> The biggest loser, he predicted, would be California.
California had been downtown hostile to the tech industry and grown complacent work the status quo because the tech workers had to be there. If tech workers don't have to be there, they will start trickling out.
CA worked hard to make the bed they're about to lie in.
Eh, I've heard people predicting the end of tech in California for YEARS. Hasn't panned out, and I don't see it changing anytime soon. Kind of reminds me of the people who say that China's economy is a house of cards and is going to implode any day now. They've been saying it for decades and nothing has happened.
CA won't implode soon. But momentum is hard to change and right now the industry is looking for a ways to not be in CA. It hasn't panned out yet, but once they are unlocked and can leave the region there will be a river of people leaving. Let that run for a decade and then there will be trouble.
If (and that's a big if) the current trend allows CA workers to work remotely from non-CA, I think SV will be a very different place in 15 years. A place not on the trajectory of the last 15.
When I was in college almost 20 years ago there was a lot of discussion about if commerical software would be produced anywhere in the US in the next decade. It was a legitimate concern of mine.
California had been downtown hostile to the tech industry and grown complacent work the status quo because the tech workers had to be there. If tech workers don't have to be there, they will start trickling out.
CA worked hard to make the bed they're about to lie in.