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Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

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Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#281

Post by amazingman »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #234
fierro wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose the culture, politics, and traditions. Bay Area is generally quite liberal and tolerant, even if it is not the most diverse. Tech workers tend to be highly educated, well traveled, and open to new ideas. In contrast, I feel like the South is more xeno/homophobic, resistant to change, conservative etc. I have well educated family members in the South who are low-key racist. As a single data point, most young…

"quite liberal and tolerant" The Bay has a kind of a specific moral view, which is sometimes applied in a fairly authoritarian manner. It's not very Liberal, and arguably not hugely tolerant either. For example, all sorts of activities which are common and normal in the rest of America and the world are either frowned upon, or considered fully uncool in the Bay. Things like fishing. Hunting. Most sports. Talking abou…

Contrary to what seems to be popular perception, Texas is not “the South”. The South is the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, and _maybe_ the Virginias and Kentucky.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#282

Post by amazingman »

solidsnack9000 wrote: post #235
sonnyblarney wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"quite liberal and tolerant" The Bay has a kind of a specific moral view, which is sometimes applied in a fairly authoritarian manner. It's not very Liberal, and arguably not hugely tolerant either. For example, all sorts of activities which are common and normal in the rest of America and the world are either frowned upon, or considered fully uncool in the Bay. Things like fishing. Hunting. Most sports. Talking abou…

The Bay has a kind of a specific moral view, which is sometimes applied in a fairly authoritarian manner. ... For example, all sorts of activities which are common and normal in the rest of America and the world are either frowned upon, or considered fully uncool in the Bay. Things like fishing. Hunting. Most sports. Talking about sports. Twangy accents. Country music. This is a long list. So true.

To be fair, pro sports are an obvious waste of valuable time and attention.

Personally, I’d rather actually connect with someone (or not) than use such mindlessness as a social crutch. I don’t find the extremely common phenomenon of people who don’t like sports forcing themselves to pretend they do for career-related reasons to be particularly healthy, either.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#284

Post by JPKab »

rayiner wrote: post #273
fierro wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose the culture, politics, and traditions. Bay Area is generally quite liberal and tolerant, even if it is not the most diverse. Tech workers tend to be highly educated, well traveled, and open to new ideas. In contrast, I feel like the South is more xeno/homophobic, resistant to change, conservative etc. I have well educated family members in the South who are low-key racist. As a single data point, most young…

The south is definitely more xeno/homophobic, and that's unfortunate, and there's really good reasons why that might be a reason that people might not want to live there. There's also good reasons to live in the big southern cities. To compare with Northern VA, for example--growing up there, I didn't know a single black person. The area is almost exclusively white and Asian, with Hispanic people occupying a different…

Northern Virginia has plenty of black folks. Look at Alexandria. But having grown up attending predominantly black schools in a rural past of the state, you are 100 percent right about the integrated nature of the South compared to the rest of the country. It was highly unusual for any wedding, funeral, or BBQ where I grew up to not be a mix of black and white. Most white people in the rest of the country have never eaten at a black person's house let alone spent the night. A child in the rural south almost certainly has. Hell, my best friend's mom made me go to church as well if I spent the night on a Saturday. Same when my buddies spent the night at my house.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#285

Post by enraged_camel »

rayiner wrote: post #266
mdorazio wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having lived in Georgia and Tennessee and still having family in the Carolinas, you're either a straight white man or living in denial.

I lived in Atlanta for the better part of a decade as a brown guy right after 9/11. Was great.

Large cities are always much more liberal. Don't let that fool you though, the overall culture in the state of Georgia is not much different than it was back during the Civil War era.

edit: nice downvotes from Georgians ;)

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#286

Post by rhexs »

hhyydd wrote: post #270
rhexs wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are vastly, vastly discounting the value of the benefits. THE most secure pension in the world (you cannot buy one that good on the private market), incredible health benefits, incredible vacation policies, lax work policies for most jobs, great holiday schedule, Gov will pay to train you, you effectively cannot get laid off (try downloading porn at most corporations for hours and hours and see what happens), etc…

You are vastly, vastly mischaracterizing government shutdowns as “free holidays.” Shutdowns due to lapses in appropriations by congress are extremely traumatic for ordinary government workers. It’s not as though you can just go on a trip while you wait for the government to re-open, as you must be ready to report the next day if appropriations are made. There is absolutely zero guarantee that back pay will be paid, d…

And private sector is far, far more stressful. Instead of worrying about whether or not you'll get a week of back-pay, you have to worry about how you're going to feed your family and keep a roof over your head after your job is terminated with no notice and a meaningless severance package.

