8 ms·

After 11 years at various tech companies in Silicon Valley, unwilling to spend a million bucks on a small house on a tiny parcel, I decided to leave early this

After 11 years at various tech companies in Silicon Valley, unwilling to spend a million bucks on a small house on a tiny parcel, I decided to leave early this year. So I left solid FAANG position and joined a fairly small but well established tech company based in San Francisco, but full time remote. I told them up front that while I currently lived in Mountain View, an hour south, my family and I were going to move to Washington State as soon as possible. This was June, a couple of months into the Covid19 lockdown. For 3/4 of the rent I was paying in Mountain View, we bought an big, beautiful home a few miles outside of Olympia, Washington on five acres of woods, where we enjoy stable, high speed Internet, privacy but also effectively more proximity to most things than we had in the bay area, where driving to Costco could take 30 minutes. Now we can get to anything we want in down time Olympia in 11 minutes, even though it's further away. Yes, I took a pretty steep pay cut, but it's been largely offset by no state income taxes, lower monthly living payments, cheaper food, cheaper electricity, etc etc. Oh, and I'm finally actually building equity in a property that would easily go more than $20M in the bay area. In the end, it was an easy decision.

NewOrderNow 6y ago
So your rich life became a little richer? To contrast that, I have been wanting to move to San Francisco since a little kid and can't and most likely won't make that possibility. I am greatly excited for people like you, who clearly don't care where they live and care about crap like family values and property, to leave so this place so it can become liveable again.
- Diederich 6y ago
  > So your rich life became a little richer? Sure, it did. > ... don't care where they live ... We loved the bay area when we arrived in 2009, and we still do. I spent the first 23 years of my life in Southern California, and while I'm not personally a fan of socal, I think the state of California is one of the most amazing, remarkable places in the world. > don't ... care about crap like family values and property ... I'm not sure what you mean? When you say 'family values', can you be more specific?
- myrandomcomment 6y ago
  I thought about down voting this, but I want to ask you...why the hate, or it seems like it? The OP has a well paying job and a skill set that allows him/her to make this choice. They are placing their family above status of living here which seems like a reasonable thing. I do not understand what I see as hate in your comment? I also hit the tech lotto, have a nice house, etc. and am planing to leave. I worked my ass off for 20 years (with the last 10 being 50+ hour weeks, 150K+ miles per year travel, 2 weeks a month not with my family) to have the opportunity to play in that lotto. Does that make me someone to hate?
  - NewOrderNow 6y ago
    It is kind of a product of a society when jobs no longer involve skill. I can say the same thing (12 years with similar hours. I imagine I am younger than you) but I don't have anything monetary gain and absolutely no work experience to show for it. No family and spent most of those years working out of a car. I am currently about to be evicted and have made most of my money flipping things and working service jobs and I will never pay off my student loans (which was promised to paid by backstabbing parents) because I spent 15 years as a professional application applier only to never get a job. I will most likely never have a family because of this. I am 35 and haven't really started any life that is worth calling a life. I am just a slave to the system and shitty people in my life. But please do tell me rich person that I should smile and be happy.
    - Diederich 6y ago
      I'm sorry that your life has turned out the way it has. I'm probably not smarter than you. I probably didn't work harder than you. I probably didn't make better decisions than you. I fully admit to and embrace the fact that most of my blessed life has come as a matter of fortune and good luck.
      - NewOrderNow 6y ago
        And this comment proves a lack of confidence by apologizing to a random person, thus demonstrating that confidence also doesn't matter in this modern world.
- OJFord 6y ago
  > don't care where they live and care about crap like family values and property, to leave so this place so it can become liveable again. GP very clearly does care about where they live; it's just that that location, the result of 'crap like family values and property', is different to where you want to live. That's OK!
  - NewOrderNow 6y ago
    It's okay for the person who has the money and privilege to do so. Not for those who can't. So your response just makes seem even more apparent that it is digital and physical imperialism
    - OJFord 6y ago
      I really don't follow. It's OK for the other commenter to want to live in Washington state; it's OK for you to want to live in Silicon Valley; it's OK for me not to want to live in the USA. We each care about where we live, and we each have different preferences: that's OK.
      - NewOrderNow 6y ago
        Legally sure. But is it right to siphon money out of a state and then take somewhere else? I know plenty of foreign families that take money out of America or back into the hands of their home country. Banks gave loans out for the great scam known as college, putting money into the hands of bank and less cycling through the economy.
        deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
        NewOrderNow 6y ago
        @Dralley that is somewhat the problem that I brought up. Nothing ironic about this whatsoever, but want to elaborate on why you think so. How, in any way, is this ironic? It certainly does take a certain kind of sociopath to take time to look up another individual. I guess this is what you do with your time, when you fuck off on the internet for the 4 out of the 8 hours you work.

