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Weird flex, but okay. But seriously, it’s hard to read “look how tough we have it” about getting a 6 figure job out of school. You didn’t get into Harvard. Tha

Weird flex, but okay. But seriously, it’s hard to read “look how tough we have it” about getting a 6 figure job out of school. You didn’t get into Harvard. That’s not a life defining tragedy... hoping this is parody. The vast vast vast majority of the world works harder for less. We should be thankful, not weirdly bragging about how hard our childhoods were. Try Detroit or Bangladesh....

apl002 8y ago
A problem we have in the world today is just an overall lack of empathy. Just because people have material things better than people in other parts of the world doesn't mean they don't experience problems and struggles. Your comment implies money (or being well off) = happiness. We all know that isn't true. Have some empathy and just be happy you might be able to handle problems living in SV better then others
misiti3780 8y ago
I agree with the Harvard thing, in the grand scheme of things, hopefully that floats to the bottom
nielsbot 8y ago
I think the author is making the opposite point: that having a 6-figure job out of school is cushy and anomalous outside of Silicon Valley
danbmil99 8y ago
this is not parody. Perhaps you would be more sympathetic to the perspective of the OP if you were raising children here.
- misiti3780 8y ago
  I don't think raising kids has anything to do with. If you're a parent and your main hope and dream is your kids go to harvard, you're doing something wrong.
  - applecrazy 8y ago
    Bay Area student here. I'm certainly not going to Harvard for my undergrad (and not like I care), but unfortunately the mindset within parents here (and students, to an extent) is that the arbiter of success is an elite institution like Harvard.
  - watwut 8y ago
    Now, if you are a parent and your kids friend commited suicide ... or have to deal with mental health crisis in your kids school ... or cheating culture in school ... or your kids being frustrated cause other kids parents pressured teachers into better grades succesfully ... Less importantly, if you are a parent and your work success depends on late night drinking and smoking sessions ... .
jfrankamp 8y ago
But the article doesn't say "look how tough we have it" it says "look how broken we all are." And not many people want to look, instead we want to do the endless phone upgrade cycle except with our lives.
lifeformed 8y ago
She's not saying it's hard, she's asking why we need to be killing ourselves over squeezing out every last drop of opportunity when others have nothing.
romwell 8y ago
>We should be thankful, not weirdly bragging about how hard our childhoods were. The kids that ended their lives aren't bragging or complaining anymore. This author speaks on their behalf. It is not a life-defining tragedy until it becomes a life-ending one. And saying "you should be happy" doesn't help a bit to those who are getting tired of living. Some people have it better, some have it worse. The kids who killed themselves don't have it any way. The kids who are writing these posts could have been next in line. Mental health is a serious issue, and collectively, the successful part of the Valley seems to be very, very broken. A rich person with cancer is still a person with cancer. A successful kid with depression is still a kid with depression. So I'd ask y'all to show some empathy, as withiut empathy there is no understanding, and without understanding, there's no fixing the problem. And there is a problem. Something is rotten. And have some empathy for yourself too (yes, that's you, parent commenter!). If you grew up like this kid did, yes, you grew up in a fucked-up environment, it probably fucked you up, and it's not right. If you feel obligated to be happy, you are broken. What you have doesn't define who you are. And a well-paying job doesn't give you all you need. Being poor sucks, but that's just one way life can suck. There are many, many others. And the only way to get to a happy life is to understand what makes you happy and thankful rather than what you feel you should be happy and thankful for. The disconnect between the two -- well, that's a part of how those kids ended up on the tracks. I didn't grow up in the Valley (or anything remotely similar), but I live here now. It's a silly place. Take care of yourself, y'all.
- bduerst 8y ago
  You've missed what they're saying in their comment. Mental health is a serious issue, but the author isn't bringing up these suicides to talk about how she's going to help prevent them, or even bring attention to suicide in high schools - she's using it in a social media-esque post about why she's out. She's done. Goodbye Silicon Valley, you're not the utopia I expected right out of college with my cushy job and free lunches. People around me are suffering and I'm not, so I'm not going to help you, I'm just going to leave because of a false trichotomy. It's not me, it's you. If people complain about this post rubbing them the wrong way, it's not because the people complaining are insensitive to the issues like mental health, it's because of the narcissistic tone of using these issues in a break up letter with the place you grew up in.
JesseObrien 8y ago
Checking out your profiles on other social media, looks like the only thing you ever do is code related, so of course this article goes over your head. Nothing in this article says "look how tough we have it". It's a thought provoking piece on how broken an entire city is, and just how tone deaf people like you are to all of it. You're so busy worrying about code and lack any sort of empathy with others that you can't possibly understand the perspective of anyone else. If you paid attention to what's going on you'd see that a "6 figure job" equates to much less buying power in SF than living in other parts of the country because the cost of living in SF is out of control. Detroit and Bangladesh have different problems, in different severity and scale, but their existence does not discount the perspective of others in their own situations.
- crushcrashcrush 8y ago
  The problem is that there's so many people like the commenter you're replying to, I'm convinced it's why this area feels completely and utterly culturally broken.
  - JesseObrien 8y ago
    Agreed. I think the worst part is that I'm a long ways from SF, but it leaks all over the tech communities everywhere. I know enough people who've lived there, pass through, visit friends, etc and even I understand from the other side of the country having never been.
- bsamuels 8y ago
  I think it's a little invasive to go out of your way to find someone's social media profiles to help prove a point in a thread on a hacker news post
  - crushcrashcrush 8y ago
    Googling is invasive? Interesting... pot/kettle/black again
  - JesseObrien 8y ago
eeeeeeeeeeeee 8y ago
I would suggest you try to read the article again. That is not what the author is trying to say at all. It’s about how all this “prosperity” is somewhat fake and doesn’t ultimately bring happiness. On top of that, it’s leaving a lot of people behind who cannot even obtain basic necessities (homeless). And she is coming to terms with her role in it, as more people in the Bay Area should be.

