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What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

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Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#311

Post by run4yourlives »

neilk wrote: post #269
run4yourlives wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are essentially saying SF is bigger than Vancouver, which it is. Of course there is more of everything in SF. Have you ever lived on the East Coast though? The differences between the actually "culture" is dramatic. It seems though that most of the people objecting to my comment only have experience on the west coast, and therefore see the differences in the cities instead of how - in reality - how similar they a…

Nope - San Francisco is not much bigger. San Francisco has 800K people. Vancouver has 600K. (It is true that there are much more people in Bay Area versus the greater Vancouver area.) I've lived in both cities. Vancouver is basically the San Francisco of Canada. But it lacks the defiantly weird spirit of San Francisco. The insane wealth that's pumped through the city from nearby tech zillionaires does play a role, be…

(It is true that there are much more people in Bay Area versus the greater Vancouver area.)

Yeah, it's bigger. People don't stay within local municipal boundaries. Don't be ridiculous. Nobody in their right mind would argue that Vancouver and SF are the same size.

I've lived in both cities.

Great, but have you lived out east? Because that is what I'm comparing. I recognize there are differences between each city. Of course there are. What I'm saying is that there is a definite "vibe" that is shared by each of the cities on the coast, (even Portland and San Deigo have it) that is simply different from the average each coast city.

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#312

Post by w1ntermute »

swong8 wrote: post #257
sakopov wrote: post #98

In my opinion the high cost of living kills everything else on that list. I'd much rather have a comfortable living, travel the world and be optimistic that i will have no problems buying a nice house for me and my spouse/family if i need to/should i want to. I don't really see this possible based on what i hear from a couple of friends living and working there. Both consumed by their tech jobs, some cool things to d…

I still don't get why folks don't consider living in places just outside of SF that are much more affordable. Places such as South San Francisco, Daly City, Brisbane, Oakland, etc. The proximity to the city is very close (5-10 mins).

Anybody know what the North Bay is like? Is it very expensive?

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#313

Post by pk2200 »

w1ntermute wrote: post #295
aliston wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

^This. I've lived in both SF and Austin. Austin is a bad ass city. In terms of quality of life, as a young and single male, it is a complete and total no brainer that Austin is better than SF. Better nightlife, more attractive women, cheaper cost of living, less bums, more sunlight, better weather (if you prefer hot to cold), better urban/outdoor balance... BUT, in terms of the startup scene, SF is in another league.…

Are the women really more attractive in Austin? One of the things mentioned in the article is that in SF, people are in shape. How are things in Austin?

I've lived for several years in Silicon Valley and Austin, and would have to agree that Austin has more attractive young women. The University of Texas probably has a lot do with it. It also helps that that Austin has 10-11 months of warm weather (January is our winter), so you're seeing more skin here, to put it bluntly. :)

And yes, Austinites are healthy and in shape. Take any survey like this with a grain of salt, but Austin was recently rated the most health conscious city in America. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/08/most-health-conscio...

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#314

Post by beatpanda »

kevingadd wrote: post #301
beatpanda wrote: post #300

Y'all are trippin about the cost of living. I make $26,000 a year and do great in San Francisco. You can be lazy or live cheap here, but you can't do both.

Where in San Francisco? It's my understanding that rent continues to go up in basically every part of the city, and it's even incredibly expensive outside the city.

No. The rent on new leases is going up, due to low supply and high demand, but also extremely low turnover. So people generally look for rooms, not full apartments.

In this way, housing is regulated in SF through social factors on the low end (i.e. whether your personality and your interests bring something positive to a household), and price on the high end.

I pay $680 a month for my room in the heart of the Mission, mainly because I'm an open-minded guy, and my roommates needed someone tolerant, willing to abide by certain rules (in my case, no meat in the house) and conscientious about shared space, which is more rare than you'd think.

