[BookmarkSaver]

Did they just take a random sampling of US locations? Maybe I'm ignorant and close-minded, but I'm really, really struggling to imagine many of those places as a new Silicon Valley. Or even a modest imitation of it. Detroit? Mississippi? Is this real?

And I'm pretty confident that I'm not being close-minded about how ridiculous Russia or Ukraine becoming "Silicon Valley" is. Closed off, isolationist, adversarial, and regularly sanctioned Russia competing to become a global hub for information technology? It just seems laughable. I'm not saying they are a backwater or something, but Silicon Valley is the way it is largely because of a massive international influx, something that just won't happen in Russia for the foreseeable future. And Ukraine, which was just invaded and lost one of their wealthier regions, has a broken government, and is still in a civil war somehow turning it around? Right.

[st3v3r]

Detroit I could see, as it was a central hub in the past, and much of that infrastructure still stands. Plus, given the problems they've had, property is really cheap, while still having access to the amenities of a city.

[BookmarkSaver]

"People" also have to want to live there. And by "people" I mean there has to be at least some sort of general appeal of the location to a large portion of the population. Despite everyone's whining about the government or how obnoxious its residents are, California is a pretty great place to be, and was that way 40 years ago as well. Detroit has a pretty major stigma to overcome, and I doubt it could when there are plenty of other places with similar advantages and no stigma.

[st3v3r]

Agreed, the biggest thing is that people have to want to be there. Some of these places are getting a little of the SV success due mainly to generally being a desirable place to be, and getting a little push from the local government.