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NYC also attracts the more well-rounded, balanced, socially well-adjusted tech types. This is the precise opposite of the types who come up with and execute crazy breakthrough technology ideas, i.e. obsessive weird nerds.
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Not many interesting tech companies come out of NYC partially because there is too much stuff to do in the city. I lived in South Bay for a year. There really wasn't anything to do except work.
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Go look at Rob Rhinehart's original Soylent blog post, or Palmer Luckey's old blog posts about VR/Oculus. That is an obsessive engineer. These are not the type of people NYC attracts.
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This isn't to say that no good tech companies can come out of NYC (this is obviously false), but they're less likely to be based on fundamental tech breakthroughs and more likely to be in areas that nerd types don't "get" -- fashion, consumer goods etc.
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The original Rhinehart posts -- 1) How I stopped eating food: http://web.archive.org/web/20170316060410/http://robrhinehart.com/?p=298 … 2) What's in Soylent: http://web.archive.org/web/20170216235835/http://robrhinehart.com/?p=424 …
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that's interesting. we should get people doing startups in prison
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Necessary vs sufficient conditions
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I’ve been stewing on this and trying to square it with Hamming’s closed- vs open-door researchers. I think it comes down to: does your interaction with people enrich your work, or is it just entertaining?
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Yeah. I don't think the two are contradictory -- isolated clusters of people are probably the optimum. Within which Hamming's comments apply as usual. cf. Manhattan project as a very fertile example of this.
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I had this realization last night when i was texting friends to go do something because I was bored. In SF, I would have never asked people to hang out on a Thursday night with no clear plan, the only question would have been what to hack on. In NYC every night has potential.
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Exactly!
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What about SF vs South Bay?
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SF is super boring compared to New York IMO so I think the argument holds, but the effect I'm describing is probably a smaller %age of what's going on than in South Bay
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The more fundamental point self evident in what you’re saying is that the energy is v.different nyc v SFO. Creative energy’s mixing and combusting with capital produces different results than does obsessive energy’s mixing and combusting with capital.
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New Yorker turned SVist here. Have to agree.
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Worth noting that NYC is probably better as "life incubator" for immigrants. You meet new friends and people who can change your life there. It's hard to feel belong in SV because you don't get to meet as many people.
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There's something about SV that makes everyone wants to build stuff. Even my wife turned.
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Interestingly, WeWork, now America's most valued startup, came out of NYC.
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This implies that the best work is done when not creatively stimulated by activities unrelated to work. I respectfully call BS. Also depends on what kind of work and what stage.
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When in NY, all of my days are fully occupied. And then there's time to plan what to go and what to skip this evening. This is sure good. But social situation doesn't allow for heads down work as easily as in a place you have barely anything to do, and others also do the same.
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But of course - neither in itself is the solution. One couldn't possibly be by himself and come out living under a rock. Visting NY and other top cities often and yet remaining and retreating to a calmer place for focussed work (with Twitter), tends to work very nice!
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