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We moved to Turkey from San Francisco to continue working on our startup

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Re: We moved to Turkey from San Francisco to continue working on our startup

#151

Post by neilv »

jdsully wrote: post #56
neilv wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even a little before dotcoms, there was a perception in the Pacific Northwest, of Californians moving in and driving up prices, and there were the jokes: "It rains all the time! Always gray! And slugs everywhere ! We have to check inside our shoes before we put them on!"

Those aren’t jokes but all accurate warnings. E.g. the slugs: https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/2fd5f3/banana_slug...

In all seriousness, you don't realize how many slugs there are in the PNW until you walk barefoot on the grass in your backyard after dark. It's a minefield.

And when a slug sadly squishes underfoot (worst: between your toes), it's this weird slick adhesive that you can't wipe off, but has to be scrubbed off before the noticeable slickness is removed. Then you probably want to keep scrubbing, for grossness.

When visiting the coast, in the morning we woke to find multiple large slugs scattered around up the glass patio door window that faced the ocean. It was a mixed view.

Re: We moved to Turkey from San Francisco to continue working on our startup

#152

Post by rtio »

qaq wrote: post #144
rtio wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems unlikely. Montenegro is for example not member of the EU. Chances are it is a better idea to 'trade up' to somewhere like Slovenia instead were you can find yourself with a low tax rate in some situations.

If you are a US citizen or a citizen of any other country that has visa free travel with EU why would you care?

The EU offers a lot of advantages in terms of labour market, services, payments etc. There are also reasons why Montenegro isn't allowed to join the EU that could be considered disadvantages. And of course if you don't care about those things there are plenty of other choices.

Re: We moved to Turkey from San Francisco to continue working on our startup

#153

Post by breck »

Cookingboy wrote: post #122
asdfman123 wrote: post #67

As an outsider, at this point I have no idea why anyone would want to do a startup in SF. I mean, obviously, all the connections and resources are nice, but you are literally burning investor money on $5k/mo rent. That's absurd. Rent out a house in Austin, Texas for $2k and each of your co-founders can share a room. There's investors and as deep a talent pool as you'll ever need unless you're GoogleAmazon and you nee…

>I'm not trying to be all sour grapes, it just doesn't make sense to me. Please allow me to offer a different perspective. Doing a startup, at least a serious startup (instead of a side project), is an extremely costly endeavor, doesn't matter who you are. By costly I don't mean the office rent or employee payroll, I mean the toll it takes on your time, your personal life, and most importantly the opportunity cost yo…

This is a great answer.

The cost of living difference is minor in the big picture, if you are going to raise money. If you don't want to raise money, and want to build a whole company over 15 years instead of 3, then the location is less important.

Re: We moved to Turkey from San Francisco to continue working on our startup

#154

Post by shafyy »

Shivetya wrote: post #91

Given the only images many of us have of Turkey is the Western press what can you tell us are the biggest misconceptions and misrepresentations of living and doing business in Turkey.

Good question. I have only been living here for 2 months, but let me try:

- The cuisine is super diverse (not only kebap)

- The people are exteremly friendly, helpful and tolerant

- A bit like the US Trump thing, if you live in Turkey, in your daily life, you don't really notice that the government is shitty.

- The downside of being easy-going and torelant is that Turks often don't give a shit about rules (the opposite of Swiss), e.g. if there's a no parking area they will still park their car there. Also, people are less punctual or dependable (not in a sense that they will fuck you over but it's just normal not to show up and just reschedule or be late).

- Of course, these are generalizations, so take it with a grain of salt :-)

Re: We moved to Turkey from San Francisco to continue working on our startup

#155

Post by lazyasciiart »

andreygrehov wrote: post #17
superpermutat0r wrote: post #4

I can't even work in SF. The time wasted to drive to work kills me, I can't get desensitized to all the homeless shitting on streets, stabbing themselves with needles, talking schizophrenically in a dead language, every time I go grab a coffee or lunch in a cheaper area, it's like watching animal slaughter every day. Quality of life definitely much better in Mediterranean city I live today.

Homelessness should be illegal.

