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Rohit Singh
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Sat, 11 Mar 2006
California...
California is one of the most amazing places on earth. Just the weather
would make it that-- just go to San Diego once. But as Ron Popeil would
say, "wait, there's more!". Great restaurants, tons to see, tons to do,
the chance to hang out with all those smart people from all the great
universities, good jobs to pay for all the good food and the stuff to do,
sweet cars and lots of scenic roads to drive them on, and finally, the
sensory overload called Vegas is just a stone's throw away.
But even if California didn't have all this, it'd still be one of the most amazing places on earth. You see, it is a socio-political nuthouse like no other on earth, and I mean that with all the fondness in my heart. The "socio" part of that claim is for later. I'll just defend the "political" part now. Exhibit (1) would be this LA Times article, which says that one of the current raging debates in CA state assembly is which wine should be California's state wine (Zinfandel is being pushed). It's worth noting that California already has a state soil, so wine would be a natural next state symbol to deliberate on. Exhibit (2) would be the same article, where the author ends with saying he's glad his elected representatives are keeping busy with frivolous stuff, because their record with non-frivolous stuff is much scarier. Exhibit (3) would be Fareed Zakaria's book "The Future of Freedom", where he talks at some length about California being an example of People Power gone too far-- all the various voter propositions mean that even if Californians manage to elect themselves good representatives, those representatives really can't do much. I could go on...
Yesterday, the Sloan Indian Business Club organized a panel discussion where a bunch of IP and Corporate lawyers said lawyerly things about the minutae of starting a business (for example, a H1bee or a F1-opt can't start a S-Corp, he can only start a C-Corp. Don't ask me how the two differ). At some point, there was discussion of employment contracts, non-compete clauses and so on. One of the lawyers pointed out that non-compete clauses in employment contracts are illegal in California. His colleague chimed in, with a poker face, "nothing's legal in California."