Has the Valley peaked? In his GQ piece Silicon Valley is a Big Fat Lie, Sam Biddle laments what he sees as the gradual intellectual decline of the tech industry in the Bay Area: “What was once a land of upstarts and rebels is now being led by the money-hungry and the unspirited. Which is why we have a start-up that mails your dog curated treats and an app that says ‘Yo.’ The brightest minds in tech just lately seem more concerned with silly business ideas and innocuous ‘disruption,’ all for the shot at an immense payday. And when our country’s smartest people are working on the dumbest things, we all lose out.” A couple thoughts. First, I worry less about my tech industry colleagues who are working on dumb ideas than those who think that because they can code a photo sharing app, they are also qualified to solve America’s most entrenched problems. Second, Biddle should consider the possibility that not everyone out here fits into the category of “our country’s smartest people.” Showing up at a gold rush with a shovel and a pan doesn’t make you a genius.

+ Farhad Manjoo in the NYT: A tech boom aimed at the few instead of the world.