It is in New York. It's illegal for the government to not provide people with shelter to live in. Is that what you meant?

Re: We moved to Turkey from San Francisco to continue working on our startup

#156

Post by superpermutat0r »

danans wrote: post #135
superpermutat0r wrote: post #4

I can't even work in SF. The time wasted to drive to work kills me, I can't get desensitized to all the homeless shitting on streets, stabbing themselves with needles, talking schizophrenically in a dead language, every time I go grab a coffee or lunch in a cheaper area, it's like watching animal slaughter every day. Quality of life definitely much better in Mediterranean city I live today.

> talking schizophrenically in a dead language, I'm not sure "dead language" is the term you are looking for. > every time I go grab a coffee or lunch in a cheaper area, A "cheaper area" area where they can access what they need to get through the day (cheap food, etc) is also what those homeless people are after, so it's no surprise you might end up in the same space.

Yeah, I was over-exaggerating the "dead language" bit, it's random noise.

Leaving Twitter headquarters gets me in an uncomfortable place, even without the need to find cheap food.

Re: We moved to Turkey from San Francisco to continue working on our startup

#157

Post by mdemare »

shafyy wrote: post #25
superpermutat0r wrote: post #4

I can't even work in SF. The time wasted to drive to work kills me, I can't get desensitized to all the homeless shitting on streets, stabbing themselves with needles, talking schizophrenically in a dead language, every time I go grab a coffee or lunch in a cheaper area, it's like watching animal slaughter every day. Quality of life definitely much better in Mediterranean city I live today.

Oversimplifying here, but the homeless probem arises due to high housing cost and poor health care system. In addition to fighting the symptoms (which is already being done ok-ish), we need to fight the mentioned root causes. Unfortunately, the health care problem goes back to CA or even on a national level. Often times, mentally ill or people that lost their jobs for another reason become homeless, and from there th…

I heard rumors that a lot of towns just send their psychiatric homeless to SF with a one-way ticket.

Re: We moved to Turkey from San Francisco to continue working on our startup

#158

Post by lazyasciiart »

pastor_elm wrote: post #98
andreygrehov wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Homelessness should be illegal.

Homeless encampments are illegal in NYC. But on the west coast there is this strange idea that you should be allowed to set up your tent wherever you like.

Thats because the west coast refuses to provide shelter that can replace the tents, unlike NYC.

Re: We moved to Turkey from San Francisco to continue working on our startup

#159

Post by pound »

opencl wrote: post #109
jozvolskyef wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure climate isn't the main factor? If I were homeless I'd go to SF over NYC due to the mild winters.

The overwhelming majority of homeless people in California lived in the same county they currently do before they became homeless. Climate is clearly not the main factor. 71% in SF homeless already lived in SF, 90% already lived in California: https://socketsite.com/archives/2016/02/san-franciscos-homel... the cite link in that article is dead but refers to http://hsh.sfgov.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2015-San-Fra…

There is an issue with SF report (idk about LA one)

1) It was self-reported

2) "Lived in SF" in report meant they were SF residents and this is requires just any bill with city address within 30 days (consider cases like: moved to SF with hopes of better opportunities, out on the streets in couple of months - but sf resident for a short term prior).

Re: We moved to Turkey from San Francisco to continue working on our startup

#160

Post by lazyasciiart »

jaxbot wrote: post #97
redm wrote: post #83

I keep hearing that SF spends so much money on the homeless, but I don't see that to be the case. NYC spent $3.2b in 2019 [1]; they guarantee a bed for every person, every night, etc. If SF wants to solve the issue, look to NYC, and open it's checkbook. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-22/nyc-doubl...

Hold on a second. NYer here. Yes, we spent a lot of money on the problem. But we did not 'solve the issue.' Not even close. Our problem doesn't seem as bad as SF's (perhaps just less visible due to more clearing), but we still regularly have human feces to deal with, train cars trashed, people screaming/disturbed, etc. I think it's key to remember the difference, albeit overlapping, between homeless and emotionally-d…

I don't think they are saying that New York has solved it, but that SF can't solve it without doing at least as much as NYC.
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