Fertile Ground

Looking east to Mountain View, Sunnyvale, and the Bay.

The area of the strip of land running from Menlo Park in the north to Cupertino in the south is barely 100 square miles. Seen from above it resembles dozens of other mixed-use suburban areas around the country. There are few distinguishing landmarks--the Moffett aircraft hangar and Stanford's Hoover Tower come to mind.

Companies headquartered here have a combined market capitalization of over $1 trillion.

What mysterious alchemy makes this so? There are other places with beautiful scenery, mild weather, and great universities. There are other places--think of oil or gold--with vastly greater endowment of physical assets. There are seats of government which divert and absorb rivers of wealth through taxation or power.

The wealth here is created by the voluntary actions of billions of people who purchase Silicon Valley products and services. It's created by the millions of investors who foresee returns, i.e., an even greater future, from this mysterious alchemy.  Developers from all over the world come here to try to divine the formula.

As for me, I like to enjoy the scenery.