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Times Discovers Silicon Valleyby Eric Johnson on Apr 17, 2009Today’s ”Escapes” section of the New York Times contains a somewhat unlikely travel piece under the hackneyed headline: “Searching for Silicon Valley.” It’s a charming piece of fluff, and although locals are unlikely to find anything new in its recap of how the valley came to be, it’s always fun to read about the place you live. The piece begins with some hardcore cliché: Trying to find the real Silicon Valley is no easy task. Certainly, there are the corporate headquarters like those of Apple, Cisco, Google, Intel and Yahoo that line Highways 101 and 280, but viewing them from a distance only brushes the surface of what is the nation’s—and the world’s—high-tech heartland. …and then explodes hyperbolically, as a travel-section writer attempts to appear tech-savvy: Riding the exponentially increasing power of the computer chip, the valley has demonstrated the ability to reinvent itself relentlessly. And each new generation of technology has been quickly cannibalized by the following one, in a perfect enactment of the economist Joseph Schumpeter’s notion of creative destruction. Hmmm. Huh? Oh...yeah…Schumpeter. All in all the piece is worth reading, if only to get some perspective on what Silicon Valley looks like to a smart, typically NYC-centric Times writer. And it ends on a sweet note, referencing the Valley’s “original agricultural spirit, which early on had led it to be known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight,” and recommending the De Anza Hotel, a place even locals think is cool. by Eric Johnson on Apr 17, 2009 |
 The Times included the Thomas Fogarty Winery in its tour of Silicon Valley. Photo by Peter DaSilva for The New York Times |
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