this is one of those things that sounds obviously true until you look at the history. in 1991, the LA Times warned that “the basic character and culture of Silicon Valley” was being permanently altered and that its entrepreneurial ethos was “slipping away.” that was 10 years before chamath arrived in silicon valley in 2001 people love to romanticize the past. every generation remembers the weirdos and idealists and forgets the careerists, mercenaries and people who just wanted to get rich. by the 60s, fairchild engineers were already leaving to start competitors and make fortunes on equity. in the 70s, gates was arguing that hobbyists needed to pay for software while woz was giving away his designs and jobs was figuring out how to sell them. even paul graham has openly said he started viaweb because he wanted to get rich. that’s fine silicon valley has always been a messy mix of idealism, ambition, ego and money. that tension isn’t new and it hasn’t ‘ruined it’. it’s part of the reason it works the magic was never that everyone had pure motives. the magic of this place is that people with wildly different motives can show up, compete, build, and create things that impact the world the oldest silicon valley tradition might be believing its best days are behind it