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This Is Silicon Valley

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Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#131

Post by ericd »

mykowebhn wrote: post #117
ericd wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you lived in NYC? I don’t get this sense at all, as long as I stay away from the touristy parts of Manhattan.

No, but I've visited many times since the 80s. The NYC I remember, and love, from then was dirty, smelly, and culturally adventuresome. It was also diverse ethnically and socio-economically in a not so segregated way. Today, when I visit NYC, and even Brooklyn for that matter, it feels like a city for the wealthy, and it feels much less ethnically diverse than it used to.

It’s still dirty and smelly :-) I’d also argue that it’s still much more ethnically and culturally diverse than SF, but yeah, it’s definitely gentrified compared to what I remember it being in the 90s.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#132

Post by crushcrashcrush »

jjulius wrote: post #120
crushcrashcrush wrote: post #25

I'm gonna offer a slightly different perspective: SV isn't that nice, and it's not worth the price premium. There is a distinct lack of culture, of nightlife, of arts and humanities - even in San Francisco. We're a mediocre land of strip malls and suburbs masquerading as an international destination. Go to any other city and tell me that it's not MORE vibrant (Chicago, LA, NYC, Miami, Austin, Portland, Seattle, Houst…

I couldn't agree more. The Bay Area was always one of the only places my wife and I could mutually agree on whenever we'd chat about places we'd like to move to. I grew up in Seattle and have family scattered throughout SF and the East Bay, and was fortunate enough to have made multiple trips per year to the area since I was a kid. Those trips fostered a love for the region, for SF as a city, and the people here. The…

Don't stall too long. This area takes a toll on relationships and mental health (unless you're fabulously wealthy)

The extreme costs of everything pushes out creatives, which leads to a lack of culture.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#133

Post by trimbo »

> So, I’m leaving. But I do hope to come back someday

I hope this person moves to, like, Tokyo or London or something super expensive. If they move to a low cost of living area, trying to move back later isn't a great plan.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#134

Post by conanbatt »

anxman wrote: post #130
conanbatt wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a 6 figure salary worker in SV, you get fleeced. You have worse housing options, worse schooling options, worse public transportations and highest tax rates in the country. SV is not expensive because "public schools are good". Its expensive because both the government and the landlords, that have a huge intersectino of people, capture the largest chunk of the surplus tech workers get.

Landlords don't get it either. I'm a landlord and most of that money goes to the banks and property taxes. I might see profits in 10-20 years if I'm lucky but even that's a gamble.

I would've been ready to disagree with you 2 months ago, until I looked at the SF budget and saw they spend 2600U$S per household every month. Landlords cant be getting too much of that: but they do get a piece, particularly old time landlords.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#135

Post by Konnstann »

rsweeney21 wrote: post #23

I totally bought into the Silicon Valley dream. I moved to the bay area to work at Netflix and launch a startup. I bootstrapped my first company because I didn't know how to raise VC money. That was pretty great. For my second company I raised millions of dollars from VCs. I went to exclusive parties, did press interviews and had a huge net-worth (on paper). I became the person I always envied. It was HUGELY disappoi…

To me it seems like taking huge sums of money from investors isn't as satisfying as bootstrapping just from the perspective of survival. VC startups burn money all the time, they aren't fighting for survival. You can't burn money if you bootstrap because then your company just dies.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#136

Post by jjulius »

throwaway-1283 wrote: post #58
crushcrashcrush wrote: post #25

I'm gonna offer a slightly different perspective: SV isn't that nice, and it's not worth the price premium. There is a distinct lack of culture, of nightlife, of arts and humanities - even in San Francisco. We're a mediocre land of strip malls and suburbs masquerading as an international destination. Go to any other city and tell me that it's not MORE vibrant (Chicago, LA, NYC, Miami, Austin, Portland, Seattle, Houst…

The price premium you are paying, especially for housing, is really all about raising kids e.g. sending them to some of the best (albeit pressure-filled) public schools in the country all while keeping your high paying SV jobs. Basically assume that the quality of public SV schools are high enough that high earning parents are "OK" sending their kids to those schools rather than paying for private school. If you have…

>... sending them to some of the best (albeit pressure-filled) public schools in the country...

