3 ms·

Count your blessings, it's an honour to work for silicon valley and spend half your wage on taxes and boomer real estate. Keeps the economy growing, I believe.

Count your blessings, it's an honour to work for silicon valley and spend half your wage on taxes and boomer real estate. Keeps the economy growing, I believe. What's that? No you must work there in person, it doesn't matter programming is a portable profession by design.

tluyben2 7y ago
I work remotely for valley and LA startups. As a freelancer (sometimes with shares) in my case, but still, it is doable. I guess big corps is different, but those do not interest me (meant as; I cannot say anything about those).
- est31 7y ago
  From the links on your profile it seems you live in NL. You can still freelance for SV/LA startups? Interesting, as when I searched for remote positions in those companies, almost all of them didn't seem to allow non-US remote work. How do you cope with the time difference? Is the pay closer to SV/LA levels or closer to NL levels?
  - tluyben2 7y ago
    The time difference works out as we talk 1 hour west coast morning and that’s it. Usually that is the end of my day, so they can test and report issues for me to fix when their day is done. Pay: I do not know: payment in NL is quite high for freelancers in my experience so not sure about that question. It is more the taxes that get you I guess vs the west coast.
    - est31 7y ago
      Thanks!
  - Mvandenbergh 7y ago
    As a manager, I really like having a few people in the US and a few in Asia. (Our core team is in London). That lets us get certain tasks done much more quickly (in terms of elapsed time between start and finish).
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
marcinzm 7y ago
Silicon Valley also pays something like 2-3x Europe and Europe has about the same taxes so you still come out ahead in SV. If you were actually willing to take a lower salary (for cheaper housing, less taxes, etc.) then there's plenty of places in the US willing to take you up on the offer.
- rimliu 7y ago
  I'd say we get more for "the same" taxes in EU.
  - marcinzm 7y ago
    Sure but it also doesn't matter as I see it. Medical care in the US is pretty good when you're got decent insurance and aren't bothered by copays (I see top specialists in under a week, average ones in 24 hours, etc.). Vacation is negotiable and when you make so much more you can literally take a year off between jobs. Larger tech companies provide good parental benefits and, again, you can always take unpaid time off. There's a separate social argument but from a personal point of view it doesn't matter. You just need to shift your mindset from money being a scarce resource to money being (directly or indirectly) the thing you use to get anything else you value.
- papermachete 7y ago
  What changes is purchasing power. Without going into detail, eastern europeans can get lucky with a nice outsource SV job. Our common expenses are symbolic.
  - marcinzm 7y ago
    You can do almost the same thing inside the US. The US is massive and the cost of living differs massively across the country. A house in SV costs something like 10x one in rural-ish Pennsylvania.
odiroot 7y ago
You can reduce your edge a bit. That's even more common in EU. Usually bosses are really paranoid and they're not good at judging whether you do good job or not.

tluyben2 7y ago

I work remotely for valley and LA startups. As a freelancer (sometimes with shares) in my case, but still, it is doable. I guess big corps is different, but those do not interest me (meant as; I cannot say anything about those).

est31 7y ago
From the links on your profile it seems you live in NL. You can still freelance for SV/LA startups? Interesting, as when I searched for remote positions in those companies, almost all of them didn't seem to allow non-US remote work. How do you cope with the time difference? Is the pay closer to SV/LA levels or closer to NL levels?
- tluyben2 7y ago
  The time difference works out as we talk 1 hour west coast morning and that’s it. Usually that is the end of my day, so they can test and report issues for me to fix when their day is done. Pay: I do not know: payment in NL is quite high for freelancers in my experience so not sure about that question. It is more the taxes that get you I guess vs the west coast.
  - est31 7y ago
    Thanks!
- Mvandenbergh 7y ago
  As a manager, I really like having a few people in the US and a few in Asia. (Our core team is in London). That lets us get certain tasks done much more quickly (in terms of elapsed time between start and finish).
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

marcinzm 7y ago

Silicon Valley also pays something like 2-3x Europe and Europe has about the same taxes so you still come out ahead in SV. If you were actually willing to take a lower salary (for cheaper housing, less taxes, etc.) then there's plenty of places in the US willing to take you up on the offer.

rimliu 7y ago
I'd say we get more for "the same" taxes in EU.
- marcinzm 7y ago
  Sure but it also doesn't matter as I see it. Medical care in the US is pretty good when you're got decent insurance and aren't bothered by copays (I see top specialists in under a week, average ones in 24 hours, etc.). Vacation is negotiable and when you make so much more you can literally take a year off between jobs. Larger tech companies provide good parental benefits and, again, you can always take unpaid time off. There's a separate social argument but from a personal point of view it doesn't matter. You just need to shift your mindset from money being a scarce resource to money being (directly or indirectly) the thing you use to get anything else you value.
papermachete 7y ago
What changes is purchasing power. Without going into detail, eastern europeans can get lucky with a nice outsource SV job. Our common expenses are symbolic.
- marcinzm 7y ago
  You can do almost the same thing inside the US. The US is massive and the cost of living differs massively across the country. A house in SV costs something like 10x one in rural-ish Pennsylvania.

odiroot 7y ago

You can reduce your edge a bit. That's even more common in EU. Usually bosses are really paranoid and they're not good at judging whether you do good job or not.