This is one of your best pieces, imho. You have captured so many issues while focused on data centers. I'm one of the anti-data center people because of the way they are being propagated. The arrogance isn't just from tech, though. It's coming from petty tyrants in local government who think they know best simply because they got the sales pitch from the guy in well-shined shoes (aka the lawyer). Every time I've posted against them, I get accused of supporting the CCP-and that lazy argument doesn't fly with me.
All of that to say-the bigger issue you're addressing is the frustration of natives in Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Texas-pretty much anywhere in the Old South/Sun Belt. We've been inundated with new people, whether it's economic migrants from California and New York fleeing the policies they voted for, or it's H1B visa holders fleeing crowded zones for a new life. We've welcomed all of them with our usual Southern hospitality but in the past 20 years, the pace has been so rapid that many Southern areas are unrecognizable. We who have generations of history where we live are called names and steamrolled in favor of what someone from somewhere else declares.
The frustration is palpable. Not sure what the solution is at this point, either. The camps don't seem interested in common ground which is also the attitude I have found on data centers, flock cameras, and the like.
Why do the big companies get this wrong when it’s so obvious to small companies?
I think of a local business in my town. The owners live in a different *state* - but they have a presence at every town parade or social event. They sponsor Little League teams and highschool theater productions. They are a beloved part of the community even though they “only” do business here.
Maybe it’s because the tech companies view a community as simply a location, not a pool of potential customers and employees. They don’t care about goodwill because they don’t need to have an obvious connection to the *people* who live there.
Certainly. Your throwaway line about not sponsoring LL teams or building parks made me think of this small business, specifically. There's no other reason why they should have ties to our town, other than the fact that it's the location where 90% of their customers live.
Big Tech "refusing to abandon" the Bay Area/New York/Seattle complex is an understatement. Not only are they uninterested in sponsoring Wisconsin little-leagues, they are eagerly and zealously slashing long-tenured, high-performing employees for the offense of being located there.
This is, unfortunately, right, and it is downstream also of a decade-plus of arrogant lack of transparency and lack of felt institutional responsibility. We're seeing that too in the latest Meta lawsuit: whether or not you think they ought to face the penalties that the plaintiffs are seeking, the mentality of "screw kids' mental health, we're engagementmaxxing" that's being exposed at trial is pretty shocking and probably intensifies the opposition. A decade or two ago, it was understandable on the grounds that tech nerds having real institutional power was so new: we still thought of ourselves as low status underdogs and so it was hard to take on the feelings of obligation that come with power. But there's now no excuse for that to continue.
I am surprised there has not even been an attempt to come up with a regulatory package the industry could sign on to, and even lobby for, to credibly commit to making data centers into reliably good citizens of the communities that host them. It's not really that hard! Just off the top of my head, as a not particularly expert techie-layperson, you'd want to encode principles like:
1. Verifiable, monitored water recycling and demonstrably minimal net full-cycle water usage compared to other large local water users (agriculture, big residential developments), with penalty rates for exceeding a contracted cap on water usage.
2. Minimal impact on *peak* electricity demand on the local grid (since peak is what drives both cost and reliability concerns, and the vast majority of the time you are not at peak and have plenty of headroom to consume power). Utilities commit that they can and will stop providing power at peak demand times.
3. No behind-the-meter fossil fuel generation to achieve #2: peaks to be handled with curtailment and/or onsite renewables.
4. Verifiable, monitored noise standards, with penalties mechanically applied for exceeding a contracted noise cap.
5. Aesthetic and other built-environment-integration standards.
These would have some upfront costs, especially #3, but they are 100% feasible to achieve with current technology, and in the medium term, heading off the populists would be more than worth the cost. It's what smart utility-maximizers would do, and also what people who take the responsibilities of power seriously would do, and aren't we techies supposed to be both those things now?
As a southerner who lives in and loves California as much as my “homeland,” and who meets and knows good and less-so people in places everywhere, I believe the solution—if there is one—begins with, as this piece does, candor. Candor is not merely “facts.” It implies honesty and respect.
I totally agree with Leigh - one of your best pieces. Please consider ways to get your voice a more active role in this national debate. I appreciate your insider comments and insights.
