7 ms·

I interviewed out in San Francisco right out of college, and was struck by how strongly I did not want to move there. The primary drivers were cost - unsurprisi

I interviewed out in San Francisco right out of college, and was struck by how strongly I did not want to move there. The primary drivers were cost - unsurprising - but also attitude. I don't buy into a lot of the SV culture, I don't find it encouraging, and I wasn't really willing to tolerate it just to work for a slightly cooler or higher-paying company than the ones I could find in the Midwest. I guess I can't blame SV for that - I am just clearly not a fit for it - but I can't help but wonder whether there are people out there now who are more like me than they realize, and might be happier elsewehere (or would go elsewhere if they reasonably thought they could).

econner 10y ago
What elements of the attitude did you dislike?
- crikli 10y ago
  I can't speak for the OP but his perspective is quite similar to my own and I can offer my thoughts on the SV attitude. I felt it to be a strong culture of comparison. Comparing job position, comparing employer, comparing income by implication. Ugh. Just not my ethos. I lived my 20s in that mindset and it's a zero sum game. I also felt like it was so damn expensive to live there that even people making great salaries were constantly under pressure. To me, a pretty relaxed Midwesterner, it just seems like everyone is on edge. The other thing that grated on me was the "funding equals success" mentality. So you got funded. Big. Effing. Deal. Go turn a profit. It just isn't my kind of vibe. Like I said I'm a Midwesterner, the culture I grew up in is one of frugal living and understated successes.
  - BrainInAJar 10y ago
    There's also this whole vibe of everyone needs to make a statement and change the world. It's what the hippies do (with license plates that say "BIODIESEL" on their truck, etc), and it's what the SV tech bros do ("we're changing the world with our illegal taxi app")
  - rajathagasthya 10y ago
    > I felt it to be a strong culture of comparison. My biggest problem with SV. It's like a rat race. It's all about doing the cool new thing.
lsc 10y ago
San Francisco is not silicon valley. Culturally, silicon valley is dramatically different from San Francisco; almost everyone who has experienced both has a strong opinion about which one they prefer.
- delecti 10y ago
  As far as I can tell, SF is in SV. To someone who has never been/worked there, everything I've read makes it seem like "Silicon Valley" is often used interchangeably with the Bay Area in general (though Wikipedia seems to specify that SV refers to the southern bay area in particular).
  - jtmcmc 10y ago
    Silicon Valley has a pretty drastically different feel from San Francisco at both an industry level (lots of large companies there vs. largely smaller startups in SF) and culturally (San Jose is a largely suburban community while SF is an urban center).
  - Apocryphon 10y ago
    SF is in SV insofar sometime between the inception of the dot-com bubble and the great recession it became the place for many, many tech startups to relocate to. But culturally there's still a difference between the two.
  - rst 10y ago
    Geographically, Silicon Valley is about an hour south of San Francisco proper on highways, depending on traffic. The concentration of tech startups there was seeded by Stanford University (in Palo Alto), and by a lot of defense contractors who had facilities in the area. Many workers commuted from San Francisco because they preferred to live in the city (most of the Valley is very bland suburbia); companies started actually locating in the city maybe ten or fifteen years ago.
    - mirsadm 10y ago
      That was the most surprising thing for me when I went to check out the Silicon Valley area a couple of years ago. I have no idea why so many people choose to work there. It looks like suburbia mixed in with a bit of industrial wasteland. I really enjoyed San Francisco but the commute must be hell every morning if you choose to live there.
hkmurakami 10y ago
I grew up here, looked up to the old HP Way as an adolescent, and very much dislike modern SV culture. I still live here because this is home to me. But I am not a fan of who we have largely become.

econner 10y ago

What elements of the attitude did you dislike?

crikli 10y ago
I can't speak for the OP but his perspective is quite similar to my own and I can offer my thoughts on the SV attitude. I felt it to be a strong culture of comparison. Comparing job position, comparing employer, comparing income by implication. Ugh. Just not my ethos. I lived my 20s in that mindset and it's a zero sum game. I also felt like it was so damn expensive to live there that even people making great salaries were constantly under pressure. To me, a pretty relaxed Midwesterner, it just seems like everyone is on edge. The other thing that grated on me was the "funding equals success" mentality. So you got funded. Big. Effing. Deal. Go turn a profit. It just isn't my kind of vibe. Like I said I'm a Midwesterner, the culture I grew up in is one of frugal living and understated successes.
- BrainInAJar 10y ago
  There's also this whole vibe of everyone needs to make a statement and change the world. It's what the hippies do (with license plates that say "BIODIESEL" on their truck, etc), and it's what the SV tech bros do ("we're changing the world with our illegal taxi app")
- rajathagasthya 10y ago
  > I felt it to be a strong culture of comparison. My biggest problem with SV. It's like a rat race. It's all about doing the cool new thing.

lsc 10y ago

San Francisco is not silicon valley. Culturally, silicon valley is dramatically different from San Francisco; almost everyone who has experienced both has a strong opinion about which one they prefer.

delecti 10y ago
As far as I can tell, SF is in SV. To someone who has never been/worked there, everything I've read makes it seem like "Silicon Valley" is often used interchangeably with the Bay Area in general (though Wikipedia seems to specify that SV refers to the southern bay area in particular).
- jtmcmc 10y ago
  Silicon Valley has a pretty drastically different feel from San Francisco at both an industry level (lots of large companies there vs. largely smaller startups in SF) and culturally (San Jose is a largely suburban community while SF is an urban center).
- Apocryphon 10y ago
  SF is in SV insofar sometime between the inception of the dot-com bubble and the great recession it became the place for many, many tech startups to relocate to. But culturally there's still a difference between the two.
- rst 10y ago
  Geographically, Silicon Valley is about an hour south of San Francisco proper on highways, depending on traffic. The concentration of tech startups there was seeded by Stanford University (in Palo Alto), and by a lot of defense contractors who had facilities in the area. Many workers commuted from San Francisco because they preferred to live in the city (most of the Valley is very bland suburbia); companies started actually locating in the city maybe ten or fifteen years ago.
  - mirsadm 10y ago
    That was the most surprising thing for me when I went to check out the Silicon Valley area a couple of years ago. I have no idea why so many people choose to work there. It looks like suburbia mixed in with a bit of industrial wasteland. I really enjoyed San Francisco but the commute must be hell every morning if you choose to live there.

hkmurakami 10y ago

I grew up here, looked up to the old HP Way as an adolescent, and very much dislike modern SV culture. I still live here because this is home to me. But I am not a fan of who we have largely become.