Cry me a river. Federal jobs have downsides, but this isn't one of them.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#287

Post by redm »

throwaway713 wrote: post #185

Aargh, I wish ONE tech company would put a HQ somewhere in the South. I currently live in the Bay Area working at a company I love, but I'll have to move back at some point (my wife wants to be closer to family). Crystal City, VA is still an 8 hour drive from the part of the South I'm from. Atlanta, Raleigh, and Nashville have so much potential... I think if just one of FANG put a HQ there (or even an office), the ot…

This BizJournal article from about a month ago lists a few of companies expanding to Atlanta, such as Square, Pandora, and New Relic.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2018/10/09/bay...

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#288

Post by sonnyblarney »

amazingman wrote: post #282
solidsnack9000 wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Bay has a kind of a specific moral view, which is sometimes applied in a fairly authoritarian manner. ... For example, all sorts of activities which are common and normal in the rest of America and the world are either frowned upon, or considered fully uncool in the Bay. Things like fishing. Hunting. Most sports. Talking about sports. Twangy accents. Country music. This is a long list. So true.

To be fair, pro sports are an obvious waste of valuable time and attention. Personally, I’d rather actually connect with someone (or not) than use such mindlessness as a social crutch. I don’t find the extremely common phenomenon of people who don’t like sports forcing themselves to pretend they do for career-related reasons to be particularly healthy, either.

"To be fair, pro sports are an obvious waste of valuable time and attention."

Ha ha ha - this is so funny.

If this comment is not satire, then I think I just made my point!

I hope that readers here realize how fairly uncommon (and elitist, i.e. everyone is obviously wasting their time) this kind of statement is. Surely, a lot of people don't like pro-sports, but most are not so antagonist about it.

My gosh, if you want to connect with people from anywhere, the first thing you can do is talk about sports!

I only wish I cared about sports, it would be so much easier on sales calls and hanging out with regular people!

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#289

Post by jdavis703 »

throwaway713 wrote: post #185

Aargh, I wish ONE tech company would put a HQ somewhere in the South. I currently live in the Bay Area working at a company I love, but I'll have to move back at some point (my wife wants to be closer to family). Crystal City, VA is still an 8 hour drive from the part of the South I'm from. Atlanta, Raleigh, and Nashville have so much potential... I think if just one of FANG put a HQ there (or even an office), the ot…

Google has offices in Reston, Virginia already.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#290

Post by monksy »

jldugger wrote: post #264
BoorishBears wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

North Carolina?

1. It's a control state. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_beverage_control_sta... 2. The politics are still overtly racist: https://twitter.com/haroldpollack/status/1051657219899617280 3. The HB2 saga demonstrates how strong the Christian right is in the state. As does a candidate in a race too close to call insisting there will never be peace in Jerusalem until Jews acknowledge the divinity of Christ: https:/…

Not sure if you've lived in NC... but there are a few things to that that I think you may have missed:

1. Yes, the fact that this is uniformly a control state, that is a problem. (Given how they are, I wish they had some special exclusion areas) However, a lot of the east coast operates in the same manner. The early hour for last call is bad as well.

2. Politics that you're talking about have very little to do with the tech sector. Despite what silicon valley would have you believe, you can be a conservative and be a productive member of the industry.

3. This sounds like you're pushing a political agenda here. I think a more succinct way to put this would be: Given the demographic that the tech industry attracts, the bible belt would not be favourable to their lifestyle.

4. (Also see #3)

There are reasons for doing tech in NC and it does have a small tech sector.

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