Evan Armstrong is an investor, founder, and adviser. He's a lead writer at Every, where he writes the Napkin Math, a publication focused on business breakdowns, by the numbers. Find him on Twitter: @itsurboyevan.
The base of the Eiffel Tower is a strange place to have a panic attack. However, for 20-100 tourists a year, that is exactly what happens with “Paris Syndrome.” People afflicted with the malady suffer from a wide variety of symptoms all under the banner of mental distress. Paris’s majesty has been built up to such a degree that the real thing can’t/won’t match the baguette-filled paradise they hoped for and tourists’ brains break.
Nerds (like me) visiting Silicon Valley for the first time experience similar psychological distress. On the outside looking in, I imagined SF as this cyberpunk epicenter. A land of hackers building technology, innovating under neon lights. Instead, I found a lot of entitled millionaires with “We Believe In Science” signs in their front yards. The only building people were interested in was the building of wealth. All of this is totally fine! Just very different then what I had thought it would be.
And if you think about it, it is kind of weird that Silicon Valley exists at all, regardless of its lack of Bladerunner aesthetic. There are a lot of other places that probably should’ve been the center of the tech universe. Boston had better universities and more government contracts. New York was and is the financial center of the world. The oft-cited catalyst of hippie culture existed in places besides Northern California.
The question of Silicon Valley’s existence borders upon the spiritual. It is a region that has birthed nearly every major technology development of the last 40 years. If you believe, as I do, that technology must jump radically forward for the human race to survive, then learning what powered the Valley’s output is worth serious study.
The answer to the question, unfortunately, appears to be rich assholes.
This story was originally published on Every.to