If you're single and you feel the need to rent your own apartment, I just can't relate to you. I don't get it. I feel like living down the peninsula is a better option for people who feel like they need that much personal space.

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#315

Post by dpatrick86 »

w1ntermute wrote: post #312
swong8 wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still don't get why folks don't consider living in places just outside of SF that are much more affordable. Places such as South San Francisco, Daly City, Brisbane, Oakland, etc. The proximity to the city is very close (5-10 mins).

Anybody know what the North Bay is like? Is it very expensive?

Beautiful and actually, in some cases, substantially cheaper... depending on how north we're talking about. I'd prefer it to Oakland -- but I'm ok with suburbs.

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#316

Post by GiselleDarlene »

absconditus wrote: post #226
run4yourlives wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more a west coast thing. I grew up in Toronto and I can tell you the same thing shocked me about moving to Vancouver. Crackheads/street people don't like to freeze, so they move to the warmth is. I'd imagine this is as true in the US as it is in Canada.

Chicago has a huge homeless problem. http://www.chicagohomeless.org/faq-studies/

They must "hide" them well. I've lived in Chicago all of my life and there's no comparison to SF.

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#317

Post by munificent »

noname123 wrote: post #183
bherms wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not my opinion, but I once read somewhere that you should aim for a savings (+investments) of 1x salary by 30, 5x by 40, 10+x by 50.

Seems to me the most difficult is saving 5x between 30-40, especially at that age when a lot of folks get married, have kids and purchase property. How do you save up to 5x - which for a household income of $100,000/yr is half a million dollar; do you really get a lot of tax breaks on mortgages, kids and filing jointly? Also, at the current rate of US inflation; by the time I retire which is in about 40 years, $30K/y…

Caveat: I know next to nothing about finance.

Things that come to mind that help you save more as you get older:

1. Your previous savings will be compounding.

2. If you're lucky, you'll finish paying off a house which frees up a good chunk.

3. If your career is going well, your salary will keep going up, hopefully faster than inflation.

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#318

Post by g8oz »

georgeorwell wrote: post #296
g8oz wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, your userid is georgeorwell and you're advocating DoubleSpeak

I'm sorry, where is the deception? "Doublespeak is language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., "downsizing" for layoffs, "servicing the target" for bombing [1]), making the truth less unpleasant, without denying its nature. It may also be deployed as intentional ambiguity, or reversal of meaning (for example, naming a state of wa…

I would argue the euphemism often has the intention not to deceive but to strong arm the listener to perceive things along the lines the speaker intends. This becomes mildly coercive and when done for a social engineering purpose qualifies as Doublespeak imo.

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#319

Post by yesimahuman »

jasonshen wrote: post #303
yesimahuman wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those analogies aren't made equal. There is nothing more equalizing than your ability to sell software to random strangers over the internet. It truly can be done from anywhere and potentially in a more efficient way than in SF.

Selling software over the internet to strangers is only a very small part of what "doing tech" is. Like I said, you could "act" in a local volunteer theater in Nebraska but to say you can "be an actor" anywhere is inaccurate. If you want to grow beyond a 1-5 person shop, if you want to build incredible software that is used by hundreds of thousands or millions of people, you need a critical mass of great engineers, d…

That's incredibly short sighted. There are too many examples of large tech companies not in the valley or SF for that to be true. They might not be household names but that doesn't mean they aren't killing it.

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#320

Post by Firehed »

stephencanon wrote: post #297
brigade wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's like, one week a year where it's in the 80's. Are you from Britain?

I worked in Cupertino for 5 years; just two towns south of Palo Alto it is frequently 90+ in the summer (and as you go through San Jose it gets even hotter). At home in Menlo Park and Palo Alto it was consistently ~10 degrees colder.

I'll confirm San Jose being way too hot. I lived there during our YC summer and it was 90-100 every day. Palo Alto and Menlo Park are incredibly comfortable 10+ months out of the year, and maybe a light jacket the rest of the time.
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