161–170 of 252 posts
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Is there a 'too late' to get into finance? I might have to change my focus. All this JavaScript and Objective-C can stay a hobby.
There isn't much time for hobbies if you work in finance.
No. The reason why Silicon Valley works is because of the intense greed that it provokes amongst everyone that comes here. Maybe "greed" is too strong of a word, because people aren't necessarily selfish, maybe "money-focused" is probably more accurate. And because anyone can come here and become a millionaire/billionaire, it draws in an immense number of hard-working people which just generally increase the level of…
'cause I hear you. Living in Paris, France, I could complain about the same thing. How you end up consumed by your lifestyle with nothing to show up for in your late thirties despite your top 10% career.
Still, my preffered theory about why SV works is that European middleage adventurers went west, up to California. And that the hippie movement with drug-induced introspection moved some people enough to motivate others to build their dreams, which is currently happening under our eyes.
That's just another narrative. You have to pick your facts. Both may well be true. Or simplistic as well.
Lévi-Strauss taught me I shall not pretend being an observer of the world I live in so we might ultimately never know why SV "works". Let's focus on the how, and dream of the why.
No. The reason why Silicon Valley works is because of the intense greed that it provokes amongst everyone that comes here. Maybe "greed" is too strong of a word, because people aren't necessarily selfish, maybe "money-focused" is probably more accurate. And because anyone can come here and become a millionaire/billionaire, it draws in an immense number of hard-working people which just generally increase the level of…
It's vastly easier to become a millionaire in finance than in tech.
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If house prices are as bad as HN indicates I can understand how that income could put a person if not in the "working poor" then into the lower middle class.
look at this map: 2 bedrooms under $3500/mo in sf http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/sfc/apa?sort=priceasc&max... know that competition is tight enough that if the apartments are decent, they will be rented on the spot during the showings, and often for much more than the asking price. An acquaintance was looking for months and finally got an apartment because he and his roommate offered $250/mo over asking.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/eby/apa?sort=priceasc&max...
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>truly improve humanity, the Valley extremely inefficient I think Intel, Google and Facebook have improved humanity though your tastes may vary and I enjoy Apple's shiny stuff. Those have a market cap of $1.4 tr and it's hard to think of anywhere else with similar output. Maybe like democracy it's the worse possible system apart from all the other ones?
Two of those, Google and Facebook, have made it their core business to prime humanity for a lifetime of exploitation of their privacy in exchange for so relatively very little. How the f is that "improving humanity"?
My experience is at least somewhat similar for at least a half billion to billion other people, so I'd say their impact on humanity is "pretty large".
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>truly improve humanity, the Valley extremely inefficient I think Intel, Google and Facebook have improved humanity though your tastes may vary and I enjoy Apple's shiny stuff. Those have a market cap of $1.4 tr and it's hard to think of anywhere else with similar output. Maybe like democracy it's the worse possible system apart from all the other ones?
market cap != quality of life. The Valley works well at convincing people that fake money is equal to the quality of real life. Market caps have nothing to do with happiness, health, and interpersonal relationships.
My experience with family life is that happiness, health, and interpersonal relationships are generally much harder to sustain without some wealth. Not impossible, but harder.
'This seems like the future to me – large groups of independent companies, loosely tied together.' This could also work against YC (Or many startups in the valley) very easily. I mean all these companies are being created in a time of easy money, what happens when the money dries out? Will they all fail? Since they are so correlated with each other's success.
Not all of them, no, but a lot will.
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On the living part: My folks live in Concord and their next door neighbor just moved into assisted living at 95. Her house sold within a week for 700k to a young couple. It's a 3 bed 1 bath single story in Concord with drainage problems, mind you. Lets do the math here shall we: What is the mortgage and taxes(thanks prop13) on a place like? Well, at 4.05%, good credit, and 15% down, it's 2857.80/month just on the loa…
If it's so bad, why aren't people moving out of the valley?
I think the parent commenter paints a gloomy but somewhat realistic picture - it 'works' because there's a high volume of people looking for success, but it can be very stifling for some (such as myself).
So... yeah. There is actual life outside of SV.
No. The reason why Silicon Valley works is because of the intense greed that it provokes amongst everyone that comes here. Maybe "greed" is too strong of a word, because people aren't necessarily selfish, maybe "money-focused" is probably more accurate. And because anyone can come here and become a millionaire/billionaire, it draws in an immense number of hard-working people which just generally increase the level of…
On the living part: My folks live in Concord and their next door neighbor just moved into assisted living at 95. Her house sold within a week for 700k to a young couple. It's a 3 bed 1 bath single story in Concord with drainage problems, mind you. Lets do the math here shall we: What is the mortgage and taxes(thanks prop13) on a place like? Well, at 4.05%, good credit, and 15% down, it's 2857.80/month just on the loa…
For perspective, the S&P 500 was at 68.56 in 1975 and began 2014 at 1848.36, a 27 fold gain. You also wouldn't be paying ongoing real estate taxes, etc. So the house bought in the 70's wasn't that great of an investment, long term.