I actually think Will Oremus is a good writer and laughed at the imagery of this paragraph: I think it's all well and good to take a look at the track record of a competition that is so "heralded." Tech Crunch still holds a lot of sway and Silicon Valley is still the home base for many VC, startups etc. I agree that the idea that nothing worthwhile can come from any other market than the Valley it NYC is maddening. I was at a startup function yesterday in Durham NC and there are a lot of interesting people working on some cool projects.Jargon aside, what exactly differentiates “an Alfred” from a plain old personal servant is not entirely clear. Perhaps it’s the fact that “Alfreds” apparently come unburdened by individual names of their own. Which is nice, because real names can be hard to remember and disconcertingly humanizing, like when you go to a fancy restaurant and they serve your fish with the head still on.