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In Bay Area, six-figure salaries are “low income”

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Re: In Bay Area, six-figure salaries are “low income”

#391

Post by lawnchair_larry »

freyr wrote: post #356
ajmurmann wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you get to that level of compensation? Are you just referring to "luck" with stock or cash salary? If it's not stock what skills pay that much?

Staff engineer at Google, most likely, but possibly Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft. In any case, somebody who thinks this represents a significant slice of the Silicon Valley workforce is living in a bubble. For every engineer making >$500k, there are many thousands making <$200k, at the thousands of other tech companies in the Bay Area that aren't Google/Amazon/Facebook/Apple. While the $500k engineer has every incenti…

I have seen offers or been given exact numbers from 3 of the 4 companies in your list at the "staff engineer" level or equivalent ("principal" at both amazon and microsoft), and they are nowhere near $500k/year.

I have heard that at FB and Google, a very small percentage of engineers got special stock awards a couple years ago that could put them in that range. But most top performers at these places at the senior/staff level are more in the 175-350 range.

Other than that, the only engineers making that kind of money got lucky in a startup lottery.

Re: In Bay Area, six-figure salaries are “low income”

#392

Post by anon374939 »

praneshp wrote: post #388
anon374939 wrote: post #19

After two years in San Francisco, I had to move back to my small(er) home town city because I ultimately realized there's little to no future for me in a city like San Francisco, despite making 250k/yr. I'd have to make at minimum $1M per year for a similar lifestyle (and even then, the stress of living in the bay area will reduce years from your lifespan... what's each year of your life worth to you?).

Because you asked: Actually, I'm happy to give up a year or two of my lifespan in exchange for a much more urban lifestyle in a place a lot of our (wife and I) friends live. Assuming a regular lifespan somewhere into the 70s or so. I'd die earlier of boredom in a small town (I'm from one in India). Of course I might feel another way in ten years. When I was driving to work, I felt that the stress would give me chroni…

Yeah, I couldn't live in a small town either. Its important to note though that Boston, Chicago, Philly or any number large metros are actually quite larger than San Francisco and have more vibrant downtowns with much more affordable suburbs. Agree that having friends and family around can make all the difference. Driving indeed can be stressful, my work happens to be just 10 min from home and I'm a 30 min drive away from a great city. After making the move I do feel like I have the best of both worlds... relaxed and low stress suburban lifestyle with a massive and vibrant urban center nearby. I've also found that the fiscally conservative and low stress lifestyle is more conducive to travel, which I've been able to do a lot more often now (being in the East coast probably helps too, with lots of major cities just a short flight away)

Re: In Bay Area, six-figure salaries are “low income”

#393

Post by IVDV »

sideband wrote: post #241
ransom1538 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did the exact same thing this year. Moved to Oviedo, FL from SF: 1) no state income tax, 2) public schools in my neighborhood are equivalent to a private school in sf [i] 4) weather is great 8 months out of year, 5) beaches you can swim in, 6) rent is ~1/4 of what it was in SF, 7) cuban food, 8) as a resident, kids have year round disney passes [i] http://school-ratings.com/Florida/schools/Carillon_Elementar... WARNI…

I also moved from the the Bay Area to Oviedo, FL not long ago (fun fact about our little town: Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, grew up here). I agree with everything on your list, and I'll add one more item: 9) Greater thought diversity and tolerance for opposing viewpoints. When I lived in the Bay Area it seemed that too many people I interacted with were of similar backgrounds: very educated, high income and s…

Really surprised to hear my hometown mentioned on hackernews! Went to Carillon as a child, still around the area now working at UCF.

Re: In Bay Area, six-figure salaries are “low income”

#394

Post by xor1 »

geebee wrote: post #176
nosequel wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did the exact same thing 10 years ago. Couldn't take living in California any more. We moved to Colorado. * My health, both physical and mental has increased tremendously. * Our house is far cheaper in mortgage than our apartment was. * Schools are far better than anything in California we could afford * Crime is almost non-existent. Most people don't lock car or house doors. * It is rare I drive more than 8 miles on…

Can I ask you about one thing, though? Both my kids are in SFUSD schools, and San Francisco actually has a large number of 10/10 rated schools. This is based on test scores, of course, so it doesn't tell the whole story. For instance, take a look at this: http://www.greatschools.org/california/san-francisco/schools... Do you think that your elementary school in Colorado are vastly better than the top three we see her…

I've never even heard of anyone moving to an area because of elementary schools, or factoring them into a decision related to moving and/or purchasing a home. Only the quality of high school matters from what I've seen (in rich parts of LA and Orange County).

Re: In Bay Area, six-figure salaries are “low income”

#395

Post by praneshp »

anon374939 wrote: post #392
praneshp wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you asked: Actually, I'm happy to give up a year or two of my lifespan in exchange for a much more urban lifestyle in a place a lot of our (wife and I) friends live. Assuming a regular lifespan somewhere into the 70s or so. I'd die earlier of boredom in a small town (I'm from one in India). Of course I might feel another way in ten years. When I was driving to work, I felt that the stress would give me chroni…

Yeah, I couldn't live in a small town either. Its important to note though that Boston, Chicago, Philly or any number large metros are actually quite larger than San Francisco and have more vibrant downtowns with much more affordable suburbs. Agree that having friends and family around can make all the difference. Driving indeed can be stressful, my work happens to be just 10 min from home and I'm a 30 min drive away…

I was going to disagree with a bunch of things you said about the cities you mentioned, but I liked your last two lines! You seem to be happy, so it doesn't really matter why, I guess. I hope that continues being the case.

