So….imagine you’re plopped down in the middle of a city. Gradually you come to recognize some key landmarks, some phrases, some indications of where you are.
All of the sudden, it hits you: you’re in Hollywood! Look, over there! There’s a Major Motion Picture Studio! Stars work there! Look over there, that’s that famous restaurant where a very famous person [ate/got married/punched out a photgrapher/fornicated/passed out/died] (delete non-applicable). Look, over there! Isn’t that [insert famous person]?
Ok, take that same feeling, now make it about a thousand times geekier and replace all your stars with Software companies. That’s how I feel right now.
I’m like 10 minutes away from 1 Infinite Loop (Apple HQ). I’m the same distance from Google’s HQ. I’ve seen big buildings plastered with logos of software I’ve used and possibly cursed at. They advertise software on the billboards, people. On the billboards! I have yet to see a single advertisement for Bob’s Roofing, or Larry’s House of Holstein, or Sven’s Scandinavian Furniture…now with more Logs! Even in Atlanta I never felt myself to be so surrounded by my own people, the Geeks.
It’s really quiet surreal.
I had the exact same reaction when I visited The Valley last summer. It’s hard to wrap one’s brain around all of these products and companies suddenly becoming concrete places instead of abstract concepts.