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Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

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

#451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may be reacting to the buzzwords rather than the broad strokes. While they do have many nanny-esque laws in the area, you'll find European cities do better on the aspects mentioned.

I’m not sure what this has to do with my comment.

It appears you saw the word libertarian and got caught up in a blue/red debate rather than contemplate what was written.

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

#452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with this. I cannot find talented and senior folks who fill the niche of my team (deep understanding of Linux systems, containers, and operating distributed systems). There seem to be a lot of SWEs in the world and very few SREs, let alone vanilla systems administrators for hire who are really good. I think as an industry everyone is pushed towards software engineering and the large clouds have vacuumed up ev…

You train them, remember that? :D

This is legitimately what we're doing. We're bringing in really junior folks and spending years training/improving them. Unfortunately that doesn't help now. I thought it would be easier this year to hire due to COVID and layoffs, but it just hasn't been.

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

#453
post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> real summers/not chilly I mean, it's not cold once you get outside of SF/San Bruno. If you're in the peninsula or south bay, it's really fucking hot during the summer. Uncomfortably hot because no one has AC and many of the homes don't have insulation still.

I think you built my case for me. Sac is consistently hot (90s every day for at least 4 months in the summer) and so, basically every house has AC. Many have solar panels (mine does) because of the available sunny days, for sustainability. It makes for a way easier summer than in bay where you get 2 weeks of dreadful summer (because no AC) and then the week after that is in the 60s-70s and you bring out the jackets a…

I wouldn't say the inconsistency in weather is the issue... It's that the homes are ancient and landlords don't want to update them. Why update when you'll not get significantly more money for it (and then have to pay lots of property taxes)? It's why many of the homes that are bought in my neighborhood are completely torn down by new owners and rebuilt. Every single street in my neighborhood with a recent sale has a tear down + rebuild happening.

I'm sure the renter to owner market in Sacramento is different than the bay area...

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

#454
post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The primary point is easy access to nature from a metro area. Other than easy access to nature, all of those points are true for major metro areas. But other than say, Salt Lake City, does any other metro area offer such close access to nature? Boston and Seattle are even much farther away...

> The primary point is easy access to nature from a metro area. Define "easy access to nature." Where I live, there's a major state park within the city limits and a very large lake within ~20 minutes drive. In ~2 hours I can be at the beach. In ~3-4 hours I can be in the mountains. And untold amounts of basically empty land just outside the city. If you're going to arbitrarily define "easy access to nature" as "moun…

Easy access to nature means I can go on a scenic five-mile hike between lunch and dinner. It means I can see a beautiful view without planning a day trip. I can meet with groups of friends of all fitness levels and enjoy a pleasant afternoon outdoors where we all have fun.

I can go see thousands of migratory birds a few miles from my apartment. Half Moon Bay is 30-45 minutes away, depending on road conditions. Fairly strenuous hiking and rock-climbing in the Santa Cruz Mountains is also 30-60 minutes away. Santa Cruz itself is not much farther.

I have lived all over the east coast for most of my life, and this degree of access has made an outdoors person of my notoriously sedentary self.

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

#455
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…

I believe that is incorrect.

California has laws that make it safe and easy for employees to go form a startup at the drop of a hat.

In California, regardless of their employee contract, employees own the inventions:

- made in their own time

- made without using the employers equipment or technology

Other states (Texas?) give employers an enormous amount of power over their employees, even giving them rights to the ideas in their heads.

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

#456

I'd love to hear from people who want to stay in the Bay area what is unique that you cannot find elsewhere in cheaper locales. I lived in Mountain View for 3 months during 500 startups and the valley proper was the most garden variety suburban existence you could find anywhere. I lived in SF proper off and on and can attest that it certainly has (had?) fantastic restaurants/shops and a particular type of culture tha…

I'm in SF. I think I'll stay for a while longer bc:

- I enjoy not needing a car. Many neighborhoods are walkable.

- I appreciate the mild weather. E.g. I lived in NYC, and though I did not need a car, humid summers and snowy winters made it less pleasant to be outside.

- It's dense but not _too_ dense. NYC felt legitimately claustrophobic sometimes.

- It's still an LGBT mecca. Prior to the pandemic, I could be in queer spaces on a daily basis.

I don't know that I'll be in SF forever. But when I think of moving, I wonder where I would go, and what my life would look like when I get there. I grew up in suburbs and still associate those neighborhoods with isolation. Among US cities, it's hard to meet all of these.

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

#457
post #124
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?

For me its the stance for Lockdown/restriction - seems to me blue state is more eager to lockdown.

Freedom of movement and assembly is a priceless advantage

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

#458

As it happens, tomorrow I’m putting in my 30-day notice to terminate my lease and leave the Bay. (And I’m paying 2 additional months rent in fees to do so) Not being tied to the office fundamentally changes the calculus of choosing where to live. There just aren’t good reasons to live here anymore for so many of us. Even if you enjoy the area, chances are you can get a better deal by moving just a bit further away. A…

>> 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…

Yeah, that's my concern. It would be different if I was wanting to buy a house. I actually like my apartment in the bay area, but when the office did shut down I looked at what it would cost. I wouldn't save much money because I wanted to stay in California.

My employer is becoming more WFH friendly. But they are explicitly saying post-covid fulltime remote will require an adjustment for base salary and future equity grants. I don't think that would be a good financial decision for me. Even if my compensation didn't get cut I would probably end up needing to take a pay cut or move if I wanted to change jobs.

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

#459

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…

Having had a fairly long tech career working in small, non-SF cities, even getting paid 70-80% of a Bay area salary, I can tell you that this allows you to live very, very well. Bay area salaries are much larger than most other jobs (tech or not) in small cities. I recall local tech companies offering 1/2 to 1/3 of what you would get paid for average (non-FAANG) work in the Bay. In most smaller cities in the US > $10…

Depends on how much you value housing size / quality. You can't get a big house in the Bay Area but if you opt for something smaller you get a lot more disposable income to spend on other luxuries.

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

#460
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Always have to ask, where are you moving and why did you pick it?

I always answer: fuck off; we're full. California, particularly Bay Area California is so ridiculously dysfunctional, the last thing any region needs is their refugees, who will bring with them the problems they're fleeing. Austin for example. Used to be a great place.

Who do you think moved out to CA in the first place?
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