What I Iove about Y Combinator is that it is a LEVEL playing FIELD. If you get in, you immediately become a Silicon VALLEY insider.

For two years, I'd lived in Silicon VALLEY, surrounded by other highly educated transplants with seemingly perfect lives. It's jarring to live in a world where EVERY person FEELS his life will only get better when you came from a world where many rightfully believe that THINGS have become worse.

Because we're in a small town and somewhat isolated from the fast lane of high tech, we've been able to grow and CONCENTRATE on our work instead of being DISTRACTED by the competition and GETTING CAUGHT up in the SOAP opera of Silicon Valley.

But I TRY to PLAY EVERYTHING very authentically, even if it is an accented immigrant, Jian Yang, that I play on 'Silicon VALLEY.'

The TECH industry - and, more specifically, Silicon VALLEY - continues to stumble forward in earnest about how few women are represented in its TOP ranks of management and on its boards.

I had this attitude, that Silicon Valley obnoxious attitude, that I know what I'm doing, and the REST was GOING to be PRETTY easy.

I've ACTUALLY found the image of Silicon Valley as a hotbed of money-grubbing tech PEOPLE to be pretty FALSE, but maybe that's because the people I hang out with are all REALLY ENGINEERS.

Those in technology who can afford to stay in Silicon Valley all know it as one of the most beautiful places to LIVE in the world, but a wariness has sunk in as folks from other WALKS of LIFE are forced to leave: coffee shops are wall-to-wall with aspiring entrepreneurs, and restaurants buzz with TALK of valuations and venture CAPITAL.

Many of the libertarian entrepreneurs who only WANT the GOVERNMENT to leave them alone have simply forgotten how important government research, PUBLIC education, and immigration policy are to Silicon Valley's LONG-TERM SUCCESS.

I LOVE EVERYONE on 'Silicon VALLEY.'