Live data from Hacker News

San Francisco Bubble

blog.larrold.com

141–150 of 393 posts

Re: San Francisco Bubble

#141
post #91

"Engineers are particularly spoiled. They can take an arbitrary sabbatical from work..." (on the about page) "...Currently a principal engineer at AppNexus on sabbatical..." ???

Ad hominem

The author complains about that behavior, labeling it a sign of how 'spoiled' engineers are. The author also engages in this behavior. Pointing this out, and labelling it hypocrisy, does not constitute an ad hominem attack. Because what the author has done is the definition of hypocrisy.

Re: San Francisco Bubble

#143

Money has been close to free for years. As the interest rate ticks up everything will change. It's already starting to. More expensive borrowing, less leverage, and better places to put dollars than venture. The one thing I really agree with though is the funny thing that happens here with the word "engineer". If you can make a website you somehow qualify for the title software engineer. By Bay Area standards, I myse…

In Canada, you get sued if you call yourself an engineer when you're not part of an order of engineers. Even if you're a bona fide engineer, but not enrolled in the order, calling yourself one opens the floodgates of hell where spaghetti coders do the same and get hired by retarded HR departments to take the lead on some mission-critical software. I like this. I am a self-learned developer. When my peers call themsel…

[deleted]

Re: San Francisco Bubble

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Canada, you get sued if you call yourself an engineer when you're not part of an order of engineers. Even if you're a bona fide engineer, but not enrolled in the order, calling yourself one opens the floodgates of hell where spaghetti coders do the same and get hired by retarded HR departments to take the lead on some mission-critical software. I like this. I am a self-learned developer. When my peers call themsel…

I wish it were a protected word in the states, maybe an Engineering association sitting over it. Would help with things like H1B flooding

As an experienced Canadian developer who is seeking a work visa to work in the US, it is actually extremely difficult to get one.

It seems as though the US prioritizes shit-developers/wannabe-engineers over experienced Canadian developers. Which kind of makes sense, in that you feed your own before feeding your neighbour.

So I really doubt that H1B flooding is a thing. Open to debate though.

Re: San Francisco Bubble

#145
post #41

> Everything is too expensive. I’m from New York... I take issue with this one. It's entirely possible to live frugally while living IN San Francisco. I moved here about 7 months ago and expected it to be incredibly expensive but it hasn't been the case (beyond rent). The author mentions $15 crappy local IPAs but I've actually never found a beer for this price. There is no shortage of $7 craft beers you can buy at a…

$7 beer? Frugal? In Berlin a beer costs $1 from the shop and maybe $2-3 from a bar.

Im thinkning of moving to München, this might be another reason too. A Heiniken 33cl beer in Stockholm costs around 12 USD if you are at a nightclub, otherwise around 10 USD.

Re: San Francisco Bubble

#147
post #41

> Everything is too expensive. I’m from New York... I take issue with this one. It's entirely possible to live frugally while living IN San Francisco. I moved here about 7 months ago and expected it to be incredibly expensive but it hasn't been the case (beyond rent). The author mentions $15 crappy local IPAs but I've actually never found a beer for this price. There is no shortage of $7 craft beers you can buy at a…

$7 beer? Frugal? In Berlin a beer costs $1 from the shop and maybe $2-3 from a bar.

Years ago, I met a French woman who had decided to take up residence in Berlin. She told me that the city's unofficial motto was "poor but sexy".

Re: San Francisco Bubble

#148
post #33

Money has been close to free for years. As the interest rate ticks up everything will change. It's already starting to. More expensive borrowing, less leverage, and better places to put dollars than venture. The one thing I really agree with though is the funny thing that happens here with the word "engineer". If you can make a website you somehow qualify for the title software engineer. By Bay Area standards, I myse…

> [...] and yet I don't even remotely consider myself an engineer. I phone screened somebody not so long ago who asked me if it was the "kind of job where you have to write a lot of code", because they "weren't that sort of software engineer". Didn't quite know what to make of that.

It could be an awful way of saying he prefers maintenance to new development.

Re: San Francisco Bubble

#150
post #62

This is why the free market is so great. 1. Everything too expensive? Good, don't live here, eventually enough people will leave to drive all of the costs back to other market norms. 2. Dumb startups? Good, they will fail, people won't be able to afford to live here and they'll leave. 3. People are spoiled? Uber is cheaper and more convenient in some cases than taking the local transportation. When people stop taking…

I don't see any reason to assume the free market will solve those problems- the local markets are doing just fine with the rich (spoiled?) part of the population, and have little to no incentive to change; dumb startups are doing just fine as VC fodder; bad engineers are doing fantastic at making CRUD apps for startups that don't need anything fancier.
Post reply on HN