Palo Alto's Yuppies

In the middle of Palo Alto, there is a giant egg ... made of circuit boards.

For those who don't know, Palo Alto is almost in the heart of California's Silicon Valley. Hewlett-Packard (HP) started out and is based here. Google is a five minute ride from here, and was actually developped a minute away. Cisco and Yahoo have headquarters within a fifteen minute radius. Startups rise (and fall) here almost every day. Palo Alto is right in the middle between San José and San Francisco ... and the money that flows between these two cities, through Palo Alto, is easily described with 8 and 9 (and sometimes 10) digit numbers.

Because of all this ... because of the almost free money being handed out by venture capitalists to "good ideas" and the powerful temptation of "making it big", Palo Alto, besides housing this egg, is also home to an uncountable number of Yuppies. They surround you, everywhere.

Their "breed" is easy to find - among other distinguishing traits, they all carry a Blackberry , and constantly make the obvious gesture of reaching out and checking it every several minutes. If you know a few, go out with them. Enjoy their conversation. It never touches upon politics - excluding of course office politics and political correctness. Besides reciting names of venture capitalists, technological ideas, web-based applications, latent jealousies towards those "who have made it" - although this last one will only poke its head once you have developped a "friendship" with some of them - the in vogue topic of the year is business ethics. If you don't know any, just go to any of the cafés and pubs - there is this new tea café that some have just loved to try - spot that Blackberry, and go up ... and ask ... "What does your startup deal with?" Have a camera ready.

What is interesting is that less than five minutes away from this demographic black hole is East Palo Alto - one of the most dangerous places in the States. Doesn't affect the yuppies at all.

Talking to some of them is truly interesting ... They want to make it big. We all do, in our own way. For them, Palo Alto is their base. It's where people with startups on their mind tend to gravitate. It's California's Bermuda Triangle ... and for that period of time before they actually make it or quit, it has enough to offer to make it yuppie heaven.

posted by Lazarus, 11:59 PM