Part of what makes Silicon Valley work is the synergy that results from a very high concentration of technical professionals in a small region.
I expect that in its heyday, Detroit's auto industry had a similar synergy. Manhattan's finance, creative and ad industries do, as with other financial and creative centers. Hollywood is Hollywood for similar reasons as well.
Silicon Valley is also helped enormously by California's extremely strong protection against exploitative non-compete agreements. This is fairly unique in the United States, and is the very first thing any region needs to address in trying to become "another Silicon Valley" but none do, typically in an attempt to be employer-friendly.
> I expect that in its heyday, Detroit's auto industry had a similar synergy.
It certainly did. Unfortunately, the most innovative idea to come out of the autombile industry - the assembly line - had the subsequent effect of destroying innovative learning and thinking on a vast scale. Detroit became a one-industry city and that industry demanded a large, mostly unskilled workforce inimical to the kind of entrepreneurial activity that might otherwise have diversified Detroit's economy.
Part of what makes Silicon Valley work is the synergy that results from a very high concentration of technical professionals in a small region.
Yes, and it's not physical density but time-to-get-there that matters. That said, it's impossible to provide the latter without either (a) making living arrangements more dense, or (b) providing an efficient rapid-transit infrastructure, which usually leads to urbanization.
Silicon Valley is also helped enormously by California's extremely strong protection against exploitative non-compete agreements.
Bingo.
but none do, typically in an attempt to be employer-friendly.
I agree. That's bizarre but quite interesting, because kowtowing to employers on microgripes means they miss out on something far more important (to their long-term interest) than whether they can enforce noncompetes: whether they can find talent at all.
I expect that in its heyday, Detroit's auto industry had a similar synergy. Manhattan's finance, creative and ad industries do, as with other financial and creative centers. Hollywood is Hollywood for similar reasons as well.
Silicon Valley is also helped enormously by California's extremely strong protection against exploitative non-compete agreements. This is fairly unique in the United States, and is the very first thing any region needs to address in trying to become "another Silicon Valley" but none do, typically in an attempt to be employer-friendly.