The problem is that you never know which one of the "silly" startups will succeed. ¿How about a startup disrupting the "large" market of air-mattress renting to complete strangers?.... mmmm... Let's toss a breakfast in...
That's is, let's call it: "Air Bed and breakfast"... it is silly?
San Francisco Bubble
61–70 of 393 posts
Re: San Francisco Bubble
#62This is why the free market is so great.
1. Everything too expensive? Good, don't live here, eventually enough people will leave to drive all of the costs back to other market norms.
2. Dumb startups? Good, they will fail, people won't be able to afford to live here and they'll leave.
3. People are spoiled? Uber is cheaper and more convenient in some cases than taking the local transportation. When people stop taking public transportation because it's fundamentally broken (ps - it's awful in SF) then it will force government organizations to re-think their planning.
4. Bad engineers? Yup, I've met some of them. They'll eventually leave too when the system weeds them out.
I too think it's weird here, but since I do enjoy my life in the Bay area enough, I'm happy to wait for the market to correct to normalcy. The people who are here just to chase the "me too's" will soon be forgotten.
EDIT: I should probably clarify my overall sentiment. People who come to SF and complain that this situation is less than ideal have the freedom to simply choose not to play. The cost of living is driven by the simple laws of supply and demand. Speak with your wallets, not with your mouths.
Re: San Francisco Bubble
#63This is probably the worst item I've ever seen rise to #1 on Hacker News. It's poorly written, is based completely on a weekend worth of anecdotes and makes several claims that seem impossible ($15 IPAs).
Re: San Francisco Bubble
#64If you hate current day SF, you'll looooovvve NYC...
Re: San Francisco Bubble
#65I have to say that I didn't really understand the perspective the writer was coming from. It kind of felt like he just wanted to finger wag at SF. > Everything is too expensive. Just normal supply and demand economics. This happens all the time all over the world when lots of high earning people suddenly move to an area. > There are thousands of dumb startups. Yup. And most of them will die. And some of them will bec…
>> I absolutely understand why someone with the money would have groceries deliver for them.
There is s difference between lazy, spoiled and pretentious. Rich people have existed for a very long time. Few have ever had groceries delivered. The hire personal shoppers, housekeepers, chefs, maids to buy their food. This getting groceries delivered is a passing fad, an affectation for people looking to cultivate an image of themselves. Having more money than time is nothing new.
Re: San Francisco Bubble
#66local IPAs are $15
Is that actually true?
Re: San Francisco Bubble
#67I can see where this guy is coming from. Though he's obviously exaggerating things by a mile.
SF is pretty ridiculous in a lot of ways. But I would take an SF as ridiculous as if everything he said were exactly true over one where there weren't any truth to it. Through all that froth does come actual creativity and innovation. The banana hammock delivery disrupters will fizzle in due time. The people who got inspired by all the energy and potential and decided to build a VR product that revolutionizes medicine will survive. I'd rather see a lot of false positives than risk a couple of false negatives. And besides, it makes for an endless supply of entertaining stories for people aren't from here.
Re: San Francisco Bubble
#68"There are thousands of dumb startups" This. Most of the blame is cast on the big companies (Twitter, Facebook etc) but the reality is that there are hundreds of smaller companies choosing SF and the valley in general. And again I say, until companies allow people to work from wherever this will be fueled more. Finding talent is getting ever more difficult already, if you expand your search area to the entire country…
"There are thousands of dumb startups" This is a feature not a bug. The whole VC model the Bay Area thrives on is based on the premise of hitting on only a small percentage of successful startups and you never know what's going to be a hit. Many successful startups have pivoted out of "stupid" ideas. I'm sure at one point "Blogging 140 characters at a time" was considered a stupid idea.
"Blogging 140 characters at a time" was considered a stupid idea.
I struggle with this all the time
I try to put myself in the shoes of VCs hearing AirBNB, Uber, Twitter and other pitches. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't give them money. (and then, I would post on HN saying "How I missed AirBNB. Including email threads with the founders and beating myself up).
This is indeed the premise of VCs but even with that in mind, some startups being funded are just ridiculous.
Re: San Francisco Bubble
#69"They can take an arbitrary sabbatical from work, they cannot be told no or reprimanded, and they make so much money that they can just take random breaks from employment to chill." I have yet to hear a convincing argument why this is a bad thing.
Honestly? It isn't sustainable and its not a productive use of capital. This lifestyle is going to implode when the economy stumbles.
Most countries outside the US manage just fine with decent statutory leave.
Re: San Francisco Bubble
#70local IPAs are $15 Is that actually true?
Barring some kind of super-rare specialty (Russian River's Pliny the Younger, maybe), no.