I lived on about that amount the first year there, and it was comfortable. Let's be honest, SF is expensive, but on $100k it's not bad. If you pay $24k rent ($2

I lived on about that amount the first year there, and it was comfortable. Let's be honest, SF is expensive, but on $100k it's not bad. If you pay $24k rent ($2k/mo) that's still a whole lot after taxes. And this is an entry level salary these days. To your other point, that's preference of course. If you're not interested in walking into other devs, then maybe SF is not for you. But for many people who've never been in such an environment, it can be very cool.