This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley • Hacker News Board

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#61

Post by mcbits » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 11:02 AM UTC

jonathansizz wrote: post #59

enraged_camel wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Living expenses make up the majority of most people's living expenses, and this person owns the house they live in, which means it's possible their expenses aren't that high to begin with. They imply as much in their post. So it's possible their salary is like $70-75k. The median salary in the US is $52k. In light of that, I, too, would call his salary "decently high".

$52,000 is the median household income, not median salary.

For reference, "median net compensation" appears to be just shy of $30,000 (if it's safe to extrapolate from 2014). https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/central.html

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#62

Post by throwanem » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 11:23 AM UTC

hueving wrote: post #58

throwanem wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great! I'm really glad to hear you've found a lifestyle that works well for you. Is it possible your experience isn't representative?

Likely not, but this portrayal in the article isn't close either. It only applies to 'hot startup' folks, which are a subset of startups, which are a tiny subset of employees here.

But, looking in from the outside, it's the subset which everyone not already in it appears to desire on some level to join.

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#63

Post by Ezhik » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 11:23 AM UTC

Man, stuff like this makes me wonder what my life will even be like when I graduate.

Went here because dude, Silicon Valley! Then ended up spending a year depressed and just burning out on the whole thing because as it turns out changing your entire life down to the language you speak doesn't really remove the fact that you're a huge introvert and procrastinator.

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#64

Post by mseebach » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 11:32 AM UTC

throwanem wrote: post #62

hueving wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likely not, but this portrayal in the article isn't close either. It only applies to 'hot startup' folks, which are a subset of startups, which are a tiny subset of employees here.

But, looking in from the outside, it's the subset which everyone not already in it appears to desire on some level to join.

Is it possible your experience isn't representative?

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#65

Post by Asooka » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 11:32 AM UTC

If he can drop the self-loathing and envy, maybe with some guided meditation, I think he could live a quite comfortable routine there. It won't be a sustainable life, as the VC money have to run out sometime but right now that's a bit like saying that the sun has to go out some day.

The hyper-connected ultra-technological micromanaged life isn't for me, but kudos to the author for making it work for him.

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#66

Post by mseebach » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 11:35 AM UTC

duzoajcgk wrote: post #23

kec wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people would consider $60k/year in discretionary income a little more than "decently high".

Of course, discretionary income and salary are not the same thing. If you are a developer in the valley paying to live in Palo Alto, driving a BMW, etc. you too could choose to have a lot more discretionary income.

Yes, rents are part of the price of the ticket to work in SV, and as such does not constitute discretionary income. The extra cash you spend to drive a BMW instead of a five year old Nissan definitely most certainly does.

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#67

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 11:36 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#68

Post by S4M » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 11:40 AM UTC

gutnor wrote: post #48

twblalock wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A nanny is not a part-time worker. That is a babysitter. A nanny lives with the family.

Is it in the US ? In the UK to be a nanny, childminder or work in a nursery you have specific regulation and qualification required. A babysitter requires nothing, it can and generally is some teenage kid. The difference with all 3 is where the child go. Nursery has special dedicated facilities to take care of several children, number limited by the number of employee and size. A childminder will take care of 1 to 3…

Here in Spain I know a family that hired a young girl "au pair" (in their case a Polish girl who wanted to learn Spanish). The father told me they paid her about 400 euros/month + food and accommodation, so it's not something prohibitively expensive.

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#69

Post by mseebach » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 11:45 AM UTC

gutnor wrote: post #48

twblalock wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A nanny is not a part-time worker. That is a babysitter. A nanny lives with the family.

Is it in the US ? In the UK to be a nanny, childminder or work in a nursery you have specific regulation and qualification required. A babysitter requires nothing, it can and generally is some teenage kid. The difference with all 3 is where the child go. Nursery has special dedicated facilities to take care of several children, number limited by the number of employee and size. A childminder will take care of 1 to 3…

"Au Pair" means "on par" meaning living as part of the family. As such, au pairs get house and board and a small amount of pocket money, but no salary as such. They also don't have clear-cut work duties, they help around a house, as a member of the family would be expected to do, cooking, cleaning, washing etc. As a parent, you're generally not supposed to leave the au pair in sole charge of the children for more than brief periods of time (as you would a babysitter). That's the general theory, of course, individual arrangements range widely.

A nanny is a professional employee of the family, generally has training and certification, has clear duties and makes an actual salary. An "au pair nanny" is an oxymoron, that would be a "live in nanny" and, yes, definitely rich people stuff. Au pairs are definitely possibilities for the middle class.

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#70

Post by collyw » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 11:48 AM UTC

throwanem wrote: post #55

derwiki wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very surprised to not see any jabs at Burning Man, or waiting in line for brunch.

I don't really know about brunch, although I guess there's something about waiting the better part of an hour to eat that makes it attractive to hipsters because I sure have seen them do it a lot. But my guess is that Burning Man is rather passé, and has been roughly since people who hadn't been there started hearing about it in large numbers.

Burning Man is your equivalent of Glastonbury. Used to be cool years ago, but now its just for posh kids to say they have been.