Not only is talent everywhere, but opportunity is everywhere too - it just takes different forms and the resources necessary to capture that opportunity are not evenly distributed. I live in small town America. We have a ton of opportunity here, but there's no question that the labor, capital, and similar resources needed to unlock that opportunity is far more challenging to gather here than it would be in large coastal cities. Similarly, there are talented people here - for example, we have colleges and a nearby national lab - but keeping those people here and putting them to work is not easy.
"...and the resources necessary to capture that opportunity are not evenly distributed." If the resources to capture opportunity are not available, do those opportunities actually exist?!
Sure - you can see the opportunity, you can build the business case, but you might not have the resources to make it happen... case in point... we have a nearby recreation area that had fallen on hard times for about the past decade. It was clear someone with sufficient resources could turn it around, but one of the main problems was staffing. It was going to be really difficult to get good people willing to either commute the hour to get there, or who could be trusted to live up there in employee housing year round (because there had been a lot of problems with drugs, etc...). And the buildings needed serious updating. Finally someone from outside the area came with money from another venture, plus had multiple adult children who he could put in hands-on roles where if they were successful, then this would become their inheritance. It's the only way the business could have been made to work, at least until they can get it up and running as a going concern. The opportunity was there, the resources weren't -- until suddenly they were.
If the so called opportunity is the opportunity to "build a business case," what kind of opportunity is that? I have the opportunity to slap myself, but I don't think you would consider that an opportunity in the sense we are discussing - but maybe this is the problem, we never agreed on the definition of opportunity.
I find it rather hard to take you seriously after reading your bio where you decry the population diversifying on HN.
>I find it rather hard to take you seriously after reading your bio where you decry the population diversifying on HN.
Good sir, look at the needlessly combative nature of not only your comments to me but rather all of your comments. You are at best a troll who brings down the quality of discourse on this site. I don't really give a rats patootie if you "take me seriously," HN isn't real life, it's an online thread of strangers firing away their opinions. Perhaps engage in a more constructive manner, or realize that you are exactly the kind of space waster that caused me to add that soapbox to my bio, and causes me to wonder why on earth I continue to waste time on this site - probably because I have yet to find a better option for tech, science, and interesting news.