This is one of your best pieces, imho. You have captured so many issues while focused on data centers. I'm one of the anti-data center people because of the way they are being propagated. The arrogance isn't just from tech, though. It's coming from petty tyrants in local government who think they know best simply because they got the sales pitch from the guy in well-shined shoes (aka the lawyer). Every time I've posted against them, I get accused of supporting the CCP-and that lazy argument doesn't fly with me.
All of that to say-the bigger issue you're addressing is the frustration of natives in Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Texas-pretty much anywhere in the Old South/Sun Belt. We've been inundated with new people, whether it's economic migrants from California and New York fleeing the policies they voted for, or it's H1B visa holders fleeing crowded zones for a new life. We've welcomed all of them with our usual Southern hospitality but in the past 20 years, the pace has been so rapid that many Southern areas are unrecognizable. We who have generations of history where we live are called names and steamrolled in favor of what someone from somewhere else declares.
The frustration is palpable. Not sure what the solution is at this point, either. The camps don't seem interested in common ground which is also the attitude I have found on data centers, flock cameras, and the like.
Why do the big companies get this wrong when it’s so obvious to small companies?
I think of a local business in my town. The owners live in a different *state* - but they have a presence at every town parade or social event. They sponsor Little League teams and highschool theater productions. They are a beloved part of the community even though they “only” do business here.
Maybe it’s because the tech companies view a community as simply a location, not a pool of potential customers and employees. They don’t care about goodwill because they don’t need to have an obvious connection to the *people* who live there.
Can I bring this comment to twitter or use it as the starting point for another adjacent piece?
Certainly. Your throwaway line about not sponsoring LL teams or building parks made me think of this small business, specifically. There's no other reason why they should have ties to our town, other than the fact that it's the location where 90% of their customers live.
Big Tech "refusing to abandon" the Bay Area/New York/Seattle complex is an understatement. Not only are they uninterested in sponsoring Wisconsin little-leagues, they are eagerly and zealously slashing long-tenured, high-performing employees for the offense of being located there.
This is, unfortunately, right, and it is downstream also of a decade-plus of arrogant lack of transparency and lack of felt institutional responsibility. We're seeing that too in the latest Meta lawsuit: whether or not you think they ought to face the penalties that the plaintiffs are seeking, the mentality of "screw kids' mental health, we're engagementmaxxing" that's being exposed at trial is pretty shocking and probably intensifies the opposition. A decade or two ago, it was understandable on the grounds that tech nerds having real institutional power was so new: we still thought of ourselves as low status underdogs and so it was hard to take on the feelings of obligation that come with power. But there's now no excuse for that to continue.
I am surprised there has not even been an attempt to come up with a regulatory package the industry could sign on to, and even lobby for, to credibly commit to making data centers into reliably good citizens of the communities that host them. It's not really that hard! Just off the top of my head, as a not particularly expert techie-layperson, you'd want to encode principles like:
1. Verifiable, monitored water recycling and demonstrably minimal net full-cycle water usage compared to other large local water users (agriculture, big residential developments), with penalty rates for exceeding a contracted cap on water usage.
2. Minimal impact on *peak* electricity demand on the local grid (since peak is what drives both cost and reliability concerns, and the vast majority of the time you are not at peak and have plenty of headroom to consume power). Utilities commit that they can and will stop providing power at peak demand times.
3. No behind-the-meter fossil fuel generation to achieve #2: peaks to be handled with curtailment and/or onsite renewables.
4. Verifiable, monitored noise standards, with penalties mechanically applied for exceeding a contracted noise cap.
5. Aesthetic and other built-environment-integration standards.
These would have some upfront costs, especially #3, but they are 100% feasible to achieve with current technology, and in the medium term, heading off the populists would be more than worth the cost. It's what smart utility-maximizers would do, and also what people who take the responsibilities of power seriously would do, and aren't we techies supposed to be both those things now?
As a southerner who lives in and loves California as much as my “homeland,” and who meets and knows good and less-so people in places everywhere, I believe the solution—if there is one—begins with, as this piece does, candor. Candor is not merely “facts.” It implies honesty and respect.
I totally agree with Leigh - one of your best pieces. Please consider ways to get your voice a more active role in this national debate. I appreciate your insider comments and insights.