(Do you think WebMD and Eli Lily would be willing [and able] to provide 30 days of free Prozac for an entire state? We may soon know ...)

California has been suffering ... Even good news is bad news. ... California is a famously rewarding source of drive-by anthropology. ... In truth this great freak show of a state embodies all the generalizations and defies them, depending on which valley you visit. ... Bright young techies are voting with their U-Hauls ... Optimists will tell you that Silicon Valley has always been cyclical ...

"Failure is an essential part of our ecosystem," said Paul Saffo, a Menlo Park technology forecaster. "It's like a forest fire burning space for new growth." [Saffo runs the Institute for the Future.]

[A recent opinion poll expressed] "a wish that things will be O.K. ... I don't want to call it denial, but it is not really sustainable."

In a State of Denial