ways risk averse. The days when any kid could get a million dollars are over. Almost every success story seems to happen on a background of brand name colleges, companies, incubators or investors.
I don't argue for or against the risk averse nature of SV. And of course, knowing the right people helps get your foot in the door everywhere. Undeniably though, for variety of reasons, there exists an ecosystem in SV that breeds the creation of hi tech businesses. If you want to make a name for yourself, being in SV makes a lot of sense. It isn't easy to replicate that elsewhere.
Just look at the list of car companies that set up shop in SV in the last few years:
https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2015...
http://www.technologytell.com/in-car-tech/1848/volvo-geely-g...
http://www.technologytell.com/in-car-tech/1798/renault-nissa...
http://www.industryweek.com/expansion-management/expansion-m...
VW has been there essentially forever, apparently:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VW_Electronics_Research_Labora...
Those are big names in a very established industry, yet they can't afford not to have a presence in SV.