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0 pointsniuzeta10y ago0 comments

I'm in Canada and every time I consider prospects of getting into United States, comments like this frighten me. More specifically the Valley area for its renowned reputation of tech-oriented culture, and make good earnings. Compared to what I see in, say, Toronto area with bad housing and a bunch of old .NET 2.0 I feel that it must be better there.

What I find lacking in such comments, though, is some explanation on why and the suggested alternatives. Would you mind sharing why? Java/C# were the hot things of 10-15 years ago and people still make a living out of it. It sounds like an argument for classic Red Queen problem where the only winning move is not to play.

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api10y ago

There's a happy medium somewhere between the wasteland of legacy "enterprise" jobs (.NET 2.0 and such) and the nutzo SF/SV orbit.

I live in Southern California (LA/OC). It's not cheap by any measure but it's within the bounds of economic sanity compared to SF/SV. There are tons of very interesting tech jobs in cutting edge areas like computer vision, AI/ML, the latest web and DevOps tech, and a lot of hardware/EE stuff. There are many other places like this. Canada probably has a few too. Even NYC, which is more expensive than LA, is still "sane" compared to SF when you consider what you get. In NYC car ownership is very optional, which mitigates the high rents, while in SF you must own a car if you ever want to leave the peninsula.

I've turned down numerous offers in SF/SV because it just seems economically insane. The housing prices are clearly unsustainable and the OP's comment about it being a "serious life mistake" rings true. The craziness has also priced out much of the interesting culture that made SF compelling in the first place.

Edit: I keep hearing about the relentless ageism in SF/SV tech. I don't see so much of it elsewhere. Is it really that bad? If so it seems like a SF/SV thing and not necessarily true everywhere. In that case it might make some sense for young people to spend some time in SF/SV getting into the latest stuff and learning and then bail before 30.

whybroke10y ago

I of course don't know the why. I lived in the bay area coding for 10 years and left 5 years ago when the current state of affairs was just starting. Upon every visit back upon seeing the falling quality of life, especially for housing, I'm thankful I'm out.

But I too would dearly like someone to show me that I am wrong. To disprove my observation that the vast bulk of people who move to the bay area do not stay there happily and prosperously the rest of their lives but eventually move out, maybe with a wistful blog post.