Comment by toomanyrichies | Hacker News Reader

Comment by toomanyrichies | Hacker News Reader

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My understanding is that a major reason why the Bay Area became the tech hub it did is because of academic institutions like Stanford and Berkeley, which in turn led to commercial enterprises like HP, Shockley, and Fairchild. From there, it was like dandelion seeds in the wind, with alumni from those companies going on to found AMD, Kleiner Perkins, Xerox PARC, etc.

It seems to me that, until UT Austin catches up with Stanford and Berkeley in its ability to churn out tech talent, we can apply Betteridge's law of headlines here (i.e. "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.").

If anything, the biggest threat to Silicon Valley's dominance seems to be the post-COVID trend of remote-friendly tech employers. That has already benefited Austin, but not exclusively so.

EDIT: Xerox PARC apparently shouldn't be included in that list. Its founders were Jack Goldman and George Pake, neither of whom were alumni of the companies or universities I mentioned.

> academic institutions like Stanford and Berkeley,

and dare I say politics. For various reasons, including the rather diverse nature of tech workforce due to a substantial number of immigrants and even otherwise, the tech workforce is generally liberal or are at least centrist moderate. Texas is not an ideal home for most of them.

This is absolutely true. People like Austin because it's weird and it's a liberal area but pretty sure the state level politics is going to affect you even if you want to be shielded somehow.

No way. As a person of "overrepresented in tech" color, Austin is WAY friendlier to non-whites than California ever was. I regularly see groups of "bros" walking around/hanging out/eating out in interracial groups, which I would never see in the bay. There are LOTS of immigrants here, as well, though not as many as in Cali, but nothing to sneeze at.

And finally if Mexico can get its act together and (some city there) become a replacement for Shenzhen, access to Mexico will be huge.

It's not perfect. There is at least one thing on my mind that could hold back Austin, but it's not anything you mentioned.

I can see that, however the issue is Texas state laws apply to Austin. So you aren't exactly shielded.for example : In Texas, abortions are now banned as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Known as SB 8, the new law represents the nation’s most restrictive ban on the procedure currently in effect. According to a recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist national poll, Texas’ law is unpopular across the political spectrum. (https://khn.org/news/article/texas-abortion-law-rape-incest-...)

(disclaimer: this only applies to people who consider this a bug and not a feature)

I get it, but wouldn't things like Asia hate crimes, unchecked shoplifting and corruption in city hall have a bigger impact on someone's life than an abortion law that will likely get struck down?

I think you’re confusing between Silicon Valley and SF city. They are not the same thing.

yeah that's the biggest one of the things that I think is holding back Austin. But I don't actually know. I vehemently dislike the law, but in the context of claim in the OP, this could be attractive to a certain type of tech person that wouldn't otherwise be in california. Who knows.

Of course. Californians part themselves on the back for being anti-racist or whatever, but really it’s a bunch of mostly white women doing it.

The people that actually accept others just don’t talk about it, instead of treating minorities like children so they (the whites) can look like saviors.

tech workforce is generally liberal or are at least centrist moderate. Texas is not an ideal home for most of them.

That stereotype is about a decade out of date.

Texas is very much like New York, California, Washington, Nevada, Oregon, and most other American states: Blue large cities surrounded by red elsewhere.

Except all those states you listed are blueish (including purplish or very blue) where Texas is deep red.

The list was examples, and not exhaustive. It's also true in Arizona, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and probably a bunch of other states that I'm less familiar with.

My point stands, though. The Texas thing is still a stereotype, and still at least a decade out of date.

> The Texas thing is still a stereotype

Look into the latest abortion law, and voting law charges and statements from Texan politicians and …

Maybe Texas should be more like California, which banned same-sex marriage repeatedly through both popular votes of the public (Proposition 8) and its legislature (Proposition 22).

People in stone houses shouldn't throw glasses.

...book banning/burning

You realize Austin is one of the most liberal cities in Texas?

And the hilarious part is how insular the Bay Area is - home of the "fly over city" mentality.

in Texas is the key here.

Defense spending routed through those places. But there’s also more of a cultural value of risk-taking than the super-conservative nature of Boston, which has MIT and Harvard but also a more-diverse set of concerns that use computers.

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