- any interesting/impactful work is immediately crowded by tons of other people willing to sacrifice more than you to own it. They usually win. - the prevalent

- any interesting/impactful work is immediately crowded by tons of other people willing to sacrifice more than you to own it. They usually win. - the prevalent engineering management culture is a form of psychological manipulation to turn engineers into cogs and make you feel like you are always behind and stressed. It emphasizes weekly bandaid fixes to long running problems. - you have to work hard to be promoted, progress your career and make more money; but higher positions generally have much greater stress, workload and painful non-technical work (sales, politics) - the bay area becomes a nightmare in middle age. the local governments love capitalizing tech income in the form of taxes or housing prices, but won't change a thing to improve the your life. leading a normal middle class life with kids in a safe area with good schools (e.g. peninsula, or Marin) will completely exhaust a 2x200k dual income. Commutes are awful. Unless you win the startup lottery, you'll be working your brains out and hardly find time to enjoy life.