"distractions of city life" is no understatement. What makes NYC quite a fun place to visit or live in also detracts from it becoming a serious contender to the Valley. It's a city of bankers who have, or traditionally have had, tons of money to throw around, and the restaurants, nightclubs and realtors who serve them. Everyone else has been mostly ancillary.
Maybe that will change. Maybe one of the startups here will go public and become the next Google or Facebook, but I really don't see those types of people working in the city. It seems like even at Google, the more serious engineers are pulled back to the Valley. And despite it's reportedly growing membership rolls, I'm pretty doubtful about foursquare's future as well - and I honestly think it may have had a good one if it was HQ'ed in the Valley.
The reported advantages of NYC - such as the ability to just roll into the offices of media or advertising companies or fashion houses, so you can cut deals with them - are largely myths.
Seattle has distractions. SF has distractions. Any city with population > 200,00 has its share of distractions. Might be booze, and parties, or it might be hiking and the outdoors.
I lived and worked in NYC for 10 years. Bankers? Yeah, a big part of the citys blood. However they were always secondary to the tech scene which was primarily startup and media.
The reported advantages of NYC - such as the ability
to just roll into the offices of media or advertising
companies or fashion houses, so you can cut deals with
them - are largely myths.
Nope. Seen it first hand. It happens from my viewpoint, not sure how prolific but not a 'myth'
As someone who's lived on both coasts, I think that the major difference between NY and SF 'distractions' is that the West Coast distractions are generally more 'related' to tech.
When I go out to any random bar in SOMA, I'm likely to meet mainly tech/startup people. It's a very insular community.
In NYC, you're more likely to meet a wider breadth of people—which can be good or bad, depending on what you're looking for and what kind of person you are.
In NYC, you're more likely to meet a wider breadth of people—which can be good or bad, depending on what you're looking for and what kind of person you are.
I think you can make an argument that as internet technology takes a larger roll in people's lives and becomes more mainstream, having a diversity of skills in your company will become more necessary as well.
Bankers were secondary to the tech scene? Maybe for a couple of years in the dot com era, but otherwise I'm not sure which NYC you are referring to.
We are not just talking >200K, we are talking 8-9 million people, a mix of bankers, media folk, fashion folk, diplomats, tech companies, and the usual realtors, doctors and lawyers found in most cities. That's a big mix, and makes it difficult to stand out.
re: Google
- I worked at Google NYC, and as I recall, over a third of the 2500+ NYC Googlers are engineers. Most of the Docs and Geo teams are headquartered in NYC. Sure, some of the more talented engineers I know travel to the Mtn View or Washington offices once every few weeks, but they still call NYC home.
re: Foursquare
- Dens and Naveen seem to be moving well in my book. New app features, new API features, growing developer community, and a growing SF office. I'm bullish.
re: media and advertising
- Not true. helped build a company called Invite Media in NYC. Our engineering was located in Philly (laregly UPenn grads), but we moved Product and Client-facing roles to NYC specifically because this is not a myth. Having our HQ in NYC was critical to getting our product in front of the major advertising companies, building relationships with those companies, and those relationships were a key reason Google bought us.
Seconded. I just lived there for eight months and came away with the idea that it's a great place to visit, not a great place to live.
The cognitive overhead of being frugal in NYC is absurdly high so you eventually give up on it to focus on whatever you're actually doing, and there's a persistent layer of low-level noise that sometimes makes it impossible to focus.
I have the same trouble with living in London. It takes a strong will and mental effort to manage your money and the distractions, and make optimal plans to get the basics done like getting to work and back and buying groceries, going out without spending too much on cabs and drinks. You have to plan and budget, where in other places you can just go with the flow and things just tend to work out since there aren't so many bad directions to flow in, either due to the lack of options or just hanging out with a crowd that makes do with the same means. That said, if you learn to handle a tough city, everywhere else becomes very easy, and it's probably one of the reasons I come back here every few years to force myself to grow up a little bit more.
