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Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

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Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#231
There are a lot of startups in Salt Lake, UT. Billboards everywhere looking for devs. I really am surprised it never gets mentioned on posts like this. Salt lake area cost if living is about the same as Austin I believe l, but based on the fact that it isn't as well known that it is truly a tech hub, cost probably won't rise nearly as quickly as the other places. It has recently been called *Silicon Slopes" by Google (when they installed Google fiber), if that's not enough proof idk what is. Also Utah might be the first state to have Google fiber in two different cities. (Provo, and talk of Salt lake)

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#232
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The atmosphere here is, I dunno, toxic. Too many people here size each other up based on where they work and where they live and people are way too obsessed with advancing their careers and chasing higher salaries, more luxurious cars, nicer apartments, etc. Everyone seems to have some sort of inferiority complex if they don't work for the "Big 4". People in Davis/Sac seemed less superficial and it was a lot easier…

Moved to Mountain View in 1987, then to SF about a year later, then to the Santa Cruz mountains about 10 years ago. My wife and I were in tech that whole time (me: SCO, Sun, SGI, Cobalt, briefly at Google, then BitMover). Neither of us enjoy going to Mountain View any more. It's the worst parts of a big city (crowded, traffic, parking, expensive housing) and the worst part of the suburbs. And there is a lot of snobbe…

If anything, I think low-level programming has become an underappreciated skill.

If you work on kernel development, be as snooty as you want.

These days, those jobs that require real expertise and in-depth knowledge aren't nearly as heavily compensated as your run-of-the-mill Rails dev Stackoverflow pasting position.

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#233
post #156

my vote goes to denver! affordable, laid back, socially liberal, safe, no huge social gap like in SF, very friendly people, great outdoors, growing tech startup ecosystem

You haven't figured it out yet but as a Denverite, you're supposed to tell people not to move here. It's so awesome here we don't like to share.

lol indeed. ;) i'm an ex denverite who keeps going back at least once a year

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100F days are perfect days to spend in the pool though.

But more likely they'll be spent in the office.

I used to have to leave a winter coat at my desk (in Austin) at work in the summer. Figure that one out!

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#236

Panama City Panama. Zero tax on foreign income. If you continue contracting for US companies all of your income will be foreign. It makes a huge difference. I paid over 40% in tax in SF. Tons of tech people are doing it as they can more easily work remote and are already competing on a global stage. I've joined a share house of foreign tech workers who all doing the same thing for the same reasons. It is in one of th…

How's the internet? I'm really interested in working remotely from Central America but worry that it'd be challenging to find reliable fast connections—at least in places that aren't downtown centers.

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#237

Seattle's housing costs are definitely rising but Washington's lack of an income tax is a boon for software engineers. Also, many of the big players in tech will pay within 10-20% of their bay area total comp packages in Seattle, so your take home pay might be almost the same, but of course your dollar is going to go a lot further. I ran some numbers comparing Seattle, Denver, and Minneapolis, and found the descendin…

I moved away from Seattle to the Bay Area partly because it was so damn depressing.

My company-sponsored doctor gave me a bottle full of two _GRAM_ pills of Vitamin D, and she said she has had to give it to most of her patients.

In the dead thick of the winter, it gets dark at 3 PM (after a 10 AM sunrise), and the rain literally never stops. When it's not raining, it's misting, and it will go weeks on end with everlasting gray skies and no sunshine.

Pittsburgh, comparatively speaking, was better because it snows off-and-on instead of constantly rains, and in January, the sun starts to come out again with blue skies, whereas Seattle stays dark, gray, and gloomy until summer.

Pittsburgh also wasn't as high up of a latitude either so the sunset would never happen earlier than 4 PM, instead of 3 PM.

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But more likely they'll be spent in the office.

I used to have to leave a winter coat at my desk (in Austin) at work in the summer. Figure that one out!

I work in Austin, and I do the same thing albeit with a hoodie.

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hello fellow Cal Alum. Go bears! DTF is overpriced. Facing East is standard Taiwanese which means tons of sugar. I used to drive to Lynwood and Federal Way for Korean, but my girlfriend doesn't really eat meat so we don't eat Korean as much. The only good Indian restaurants are in Renton.

Sichuanese Cuisine in Redmond near the Sears / Overlake Fashion Plaza is the best I've had in the area. Health code violation shutdowns of the past just make it more delicious.

Seconded. These are good recommendations.

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in Cupertino and live in Seattle now. I used to live in an apartment with very little natural light, that was awful. Now I live in a condo with tons of light and feel better. Also fly down to Bay Area once a month for work. Seattle weather isn't that bad. During June through September it's the best in the country. Just gray in the winters, doesn't really rain much. Some other cons. Negligible start up scene…

So far the food scene in Seattle hasn't been all that people have made it up to be.

Surprised. I'd say it's pretty comparable to SF, and that's probably one of the FEW plusses of Seattle IMO.

Source: Lived there for 2 years.

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