Does Silicon Valley Exist?

The early Caltrain was filled with commuters, weary-eyed and ready to arrive. A woman turned to me and asked for my help getting to her destination. She had a San Francisco paper map, and a printout of Google Maps directions to Mountain View.

The exact address of her destination failed to print. Hand-written below the address was “Palo Alto or Mountain View.” She was polite, quiet and looked anxious to arrive at her destination, via my interpretation of her Google sheet. I shared that I was headed to Mountain View and offered to sit by her so she would not miss the station announcement, as she spoke very little English.

Upon arrival, I offered to orient her to the next streets listed on her printout. I thought she was clear about where she was going. She claimed her destination was Silicon Valley and clearly looked distraught at the sight of the suburban parking lot at the Mountain View station.

She has a vision of Silicon Valley as an all-in-one stop destination, with Facebook and Google close enough to take a picture encompassing both office front doors. She hoped for Tomorrowland, and instead found herself almost in tears, in a parking lot filled with Prius’.

I had to be the one to shatter the dream: Silicon Valley is an idea — it’s a place over 50 miles wide that has offices for many companies throughout suburbs. Facebook is a 30 minute drive from here, I told her, and Google is still another 10 minutes away from where we stand, in another direction.

I feared my usual “Silicon Valley is a mindset that can exist anywhere, not a place” would have no chance of landing through our language barrier. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that Google doesn’t really do tours for random people — in hopes that someone at their offices might take pity on her, or at least she could arrive to take her sought after picture: to see for herself that Silicon Valley does indeed exist.