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Ask HN: I’m visiting Bay Area and I dislike the “hacker” culture. Please help

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Ask HN: I’m visiting Bay Area and I dislike the “hacker” culture. Please help

#1

Post by oldboyFX »

I understand the irony in posting this on “hacker”news but please bare with me.

I’m a 25 year old european developer/designer. I’m visiting for obvious reasons (startup scene), and some less obvious (I dislike winter in Croatia). I’d like to get a feel for the area and see what all the fuss is about. Also do some networking, meet new people etc… the usual stuff. I'll be staying for 2-3 months.

Unfortunately I have an issue. I dislike people who call themselves hackers, rockstars, ninjas, nomads etc. I don’t care about yoga, organic food, vegans, feminists or spirit animals. I dislike overuse of the word “community” and I think the whole “lifehacking” thing is retarded.

Online articles give me the impression that most of the techies in Bay Area are like this. Hipsterish, self absorbed, holier than thou, buying into hype/industry fads etc.

Is this true?

I’d like to hear other’s opinions on this, especially from people who live in the Bay Area. I’ve never been there, so I’m judging based on online research. I could be totally wrong.

I’m the type of person who likes eating meat, drinking beer, talking about politics, money, science, entrepreneurship, programming etc.

My intention isn’t to be a hater. People are different, cultures are different, that’s fine :-)

I’d just like to hear others opinions and get some advice. Like where should I stay during my visit, which meetups should I attend and so on. I’m on a budget and would prefer spending less than $2500/month. I don’t mind living with roomates as long as they’re not rockstars. That’s a bit too loud for me :O

Edit: I'm not saying that everyone in the area is like that. Again, that's the impression that I got from online research. I find it hard to believe and that's why I opened this thread.

Re: Ask HN: I’m visiting Bay Area and I dislike the “hacker” culture. Please help

#2

Post by ocharles »

I don't have any advice, but you seem to suggest that the whole "scene" is problematic. Ignoring that is a massive sweeping statement, perhaps consider if you are causing yourself to be the problem - you've already decided you're not interested in meeting anyone here, because you've already formed opinions. You might do better to take it as you find it.

Re: Ask HN: I’m visiting Bay Area and I dislike the “hacker” culture. Please help

#4

Post by oldboyFX »

ocharles wrote: post #2

I don't have any advice, but you seem to suggest that the whole "scene" is problematic. Ignoring that is a massive sweeping statement, perhaps consider if you are causing yourself to be the problem - you've already decided you're not interested in meeting anyone here, because you've already formed opinions. You might do better to take it as you find it.

Ofcourse I'm interested in meeting people there. Yes I formed some opinions but they might be totally wrong.

I just want to hear what people think about this subject.

Re: Ask HN: I’m visiting Bay Area and I dislike the “hacker” culture. Please help

#6

Post by angersock »

First, don't believe everything you read. I'm willing to bet the majority of devs in the SF startup seen are relatively quiet, very overworked, and not overly political (unless, say, trying to pick up a member of the preferred gender).

Second, it's not like you're going to have a vegan feminist drum-circle (to use your own caricature) pounding away in your coworking space while you're trying to get work done. I wouldn't worry about that.

Third, your self-description should be able to fit in perfectly. Again, regardless of what it might seem like on the internet, there aren't roving bands of evil liberals looking to go all Clockwork Orange on you if you're at a Starbucks listening to a Glenn Beck podcast or whatever. Most people just don't give a shit.

Fourth, please reconsider posting like this. You paint with a really wide brush, and not only does it make you seem like an internet right-winger (which may not actually be true), it also reeks of ignorance of getting along with other people and being open-minded and excited to meet cultures outside of your comfort zone.

Lastly, if you want to visit a place with real diversity and make that money stretch (seriously, that's like 3 months rent here), check out Houston. Or Austin. Or Dallas.

Re: Ask HN: I’m visiting Bay Area and I dislike the “hacker” culture. Please help

#8

Post by smtddr »

>>My intention isn’t to be a hater. People are different, cultures are different, that’s fine :-)

>> I dislike people who call themselves hackers, rockstars, ninjas, nomads etc. I don’t care about yoga, organic food, vegans, feminists or spirit animals. I dislike overuse of the word “community” and I think the whole “lifehacking” thing is retarded.

Re: Ask HN: I’m visiting Bay Area and I dislike the “hacker” culture. Please help

#10

Post by Rantenki »

You are probably overthinking it. As a Canadian who visits the bay area on a very regular basis for work (and lives in the backwoods in a community of 2000 people and takes a boat to get to a real airport), there is a jarring disconnect between the media portrayal of bay area culture and the reality.

I too eat meat, drink beer, and talk about the same topics. You'll find that is true of most "hackers" in the bay area too. The term hacker is used more often as shorthand to describe somebody who is into technology without getting into the details (software&hardware&ux).

I have seen precisely one person ever describe themselves as a rockstar, and we rejected his job application for plagiarizing his code samples. Nobody in the real world does this, and you're unlikely to get force-fed yoga, lifehacking, etc.

There are still things that weird me out about the bay area, but overall I really enjoy my time there. I encourage you to check out some tech meetups.

Oh. And Noisebridge and it's mailing list aren't representative of the larger geek community in SFO either, just saying ;)

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