I think this is such a huge, and excellent, point that most other "Why Silicon Valley is the startup hub" arguments miss. The idea of openness is simply taken for granted in the bay area while the rest of the world still lives in fear of someone stealing their idea if they say too much. And it goes beyond that. Two simple examples, both YC companies actually: Airbnb and FlightCar. I am from Pittsburgh but go to school in Ann Arbor. I've talked to friends from both cities about each of those startups and I get the same response every time, "But would you really give up YOUR place to a stranger?" or "Would you really want to give up your car to a stranger?" Airbnb takes me a little less convincing now that it is so successful but FlightCar, holy shit...I am told that I am way too trusting and quite crazy. So in whatever way you look at it, the sharing culture is something that is embraced in the bay area while the rest of the world is just starting to catch on to it.

Now that I mentioned that I'm from Pittsburgh, I'd also like to nix the 'Stanford is a great engineering school" argument as well. Why? Well because so is Carnegie Mellon--has boasted the #1 Comp Sci program in several rankings but Pittsburgh is galaxies away from the bay area in being a startup hub.

Playing devils advocate, however, I do feel that a city like Pittsburgh may also have the greatest chance of booming into one given that a great school such as CMU is based here. Look at it this way--right now, almost all CMU CS students interested in startups, whether their own or to be a part of one, want to get to get to the west coast. What if they all started to stay here? I think you'd naturally see a boom of startup culture here. Just a hypothetical thought/situation.