One of the unfortunate side effects of this situation is that all these workers must file into their cars every morning and clog the growing web of highways which covers Silicon Valley and the surrounding regions. As a result, traffic congestion in Silicon Valley is among the worst in the nation. Driving speeds during peak-hour commutes in the San Jose metropolitan area are slower than those in New York City and Chicago. The San Francisco-Oakland metropolitan area is even slower. It is the second slowest in the nation; the worst is Los Angeles. On hot days, a mustard-colored haze usually blankets the Valley. Glowering commuters, whose cars form endless lines along Route 101, roll up their windows and retreat to their mobile phones. Some like to describe Silicon Valley as a state of mind, as an attitude. It's clearly a place which fosters great creativity, innovation, and wealth. It's a place which is predicated upon a sense of boundless optimism. It's a place which sounds pleasant and inviting. But it isn't. The spirit of Silicon Valley will always be at odds with its shabby appearance. The start-ups that litter the Valley are concerned primarily with the quest for change, improvement, and newness. And the bulk of their innovations exist in an interior world of heady abstraction—in computer code. The trappings of the physical world—the office parks—are simply a needling necessity; a cost of doing business. For most companies, like Exponential, the office is merely a weigh station for an ambitious idea. When Exponential failed, the employees were dismissed and, most likely, left the nondescript office in San Jose only to take up jobs in another nondescript office somewhere else in the Valley. The untouched furniture was probably sold at a discount to the next tenant—another company with a big idea and little time to contemplate its dreary surroundings.

Start Founders' Note Dateline Dispatches about the interaction of culture and technology. Through a lens People use cameras to answer a question. Backlash Killthedot.com Translator Software interprets the classics Send-up Satire and ridicule. Features Silicon Valley The Enigmatic Craig McCaw Finish Fiction "Cyber-sized" History of... the typewriter. The Watch Reviews and commentary Wind-up Physicist Carver Mead explains why innovation requires courage and luck.

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