Julio Santos

Paul Graham wrote another essay this month! Two in a month, these are some exciting times :) Once again, the subject is “How to be Silicon Valley”.

In the first version Paul had concentrated mostly on how to do it in the US. Now he talks about making a SV outside the US and why one is more likely to happen here, at least for now. Very good stuff.

In sum, these are the reasons:

1. The US Allows Immigration. — I’ve lived in many countries, and I concur. It might not be easy to get in the US, but there’s a known algorithm you can follow to do so. Illegal immigration is not the only alternative.

2. The US Is a Rich Country.

3. The US Is Not (Yet) a Police State.

4. American Universities Are Better. — Bold, but he makes some excellent points.

5. You Can Fire People in America. — Yes! I always thought this was *the* reason, but I’m happy having it at least as *a* reason.

6. In America Work Is Less Identified with Employment.

7. America Is Not Too Fussy. — This one is a little weaker I thought. My experience is that the US is more strict than some of the countries I lived in, though I never lived in Switzerland. Maybe he has a point when it comes to business laws though.

8. America Has a Large Domestic Market.

9. America Has Venture Funding. — And we learned, that they don’t like to drive very far ;)

10. America Has Dynamic Typing for Careers. — I imagined this to be true everywhere, not just here though I may have been wrong. Last week I went to a meeting here in the Bay Area, with the purpose of having foreign PhD and post-doc students to meet people already working here. It seemed clear to me that most of these students where really interested in going back to the old country and work in the academia forever since. I now see what Paul Graham is talking about.

I think it also helps to have billboards such as this