Given the broad geographic footprint of the HN community, I'm curious what folks here think about how much of a role that a tolerance of failure plays in Silicon Valley's track record of supporting commercial innovation.
I don't know if others agree (and it's no doubt an over-generalization), but my intuition is that commercial failure lacks the stigma in Silicon Valley that it does in most other places. Much ink has been spilled on the topic and some have even suggested that Silicon Valley has a "Failure Fetish".[1]
It seems popular to trace the roots of this and other cultural features of Northern California (e.g., 60s counterculture) to the Gold Rush of 1849. But perhaps it simply another artifact of startup density that Sam suggests is so critical?
I don't know if others agree (and it's no doubt an over-generalization), but my intuition is that commercial failure lacks the stigma in Silicon Valley that it does in most other places. Much ink has been spilled on the topic and some have even suggested that Silicon Valley has a "Failure Fetish".[1]
It seems popular to trace the roots of this and other cultural features of Northern California (e.g., 60s counterculture) to the Gold Rush of 1849. But perhaps it simply another artifact of startup density that Sam suggests is so critical?
[1] A sampling from various forums: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/03/silicon-valley-... http://www.npr.org/2012/06/19/155005546/failure-the-f-word-s... http://www.inc.com/eric-markowitz/brilliant-failures/why-sil... http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225202 http://blogs.berkeley.edu/2010/10/18/silicon-valleys-greates... http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2013/03/06/pages/1054/ http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/17/japan-to-fix-your-economy-h... http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/blog/2012/12/does-silicon... http://www.quora.com/How-has-Silicon-Valley-developed-and-su...