Re: In Bay Area, six-figure salaries are “low income”

#396

Post by sofal »

DougN7 wrote: post #380
tunesmith wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why critical thinking is in quotes - critical thinking is a real thing. It's connecting conclusions with premises that lead to those conclusions, so that if someone else started with those premises, they'd also arrive at the same conclusions. It's not a different opinion or perspective, and it's not pompous - it's by definition something that can be shared across all opinions and perspectives.

When you see someone look down on another's thoughts because they aren't "critical thinking enough, you'll find someone (or a culture) that assumes they have all the facts, and have considered all possibilities. That is hubris. I find people who are truly open don't hold so desperately to facts, because they tend to change over time.

The fact that this entire comment could have been written by (for example) a flat-earther in response to criticism of their flat-earth beliefs makes it difficult to understand what kind of "facts" you are disappointed that people hold so dearly to, and what kind of facts you believe change over time. Depending on your response, I might agree entirely with you or disagree entirely. I understand that human knowledge is inherently fungible, and therefore sometimes what we previously understand as facts can change. However, that does not mean that I can decide that the Holocaust didn't happen, for example.

The truth is generally not up for interpretation by any person who feels it should be. Critical thinking is actually a thing, and the lack of it does actually result in believing false things. If someone told me that I'm not applying critical thinking, then my response would be to ask for specific details on what aspect of critical thinking I'm not applying and exactly where I'm getting things wrong. What I would not do is respond by criticizing the idea of critical thinking itself or tell them that they need to consider alternative facts.

Re: In Bay Area, six-figure salaries are “low income”

#397

Post by chaostheory »

ryandrake wrote: post #377
theparanoid wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interviewing in Seattle at Amazon, arguably the outdoor recreation capital of the US, only one of the interviewers had had time to take advantage.

One of the things that helped to lure me to the Bay Area was the "abundance of outdoor activities." I pretty much rarely get time to go out to do these things in reality, doing the normal Bay Area 8AM-6PM, plus the two hours to commute each way because look at cost of living anywhere near employment.

If you guys aren't able to do anything outside of work on weekends, you're setting yourselves up for burn out.

Re: In Bay Area, six-figure salaries are “low income”

#398

Post by [deleted] »

ryandrake wrote: post #377
theparanoid wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interviewing in Seattle at Amazon, arguably the outdoor recreation capital of the US, only one of the interviewers had had time to take advantage.

One of the things that helped to lure me to the Bay Area was the "abundance of outdoor activities." I pretty much rarely get time to go out to do these things in reality, doing the normal Bay Area 8AM-6PM, plus the two hours to commute each way because look at cost of living anywhere near employment.

[deleted]

Re: In Bay Area, six-figure salaries are “low income”

#399

Post by charlesdm »

enraged_camel wrote: post #297
sideband wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also moved from the the Bay Area to Oviedo, FL not long ago (fun fact about our little town: Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, grew up here). I agree with everything on your list, and I'll add one more item: 9) Greater thought diversity and tolerance for opposing viewpoints. When I lived in the Bay Area it seemed that too many people I interacted with were of similar backgrounds: very educated, high income and s…

With all due respect, I don't really buy that narrative. People often mistake critical thinking skills with close-mindedness. Just because someone uses thought and reason to reject an idea doesn't mean they are close-minded. Not all ideas deserve acceptance. I'm as open-minded as it gets, but if you tell me that vaccines cause autism then you will go down several notches in my book. (Ironically, there are many anti-v…

> But if you tell me that vaccines cause autism

I'm not saying you're right or wrong, but have you researched this? My assumption is "no they don't" but it's actually an area I know very little about.

Looking at the whole discussion currently happening around glyphosate / Roundup, where extensive lobbying has been done by Monsanto to block out any negative reports from the public domain, I (personally) think a lot of things shouldn't just be disregarded as absolute nonsense (even if they, eventually are). Pharma companies are also not above extensive lobbying (look at Mylan and their EpiPen).

Autism rates have gone up during the last 20+ years. Why is this? It would be interesting to at least be able to figure out why, so you are able to rule out other things.

Re: In Bay Area, six-figure salaries are “low income”

#400

Post by pc86 »

charlesdm wrote: post #399
enraged_camel wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With all due respect, I don't really buy that narrative. People often mistake critical thinking skills with close-mindedness. Just because someone uses thought and reason to reject an idea doesn't mean they are close-minded. Not all ideas deserve acceptance. I'm as open-minded as it gets, but if you tell me that vaccines cause autism then you will go down several notches in my book. (Ironically, there are many anti-v…

> But if you tell me that vaccines cause autism I'm not saying you're right or wrong, but have you researched this? My assumption is "no they don't" but it's actually an area I know very little about. Looking at the whole discussion currently happening around glyphosate / Roundup, where extensive lobbying has been done by Monsanto to block out any negative reports from the public domain, I (personally) think a lot of…

Not everyone needs to do scientific research and read peer-reviewed journal articles about every topic to come to a conclusion about it.

Until such time as reputable scientists start saying there is more than a tangential relationship between vaccination and autism, it's a pretty untenable position to have.

> Autism rates have gone up during the last 20+ years. Why is this?

Autism rates increasing doesn't mean there's more autism, it means there's more diagnosed autism. It could be that it was under-diagnosed in the past. It could be that it's actually increasing. It could be that it's simply being over-diagnosed now. I'm bracing for the backlash but I've met a dozen or so diagnosed autistic children and more than a few of them are just assholes or have parents looking for an easy way to not discipline their children.

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