🚀 go-pugleaf

There is an article in the July 94 issue of Technology Review
comparing the cultures of the high-tech zones of Silicon Valley (in
Calif, USA) and Route 128 (in Mass., USA).The author's conclusion is
that the flexibility of the Route 128 firms is reduced because they
attempt to be monolithic, vertically-integrated firms, whereas the
Silicon Valley firms are much more oriented toward a heavily
interacting network of relationships, and so (when seen collectively)
can react to economic change much more effectively.In addition,
job-hopping is viewed much more favorably in Silicon Valley.

Where this touches the recent discussions is that many postings about
"fear" are predicated on the idea that it is undesirable for employees
to have to change companies.I would suggest that such an inflexible
employment system makes companies ineffectively rigid in the current
economy, and that much of the "fear" that people talk about could be
eliminated if people *expected* to change employment frequently, thus
opening up communication with managment, even under circumstances in
which classical analysis would suggest that it is not possible.

Dale

Dale Worley             Dept. of Math., MIT             drw@math.mit.edu
--
Half the Hispanics born in the U.S. speak only one language -- English.