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Ask HN: What's it like to live in San Francisco?

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Re: Ask HN: What's it like to live in San Francisco?

#81

Post by cfadvan »

badpun wrote: post #14
ralusek wrote: post #5

There are many different neighborhoods with pretty different feels, but generally speaking I would say this: The city is dirty, there are many homeless people, public infrastructure is not great (bad roads, questionable public transit), and it is the most expensive rent in the world. Culturally, it is much less "gay" and "hippie" nowadays, and almost entirely "tech," at least in my own experiences. If you're a softwa…

> Culturally, it is much less "gay" and "hippie" nowadays, and almost entirely "tech," at least in my own experiences. It's interesting how many tech people dislike the company of their own kind.

Speaking for myself I enjoy the company in limited doses. HN is fun to visit, but fuck me if I’d live here. There’s a big world full of perspectives and ways of thinking that would be concern trolled and rules lawyered to death by a group of techies. As monocultures go, tech isn’t terrible, but it’s still undesirable IMO. I do find the tech culture easier to swallow outside of the specific manifestation of SF/VC tech culture though. The more people over 40 around, the less it feels like a cult gone horribly wrong.

Re: Ask HN: What's it like to live in San Francisco?

#82

Post by loggedinmyphone »

paulcole wrote: post #77
loggedinmyphone wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jerry Rubin as far back as his 1970 book "Do It!" criticized the capitalists co-opting his image of the counterculture (a "revolution" in toilet paper!). I do think there was another wave of interesting people in the 90's with the Cacophony Society and original Burners, and there are still radical "scenes" happening today, most of which I'm probably too old to know about. The main structural impediment is just that i…

So to recap: It's always worse than it was but people think it was still good when they got there but got much worse shortly thereafter.

No. Culture moves in waves. You hit the right part of the wave and it's a great ride. Time it just wrong and you wash out, but you might still have fun, especially if it's your first time out and you don't know what a good wave feels like. I don't agree with the sentiment that every time and place is equivalent to every other time and place, and that comparing them is a meaningless exercise in nostalgia, if that's what you're implying.

Re: Ask HN: What's it like to live in San Francisco?

#83

Post by macavity23 »

collyw wrote: post #25
ralusek wrote: post #5

There are many different neighborhoods with pretty different feels, but generally speaking I would say this: The city is dirty, there are many homeless people, public infrastructure is not great (bad roads, questionable public transit), and it is the most expensive rent in the world. Culturally, it is much less "gay" and "hippie" nowadays, and almost entirely "tech," at least in my own experiences. If you're a softwa…

> If you're a software engineer, there are plenty of jobs and you will never have issue finding work. Even over 40? I am genuinely curious.

Any age, as long as your skills are current. The demand here is savage enough to overcome most prejudice. There are many times more older engineers in the bay area than anywhere else I’ve worked.

Re: Ask HN: What's it like to live in San Francisco?

#84

Post by aliston »

collyw wrote: post #25
ralusek wrote: post #5

There are many different neighborhoods with pretty different feels, but generally speaking I would say this: The city is dirty, there are many homeless people, public infrastructure is not great (bad roads, questionable public transit), and it is the most expensive rent in the world. Culturally, it is much less "gay" and "hippie" nowadays, and almost entirely "tech," at least in my own experiences. If you're a softwa…

> If you're a software engineer, there are plenty of jobs and you will never have issue finding work. Even over 40? I am genuinely curious.

I am kind of worried about this myself. On the other hand, everyone I know over 40 in tech is making enough money to retire in less than a decade assuming some decent personal finance skills. It could be survivorship bias, but I think you’re fine. Even if you have trouble getting hired in 5 years, you’ll have a million+ in the bank to fall back on and retrain in something else.

Re: Ask HN: What's it like to live in San Francisco?

#85

Post by wbl »

loggedinmyphone wrote: post #12

From 2005-2010 the city had a very positive vibe: we're the most European city in America, we love good food, we have a balance of artists and people who support the arts. Now it's overcrowded, overvalued and overcapitalized. Rather than being welcomed, you will be resented and perceived as pushing other people out. Oakland has a more friendly and creative feel these days, if you can deal with the pervasive criminal…

European cities have buildings over 3 stories.

Re: Ask HN: What's it like to live in San Francisco?

#86

Post by paulcole »

loggedinmyphone wrote: post #82
paulcole wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So to recap: It's always worse than it was but people think it was still good when they got there but got much worse shortly thereafter.

No. Culture moves in waves. You hit the right part of the wave and it's a great ride. Time it just wrong and you wash out, but you might still have fun, especially if it's your first time out and you don't know what a good wave feels like. I don't agree with the sentiment that every time and place is equivalent to every other time and place, and that comparing them is a meaningless exercise in nostalgia, if that's wh…

What year(s) did you live in SF or spend significant time there?

Re: Ask HN: What's it like to live in San Francisco?

#87

Post by loggedinmyphone »

paulcole wrote: post #86
loggedinmyphone wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Culture moves in waves. You hit the right part of the wave and it's a great ride. Time it just wrong and you wash out, but you might still have fun, especially if it's your first time out and you don't know what a good wave feels like. I don't agree with the sentiment that every time and place is equivalent to every other time and place, and that comparing them is a meaningless exercise in nostalgia, if that's wh…

What year(s) did you live in SF or spend significant time there?

I'm curious if you want to make a substantive point, please go ahead and do so without waiting for my complete biographical details.

Re: Ask HN: What's it like to live in San Francisco?

#88

Post by nikanj »

a13n wrote: post #16

I lived there for 3 years and left a year ago. I lived in Nob Hill, Mission, Noe, and Castro. When I was first there, I felt a strong disgust towards tech. People protesting shuttles, hateful graffiti, news articles about it. Tech workers were moving in troves and driving up rent and people getting displaced. I felt like part of the problem. Market Street is a mix of insanely wealthy and insanely poor people. Other c…

Re: homeless, panhandling income is surprisingly tightly tied to general wages. A tech bro making $300k has much more money to give than a blue-collar worker making $30k.

Cost of living (on the street) is pretty similar everywhere, so it makes sense to have the homeless populations migrate to areas with the highest-paying jobs.

Re: Ask HN: What's it like to live in San Francisco?

#89

Post by nikanj »

badpun wrote: post #73
imustbeevil wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Americans say the singular "America" they mean USA.

That's probably true for Americans from the USA, not so sure about Americans from other American countries.

My fellow Canadians routinely say "my friend moved to America" and similar.

Re: Ask HN: What's it like to live in San Francisco?

#90

Post by falsedan »

wbl wrote: post #85
loggedinmyphone wrote: post #12

From 2005-2010 the city had a very positive vibe: we're the most European city in America, we love good food, we have a balance of artists and people who support the arts. Now it's overcrowded, overvalued and overcapitalized. Rather than being welcomed, you will be resented and perceived as pushing other people out. Oakland has a more friendly and creative feel these days, if you can deal with the pervasive criminal…

European cities have buildings over 3 stories.

Shots fired (European cites don’t have shots fired)
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