I'm in Seattle now, but when I moved, I considered California or Utah as places to work. The reason were purely driven by the geography of the land itself. Both California and Utah are beautiful places. And they have cities which are fun and interesting to live in.

California turned me off, because it just seems like it has reached max capacity, there's just too many people living there. Utah lost to Seattle for other reasons.

I guess my point is, I think all I cared about was the geography and temperature profile, and the lifestyle the place would bring me. The actual company I'd work for came after these.

So in my opinion, Utah is doing well because of its geography, same for California. People just like it there.