Palo Alto - the name means tall Redwood tree - is a small city on the peninsula to the south of San Francisco. California has had at least two gold rushes, both near San Francisco. The first time gold was found in the hills to to inland of the city, and the second came out of the farming land and orchards to the south of the city, around Palo Alto. The second rush to riches less about metal and more about technology.
San Francisco cable car on Powell crossing Pine - 1997.
We used to know a die cutter one who grew up in Palo Alto, and had a workshop above his house. A die cutter can help make tools, in this case he created specialist tools for metal workers. It’s all past tense as even then he could no longer afford to live and work there. In many ways his craft was not valued enough and profitable enough to afford the real estate. Even a garage workshop can be expensive there. Likewise many of the “less rich” students of Stanford University can not always find affordable accommodation (XXX confirm this) nearby. A lot of the cheap diners like Ken’s have also gone. None of this sounds very important or of much consequence than the normal trajectory of a town going “up market” until you consider where you are.
Sunset over Laguna Beach - taken from the Laguna Beach hotel, about 1992.
Palo Alto is ground zero for “Silicon Valley” and hence much of the modern age. Everything from Hewlett and Packards garage to students working on the Stanford University Network - or SUN as it later become known was there. The heavy innovation and inspiration came not in some cloistered academic tower but in garages, diners and stuffy equipment rooms and workshops. The things that came from there reverberated across the world and changed our lives. But this is not a magic place - it’s just a place where magic happened.
Trees over Monterrey Beach - about 1992.
It’s not about academia, prestige or funding rounds - at least it wasn’t - it’s about freedom from having to think about poverty, an aspiration for fun and experimentation with “toys” and of course fear from failure.
Tommys Diner in San Francisco on Van Ness - about 1992.
The US is supposed to be a meritocracy - judge someone on what they have done - not who their parents were or which school (university or college) the attended. This is often true - not universally - but for me it was often true in tech and in California. You engage by with a what are/have you worked on - not where did you study. Mutual experiences soon establish a persons validity versus a piece of paper.
For an Australian an explanation - the word school is often used in a universal sense in the US to indicate a place of learning, which can include university. Because of scholarships and the wide variety of programs offered across the country people in the US often move away from their home and home city for an education. They meet people and establish relationships away from their home town and away from their parents. For me - growing up, being educated, living and working in one city - this was hard to understand the displacement that this brings. Away from family and friends - everything new. One more journey on the open road, and all the life churn that brings.