Live data from Hacker News

Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

news.airbnb.com

11–20 of 736 posts

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#11
I've been working like this for the past year and a half. I'll never go back to a "normal" office environment.

Winners in this new paradigm: Owners of real estate in lifestyle towns like Boise, Boulder, etc. I also think borders between the US and Latin America (same/similar time zones) will become a lot more fluid. Why not work in Mexico City or Buenos Aires during the winters, for a fraction of the cost of living in the US?

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#12
post #3

If this is the future, salaries will come down, and people will move to smaller cities.

CoL will come down in California too. You won’t have the rich highly concentrated around the best job centers anymore and that will pull down the CoL in those places.

I don’t think this will happen as fast as you’d like. There are tons of things in cities tons of people just don’t want to give up, chief among them a stronger network. It’s like the difference between remote learning and being on campus, at an Ivy League school.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#14

I've been working like this for the past year and a half. I'll never go back to a "normal" office environment. Winners in this new paradigm: Owners of real estate in lifestyle towns like Boise, Boulder, etc. I also think borders between the US and Latin America (same/similar time zones) will become a lot more fluid. Why not work in Mexico City or Buenos Aires during the winters, for a fraction of the cost of living i…

Friends, family, kids, not having all your stuff, cultural and language barriers, etc…

It’s pretty obvious why this doesn’t work for a large portion of people. I am glad for the child free and those who have little need for stuff - but it’s just not… realistic for the rest of us (who are the overwhelming majority of the population). It’s good for that niche 22-28 crowd.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#15
post #3

If this is the future, salaries will come down, and people will move to smaller cities.

salaries for people in smaller cities will increase

So will housing costs. The problems facing SF, Seattle, LA will spread to smaller towns. SF, Seattle, LA, will continue to be expensive because people spend $$$$$$ to live there for reasons other than tech jobs. Be careful what you wish for. I live in the Seattle metro, and would live nowhere else in the country, for what its worth.

You already see this happening in rural communities outside of big cities. "Tech-bro" approved towns such as Asheville, Knoxville, Ann Arbor, Twin Cities, etc, etc are getting so expensive the locals can't move. Where I am from in Southwest Michigan has been facing a worsening housing crisis for years.

Luckily for most of the country, the weather isn't as nice as it is on the west coast, so homelessness will probably not explode as much as it has here. On the other hand, you have to deal with shitty weather ;)

I think the reality is that our housing costs and our fuel costs will catch up with Europe's. In this case it sucks because never built out the public transportation capabilities that could facilitate this being as "pleasant" as it is in Europe. So now if you want to visit the rest of your country you're going to have to pony up for fuel.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#17
Sounds nice in some ways. The stickler here is the focus on working in PST still. You’re not gonna get to travel to the EU and work async it sounds like. Which - while making sense - isn’t going to make a good portion of people who want this particularly happy.

After all - remote but stuck in one time zone for working hours isn’t really a huge win. It’s dangling a carrot.

In other news - sounds like comp is going down at Airbnb. Not a surprise.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#18
post #14

I've been working like this for the past year and a half. I'll never go back to a "normal" office environment. Winners in this new paradigm: Owners of real estate in lifestyle towns like Boise, Boulder, etc. I also think borders between the US and Latin America (same/similar time zones) will become a lot more fluid. Why not work in Mexico City or Buenos Aires during the winters, for a fraction of the cost of living i…

Friends, family, kids, not having all your stuff, cultural and language barriers, etc… It’s pretty obvious why this doesn’t work for a large portion of people. I am glad for the child free and those who have little need for stuff - but it’s just not… realistic for the rest of us (who are the overwhelming majority of the population). It’s good for that niche 22-28 crowd.

[deleted]

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#20
post #3

If this is the future, salaries will come down, and people will move to smaller cities.

No one with experience who currently makes top dollar would take jobs that pay them significantly less, especially as cost of living all over the country is skyrocketing. Companies will need to compete for those developers, and they'll have to compete on wages, as well.

I used to work with developers in Eastern Europe who made the same amount of money as their peers in SF made, despite living in countries with median salaries of ~$8,000 USD a year.

People with skills can and do command high compensation packages that are independent of where they do their work from. Market rates for talent already factor in domestic and global markets.

Post reply on HN