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MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

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Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#171

Post by ghaff »

icebraining wrote: post #122
ghaff wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you could, you know, make breakfast for your friends. I don’t really get the brunch lines thing. Most of the food is pretty easily made in even a minimal kitchen. (And bread can be bought the day before.)

I'm guessing people in tiny apartments may not be able or willing to deal with a bunch of friends crowding it in the morning. Or maybe they don't live near each other, so they'd rather brunch near the office. Or would rather brunch during a work pause, rather than before getting to the office.

What working people have brunches with friends during the week--except perhaps on a very rare basis?

I'll grant the tiny apartments but I'll also observe that, in undergraduate, we had space for a sizable number of people in a shared kitchen area. If where you live once you start working in a tech job is a downgrade from college, personally I consider that a problem.

Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#172

Post by mdszy »

realbarack wrote: post #164
mdszy wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not having roommates is 100% worth not saving a whole ton of money to me. Fuck having roommates.

Here's a hot take: having roommates is actually better than living alone if they're the right roommates. (I know many people will disagree with this.)

Sure if they're great roommates it could be worth it.

But I feel like if you have roommates for financial reasons, you generally don't get the choice.

Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#173

Post by akhilcacharya »

ShteiLoups wrote: post #30
akhilcacharya wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a software engineer at a FANG, in a VHCOL city...and I feel completely out of touch with whatever cultural circles these people live in. > We are three former Googlers who are on a mission to help create jobs in rural and suburban cities around America. Ok, yeah, that explains it

Could you please explain how that explains it to someone who needs more explanation?

I'm also a software engineer allegedly in the same cultural circles as these folks...but this brunch reference is honestly baffling to me to an extent that it makes me wonder if I even am in the same class as these folks. I've never even been to brunch!

Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#174

Post by nkrisc »

ok_coo wrote: post #157
nkrisc wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So all of the Midwest :)

No sea, but you can find some very beautiful places along the great lakes!

Absolutely, I grew up there. Who needs the sea when you can't see the other side of the lake and it doesn't stink like the ocean?

Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#175

Post by realbarack »

I'm glad to see innovation in this space. I work remotely as an ML engineer in a "Main Street"-ish city (not really, but it's a middle-class city with a reasonably affordable COL that's part of a large MSA).

Remote work has generally delivered on all its promised benefits for me. I make much more money than I would if I got a job in the city where I live, and my apartment is much nicer than what I could afford if I still lived in the Bay area. I had hoped to move somewhere with great access to the outdoors (this is what initially made me interested in remote work), but ultimately ended up moving for relationship reasons and had to give up the outdoor mecca dream for the time being.

Now, I'm thinking of going back to office life. Since taking the remote plunge I've struggled with loneliness and anxiety about career stasis, and haven't been able to find a critical mass of educated, ambitious, like-minded friends where I now live.

There's a tremendous opportunity for whoever can make it easier to build and find in-person communities of ambitious remote/satellite workers. Offices and cities are blunt instruments for matching people on ambition and education/intelligence. If it were easier to find and integrate into smaller (but equally ambitious) hubs, it would make remote work a more attractive option for many more people.

Feel free to get in touch if you'd like to speak more on this subject.

Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#176

Post by bradlys »

dmode wrote: post #106

Let’s be honest, $10k is chump change for engineers pulling $400k. If you want people to move, how about offer $400k ?

Very few companies will ever pay engineers that money. And those companies have campuses all over the USA. So, they don't need this... The ones who could be interested in what this company offers are those that are much more financially constrained. Thus, offering more than $10k for a sign on bonus is probably not plausible for them either. I'd be surprised if anyone who gets hired through this company would have a TC past $200k. (ignoring silly valuations of startup stock)

Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#177

Post by mepiethree »

BoorishBears wrote: post #163
mepiethree wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can find an apartment to buy in any neighborhood in Chicago for $200k. Same spaces in SF would be around $1M. Maybe Chicago would be a palatable alternative to rural Alabama?

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to imply there are no alternatives to the major tech cities. I don't even want to imply there are no backwards communities right on the doorsteps of the major cities that everyone just kind of sweeps under the rug.

Yes! Palo Alto vs. East Palo Alto being a good Bay Area example of your latter point ;)

Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#178

Post by cheese4242 »

Glyptodon wrote: post #168
tempsy wrote: post #40

It's really hard to beat living and working in San Francisco. Having lived here a few years I find costs highly overstated for single people . e.g. some costs: Studio in Lower Haight (water + trash included): $2100/month Utilities: $50 Monthly Muni: $81 Groceries are no more expensive than anywhere else. Eating out is similar vs other cities I've been to, and if anything the quality of the food is better here at the…

Much of my extended family is from the Bay Area, mostly circa the North end of the Golden Gate Bridge. My experience is that food is meaningfully more expensive in the Bay Area, whether eating out or eating in. Transport does cost me more. I estimate my vehicle's ongoing TCO amounts to ~$250/month (purchase, registration, gas, repairs, insurance, etc.). (It's also worth noting that having a lower monthly TCO for a ve…

Agree with all your points.

I call shenanigans on people who say the cost of food/eating out is similar in SF to other cities. Eating out in SF is much more expensive. While there is great food to be had there, there is just as much mediocre fare which you will still be charged an arm and a leg for. Also the lack of proper cooking space in a tiny apartment means that many will be tempted to eat out more often versus cooking for themselves.

Similarly, cost to run my vehicle is around ~$200 a month and provides me great freedom and flexibility to get around and take trips out of the city when I want to.

When comparing cost of housing, I notice people always compare the cost of a tiny apartment (usually with roommates) with the cost of a much nicer apartment/house to oneself in a LoC area. Rent a small studio or apartment with roommates and your rent cost in a LoC can get into the sub $300 range easily. I knew many people renting shared spaces for $100-150 while in college.

Live wherever you want (different strokes for different folks and all that) but I feel people in these discussions are often not being completely forthright in their comparisons.

I've crunched the numbers quite a few times, outside of a hotshot FAANG job it just doesn't make sense $$ wise compared to my salary/location now despite what many on HN insist. I'd have to downgrade my standard of living drastically for it to even begin to make sense.

Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#179

Post by cheese4242 »

jartelt wrote: post #162
tempsy wrote: post #40

It's really hard to beat living and working in San Francisco. Having lived here a few years I find costs highly overstated for single people . e.g. some costs: Studio in Lower Haight (water + trash included): $2100/month Utilities: $50 Monthly Muni: $81 Groceries are no more expensive than anywhere else. Eating out is similar vs other cities I've been to, and if anything the quality of the food is better here at the…

One difference I have noticed is that in the midwest you can eat out and often spend less than $20 per person on the entire check. For even a mid range restaurant in the bay area, you are at $20 per person after food/drink (not including tax/tip). There are absolutely much better restaurants in SF compared to cities in say IL or WI. However, the prices are definitely higher in SF.

Agreed. Prices are way higher in SF for eating out. I don't mind if the place is legitimately better but even the crap and mediocre places will charge a ton.

Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#180

Post by bluesquared »

nkrisc wrote: post #174
ok_coo wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No sea, but you can find some very beautiful places along the great lakes!

Absolutely, I grew up there. Who needs the sea when you can't see the other side of the lake and it doesn't stink like the ocean?

Live there now, a block from Lake Erie. It's cool for 3 summer months, the other 9 months I might as well be in flyoverland cornfields...
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