🌱 Why Big Ideas Are Built in Temperate Climates

Hoping this is the most interesting thing in your (quiet) inbox today.”
Happy Labor Day . . . and first day of September 🥳

The Comfort Tax on Creativity

In 2023, I spent the summer in New York City and it nearly suffocated me. 

The air was thick, the buildings pressed in, and even at 9 p.m. the humidity clung like a weight. I wasn’t dreaming . . .  I was just trying to get out.

That summer made me wonder: why do some of the world’s biggest, most valuable ideas emerge not in places like New York, but in cities with more open terrain and more temperate climates?

In Seattle, San Diego, or San Francisco, there are fewer towers clouding the sky. You can look to your right and left and see rolling hills, the Pacific Ocean, or a wide bay. You can breathe. You can walk at night in just a sweatshirt and feel ideas turning over as easily as the breeze.

A friend of mine once put it perfectly: “In New York, people are focused on scaling what’s now. In San Francisco, people are focused on scaling what’s next.”

The Scoreboard Tells the Story

If climate truly matters, then the scoreboard should reflect it. And it does.

• The Bay Area alone is home to over $12 trillion in market value across Apple, Google, Meta, NVIDIA, and Salesforce.
  

• Seattle adds another $6 trillion, anchored by Microsoft and Amazon.
  

• Even San Diego has produced biotech and wireless stalwarts like Qualcomm, ResMed, and Dexcom — totaling more than $250 billion.

By contrast, extreme-climate metros are respectable but smaller:

• Chicago and Dallas–Fort Worth each hover around $770B in combined value.
  

• Boston, Miami, and Phoenix have birthed notable firms like HubSpot, Chewy, and Axon, but each cluster remains under $200B.
  

• New York City and Washington, D.C., despite their size and resources, trail far behind in venture-born giants.
  
  

  

Temperate vs. Extreme Comparison

 Temperate hubs (SF Bay Area, Seattle, San Diego) total ~$18.8T. Extreme-climate hubs combined: ~$2.1T.

City-by-City View

If you zoom in, the city-level rankings make the imbalance even clearer:

Representative public-company valuations by city, Aug 2025. Bay Area + Seattle dominate the global leaderboard.

Climate as a Cognitive Multiplier

Extreme climates impose a comfort tax: the body regulates, the mind shrinks. Temperate zones lift it — more hours outside, more conversations, more serendipity.

That’s why Mediterranean societies, Renaissance Florence, and coastal California became hotbeds of innovation. They weren’t only rich in resources — they were rich in conditions for flow.

Still, climate is only the opening act. Culture writes the script.

The Rainforest Effect

Victor Hwang and Greg Horowitt’s The Rainforest argues that ecosystems like Silicon Valley succeed not because of rigid design, but because of rainforest dynamics: diversity, serendipity, trust, and cultural norms that accelerate collaboration.

The Ingredients of a Rainforest:

• Diversity & Serendipity — Random collisions spark new ideas.
  

• Trust-Based Networks — Deals happen quickly when people default to openness and reciprocity.
  

• Keystone Connectors — Universities, accelerators, and individuals bridging otherwise separate worlds.
  

• Rules of the Rainforest — Break rules and dream. Experiment together. Pay it forward.
  

• Capital That Builds Ecosystems — Money that funds not just companies, but networks.
  

Plenty of cities have smart people and universities. What set Silicon Valley apart was the mix of climate + culture + capital.

Lessons for Entrepreneurs

Even if you don’t live in a temperate zone, you can engineer one inside your work.

• Design temperate zones inside your company. Balance pressure with space.
  

• Be a keystone connector. Link people and ideas across boundaries.
  

• Practice the Rainforest rules. Pay it forward. Iterate together. Trust first.
  

Because the real takeaway isn’t that Silicon Valley got lucky with weather. It’s that leaders designed an ecosystem where climate and culture worked in tandem

Closing Reflection: What Climate Are You Building In?

Most of us can’t change the weather. But we can change the climates we create.

When the environment stops demanding survival, imagination can flourish. 

That’s why a midnight walk in San Francisco feels different than one in New York in July. One is a fight for comfort; the other, an invitation to dream.

Silicon Valley took that natural ease and layered on a rainforest of trust, serendipity, and capital. Climate opened the door; culture walked through it.

So here’s the question: What climate are you building your idea in?

PS, Happy Almost Fall.
🍁 🍂🍁