Your point can be extended to individual companies, too. The larger and more prominent one gets, the more respect and admiration it gains. Everyone is amazed and envious of Google just as they were of Microsoft pre-1995 or so, GM, IBM etc. Smaller companies want to become these companies, to follow and to learn from them. They want to be partners, and to be acquired by these “leaders”.

This while those internal to the companies bail for greener pastures for many recurring reasons. Perhaps size makes the organization slower to innovate, thus stifling intellect, and scale leads to onerous process and bureaucracy. Internal politics and unrealistic, bottom-line-driven expectations conflict the heart, mind and morality. Dunno, but it always happens.

Silicon Valley is that large company, and the celebrities you mention are its fairweather stakeholders. Similar to Wall Street, it is a narcissistic, me me culture of envy, competition and self-motivation. If one company or person does it “right” (read: makes money), then everyone follows suit - in droves. “Serial entrepreneurs”, VCs, gold rush geographic transplants - everyone wants a piece of the flavor-of-the-month, including other cities/countries.

Similar to world politics, the more an entity “pays attention to you”, the more it wants something from you, but moreso it wants to make you just like it. I guarantee that if Portland, Israel or Sydney got more attention, it would consistently be in comparison to the benchmark - themselves. That would be the intent, to point the finger and say “not invented here, therefore merely cute, interesting and wannabe”. Just as the preserved cultures of the world disallow such attention, visits, imports, consumption and other external influences, so should those unique cities, companies and persons who are ALREADY OK in their own skins. What you are asking for is the extension of the California migration (disclosure: I relocated from California) and the Californication that always comes with it.

IMO, Scoble’s statements reveal a truth, but do so in a way that preserves the illusion that the “leaders” should be emulated. The next Big Thing will most likely come out of NOWHERE because that is the only place where freshness still lives. I am not proposing that Portland or anywhere isolate itself and otherwise shun “attention”, but I am advocating more cautious consideration of the reasons why that attention is desirable, and what drawbacks it brings. Portland has all it needs; namely, heart and soul, and both seem to be in the right place.

Your point is not lost in this contrarian viewpoint, for more attention would bring press would bring usage would bring revenues would bring jobs would bring happiness etc. However, that too is a double edged sword, for when filtered through its comparative lens, Silicon Valley and its luminaries are likely to view Portland through rose colored lenses, if you will.