I would not define an "A+ career" as working hard. That doesn't even make sense. You can very hard in a career without achieving much success at all. However,

I would not define an "A+ career" as working hard. That doesn't even make sense. You can very hard in a career without achieving much success at all. However, if you want to be exceptionally successful, it obviously helps to work hard. And if you don't particularly care about being exceptionally successful, it's a lot easier to relax and not work hard. Is that something you actually disagree with? Also, you seem to have totally missed the point of that anecdote. Yes, it IS desirable to him. He has a great life. You don't necessarily need to try to become super successful. In fact, you just might be a lot happier if you decided to stop trying to achieve that. But if you're in tech and you do want that -- truly exceptional success, not just being quite successful -- you'll be better off in the bay area.