Comments
"distractions of city life" is no understatement. What makes NYC quite a fun place to visit or live in also detracts from it becoming a serious contender to the Valley. It's a city of bankers who have, or traditionally have had, tons of money to throw around, and the restaurants, nightclubs and realtors who serve them. Everyone else has been mostly ancillary. Maybe that will change. Maybe one of the startups here will go public and become the next Google or Facebook, but I really don't see those types of people working in the city. It seems like even at Google, the more serious engineers are pulled back to the Valley. And despite it's reportedly growing membership rolls, I'm pretty doubtful about foursquare's future as well - and I honestly think it may have had a good one if it was HQ'ed in the Valley. The reported advantages of NYC - such as the ability to just roll into the offices of media or advertising companies or fashion houses, so you can cut deals with them - are largely myths.
Strongly disagree.
Seattle has distractions. SF has distractions. Any city with population > 200,00 has its share of distractions. Might be booze, and parties, or it might be hiking and the outdoors.
I lived and worked in NYC for 10 years. Bankers? Yeah, a big part of the citys blood. However they were always secondary to the tech scene which was primarily startup and media.
Nope. Seen it first hand. It happens from my viewpoint, not sure how prolific but not a 'myth'As someone who's lived on both coasts, I think that the major difference between NY and SF 'distractions' is that the West Coast distractions are generally more 'related' to tech.
When I go out to any random bar in SOMA, I'm likely to meet mainly tech/startup people. It's a very insular community.
In NYC, you're more likely to meet a wider breadth of people—which can be good or bad, depending on what you're looking for and what kind of person you are.
In NYC, you're more likely to meet a wider breadth of people—which can be good or bad, depending on what you're looking for and what kind of person you are.
I think you can make an argument that as internet technology takes a larger roll in people's lives and becomes more mainstream, having a diversity of skills in your company will become more necessary as well.
Bankers were secondary to the tech scene? Maybe for a couple of years in the dot com era, but otherwise I'm not sure which NYC you are referring to. We are not just talking >200K, we are talking 8-9 million people, a mix of bankers, media folk, fashion folk, diplomats, tech companies, and the usual realtors, doctors and lawyers found in most cities. That's a big mix, and makes it difficult to stand out.
re: Google - I worked at Google NYC, and as I recall, over a third of the 2500+ NYC Googlers are engineers. Most of the Docs and Geo teams are headquartered in NYC. Sure, some of the more talented engineers I know travel to the Mtn View or Washington offices once every few weeks, but they still call NYC home.
re: Foursquare - Dens and Naveen seem to be moving well in my book. New app features, new API features, growing developer community, and a growing SF office. I'm bullish.
re: media and advertising - Not true. helped build a company called Invite Media in NYC. Our engineering was located in Philly (laregly UPenn grads), but we moved Product and Client-facing roles to NYC specifically because this is not a myth. Having our HQ in NYC was critical to getting our product in front of the major advertising companies, building relationships with those companies, and those relationships were a key reason Google bought us.
Seconded. I just lived there for eight months and came away with the idea that it's a great place to visit, not a great place to live.
The cognitive overhead of being frugal in NYC is absurdly high so you eventually give up on it to focus on whatever you're actually doing, and there's a persistent layer of low-level noise that sometimes makes it impossible to focus.
I have the same trouble with living in London. It takes a strong will and mental effort to manage your money and the distractions, and make optimal plans to get the basics done like getting to work and back and buying groceries, going out without spending too much on cabs and drinks. You have to plan and budget, where in other places you can just go with the flow and things just tend to work out since there aren't so many bad directions to flow in, either due to the lack of options or just hanging out with a crowd that makes do with the same means. That said, if you learn to handle a tough city, everywhere else becomes very easy, and it's probably one of the reasons I come back here every few years to force myself to grow up a little bit more.