Geek Austin What message does Austin send?

I recently read Paul Graham's essay on Cities and Ambition. It was a timely read, as I've been party to so many discussions regarding where Austin's tech community is, and where folks want it to be. People come to me at GeekAustin events saying "If we'd all get together, we could compete with Silicon Valley," or "Austin could be really great if only we'd....." All of these folks seem to believe that the Austin tech community needs to be sending some message, or whatever message we should be sending .... doesn't seem to be getting through. I wonder if the message the Austin tech community sends too often is one of envy.

According to Graham, Boston/Cambridge sends the message that you should be smarter. Silicon Valley sends the message that you should be more powerful. Then Graham makes the distinction that: "Power matters in New York too of course, but New York is pretty impressed by a billion dollars even if you merely inherited it. In Silicon Valley no one would care except a few real estate agents. What matters in Silicon Valley is how much effect you have on the world. " Of Berkeley, the city which Austin is most often compared to, Paul says that the message Berkeley sends is: "you should live better. Life in Berkeley is very civilized. It's probably the place in America where someone from Northern Europe would feel most at home. But it's not humming with ambition.". I'm not sure about the civilized part, but not humming with ambition certainly sounds like 78704.

Hardly a week goes by that I don't hear a friend say: "Should I stay in Austin? or move to the Valley." For these friends, the question is simply "Do I go where things are already happening? Or do I try to make things happen here?" Graham believes that cities are, primarily, collections of people; and people who do great things tend to gather in groups in a few places where great things are already happening. For some, the answer is easy, follow the message and move. For those who don't want to leave, you only need to look at what Cody Marx Bailey has done in Bryan/College Station for a compelling counterexample.

As many people as there are in the tech community saying that we need to band together and communicate with one voice, that together we can make Austin the Emerald City, there is a larger number who seem to believe Austin already approaches the Emerald City; and you only need to look at their bumper stickers to see what message they are trying to communicate: Keep Austin Weird.