Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy • Hacker News Board

Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#271

Post by throwaway894345 » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 6:45 PM UTC

cossatot wrote: post #236

gedy wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you are a political junky reading news all day - what practically speaking is so intolerable about living there or your neighbors?

I grew up in a small town in the Ozarks and there was a huge amount of fundamentalist Christian propaganda and social conditioning going on in the public school system. The high school principal passed out bibles, prayer was held before many sports practices or events, recruiters/councilors for Christian youth groups sat with the students at the cafeteria at lunch, etc. Some of the science teachers taught science wel…

I don't think most places are like this, but moreover, what is the critical difference between the anti-science fundamentalist Christian indoctrination and a anti-science fundamentalist political indoctrination one finds in Silicon Valley? Is it just which one a given individual finds more palatable (subjective) or is one objectively better than the other (and if so, why?)? And in either case, why pick one fringe or the other when there are so many places across the country that are more ideologically diverse and tolerant?

Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#272

Post by almost_usual » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 6:45 PM UTC

TuringNYC wrote: post #86

gonehome wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I've had some friends leave (to CO and DC), but I'm skeptical of companies and VCs leaving. For a kind of funny example, there was an episode of the all-in podcast (mostly a podcast of successful VCs) where they talked about SV politics and leaving. The irony was while they talked about CA politics to an absurd degree ("worst run state in US", etc.) when they asked each other if they were planning on leaving al…

>> Yeah, I've had some friends leave (to CO and DC), but I'm skeptical of companies and VCs leaving. >> I have had older friends leave to have a family. They went to Santa Cruz, Seattle, Denver, DC, and Austin. It's a shame. The ones that stayed either are very rich where a $5M house is not an issue, or they still live with three roommates and rent without kids. Just wait until they look for interesting jobs and get…

There are a ton of companies in Austin, also no state income tax.

You can always move back after you vest and sell.

Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#273

Post by throwaway45349 » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 6:45 PM UTC

nrmitchi wrote: post #127

Note that I have no evidence to support this hypothesis, and I would love if someone would prove me wrong, but I suspect the following: - The "Tech Elite" who are leaving are, by definition, the ones who have the financial freedom to go pretty much wherever they want. Anyone mentioned in this article could buy a house in Miami/Austin/Denver without worrying about any transaction costs if they turn around and sell it…

What's wrong with going to restaurants and public events? If people don't want to be locked down, there's not much you can do about that.

Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#274

Post by standardUser » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 6:46 PM UTC

The tech industry has beaten the Bay Area to within inches of its life. The pandemic may have saved it. Political mismanagement probably deserves most of the blame, because how else do you explain a historically significant economic boom reducing the quality of life for a highly developed region? I tried for many years to view the tech boom optimistically, but I as wrong.

Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#275

Post by hollerith » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 6:46 PM UTC

ulfw wrote: post #31

andreilys wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

San Diego and Los Angeles offer much better weather.

Especially on the coast. 100% agree. I've had months and months of continuous rain in the Bay, something I never witnessed when living down South. It's cheaper too. Much much much MUCH more diverse. And food's better as is the landscape.

Sure, but So Cal has higher levels of air pollution, and never enduring cold weather is probably not good for your health in the long term.

Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#276

Post by scottlocklin » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 6:47 PM UTC

gonehome wrote: post #267

camjohnson26 wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you just proved their point.

Not only that, but he himself left California for Austin. He's in the set of people he's complaining about. [Edit: Apparently not Austin, but some other place - point still stands]

I have never lived in Austin. I never will: too many Californians have ruined the place; now they've got skyrocketing housing prices, traffic, homeless tent cities with rivers of human feces and the general high quality of life one can find in other paradisical California shit holes. No doubt they'll find a way to jack the taxes up if enough move to Texas.

Very typical of a Palo Alto resident to think the only problem with California is prop-13 or some obscure housing policy or whatever. You can't even breathe the goddamned air in your utopia, the tax rate makes France look reasonable, the highways are designed for 1/4 the population density, the power outages are Zimbabwe tier, riots over ... people saying things, and you think a housing policy adjustment is gonna make it all better? Maybe you should try leaving your $4m bungalo bubble once in a while? Actually, no, stay right there. Enjoy it; you earned it.

Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#277

Post by abhinavsharma » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 6:47 PM UTC

dekhn wrote: post #67

ylhert wrote: post #33

Tech in SFBA reminds me of the Resource curse ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse ). SFBA did nothing special to attract the wealth of technology companies, they effectively got lucky with Shockley/Fairchild/Traitorous 8 and the boom in technology that followed. It seems the local gov't have squandered an opportunity to truly capitalize on the gift they were given, and perhaps even done their best to jeopa…

This is ridiculous. The Bay Area, specifically Stanford and Berkeley, contributed to the WWII tech research initiative and then afterwards, Terman made Stanford Research Park which led to Silicon Valley.

This lecture by Steve Blank at the Computer History Museum is a great summary of the growth of Silicon Valley

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo

Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#278

Post by nph5667 » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 6:47 PM UTC

birdyrooster wrote: post #107

sandworm101 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> and still come out ahead financially. Ya. Earning a SF wage but living elsewhere is great. But there is a flip side to this coin. As employees realize they can work from home, employers also realize they can have employees work from home. They will soon realize they don't need to pay SF wages. Those who convert their in-office jobs into work-from-home are a covid oddity. Those who will be hired in the future on th…

We’ve been trying to hire these people for ages locally and remotely and we still couldn’t find them so I have no idea where you think all the talent was hiding until covid 19.

From my own experience, it's just not a good time to change a job no matter how enticing it sounds.

Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#279

Post by standardUser » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 6:47 PM UTC

tharne wrote: post #37

This is what happens when a city neglects basic quality of life issues, and allows petty crime to thrive. It happened to New York in the 1970's and took roughly three decades to recover from. Good luck, San Francisco.

It's not just SF, it's the region and it's inability/refusal to act like a cohesive region. But SF has certainly suffered the most.

Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#280

Post by ghaff » Mon, Dec 07, 2020, 6:47 PM UTC

woofie11 wrote: post #167

gumby wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come on: there’s a beautiful A/B test you can consult: in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, Boston’s route 128 was the “Silicon Valley” of its time. The US poured even more money into it than they did the Bay Area. Yet which grew and which stagnated?

I think THE major difference was enforcement of noncompetes (as well as those as a proxy for a slew of similar regulatory differences). Financial resources went to route 128 because of a more corporate-friendly regulatory climate. Innovation came from Silicon Valley because of a more innovation-friendly regulatory climate. Guess which won out? US reached economic supremacy in part due to a weaker IP scheme than Europ…

>Guess which won out?

For a long time, Route 128 did largely win out, semiconductors in SV notwithstanding. The lead in computer-related technology did tend to shift to California with the shift to microcomputers. Although it's not clear that was in any way inevitable. (After all, Compaq was in Texas.)