Open but skeptical
Alex Payne: San Francisco is also, perhaps infamously, an intellectual and cultural bubble in which ludicrous ideas can find support, particularly in the tech industry. Before long, you may find yourself nodding in sincere agreement as someone explains the inane first-world problem that their startup or pet open source project is trying to solve. It’s hard work to maintain perspective and not get caught up in a way of thinking that privileges the desires of young white men with high technical proficiency and lots of disposable income. But then, this is a double-edge sword: some ideas that seem silly at the outset have world-changing, democratizing potential (I’d like to think Twitter is one such idea, of course). Be open, but skeptical.
This is one thing I’ve always found amusing about discussions regarding London and ‘startup culture’. Whenever someone says that London doesn’t have a strong ‘startup culture’, I feel like saying “do we need a startup culture to have technology and innovation?”. I mean, it’s nice that companies like last.fm and Moo exist, but see the flipside: not everything has to follow the San Francisco model to succeed.
