Gentrification

People think this phenomenon, Gentrification, is limited to the inner city ghetto. It's when the poor, unwelcome, group is forced out of the community. Property values drop, allowing easy purchase of the land, and then the values you up, and the land can be turned around and sold at a profit.

Gentrification is allowed to happen because the people with critical thinking ability leave. They see no hope for survival in those conditions, so they bail, leaving their community for somewhere 'better'. It's a type of brain drain, a condition where people with skill and talent leave a community, and the community is left without that positive influence. And it is happening in Silicon Valley.

Giant ideas used to come out of Silicon Valley, primarily because of the types of people living here, and the ridiculous number of learning institutions. Some other reasons as well, export/import easier on the coast, whatever. Silicon Valley was the center of computer science and instead of getting the invention of crack-cocaine, Silicon Valley was invaded with the idea of the dot com.

Dot coms provided a quick and easy way to make money from investors and escape your mid-salary career. If you have an idea, as long as it is mildly original, you could be making six figures by sunset, at age 21. Quick and easy money is exceptionally addictive. Browse the burgeoning investor market, and tell them your ideas until you find one willing to drop to their knees and suck away. The first bubble must have been a glorious time to live in; when it was all so new and exciting, before people realized there wasn't a real product to be sold.

The bubble burst and left Silicon Valley full of addicted users of the dot com. Network engineers who couldn't build a network cable to save their lives. Linux administrators who don't know what to do after the CD tray ejects the install CD. Database administrators who don't know what an efficient query is.

In other words; a lot of people were deluded into believing they are more than they should be. People with two years of experience being hired in at senior levels, looking for that next roller coaster ride, that next fix.

The addicted dot com users are still here and still looking to score. The investor market is still here, still looking to score. All the young talent looking to be the next big thing still coming here in busloads. The inflated salaries, still here.

The inflated salaries have driven the property values through the roof, to the point where anyone unlucky enough to be looking for work and living here is going to have a hard time of it. People working at minimum wage jobs are forced to make all sorts of personal sacrifices, just to get along.

The middle class is forced to live further away, where housing is more affordable. They have to spend more time in their cars, commuting to a job that gives them no personal satisfaction. They save money by eating less healthy food, have less energy as a result, and spiral down. The only way out is to leave, and live somewhere else where your money will go further and your quality of life will improve.

The ideas and dreamers are still in Silicon Valley, however, struggling to hold on. People who dream big and hope for big things. People who are tired of the addictive and useless production of dot coms. People who imagine something resembling the 'glory' days of Silicon Valley, when the ideas coming out actually made positive differences in people's lives.

We could have that again, but it would mean turning our back to fast and easy money. It would mean acting out of love, rather than acting out of fear. People need to believe that Silicon Valley can once again be the center of computer research and technological advancement. But it means asking "How is that idea going to help people?" instead of asking "Yeah, but how are you going to profit from that?"

Money does not equate to intelligence or brilliance. Resources do not make you a more useful person, they enable you to do more with what you have. If you don't have any good ideas, money isn't going to solve that problem.

We need to change and we need to acknowledge there are problems with how we are doing things now. Realize you are addicted to the imagined wealth and power of running your own startup and instead work for someone else. Put your pride away and realize that you don't need to do what others have already done; You do not need to re-invent a wheel, simply to have your name on it. Use the resources you have available and stop forcing good-natured people with good ideas and positive influence to run away.

Save Silicon Valley and bring back the thinkers. Reward people with genuine innovative ideas, not the shady businessman on the corner who's willing to sell you a little rock. Encourage the people with positive influence to stay, and keep their influence where it belongs; In the once and hopefully future home of computer science.

Boyz n the Hood
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BadSZDpvq-s

Jason "Furious" Styles - Laurence Fishbourne - makes a street lecture on how gentrification happens in the black community in the 1991 crime film, Boyz n the Hood. Read more: http://www.sweetspeeches.com/s/2597-jason-styles-gentrification#ixzz2AJ4VZywD