the fact is that the PC and the internet were commercialized in the bay area. There's a lot a theories at why this happened here and not, say, in the boston/cambridge area where the "material conditions" were just as good -- including historical accidents such as the fact that noncompete clauses in employment contracts are not enforcable in california -- but most focus on the corporate culture. Rosak make the connection between 60's counter-culture and the techno-utopianism that helps drive silicon valley -- and you can still see this connection today among the burning man crowd.
> Agreed. I have worked in hi-tech for twenty years and I have met very
> few radicals there -- none of them engineers, though software engineers
> are the best part of my job. By and large they are humble, patient,
> knowledgeable, competent, and friendly lot. Mostly good plain folk. Most
> of them run the gamut of democrat to liberterian. The real problem is in
> the layers and layers of management above them.
>
> Joanna
>
hmm, I work in the tech industry in san francisco and mostly a sort of liberal libertarian mindset (basically equivalent to the dean faction of the democratic party i guess), but i'd say 20-25% are to the left of the democratic party, mostly green and anarchist types. But obviously there's self-selection going on here, i've pretty much only worked with start-ups that attract young, non-career oriented types.
-- adam