until you understand Nash equilibrium.

Protection of moonlighting and non-recognition of non-competes is that makes CA leaving other "Silicon Valley wannabes" in the dust. Creative free people who flock to whoever pays better and/or offers more interesting job vs. enslaved ones who wouldn't be able to get a new job if kicked off from the current one - your choice.

There are a fair number of intelligent people (and me) who think that Silicon Valley is a joke.

Silicon Valley is a place, just like any other. There's a fair amount of dysfunction in the Valley, along with a fair amount of brilliance. It's full of perks (beautiful weather, lots of job opportunities in tech, so much to see and do) but also downsides (cost of living, cliche startups trying to be "Uber, but for cruelty free soy products", all the people).

Sure, perhaps, but it has brought a whoooole lot of tech and wealth into this world.

as long as you type your opinion into a computing device and it is distributed over the *Net - the more participants and diverse opinions - the higher traffic and the bigger the joke :)

It has its problems, but I'm laughing all the way to the bank.

Well, we all have our priorities. Congrats on achieving yours!

The "Minnesota Model" on IP owership is also very important.