An introduction ..
I’m from Indiana. I have lived the vast majority of my adult life in Lafayette. I did the whole drop out high school to go to college and then drop out of college to start a tech business thing. That was back in 1999 .. In 2003, I exited the company and the past five years I have been screwing off, traveling, trying to find the next venture .. alone. I have bi-located in Chicago, Toronto, Phoenix, and Bloomington, IN. I was only successful in screwing off. I was unable to connect.
I came to LA for 4 days .. I stayed for a month
Thanks to my buddy @brooksbayne, I was invited to a week of tech events. Lux hotel, Twiistup, Mashable, etc. What a eye opener. “I started a company 8 years ago and I just sold it,” this communicates out here. No resumes, no flashy watches, no entourage, I used to think I needed to acclimate to this definition of “successful.” Well maybe it is success, but its never been in my book.
I find the LA tech community is about embracing, sharing, encouragement, openness, motivation, and creativity. Find like minded people and share old and new interests? This is what I have been looking for. I’m not talking about academia either. People here are not thinking, they are *acting*. LA is growing its community. A community of action and doing new and exciting things.
Lafayette lacks a community for innovation. I don’t know the community in New York, I lived in Chicago and couldn’t find it there, and Toronto’s was pretentious and elitist. Motivation for creativity, that is what the community of LA has given me. Embracing differences and thriving in similarity. This is the fabric of the social web. Provide community and people network, create, motivate, build, and thrive.
I asked a guy recently at an event in LA, “hey, so what do you do?”
His reply, “I start companies.”
Oh, I get that. I was like cool. I love this place! The community rocks.
Then I said, “oh cool, what’s that mean though?”
He said, “i can’t tell you”
Huh? Well it turns out he’s from the east coast .. No way?!
Digg on Academia
Lafayette has one of the best universities in the world, it’s not about lack of intelligence. People come from all over the world to come study there. It’s academia: The opposite of learning, sharing and community. I’m not special, I’m just not a circus act. You must create a community tolerant of n00bs. In my opinion, education should first be about encouragement, the rest will follow. If you filter .. You lose .. Simply, Stop Filtering (thx @gregarious). Sorry academia, but you’re broken and you’re not furthering humanity anymore.
I am putting my house on the market and moving here. I love you LA and all the people that have embraced this n00b.
Avoid the people that “start companies and can’t talk about any of them.” If they smell like fools .. Ask them to buy you a drink and walk away.
peace
@joesaid