DHH: Are you sure you want to be in San Francisco?
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DHH: Are you sure you want to be in San Francisco?
1–10 of 110 posts
Re: DHH: Are you sure you want to be in San Francisco?
#2His first argument seems to do more with the teams themselves than the surrounding area. Temptation is found anywhere, whether it's a big office in the bay area, a huge flat in Chicago, or me supersizing my McDonald's combo #2. If you're not disciplined with your money, you're bound to fail regardless of location. Sounds like he's making a generalization about programmers, too.
Re: DHH: Are you sure you want to be in San Francisco?
#3The smart businesses know you don't want to be in San Francisco - there are too many distractions. You want to be somewhere lame, like San Carlos, so that people don't have anything to do besides work.
edit: I guess I should have added the ";)" JUST KIDDING!
Re: DHH: Are you sure you want to be in San Francisco?
#4I agree. I live in Grass Valley, in the Sierra foothills. Turns out, we've got a solid little tech base here, in a rural area. I never wanted to go the VC route, so the conditions here have made it much easier for me to bootstrap as a consultant, and make lots of professional connections.
In my case, I'll ultimately be more successful starting out here, than I think I would have in the Bay Area.
Re: DHH: Are you sure you want to be in San Francisco?
#5The smart businesses know you don't want to be in San Francisco - there are too many distractions. You want to be somewhere lame, like San Carlos, so that people don't have anything to do besides work. edit: I guess I should have added the ";)" JUST KIDDING!
Bluh. Dunno about you, but I get badly demotivated if all I'm doing is working.
Re: DHH: Are you sure you want to be in San Francisco?
#6DHH talked about lifestyle at Startup camp, and lifestyle is the key reason to want to be in San Francisco. It is simply a great City to live in with the added benefit that almost any escape to the natural world, like skiiing, sailing, etc etc, is immediately available. The downside is some added cost, but the costs here are comparable to Southbay locations and other major Cities. So if you want to build a sustainable business with a lifestyle that you want to enjoy for the long-term, San Francisco is an ideal location.
Re: DHH: Are you sure you want to be in San Francisco?
#7[deleted]
Re: DHH: Are you sure you want to be in San Francisco?
#8San Francisco is an interesting place. I live in SF, and I know a lot of programmers (and other tech workers) who live in SF, but I doubt that more than a third of them actually work in SF proper. Most of us engage in long and soul destroying drives to sterile office buildings in the midst of pedestrian-unfriendly parking lots on the peninsula and in the south bay. And we pay a lot for the privilege.
I think that other cities, like Portland, Seattle, Austin in the US (and maybe Barcelona, Copenhagen internationally) might actually be better places to work.
I wouldn't leave SF, but I grew up here and have family around. If I were starting out, I'd definitely consider other cities.
Re: DHH: Are you sure you want to be in San Francisco?
#9His first argument seems to do more with the teams themselves than the surrounding area. Temptation is found anywhere, whether it's a big office in the bay area, a huge flat in Chicago, or me supersizing my McDonald's combo #2. If you're not disciplined with your money, you're bound to fail regardless of location. Sounds like he's making a generalization about programmers, too.
As a Silicon Valley resident who has lived in an inexpensive place, I think you have to be more disciplined with your money and time if you live in the Bay Area.
Re: DHH: Are you sure you want to be in San Francisco?
#10DHH talked about lifestyle at Startup camp, and lifestyle is the key reason to want to be in San Francisco. It is simply a great City to live in with the added benefit that almost any escape to the natural world, like skiiing, sailing, etc etc, is immediately available. The downside is some added cost, but the costs here are comparable to Southbay locations and other major Cities. So if you want to build a sustainabl…
I love the bay area. DHH has a point, but for the wrong reasons. The VC/Web 2.0 echosphere is easy to ignore. The simple reason it is hard to start a business in the Bay Area without investment is because it is so expensive.