As Tech Grows, So Does San Francisco's Influence

Previously, San Francisco was never an "industry town" to the same extent as other major U.S. cities like New York (media and finance) or Los Angeles (entertainment). However, Heller asserts, the ever-expanding role of "tech" in the modern world is changing that:

San Francisco is an industry town. This industry is usually called 'tech,' but the term no longer signifies what it used to. Tech today means anything about computers, the Internet, digital media, social media, smartphones, electronic data, crowd-funding, or new business design.

Heller argues that tech is not just the dominate industry of the San Francisco area, but of the entire country if not the world, and a confluence of entrepreneurs and the venture capitalists who fund them makes the city ground zero for the modern economy and prevailing culture. San Francisco is the new go-to destination for ambitious, creative people, giving rise to ad hoc interdisciplinary incubator spaces and career paths that transcend labels. These places and people are redefining the metropolis, which is no longer "a Dungeness crab of a city, shedding its carapace from time to time and burrowing down until a new shell sets."