If I had a high tech startup, Bend is the last place I'd go.
Let me tell you a story that I think illustrates why.
There is a long established high tech business here in town who hires their young workers from elsewhere, usually places like Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, and so on.
These new workers usually check out my store.
When they first get to town, they tell me about 'pop culture' things I don't know anything about. Then, usually around six months later, I start hearing about them through normal channels.
After the same guys have been in town for a year, they come in and tell me about pop culture things, and I'll usually say, "Yeah. I just heard about that."
After two years, the guys come in and start to tell me about a 'new ' pop culture thing, and I'll say, "Ummmm. Heard about that months ago."
My point is, I have to believe that technical proficiency is similar.
These guys come from a milieu of pop culture hipness, they swim in a sea of it. I don't think they are even aware of it. And much of what they hear and see and sense they get first hand.
They get to Bend, and they are isolated and on their own.
Turns out -- just getting your info from online DOES NOT keep you up to date. (I suspect by the time it's online, it's been around for a while -- which means by the time it hits the magazines, it's ancient.) I'm talking about the idea stage -- or the accumulation of information and disparate ideas -- which might begin taking form online as you go -- but don't really have the same impact of ideas that are being formulated as YOU SPEAK>
I think being surrounded by a culture of high techness is probably invaluable. Info and innovation and ideas float through the air, and you see your friends at the local Starbucks, or at a nightspot, or at some meeting or another, and bounce ideas and just totally immerse yourself in it all.
In Bend, you check online and go skiing and twitter and go biking -- but other than flying out of town and dropping yourself back into that high tech culture on a regular basis, I think it's inevitable you will fall behind.
And trying to keep up long-distance NO MATTER HOW CONNECTED is not the same thing.
I know they THINK it is, but by the time they find out differently, it might be a little too late.
I was having a discussion with a high tech guy, and he was disputing much of this.
At the end of the conversation, he mentioned that he had gotten work in San Francisco to tide him over.
"Ummmm.....I rest my case," I said.
Let me tell you a story that I think illustrates why.
There is a long established high tech business here in town who hires their young workers from elsewhere, usually places like Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, and so on.
These new workers usually check out my store.
When they first get to town, they tell me about 'pop culture' things I don't know anything about. Then, usually around six months later, I start hearing about them through normal channels.
After the same guys have been in town for a year, they come in and tell me about pop culture things, and I'll usually say, "Yeah. I just heard about that."
After two years, the guys come in and start to tell me about a 'new ' pop culture thing, and I'll say, "Ummmm. Heard about that months ago."
My point is, I have to believe that technical proficiency is similar.
These guys come from a milieu of pop culture hipness, they swim in a sea of it. I don't think they are even aware of it. And much of what they hear and see and sense they get first hand.
They get to Bend, and they are isolated and on their own.
Turns out -- just getting your info from online DOES NOT keep you up to date. (I suspect by the time it's online, it's been around for a while -- which means by the time it hits the magazines, it's ancient.) I'm talking about the idea stage -- or the accumulation of information and disparate ideas -- which might begin taking form online as you go -- but don't really have the same impact of ideas that are being formulated as YOU SPEAK>
I think being surrounded by a culture of high techness is probably invaluable. Info and innovation and ideas float through the air, and you see your friends at the local Starbucks, or at a nightspot, or at some meeting or another, and bounce ideas and just totally immerse yourself in it all.
In Bend, you check online and go skiing and twitter and go biking -- but other than flying out of town and dropping yourself back into that high tech culture on a regular basis, I think it's inevitable you will fall behind.
And trying to keep up long-distance NO MATTER HOW CONNECTED is not the same thing.
I know they THINK it is, but by the time they find out differently, it might be a little too late.
I was having a discussion with a high tech guy, and he was disputing much of this.
At the end of the conversation, he mentioned that he had gotten work in San Francisco to tide him over.
"Ummmm.....I rest my case," I said.