Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups • Hacker News Board

Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups

#261

Post by closeparen » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 5:11 AM UTC

Bahamut wrote: post #251

randomacct3847 wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not if the best places are cash offers only. And cap on SALT taxes starting 2018 tax year means many high earners will not be able to deduct expensive property taxes and most income above and beyond their base salary. 300k is living with a roommate level IMO unless you’re just looking to buy a 1 bedroom and not have kids.

What the heck would you be spending $ on to be living with a non-significant other roommate necessarily at $300k? This is extraordinary hyperbole that pretty much ignores what it’s really like in the Bay Area - many people making $100k or even less don’t even live with roommates here if they don’t want to. I make over $300k myself and the only reason I have a roommate is because she’s one of my best friends and I am…

Saving up $100k/year towards ownership is just treading water; prices will easily rise that much on their own. This leaves another ~$70k/year to play with in your $300k salary. The marginal cost of living alone vs. with roommates is not insignificant in that context. So yes, if you are making $300k/year and serious about buying, it would be hard to justify renting an entire apartment.

Absolutely agree that you can afford to live alone if you do not particularly care about buying.

Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups

#262

Post by di4na » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 3:23 PM UTC

robgibbons wrote: post #217

di4na wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhm just a random thing here, but people should look at how online gaming communities work. They solved that problem nearly 15 years ago...

Can you elaborate? Curious as to what aspect of online gaming you're referring to.

Sure. Have a look at Eve online as an example. You have communities of thousands of people (up to 20k). And the environment is quite close to the one of the current market for corporations. They also face spying, people not doing their fair share, etc.

They work together in a scarce and hostile environment and still build an inclusive culture that make people feel at home. To the point that your alliance is in a lot of way your family, at least as much as all these companies want.

The way they do that is through multiple channels, and the game itself helps ofc. But the main tool they use is always on vocal server. Teamspeak and Mumble are the incumbent there, with Discord being the new entrant.

The way it usually works is that people are always logged in these server the moment they are online. They stay online but go in an "AFK" channel if they went away for a break. Otherwise they will be in a shared "quiet" channel. Or in a "general" channel which is about talking with each other and having a shared space.

If you go do something, like play another game, organize a squad to do something specific, have a meeting, etc. Then you create a dedicated channel.

What happens is that you get people to share the space and feel a community mostly through the vocal channel.

You also usually have a forum for longer run things and "out of band" fun. And in general you also add a slack equivalent. Historically Jabber or Discord these days.

The only thing missing is a good whiteboarding experience, but i have high hope for VR there.

So yeah anyway, always on vocal is the thing most people miss that create that feeling of belonging.

Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups

#263

Post by consz » Tue, Feb 26, 2019, 1:15 PM UTC

techslave wrote: post #239

consz wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's sometimes hard to understand how quickly marginal utility of money decreases. As someone who makes high seven figures, I have genuinely no idea how more money could possibly affect my happiness -- there's just no appreciable difference between making 5m and 500m to me.

sounds like you have a distinct lack of imagination. interesting that you could reach 7 figures with that mindset. every power of 10 TC is another level of liberating. At 7 figures you can still go broke. that isn’t fuck you money. you can’t buy houses around the world (and staff them) in a whim. you can’t go to davos and mingle with the true global power brokers. you can affect social change but only on a small perh…

>you can’t buy houses around the world (and staff them) in a whim. you can’t go to davos and mingle with the true global power brokers. you can affect social change but only on a small perhaps local scale.

I can't imagine any of these things increasing my happiness (or even be particularly interesting to me).