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This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

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Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#131

Post by Cshelton »

econner wrote: post #108
whatever_dude wrote: post #103

Great read, not just for people from Silicon Valley. It's good to put things into perspective. It also reminds me of an article [1] about John Carmack and his choice of Dallas. To quote, > “A lot of people, especially from California, say, ‘Texas? Why the hell are you in Texas?’ But I am generally happy to wave the flag and say, ‘No, I am not here under duress.’ I actually like it here. And we appreciate the sense of…

I assume he's in Menlo Park now at Oculus. I wonder if he still feels the same way.

He still lives in Dallas. Which by the way is a far better option than Austin if you were to move to Texas.

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#132

Post by the_rosentotter »

whatever_dude wrote: post #103

Great read, not just for people from Silicon Valley. It's good to put things into perspective. It also reminds me of an article [1] about John Carmack and his choice of Dallas. To quote, > “A lot of people, especially from California, say, ‘Texas? Why the hell are you in Texas?’ But I am generally happy to wave the flag and say, ‘No, I am not here under duress.’ I actually like it here. And we appreciate the sense of…

Coming soon: The TechCrunch Gumption Awards™ 2017.

In seriousness though, it seems like Carmack hasn't been kicking ass like he used to, though it is probably just a lack of visibility. Didn't he start on rocketry too at some point?

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#133

Post by munin »

whatever_dude wrote: post #103

Great read, not just for people from Silicon Valley. It's good to put things into perspective. It also reminds me of an article [1] about John Carmack and his choice of Dallas. To quote, > “A lot of people, especially from California, say, ‘Texas? Why the hell are you in Texas?’ But I am generally happy to wave the flag and say, ‘No, I am not here under duress.’ I actually like it here. And we appreciate the sense of…

"southern hospitality" is great if you're straight and white. as a counterpoint, Dallas is the only place I've lived where people have shouted homophobic slurs at me on the street in daylight.

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#134

Post by in_cahoots »

pjmlp wrote: post #98
S4M wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Given that is half of the salary of many people in the peninsula and above the Portuguese minimum wage, it looks expensive to me. I mean, that only medium level and upper classes can afford it.

To use your numbers, a person would have to make less than $11,000 a year for that salary to be half their income. I doubt there are many people reading this discussion in that income bracket.

There are many things in life that aren't feasible if you are at the poverty line: Apple laptops, electric vehicles, extended vacations, etc. I would argue that the only difference here is that many people are deeply uncomfortable with the idea of paying someone to take care of their children in the home.

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#135

Post by kordless »

whatever_dude wrote: post #103

Great read, not just for people from Silicon Valley. It's good to put things into perspective. It also reminds me of an article [1] about John Carmack and his choice of Dallas. To quote, > “A lot of people, especially from California, say, ‘Texas? Why the hell are you in Texas?’ But I am generally happy to wave the flag and say, ‘No, I am not here under duress.’ I actually like it here. And we appreciate the sense of…

> It's good to put things into perspective.

A bunch of made up bullshit, no matter how entertaining, is NOT putting things into perspective. Oh, the irony.

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#136

Post by dragonwriter »

in_cahoots wrote: post #134
pjmlp wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that is half of the salary of many people in the peninsula and above the Portuguese minimum wage, it looks expensive to me. I mean, that only medium level and upper classes can afford it.

To use your numbers, a person would have to make less than $11,000 a year for that salary to be half their income. I doubt there are many people reading this discussion in that income bracket. There are many things in life that aren't feasible if you are at the poverty line: Apple laptops, electric vehicles, extended vacations, etc. I would argue that the only difference here is that many people are deeply uncomforta…

> To use your numbers, a person would have to make less than $11,000 a year for that salary to be half their income.

400 euro a month plus food and accommodations is a lot more than $5,500/yr.

I think you ignored the "plus food and accommodations" part.

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#137

Post by exstudent2 »

nommm-nommm wrote: post #109
exstudent2 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure that having both parents work and raising your child via nanny is the current obsession and having a stay at home parent was normal human operating behavior for ~200,000 years.

No, it's not the current obsession. The current cultural obsession is over-parenting and massive anxiety and guilt about not "spending enough time" with children no matter how much time is actually spent with children. The comment I replied to is reflective of the current cultural attitude that its "so sad" that kids get a break from their parents for 40 hours a week. Time spent on childcare has actually increased si…

> The current cultural obsession is over-parenting and massive anxiety and guilt about not "spending enough time" with children no matter how much time is actually spent with children.

More time spent with children != over-parenting. That's your own personal opinion.

The OP also was explicitly stating that they don't have time with their child and that they pay for a full time nanny (a situation not mentioned in your linked report).

Dual income households have indeed increased massively since the 1960s: http://www.pewresearch.org/ft_dual-income-households-1960-20...

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#138

Post by quicknir »

hifumi wrote: post #116

I'm not sure how much of this is satire and how much is just jabs at the way things are. It reads a lot like "Cracking the Coding Career" or "The Lean Startup": a piece written for the older (35+) generation trying to understand this modern field that generates so much money. For instance, when you're working for a startup having kids is not an attractive option. Startup hours are nothing like a 9 to 5 and insanely r…

Most of my good friends, let alone Facebook friends do not share similar views. Some people are pro legalizing drugs, some are anti, some are more socialist whereas some are free marketeers, some are pro foreign intervention and some are isolationist. We don't spend most of our time talking politics and it just doesn't matter that much.

If you don't have any friends with different political views, this is an unlikely enough occurrence via chance that it seems like it's a deliberate choice, and that's not a choice that I have anything good to say about.

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#139

Post by mercutio2 »

twblalock wrote: post #37
pfarnsworth wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And let me put it this way: Every working couple except for one that I know with a kid has hired a nanny for at least some portion of the time, including myself.

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

In the US in the 21st century vernacular (at least in NYC and Bay Area), nanny means child care provider with fairly regular hours, taking care of a smallish number of children (1-5ish).

The phrase "nanny share" is very commonly used. Sometimes the nanny is in their own home, sometimes in [one of] the parents' home.

Babysitter generally means someone who comes occasionally to watch a single family's children.

There are obviously fuzzy lines separating the two terms.

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#140

Post by pyrrhotech »

kec wrote: post #20
pyrrhotech wrote: post #8

Reading this was an interesting anthropological experience to me as the lifestyle is so different from my own though it seems the underlying long-term goals are similar to mine (wealth, meaning, having smart and interesting friends and acquaintances). I too live in SV, but in a modest home I own in the East Bay. I too commute a little less than an hour to work, but I do my own grocery shopping and I don't care for ni…

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

I'm saying "decently high" compared to my software engineering peers in Silicon Valley. Of course, nearly every worker in the US has at least a decently high income compared to most of the world. The minimum wage in India is $3 per day.
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