I think it's a symptom of something else: the hyper-centralization of relevance and cultural center of gravity in only a few places.
When I was younger (1990s), I don't remember it mattering so much where you were located. I've spoken to older people and they concur: they've all said that when they were young being in, say, Indianapolis or Toledo was not a big deal.
Today, at least in the USA, there's a strong sense that you're nobody unless you are in one of about eight big coastal cities. Nothing happens anywhere else.
I'm talking about perception here. You can argue that this isn't really true, and that you can do anything most anywhere, but the cultural perception is that you're nobody and can't do anything unless you are in NYC, SF, LA, etc.
I'm a startup founder and have been told by several people on several occasions that we are doomed because we are not in the Bay Area. I'm in SoCal but apparently if we're not in SF or its Southern suburbs it's impossible to succeed as a tech company. Obviously I don't believe this, but the meme is strong. If enough people take this stuff seriously, it's going to contribute to a hell of a property bubble in SF/SV.
I still don't understand why this is the case, especially since the Internet was supposed to have the opposite effect. By making information globally available and communication easy, the Internet was supposed to flatten the world and make place less relevant. Instead I've noticed a strong and obvious trend in the opposite direction since circa 2000.
I can only comment on the USA, but what I see elsewhere seems to support this being a global thing. London has gone totally insane for example. I wonder if the Internet is actually having a paradoxical centralizing effect here, allowing larger cities to broadcast their cultural "signal" and then have that signal amplified enough by network effects to make them appear exponentially more and more influential. This in turn drives a feedback loop in which talent and ambition is drawn increasingly to these cities, etc., and the rest of the country is hollowed out.
It's actually part of an even larger trend. Since 2000 everything seems to have gone increasingly power law: wealth distribution, geographic relevance, education, etc.
As far as I can see this is exactly what is happening. More powerful computers and communications are amplifying the power of individuals, and as a result making relationships even more important. And cities have always been the places of innovation and relationships. Just even more so now.
But it's not just cities. Philadelphia and Baltimore and Atlanta are big cities, but they aren't the right cities. It's a small number of them. It's not just urbanism, but also brand.
True, but as someone from Europe, I can tell you the branding has always been the case. NYC, Boston, SF, and LA, were always the outstanding cities relative to those you mention above. We rarely heard of, rarely saw in movies and TV, many other cities outside of those few.
I'm not saying you're wrong -- far from it -- but the brand has been there for longer than the phenomenon we're discussing here. Perhaps the tech has just made it even more pronounced.
I think it may just depend on what it is you're trying to accomplish with your career. Take Atlanta since you bring it up. Atlanta already is the number one place to be globally for a career in Information Security which is a significant chunk of the tech community even though it's not nearly as flashy as social-web. Atlanta is also becomming a nexus for email-related startups (it's really not just Mailchimp there are several major ones here when you look at volume of email sent). Turner is headquartered in Atlanta, as is Coca Cola, Home Depot, CNN, and more.
Atlanta has become a really excellent city for graphic artists and design firms because companies such as Cartoon Network pull artists in from the global market, and then these artists stick around and end up engaging with the local startup community. In other words Atlanta is becoming a designer hub (and the city's close-enough proximity to Disney helps boost this effect)
In addition it's also a nexus for medical startups probably due to the fact that the CDC is here.
Those are good points and I don't disagree at all, but I was talking about perception more than reality. There's still this immense perception that if you're not in the top five you don't exist, and I think that's one of the factors driving real estate hyperinflation in those places.
The other funny phenomenon I've noted is people assuming we are in SV and asking whether we are "down in the valley" or "up in the city." I say "we're waaaaaay down in the valley... like eight hours South." I bet companies in Atlanta will give an address in one of Atlanta's burbs and get asked "where's that? is that in the East bay?"
Maybe the whole thing is just real estate fund or bank propaganda.
Yes, but there are others to choose from, depending on sector. Fintech startups, for example, can be based in Chicago rather than NYC, biotech has several hubs that are outside your list, etc.
I agree with you that this a phenomenon that is taking place and yes when I was younger I don't remember it being so severe. Even mentioning you're live in a 'second tier city' makes some people think, well this persons not serious. Aside, I live in London UK and people are paying insane rents for pure garbage tear down style disgusting properties.
I agree that this is the status quo re: startups, but the high water mark was probably a couple of years ago, with the caveats that there have long been 'SV' startups that have or keep all or most of their engineering in an offshore location, say in Israel, with only the corporate office and upper management / sales moving to SV after VC investment.
However, now we're seeing two things happen:
* Several cities technically in 'flyover country' (eg. Boulder CO, Austin TX, etc.) have already built brands/ecosystems as startup hubs, and more cities are trying to copy their example rather than 'become the next SV'.
* Some fully geographically distributed companies (eg. Automattic, Buffer) are gaining visibility as success stories, and although they are still the exception, I expect more new startups to try and copy them, if only because Bay Area COL is now so ridiculously high.
When I was younger (1990s), I don't remember it mattering so much where you were located. I've spoken to older people and they concur: they've all said that when they were young being in, say, Indianapolis or Toledo was not a big deal.
Today, at least in the USA, there's a strong sense that you're nobody unless you are in one of about eight big coastal cities. Nothing happens anywhere else.
I'm talking about perception here. You can argue that this isn't really true, and that you can do anything most anywhere, but the cultural perception is that you're nobody and can't do anything unless you are in NYC, SF, LA, etc.
I'm a startup founder and have been told by several people on several occasions that we are doomed because we are not in the Bay Area. I'm in SoCal but apparently if we're not in SF or its Southern suburbs it's impossible to succeed as a tech company. Obviously I don't believe this, but the meme is strong. If enough people take this stuff seriously, it's going to contribute to a hell of a property bubble in SF/SV.
I still don't understand why this is the case, especially since the Internet was supposed to have the opposite effect. By making information globally available and communication easy, the Internet was supposed to flatten the world and make place less relevant. Instead I've noticed a strong and obvious trend in the opposite direction since circa 2000.
I can only comment on the USA, but what I see elsewhere seems to support this being a global thing. London has gone totally insane for example. I wonder if the Internet is actually having a paradoxical centralizing effect here, allowing larger cities to broadcast their cultural "signal" and then have that signal amplified enough by network effects to make them appear exponentially more and more influential. This in turn drives a feedback loop in which talent and ambition is drawn increasingly to these cities, etc., and the rest of the country is hollowed out.
It's actually part of an even larger trend. Since 2000 everything seems to have gone increasingly power law: wealth distribution, geographic relevance, education, etc.