1 month in the USA

Incredible, one month is already gone since I came to Palo Alto. The time is going so fast here.

So it is probably time me to look back and summarize my first impressions...

First impressions

My first thought when I came here was: oh my God, I'm in a Hollywood movie. Actually when you live in every European country and you watch an american movie you don't think that the action is happening near your house, because everything is little bit different. Other houses, other cars, other policemen and even post boxes. When you are here you see that everything looks really like in a movie. Same small, very elegant, maintained houses, huge pickups, policemen with their shiny badges and post boxes with a red flag, which rises when a letter is inside.

Households differences

All kinds of measures are different from Europe. Instead of kilometers - miles, instead of kilograms - pounds, etc. If you will say to an American let us meet up at 17:00 o'clock - he won't understand because they use a.m and p.m instead. Different sockets, so if you want to use devices from Europe you need an adapter.

Transportation

Public transportation is not so good. Buses go rarely and it takes a lot of time to get to your destination, because they need to stop very often and round all corners of the city. 

Almost everyone here is having a car, that's why public transportation is not so good. All distances are huge compared to Europe. This month I tried to avoid car purchase, because I will stay here only couple of month and purchasing and afterwards selling a car will be an overhead. So I tried to get everywhere by bike. Actually, bike ways are really good here. Almost every street has a special line for bikes. All drivers are very careful by driving near you and nobody crosses this line. Every cyclist must wear a helmet, so I think that the cycling is safe enough. Every bus and train has special places for bikes, so you can take your bike everywhere for free. But if you want to go to San Francisco city or San Jose and you want to stay there a little bit longer you will have a huge problem how to come back home because on week days the last train goes at 9:00 p.m and on weekends at 11:00 p.m.

Climate

 Climate is a mix between similar to European temperate and tropical climates. The weather is really comfortable. The whole day is warm but not hot. There isn't any strong ocean wind like in San Francisco, because mountains surrounding the Bay Area. But the air is very fresh. There are a lot of different trees both deciduous trees and palms. Flora and fauna are very diverse and beautiful. There are a lot of squirrels, colibries. Several times I've even seen eagles.  

People

All people are very friendly. Everybody is smiling and greeting you, even strangers on the street. If you buy something in a shop the shop assistant will always ask you, how was your day. It is a little bit confusing but with time I'm used to it.

Silicon Valley

What is actually special in this Silicon Valley? Why almost every tech company wants to have a location here? Why this area is like a magnet for Start-ups from all over the world? Why is it so difficult to create similar areas in other countries of the world?

A good answer I've found by siliconangle blog:

"In the Valley, the best companies, entrepreneurs and investors are all in one place. It feels like a campus. Everything you do, from the morning run to t98he coffee run, is a networking opportunity.Compare this to the fragmentation in Europe, where the next meeting is always a flight away, and you can see why things simply happen more slowly over there. Thirty languages and insufficiently fluent English slow things down even further."

(src: http://siliconangle.com/blog/2011/01/19/why-startups-move-to-silicon-valley/)

This area now is like Florence during the Renaissance. This city was a cluster for the best artist, writers, architects in the world. The same situation is now with Silicon Valley. There are so many world best tech enterprises, venture capitalists, successful start-ups on one hand and world best universities on the other, so that the best of the best tech specialists from all over the world are trying to find their luck and success here.

History of the Valley

The Bay Area was since 100 years an important development center for the United States Navy (USN). In this area there were opened the first nationwide radio station and also developed a lot of high tech technologies for NASA and USN. But the actual start of Silicon Valley as high tech development center like we know it was started after the World War II. After the war number of students in Stanford University was increasing permanently so the university required additional financial sources. Stanford University owned a large piece of land (ca. 32 sq km), which it according to a will of Leland Stanford (founder of Stanford university) may not sell. So the university decided to rent this land as long-term rentals for high technological companies. In this way they could improve their financial situation on one hand and create unique working environment for their students on the other hand.

One of the first start-ups, which was created in the area is Hewlett-Packard founded by two Stanford students Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in a garage in Palo Alto.