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Why Silicon Valley Works

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#201

Post by pmoriarty »

parasubvert wrote: post #165
freshflowers wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 life is quite a bit better because of both Google and Facebook, and I would say a significant portion of the amount of time I spend online touches one of those two entities. I really don't care that much about the privacy compromises for the level I use either. 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".

Oh come on.

It's not like we wouldn't have basically the same world without Google, Facebook, or virtually any other SV company.

People are just so full of themselves here.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#202

Post by [deleted] »

dashboardfront wrote: post #114
michaelochurch wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finance is actually more meritocratic than software, these days. That may change. Right now, the douche factor is much higher in software startups that that clouds the game. Of course, many of those douches came from ( cough failed out of) finance and management consulting. Traders who top out at $500,000 per year are considered failures. Quants and programmers often get to (and, sometimes, past) that level, but more…

What did you do in finance? I'm guessing trading? It seems like it's a rather hard field to break into, as you've mentioned. I remember reading that even for people coming out of Harvard Business School only a few make it into trading. Regardless, that's a small subset of finance jobs, no? What I've read about the investment banker side is that the job is absolutely dreadful; if you get into private equity, it gets b…

[deleted]

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#204

Post by DanBC »

alva wrote: post #185
rgbrgb wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To reinforce this point, here's a 2BD in the up-and-coming (e.g. highest crime-rate) Mission neighborhood priced at $1030/sf: https://www.openlistings.co/p/2558MISSIONST94110-2 Anecdotally, I know a gainfully employed senior engineer who was literally couch surfing with his wife and daughter for a month after losing their house. The excessive price of living caused by the housing shortage in the bay cannot be underst…

ridiculously cheap compared to London!

The sf means "square foot", which is a weird way of pricing somewhere.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/Hackney.html#/pr...

This flat in hackney is £675 per week and is 1700 square feet. (That's £2925 per month, or $4678 per month).

That price does not include council tax or utilities. Council tax at the lowest but full rate is £864.96 per month. That's roughly $1385 per month.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#205

Post by cm2012 »

gmichnikov wrote: post #133
cm2012 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Manhattan is not NYC. You can rent a 1 bedroom for $1600 a month with a 20 minute train commute to Manhattan (and even less rent further away) in a great school district in Queens. I've lived in NYC my whole life, and worked in Manhattan my whole school and working life, and never paid more than $1400 a month in rent for 2 bedrooms - living with my wife and in only completely safe neighborhoods.

Somewhat off-topic, but if you don't mind sharing, what would you say is the optimal Queens neighborhood for proximity/price/schools?

Closer but more expensive: Astoria/LIC, Flushing/Jackson Heights

Farther but cheaper: Ozone Park, Forest hills, elmhurst, kew gardens

cheapest but farthest: glen oaks, floral park, douglaston

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#206

Post by kasey_junk »

ryandrake wrote: post #83
hugs wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Housing cost is the #1 reason I moved away, and the #1 reason I stay away. I lived in Mountain View 2007 to mid-2008 for my job at Google. We were renting a house close to campus at the time and contemplated what it would cost to put down roots and stay -- most likely buying a condo or house. Every time we ran the numbers, it made no sense, so we voted with our feet and moved back to Chicago. I would love to live in…

While the cost of living here is brutal, it seems a lot of people are stuck here due to the supply of tech jobs. It would be a lot more risky to live somewhere that does not have such a supply. As someone with a solid software background, if I were to wake up tomorrow and find myself without a job, I'm reasonably sure that after at most a few months of searching I could line at least something up. If that happened in…

You are over selling the risk of moving out os the Bay Area. The original commenter mentioned Chicago which is also going through a tech boom with plentiful software jobs to be had.

I'd also add that there is something to be said for diversification of industry. Anecdotally at least, it seems like the last time the tech bubble burst, the bay area was hit the hardest. Other cities had more to fall back on in other industries that need tech (finance, insurance, medical etc). The real advantage to SV is 1) access to VC and 2) it comes back faster after a down cycle.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#207

Post by viiralvx »

Balgair wrote: post #65
steven2012 wrote: post #17

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…

And this is why I'm working in Austin, Texas, and not in California after graduation!

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#208

Post by endeavour »

steven2012 wrote: post #17

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…

This sounds just like London.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#209

Post by Bahamut »

calgaryeng wrote: post #108

This is only tangentially related to "Why Silicon Valley Works", but am I the only person who is frustrated by "famous" VC's saying that "founders should stop worrying about their valuation"? I can't get over this. This is like a used car salesman telling you not to worry about the cost of the car, just to remember that there are free weather mats included! I feel that there is a connection here as to "why Silicon Va…

I thought about the valuation problem for a little bit when my company finished raising its Series B, and I came to the conclusion of not worrying about the valuation independent of hearing the quotes, as an engineer. Here's the important point - the valuation means little until an exit. Any valuation beforehand is only a step in that direction. All work needs to be done to maximize the value of the company in preparation for that day - anything along the way is a distraction from that end goal.

Granted, it is a necessary distraction for many of these companies, since they require VC funding in order to expand operations.

Re: Why Silicon Valley Works

#210

Post by mempko »

I would like to ask a.radical question. Is Silicon Valley actually working? Because if you throw a lot of money at something, even if it is bad, will make it better. Given the amount of money banks an investors are throwing at the valkey, is it successful given the output?
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