Are they really the best if they're putting that much pressure on kids? Surely there's an argument that can be made that schools that are one tier down from the quality of these public schools (read: still good schools overall) while putting less pressure on children might be better than high-pressure public schools in the long-run, no?

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#137

Post by bduerst »

romwell wrote: post #39
erulabs wrote: post #5

Weird flex, but okay. But seriously, it’s hard to read “look how tough we have it” about getting a 6 figure job out of school. You didn’t get into Harvard. That’s not a life defining tragedy... hoping this is parody. The vast vast vast majority of the world works harder for less. We should be thankful, not weirdly bragging about how hard our childhoods were. Try Detroit or Bangladesh....

>We should be thankful, not weirdly bragging about how hard our childhoods were. The kids that ended their lives aren't bragging or complaining anymore. This author speaks on their behalf. It is not a life-defining tragedy until it becomes a life-ending one. And saying "you should be happy" doesn't help a bit to those who are getting tired of living. Some people have it better, some have it worse. The kids who killed…

You've missed what they're saying in their comment.

Mental health is a serious issue, but the author isn't bringing up these suicides to talk about how she's going to help prevent them, or even bring attention to suicide in high schools - she's using it in a social media-esque post about why she's out. She's done.

Goodbye Silicon Valley, you're not the utopia I expected right out of college with my cushy job and free lunches. People around me are suffering and I'm not, so I'm not going to help you, I'm just going to leave because of a false trichotomy. It's not me, it's you.

If people complain about this post rubbing them the wrong way, it's not because the people complaining are insensitive to the issues like mental health, it's because of the narcissistic tone of using these issues in a break up letter with the place you grew up in.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#138

Post by MechanicalTwerk »

People need to seriously get over themselves. The world is not fair. Life is not fair. Neither of them ever have been and neither of them ever will be. Every city has major problems. Every person experiences tragedy. Up and moving to a new city is just a band-aid. You'll see that new city through rose colored glasses at first. But after a few years those rose colored glasses will become a lot clearer and you'll see a lot of the same problems from SF with some new ones mixed in. Life is a struggle, not an endless search for some perfect city or perfect life. No one owes you anything. Your coworkers don't owe you a conversation about politics or art. The wealthy don't owe you a pristine city. Death doesn't owe you the guarantee it won't take your loved ones before their time. The struggle is real, and it is real for everyone. It doesn't discriminate based on age, gender, race, wealth or any other dimension. The people who have it the best in life are those who have accepted this fact and dedicated themselves to working within the struggle to achieve the most they can for the people and causes they care about in the short time they have.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#139

Post by ericd »

crushcrashcrush wrote: post #103
ericd wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you lived in NYC? I don’t get this sense at all, as long as I stay away from the touristy parts of Manhattan.

Sounds like NYC = SoHo (which still has more culture in a single block than the entirety of the South Bay.)

Ha no argument there. The South Bay downtowns are pretty sad. Never liked SoHo much but I’d trade for it in a second if it wasn’t for the huge difference in opportunity.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#140

Post by crushcrashcrush »

chairmanmow wrote: post #129
crushcrashcrush wrote: post #25

I'm gonna offer a slightly different perspective: SV isn't that nice, and it's not worth the price premium. There is a distinct lack of culture, of nightlife, of arts and humanities - even in San Francisco. We're a mediocre land of strip malls and suburbs masquerading as an international destination. Go to any other city and tell me that it's not MORE vibrant (Chicago, LA, NYC, Miami, Austin, Portland, Seattle, Houst…

It's not, but I'm curious if you grew up there? I did and it used to be a fine place, not overhyped, not overcrowded, just a fine place. It even used to make sense to work there if you were involved in tech, because tech wasn't huge. Now that tech is huge, SV is huge and it doesn't make sense when we should have distributed workplaces. The roads are falling apart and there's nowhere to live, high-rises sink, but peop…

I did grow up here - you're spot on about the Ocean. I realized a lot of people love it here because they're truly outdoorsy.

They ski, they surf, they hike and mountain bike. I do none of those things (anymore) - so there's no reason for me to be here anymore.

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