Ask HN: Is Silicon Valley Dead?
I have always admired the passion and culture that comes out of silicon valley. For those that are still there are the vibes still the same? Are companies and talent really leaving in masses?
If you have a startup - SV is still the best place in the world.
It's funny to see how much of the world is hoping that SV would fall. Maybe it's just morbid curiosity or paranoia but theres still 10 developers who want to move to the bay area for every developer that wants to move away.
I think ultimately people want the SV vibe to spread to other parts of the world, and lose a bit of the excess wealth that is concentrated in that area.
The wages that the average web dev makes in SV is ludicrous. The culture around that money is insane.
Ultimately what I want is for wages to level out a bit across the USA and Canada, and for the homeless to be better taken care of in SV.
It simply is disturbing to see the concentration of wealth juxtaposed with the pain and poverty of so many people living on those streets. It is disturbing to see the army of overpaid, underskilled 20 somethings wasting their inflated salaries. Not everyone is a virtuous founder, most of the tech people there are simply seeking wealth, status, recreation and adrenaline. This is fine, but too much capital is spent funding these people. There are more skilled, cheaper developers in other parts of the country, continent and world. Its not about the fall of "founders", it's about making the army of juniors in SV compete against the seniors from everywhere else.
I think an "exodus" of the developers in SV would be good for the continent, for the housing problem and for the future of innovation.
Its not about the "fall" of SV, it's about the decentralization of it. Its about spreading the positive aspects and diluting the negative. Its not about the fall of SV. Its about the rise of everywhere else.
Silicon Valley will never die. There are too many rich people here, and the culture is too strong.
Did Hollywood die because films were made globally? Nope. It’s even stronger.
Silicon Valley has had its ups and downs but it will always be the center of the universe for innovation. The closest it got to death was the dotcom bust, but all that really did was get rid of all the weak players. And when the next cycle crashes again, it will again drive away a lot of the weak players again. But the core innovators and people who love technology will never leave and that will always attract more talent.
I’m sitting in the middle of it, outside a wine bar, right now.
The calculus of where to hire people is the same as it was ten, fifteen, twenty years ago.
When the restrictions end the investors are going to want to meet founders in person again.
A sad death but not unexpeced.