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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

#301
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…

> In Cali, nobody really cared about Thanksgiving, and certainly did not think to care that some people might be alone during this festive time.

So true. The west coast in general seems it would rather spend a holiday alone with the internet rather than with other people.

Being west coaster, I almost didn’t know what to do when strangers would start a random conversation with me. I’m only used to homeless people doing that here.

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

#302
post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comp may be lower, but so is everything else. At the end of the day the guys in the south have more in their pocket than most Bay Area workers.

I hear this often. I would like to see an analysis, breakdown, or a real life comparison that suggests this, and for which tier of engineers this is true. I think two things; 1) non bay area tech workers severely underestimate the total comps that bay area workers are earning right now. 2) many renters in the Bay Area may actually have more in their pocket. If you are willing to rent a room (i.e not have a studio or…

You need to apply the marginal tax rate for California workers, which would typically be ~41% (24% federal + 9.3% state + 7.65% Social Security + Medicare), to figure out how much more is needed on a pre-tax basis. You need an extra $2.5k/month ($30k/year) pre-tax to make up a $1.5k/month difference in rent, or $3.4k/month ($40k/year) pre-tax to make up a $2k/month difference in rent, which is more realistic if you want your own apartment.

And that's just looking at the difference in rent. The number goes up further if you account for the fact that everything else is also more expensive in the Bay Area, and if you add in the additional money you need to save for a down payment, assuming you want to buy at some point. I wouldn't be surprised if that $40k/year difference ends up in the $60k-$70k range if you factor those in.

I don't doubt that a $60k-$70k difference in total comp is achievable at FANG. At startups, you probably don't get there without counting equity, which is riskier and far less liquid than equity comp at FANG.

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

#303

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.

Good reading for people with this worldview (which at one time included myself): “Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports”[1]

https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/cultivated-disinterest-in-prof...

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

#305
post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like the South has a long way to come before the average tech worker would want to live and work there. You couldn't pay me enough (literally since comp is so low out there, but also kind of metaphorically as well) to go work and live in any Southern state. Maybe you need a critical mass? - fellow Bay Area tech worker

Can you elaborate why the south has a long way to go before the average tech worker would want to live there?

Reading through the comments in response to my question, I am always blown away at the stereotyping, arrogance, and general disdain for the south coming out of these sorts of discussions. “The average tech worker” can get along absolutely fine in the south. I don’t know if it’s elitism, ignorance, or just the reverberating sounding board of popular media, but the south is actually quite nice, and I am confident that tech companies could save serious money moving workers out of incredibly high cost areas into better value areas in the south.

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

#306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I guess you never spent much time in the hills just an hour or so from Atlanta in almost any direction, in any of a good number of towns where “a brown guy” would have a hard time finding a restaurant willing to take his money for food.

One of my college buddies lived in Douglas, three hours south of Atlanta in south georgia. Never had anyone be anything short of incredibly polite and hospitable. Heck, I’ve been in rural Illinois, rural VA, and rural GA quite a bit and everyone’s been great. I don’t know (or much care) about peoples’ politics but I’ve always been treated respectfully.

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

#307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is actually optimizing their HQ2 search to avoid being a benefit for taxpayers, like everything else they do.

The whole point of announcing the search was to get the best from the taxpaxpayers. Quit being Amazons bagman.

So did you just not read their post at all? They're saying exactly the same thing as you.

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

#308
post #291
post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't always feel good about being the person pointing out the obvious, but perhaps the American south would have more such companies if it wasn't full of white separatists yearning for a rematch of the Civil War. People with an abundance of intelligence aren't attracted to states where the capitols are adorned with monuments to confederate generals and notorious white supremacists.

If by FULL OF you mean less than a half a percent of the population, then maybe you are right. Seriously, this is offensive and inaccurate and wrong. It is just as bad as saying all Muslims are terrorists. Only people who have never been to the South, and let New York media and Hollywood caricatures inform them ACTUALLY believe this. It is terrible that CNN and MSNBC have followed the Fox News model of peddling fear,…

There’s a statue of a confederate soldier right in front of the Arkansas Capitol in Little Rock. If you think it’s still standing because of the efforts of only .5% of the citizens of that state, that suggests that those few citizens wield disproportionate power, although the more likely explanation is that your estimate is very low. In fact the state of Arkansas has a systemic racism problem that begins at the Capitol and extends to every Robert E. Lee school building around the state. If you can’t see the racism right in front of you, literally cast in concrete and carved in marble, then I just can’t help you.

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

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love how easy it is to get to National on the Metro. I took public transit to Dulles once, and that was notably less easy.

Dulles will be connected to Metro in 2020.

It will still take forever to get there...

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

#310

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…

I’ve had no trouble finding fishing and hunting partners in SV. I’ve never personally felt anyone hugely opposed to hunting either, unless it some how conflicted with how they feed themselves. I do find it interesting thatduck hunting during season can be done just a maybe a mile from the Yahoo/Google Cloud buildings in north Sunnyvale. I have frequently seen full camo duck hunters carrying shotguns from the water tr…

> I’ve never personally felt anyone hugely opposed to hunting either, unless it some how conflicted with how they feed themselves.

I think if you decided to test this theory, with say a picture of yourself with a buck on Facebook or twitter, you’d find it to be untrue.

A lot of SV may not be extreme one way or another, but for employees at large tech companies there’s a definitely and strong bias.

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