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Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

finance.yahoo.com

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Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#251

Post by yummyfajitas »

ahh wrote: post #243
yummyfajitas wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, what is "longer periods"? Is celibacy for a year really a plausible outcome for most people in SF? And is it so likely that it makes living in a car worthwhile? I'm honestly curious. Year-long celibacy is not super uncommon in India, but Indian culture is explicitly set up to make sure women don't have sex until their parents get them married off. I'm really shocked to hear that SF is that bad.

Why are you surprised to hear this? You're hardly the first person I'd expect to not realize the social stigma most men in the tech industry face trying to date; combine that with the supply/demand in the Bay and you should expect that most men will struggle to date at all (really, anywhere on the west coast except maybe LA.)

I've been to the bay area twice in my life. Most of my dating has been in either NYC or (recently) Pune, India. I'm aware the dating situation out west is unsatisfying, I just thought the issue was just that one might need to go out every night instead of only fridays and maybe compromise a bit on quality.

The fact is SF has women and no parental supervision. How could it possibly be this bad?

I'm honestly asking because I'm curious about the mechanics of it.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#252

Post by seanflyon »

UrMomReadsHN wrote: post #103
aikah wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1/ or you know,just find a housemate/roommate if you cant afford to rent a place alone... sorry but sleeping in a van doesnt "scale",and is not that economic. EDIT:the downvote mob is out for blood,as usual.I just said that sleeping in a van for 6 month is the worse thing to do,nobody can to tell me with a straight face that one should do that,especially in winter.

If sleeping in a van wasn't all that economic and finding a housemate was so simple for everyone in every situation then we wouldn't have homeless people.

There are lots of homeless people who don't sleep in vans either.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#253

Post by lwf »

tomp wrote: post #191
slashink wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You made The Verge! http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/9/6126305/tech-employee-lives...

So I guess The Verge doesn't care if I copy-paste large chunks of their articles (along with their copyrighted photos) on my web-page? Good to know...

The DMCA is your friend. :)

https://nppa.org/page/5617

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#254

Post by luckydude »

I did this for a while when I was working at Sun but it wasn't to avoid rent (I paid rent) it was to avoid my commute. When I was in full on work mode I viewed the commute as too much of a time drain (I lived in San Francisco, Sun was in Mountain View, 30 minutes without traffic, closer to an hour with. Each way. Blech.)

I had two VW vans parked next to each other, one was set up as a "bedroom", the other was set up as the "living room" and was also my daily driver. It worked pretty well if you don't count social life (I didn't have one).

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#255

Post by bsaul »

krschultz wrote: post #47
bsaul wrote: post #9

Does anyone else feels like we're really getting towards the cyberpunk universe ? with corporations that completely own the life of their employees by providing them with everything, and a violent lawless and miserable outside world. And as always, it all started with the best intentions.

Keep in mind that factory / company mine towns used to be a thing. The cyberpunk dystopia you are alluding to is extrapolating company town lifestyle into the future.

I don't think you can compare the two situation. Life as a miner was awfull, owners gave their employees just enough so that they could eat and have a roof.

Here the contrast is much bigger. Typical cyberpunk corporate workers have a dream life, but ows total loyalty to its company to keep it.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#256

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

krschultz wrote: post #53
2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In most other jobs, if you could not afford to make rent, or had other commitments that drained your income, you could not find the resources at work to even attempt this. If they are lenient on this sort of thing, you could use this for other purposes. You decide to move and your leases don't quite line up, saving money to buy a house (as mentioned in the article)... I would certainly classify this as a perk.

Really? I worked at McDonalds in high school. One of the other guys there (in my estimation, one of the smartest) was homeless. He was about 17 years old, and had run away from home. We were in NJ, I believe he was from the Carolinas. He used to work FT at McDonalds, and then I would spend most of the rest of his waking time at the library or a QuikCheck in town. I wasn't totally clear on where he slept, but I believ…

OK, I will be more specific: In most jobs, you cannot choose to be homeless and still live in middle class conditions.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#257

Post by cograyd8 »

awjr wrote: post #73

I did this on a 6 month contract as an experiment over a mild winter in the UK in 2011. You can pretty much do this anywhere. Couple of tricks: 1) Get a small camper/van that can park in one car parking space with a diesel heating system. Kitchen is irrelevant. Bed/toilet/heating system/space to sit and type/space for clothes to hang. 2) You need a toilet but usually you time your bowel movements to only need to use…

Great article. My ex and I refurbished an older GMC bus with a fully functioning everything years ago.By that I mean an actual toilet, kitchen, bath, etc. which is different and more difficult to park. We moved it here and there so we didn't get ticketed or worse. It was basically an RV...A couple of suggestions that apply here: Visibility of activity can get you ticketed or worse in SF where I live. Cover back and side windows with silver Mylar. It lets light in,you can see outside fine, but it is opaque from the outside. Also, you need to address dampness so you don't end up mildewed and moldy! A small heater, even Coleman lanterns help dry the air. Check camping stores or sites for the latest developments for that problem.Good luck!

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#258

Post by scintill76 »

scintill76 wrote: post #246
paulhauggis wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"in which case you're contributing to gentrification" I guess keeping poor neighborhoods poor is a good think now?

Yeah, I also don't understand how buying a house within one's own means is gentrification. Is the definition of "afford" different between your "very poor" neighbors and you, the "software engineer"?

OK, I guess maybe the original point was that there are super-cheap and super-expensive houses, and software engineers could afford something in between. They have to choose a poor neighborhood where they are wealthier, or a reasonably-priced but distant suburb.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#259

Post by narrator »

bengoodger wrote: post #163
narrator wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that is the paradox. In order to make cheap housing you'd have to destroy all the open space and low density zoning that made all the tech and VC people want to live here in the first place. Besides the current economy isn't permanent at all. The tech bubble will bust and this will all go back to normal in a few years. People who are living here for the long haul, and not just for the gold rush don't want it to g…

Good luck waiting out the gold rush, it's been a part of the California way of life for more than a hundred and fifty years.

You should have seen it in 2002. The freeways were nice and empty and rents were cheap. Even as recent as early 2009 office rents were much much lower than they are now.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#260

Post by Padding »

vonmoltke wrote: post #244
stevewepay wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The weather in the Bay Area is essentially perfect. The scenery is beautiful, and you can see the ocean, the desert, magnificent forests and the mountains all in the same day. It doesn't get too hot, it doesn't get too cold, it rains only for a few months out of the year, and it never gets very humid. Living in the Bay Area makes you spoiled and lazy because it is too comfortable. As the piece [1] by Mary Schmich (an…

For your definition of perfect, at least. I love rain and humidity. I miss the 60+ inches a year in South Florida. Plus, your ocean is too damn cold. :P

I don't know about that .. Humidity is the one thing that isn't fun :x
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