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Less Money, Better Technology

  • November 2000
  • By G. Pascal Zachary

Are the vast sums of money pouring into Net ventures creating innovators who lack the character to deal with failure?

   

Palo Alto, Calif.-Three-thousand-dollar mountain bikes line the wide sidewalks on this town's main street. His-and-her Jaguars clog public parking lots. The local diner serves $100 bottles of champagne with burgers and fries. Three-bedroom, one-bath "bungalows" rent for $8,000 a month.

Those sound like Hollywood prices, but this isn't Hollywood; it's the heart of Silicon Valley. The stretch of land between here and San Jose to the south remains the world's hottest hotbed for innovators in information technology. Yet today greed defines the life of this place, not inspiration or dedication, and that's troubling.

 

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