[geophile]

I visited maybe 4-5 years ago. I had just read about Hsieh, and his business philosophy, and his attempt to revitalize downtown Las Vegas.

It was ... odd.

My immediate impression was favorable. A very quirky looking area -- a small outdoor mall, with the buildings framing a little courtyard area. Built out of shipping containers, or something that looked like that.

But the businesses. Each one was quirky in the extreme. A combination convenience/art supply store. A store selling nothing but socks. A store selling used luxury goods. Maybe one of these could survive in a high traffic area of a conventional mall, but there was nothing to draw anyone. There was a bar that had some odd twist, but I don't remember what the twist was.

I didn't see how the area could survive. It wasn't right in the middle of downtown LV, so I don't think they could rely on people visiting there. I'm sure there were people like me who somehow heard of it, and went to visit. But one visit was plenty. There was absolutely nothing to draw me back. And it was pretty deserted.

[blnqr]

BLUF: it takes more than one man with a vision to create a tech ecosystem. It takes rich nerds who want to invest locally and stick around. Las Vegas will never have that.

I have lived in Las Vegas for 24 years. We moved here to raise a family because it is my wife's home town. (Her father was a scientist and manager with the federal government.)

I was and am in tech, working from home except for two years with one of the very few successful tech startups in Las Vegas from 2000-2001.

I wanted the tech-oriented revitalization to succeed, but it it hasn't and we are moving to Utah ("Silicon Slopes").

[Syntaf]

Preface: I love Vegas and feel strongly about my experiences at UNLV so forgive my passion. It is my own opinion at the end of the day.

As someone who grew up, went to school, and worked in tech in Vegas, I place some of the blame on UNLV and its computer science program.

The computer science curriculum taught at UNLV is designed to do nothing more than churn on casino gaming employees; it's so extreme that the only web development course doesn't even count towards your computer science degree. It's absolutely bonkers to me how students are trained from the start to feed right into the golden handcuffs of the casino industry and yet people wonder why Vegas can't get it's tech industry started.

There's just simply no local talent pool here as a result. The casino industry is, in my opinion, a solved domain with little innovation room for incoming passionate engineers. I remember applying to a big gaming company here for an internship while at UNLV, and they legitimately couldn't provide a clear answer to "How often do you innovate within your domain, and what are some examples".

I feel fortunate that I had already found an interest in topics outside the gaming industry and managed to land a job here for a tech company constantly moving the needle in a challenging domain.

[blnqr]

You are totally right about this (and thanks for sharing your personal perspective). I used to think the CS program at UNLV was excessively backward or old-school, which it is, but the root cause is those golden handcuffs. What company do you work for in LV? If we should take it offline, I am [e-mail]

[pontifier]

When I visited Vegas a few years ago I tried to find some tech or entrepreneur events. It was strangely barren compared to what I had been used to in Utah. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was just too spread out? Too many other things for people to do? There was a desperate feeling I couldn't shake...

Money, money Everywhere, but not a dime to spend.

Anyway, I've just left Utah forever, and live in Arkansas now.