What It’s Like Being Neighbors with Silicon Valley’s Elite
Pro Football Hall of Famer Steve Young has shared some delightful stories from his days in Palo Alto, where he lived next to some of technology’s biggest names.
Young reminisced about sharing a neighborhood with the likes of Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Ellison on a recent episode of the In Depth With Graham Bensinger podcast. Despite being a celebrated quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, he found that the conversations on his block often revolved around the innovations coming out of Silicon Valley.
“Everywhere you went, you were around people that were transforming the world,” Young expressed, noting how inspiring it was to be surrounded by visionaries. “As an athlete, you always feel a little bit of an impostor in that world because I don’t have a product or a groundbreaking idea. I just play a game.”
In a lighthearted moment, he recounted an amusing exchange with Ellison and Jobs. While Ellison recognized Young from their pickup basketball games, Young admitted he initially didn’t recognize Ellison. Jobs, meanwhile, didn’t recall meeting Young, despite their previous encounters. Young laughed about how neighbors in such a dynamic area could be so disconnected, reflecting the eclectic essence of Silicon Valley during the late ’90s.
He described walking past Jobs’ home office, where Jobs was often deep in work. “He’d just be doing his thing, and that’s the kind of neighborhood it was,” Young noted.
As for Zuckerberg, Young shared that he “lives in a normal little house,” but that Zuckerberg had invested in nearby properties to ensure his privacy, costing over $30 million. “He used to give out huge, giant Nestlé Crunch bars on Halloween,” Young recalled, recalling the neighborly competition that made him feel somewhat embarrassed. “It was like, ‘Bro, why are you making me look bad? Quit trying to shame me.’ This is like neighbor shame.”
You could feel the excitement in the neighborhood on Halloween. “This whole block shuts down; it’s a block party, and thousands of people flood in from all over the peninsula and beyond,” Young said. Residents like former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer have also hosted famous Halloween bashes, while Jobs was known for his Halloween festivities as well.
After Jobs passed away in 2011, his widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, took it upon herself to continue the Halloween tradition, ensuring it remained a community highlight.
While Young may no longer reside in Palo Alto, he fondly remembers that era as a transformative time for technology. “If you play football in Palo Alto, pretty much nobody knows,” Young quipped, sharing how people often came searching for Zuckerberg’s home instead, with Young directing them, “Yeah, just keep going that way.”