apl002 8y ago

A problem we have in the world today is just an overall lack of empathy. Just because people have material things better than people in other parts of the world doesn't mean they don't experience problems and struggles. Your comment implies money (or being well off) = happiness. We all know that isn't true. Have some empathy and just be happy you might be able to handle problems living in SV better then others

misiti3780 8y ago

I agree with the Harvard thing, in the grand scheme of things, hopefully that floats to the bottom

nielsbot 8y ago

I think the author is making the opposite point: that having a 6-figure job out of school is cushy and anomalous outside of Silicon Valley

danbmil99 8y ago

this is not parody. Perhaps you would be more sympathetic to the perspective of the OP if you were raising children here.

misiti3780 8y ago
I don't think raising kids has anything to do with. If you're a parent and your main hope and dream is your kids go to harvard, you're doing something wrong.
- applecrazy 8y ago
  Bay Area student here. I'm certainly not going to Harvard for my undergrad (and not like I care), but unfortunately the mindset within parents here (and students, to an extent) is that the arbiter of success is an elite institution like Harvard.
- watwut 8y ago
  Now, if you are a parent and your kids friend commited suicide ... or have to deal with mental health crisis in your kids school ... or cheating culture in school ... or your kids being frustrated cause other kids parents pressured teachers into better grades succesfully ... Less importantly, if you are a parent and your work success depends on late night drinking and smoking sessions ... .

jfrankamp 8y ago

But the article doesn't say "look how tough we have it" it says "look how broken we all are." And not many people want to look, instead we want to do the endless phone upgrade cycle except with our lives.

lifeformed 8y ago

She's not saying it's hard, she's asking why we need to be killing ourselves over squeezing out every last drop of opportunity when others have nothing.

romwell 8y ago

>We should be thankful, not weirdly bragging about how hard our childhoods were. The kids that ended their lives aren't bragging or complaining anymore. This author speaks on their behalf. It is not a life-defining tragedy until it becomes a life-ending one. And saying "you should be happy" doesn't help a bit to those who are getting tired of living. Some people have it better, some have it worse. The kids who killed themselves don't have it any way. The kids who are writing these posts could have been next in line. Mental health is a serious issue, and collectively, the successful part of the Valley seems to be very, very broken. A rich person with cancer is still a person with cancer. A successful kid with depression is still a kid with depression. So I'd ask y'all to show some empathy, as withiut empathy there is no understanding, and without understanding, there's no fixing the problem. And there is a problem. Something is rotten. And have some empathy for yourself too (yes, that's you, parent commenter!). If you grew up like this kid did, yes, you grew up in a fucked-up environment, it probably fucked you up, and it's not right. If you feel obligated to be happy, you are broken. What you have doesn't define who you are. And a well-paying job doesn't give you all you need. Being poor sucks, but that's just one way life can suck. There are many, many others. And the only way to get to a happy life is to understand what makes you happy and thankful rather than what you feel you should be happy and thankful for. The disconnect between the two -- well, that's a part of how those kids ended up on the tracks. I didn't grow up in the Valley (or anything remotely similar), but I live here now. It's a silly place. Take care of yourself, y'all.

bduerst 8y ago
You've missed what they're saying in their comment. Mental health is a serious issue, but the author isn't bringing up these suicides to talk about how she's going to help prevent them, or even bring attention to suicide in high schools - she's using it in a social media-esque post about why she's out. She's done. Goodbye Silicon Valley, you're not the utopia I expected right out of college with my cushy job and free lunches. People around me are suffering and I'm not, so I'm not going to help you, I'm just going to leave because of a false trichotomy. It's not me, it's you. If people complain about this post rubbing them the wrong way, it's not because the people complaining are insensitive to the issues like mental health, it's because of the narcissistic tone of using these issues in a break up letter with the place you grew up in.

JesseObrien 8y ago

Checking out your profiles on other social media, looks like the only thing you ever do is code related, so of course this article goes over your head. Nothing in this article says "look how tough we have it". It's a thought provoking piece on how broken an entire city is, and just how tone deaf people like you are to all of it. You're so busy worrying about code and lack any sort of empathy with others that you can't possibly understand the perspective of anyone else. If you paid attention to what's going on you'd see that a "6 figure job" equates to much less buying power in SF than living in other parts of the country because the cost of living in SF is out of control. Detroit and Bangladesh have different problems, in different severity and scale, but their existence does not discount the perspective of others in their own situations.

crushcrashcrush 8y ago
The problem is that there's so many people like the commenter you're replying to, I'm convinced it's why this area feels completely and utterly culturally broken.
- JesseObrien 8y ago
  Agreed. I think the worst part is that I'm a long ways from SF, but it leaks all over the tech communities everywhere. I know enough people who've lived there, pass through, visit friends, etc and even I understand from the other side of the country having never been.
bsamuels 8y ago
I think it's a little invasive to go out of your way to find someone's social media profiles to help prove a point in a thread on a hacker news post
- crushcrashcrush 8y ago
  Googling is invasive? Interesting... pot/kettle/black again
- JesseObrien 8y ago

eeeeeeeeeeeee 8y ago

I would suggest you try to read the article again. That is not what the author is trying to say at all. It’s about how all this “prosperity” is somewhat fake and doesn’t ultimately bring happiness. On top of that, it’s leaving a lot of people behind who cannot even obtain basic necessities (homeless). And she is coming to terms with her role in it, as more people in the Bay Area should be.