[throwawayac]

I've met him. Plus a bunch more Valley personalities. I've been underwhelmed by their openness to non-fawning unknowns. Which is amusing me. A couple of years ago I sold my unknown european startup in a private (and NDA'd) transaction for around 45m dollars. After the handcuffs expired I moved to silicon valley last year and since then I've been lurking in the community. I've been talking to everyone and not playing up my background. The arrogance and name-dropping is hilarious. The importance of being in the right circles. I actually have a day job working on a fun project so that I could meet and work with people. Immerse myself in the culture so to speak. I find it there as well. Newly minted Stanford PhDs sure are full of "confidence" shall we say :-)

I'm small fry - don't get me wrong - but the 'personalities' certainly want you to do the running and love the attention. I'm actually pondering starting my next company somewhere else because, frankly, I'm not convinced that the valley echo chamber is the best place to be (unless you are flipping fad companies of dubious long term value).

Let the flames begin ;-)

[ojbyrne]

Having spent some time near the center of the whole web 2.0 thing I mostly agree. But I actually did find Arrington to be somewhat better that the norm. Not that that is saying much.

[brown9-2]

Hey if you sold your startup for $45 million, I don't think you count as a small fry at all.

[throwawayac]

Of the 45m I only walked away with ~20m net. But besides that, I was in an industry with a lot of very very overpaid people. Some made that much a year. Kept my feet on the ground.

[brown9-2]

Still something worthy of congratulations!

[ErrantX]

Brilliant - it's nice to see a different take on the Valley.

I often wonder along the same lines as you mention; the whole fad thing.

Indeed I was chatting to my boss today about the original dot com boom. At the time he had a decent capital to invest but just didn't think the numbers added up (he made his name in fraud investigation so there was more than just gut feeling to it) and so held off.

Interestingly his comment today was "it's happening again; only worse".

[throwawayac]

The valley has a whole has been a letdown. The city is nice but no better than many other cities. South bay is a string of ok small towns with little to no decent nightlife.

I've met many fine engineers, plenty of talented and smart people no doubt, but to be honest it's not that there aren't equally smart and talented people elsewhere. I consider some of the people I work with to be world class... but not better than other world class people I've had the pleasure to deal with. Many of whom are hungrier for it. More wild west.

The valley seems like a middle aged club with lots of sycophant youngsters willing to work themselves to death to get in. Plenty of startups rehashing ideas with the occasional, undervalued imho, gem. I think it's easy to argue that the valley is the center of the universe given the incumbent position of privilege it has. There'll be plenty more money made here and plenty more resulting mutual masturbation.

Maybe it was different in past years.

But I can't help but feel that the smartest money looking to build long term world-changing companies might be wondering.. and starting to look elsewhere for the next revolution. There'll be a pullback given the recent economic upheavals but the world is a big place.

Have you been to greenwich village? Faded glory. The left bank in paris.

Like them I don't think the valley is going away. Just succumbing to middleage spread.

[jonmc12]

I guess it depends what you consider important. I moved here recently. I don't disagree with much of what you say - but for me nightlife, social circles, name-dropping, and sycophants are only background elements.

What I do think are important are: 1) the very talented people I meet that come to the valley from all over the world both to live and to attend the endless flow of conferences, 2) the entrepreneurs and researchers I meet who are trying to change the world (in those words), and 3) the wide availability of resources (people, funding, advice, etc) for my startup.

These things I consider most important have actually exceeded my expectations about the valley.

[pclark]

come to Cambridge, UK. Nice city, people and startups.

[revorad]

I'm just starting up in London. Cambridge sounds like a good option. Are living costs really much cheaper?

[lamby]

No, not really.

[revorad]

care to elaborate?

[lamby]

Sure, like-for-like Cambridge is more expensive, particular when you factor location in.

[throwawayac]

Nice place and people but awful weather IMHO. I'm rather partial to the warmer climes.

I've heard the traffic is a hassle there? Can you comment?

[ajb]

The traffic is a hassle only in the rush hour. Most tech companies here operate on flexitime specifically so their employees can avoid it, which works pretty well.

Having said that, I haven't worked anywhere else. The perspective of someone who had would be useful.

[pclark]

where do you work? :)

[andeka]

What other US cities have you considered? Boston? NYC? Seattle? Austin?

Climate would lock you out of most of those places minus Austin.

[pclark]

its a hassle if you drive, Cambridge is really a cycling city.