Found in 6 comments on Hacker News
davidw · 2019-04-22 · Original thread
> All we need to do is convince the VCs to fund startups in these places and we can all forget about SF

And you need to make sure there's a big talent pool there, and good universities.

A few places are close to that, but it's not so easy to replicate.

This book talks about it some: https://amzn.to/2XAU3f0

And most of the places that are close have rampant NIMBYism problems of their own.

davidw · 2018-05-03 · Original thread
Most of the water in CA goes to agricultural uses if I'm not mistaken. Denser cities are far more efficient in environmental terms: no lawns, less fossil fuel usage and so on.

Sure, some jobs will go elsewhere, but there are big returns to being where everyone else is. This book does a good job explaining why:

https://amzn.to/2KymJj6

davidw · 2018-01-18 · Original thread
This book discusses why that's easier said than done:

http://amzn.to/2BbEYoV

There are 'network effects' at least in terms of jobs and that environment. You'd have to convince a bunch of VC's to move to wherever along with a bunch of tech workers.

AJ007 · 2017-03-23 · Original thread
This book does a good job of explaining why: https://www.amazon.com/New-Geography-Jobs-Enrico-Moretti/dp/...

Pretty much it is a networking effect issue. The same reason why you are posting this on hackernews instead of reddit. Physical proximity matters a lot, even when work is digital.

davidw · 2014-12-08 · Original thread
Small town in Italy? If you're talking about Balsamiq and Peldi, near as I can tell, he/they are in Bologna:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna

I suppose that compared to Tokyo, most anything could be considered a small town, but in Italy, Bologna isn't.

Quibbling about details aside, I think your point is a good one, although I also believe there are definitely two sides to it. The case made in this book is convincing that cities are a lot better for the sort of "spontaneous idea contamination" that can lead to big things:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Geography-Jobs-Enrico-Moretti/dp/0...

Things get even more complicated when families come into the picture: a beach town in Morocco is not my own idea of the place I'd like to live with mine, although I certainly wouldn't mind an extended vacation there.

There are a lot of things I don't care for about my hometown in Oregon (THE WEATHER!), but I do find that I'm pretty partial to the mid-sized (which for me is something like 100K-400K, depending on various factors) university town like that where I grew up. I like being able to chat with people about programming over drinks from time to time, or talk about business, or have a variety of local businesses. On the other hand, with a family and not wanting to work for a BigCo, I'm not really interested in big cities any more.

davidw · 2014-09-09 · Original thread
There's a great book exploring this: The New Geography of Jobs

http://www.amazon.com/The-Geography-Jobs-Enrico-Moretti/dp/0...

He talks about why things have not gone 'flat'.

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