I have seen the question on hacker news now and again and it was kind of hard to understand what the allure of the valley was until I visited for a week at Startup School. It was fascinating to view and compare it to my own experiences. I have thought many times that you can change things and break the mould but when you see the tidal wave of constant and relentless, for the want of a better word, progress it makes you see how difficult and how many factors are involved in creating another Silicon Valley.