NewOrderNow 6y ago

So your rich life became a little richer? To contrast that, I have been wanting to move to San Francisco since a little kid and can't and most likely won't make that possibility. I am greatly excited for people like you, who clearly don't care where they live and care about crap like family values and property, to leave so this place so it can become liveable again.

Diederich 6y ago
> So your rich life became a little richer? Sure, it did. > ... don't care where they live ... We loved the bay area when we arrived in 2009, and we still do. I spent the first 23 years of my life in Southern California, and while I'm not personally a fan of socal, I think the state of California is one of the most amazing, remarkable places in the world. > don't ... care about crap like family values and property ... I'm not sure what you mean? When you say 'family values', can you be more specific?
myrandomcomment 6y ago
I thought about down voting this, but I want to ask you...why the hate, or it seems like it? The OP has a well paying job and a skill set that allows him/her to make this choice. They are placing their family above status of living here which seems like a reasonable thing. I do not understand what I see as hate in your comment? I also hit the tech lotto, have a nice house, etc. and am planing to leave. I worked my ass off for 20 years (with the last 10 being 50+ hour weeks, 150K+ miles per year travel, 2 weeks a month not with my family) to have the opportunity to play in that lotto. Does that make me someone to hate?
- NewOrderNow 6y ago
  It is kind of a product of a society when jobs no longer involve skill. I can say the same thing (12 years with similar hours. I imagine I am younger than you) but I don't have anything monetary gain and absolutely no work experience to show for it. No family and spent most of those years working out of a car. I am currently about to be evicted and have made most of my money flipping things and working service jobs and I will never pay off my student loans (which was promised to paid by backstabbing parents) because I spent 15 years as a professional application applier only to never get a job. I will most likely never have a family because of this. I am 35 and haven't really started any life that is worth calling a life. I am just a slave to the system and shitty people in my life. But please do tell me rich person that I should smile and be happy.
  - Diederich 6y ago
    I'm sorry that your life has turned out the way it has. I'm probably not smarter than you. I probably didn't work harder than you. I probably didn't make better decisions than you. I fully admit to and embrace the fact that most of my blessed life has come as a matter of fortune and good luck.
    - NewOrderNow 6y ago
      And this comment proves a lack of confidence by apologizing to a random person, thus demonstrating that confidence also doesn't matter in this modern world.
OJFord 6y ago
> don't care where they live and care about crap like family values and property, to leave so this place so it can become liveable again. GP very clearly does care about where they live; it's just that that location, the result of 'crap like family values and property', is different to where you want to live. That's OK!
- NewOrderNow 6y ago
  It's okay for the person who has the money and privilege to do so. Not for those who can't. So your response just makes seem even more apparent that it is digital and physical imperialism
  - OJFord 6y ago
    I really don't follow. It's OK for the other commenter to want to live in Washington state; it's OK for you to want to live in Silicon Valley; it's OK for me not to want to live in the USA. We each care about where we live, and we each have different preferences: that's OK.
    - NewOrderNow 6y ago
      Legally sure. But is it right to siphon money out of a state and then take somewhere else? I know plenty of foreign families that take money out of America or back into the hands of their home country. Banks gave loans out for the great scam known as college, putting money into the hands of bank and less cycling through the economy.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      - NewOrderNow 6y ago
        @Dralley that is somewhat the problem that I brought up. Nothing ironic about this whatsoever, but want to elaborate on why you think so. How, in any way, is this ironic? It certainly does take a certain kind of sociopath to take time to look up another individual. I guess this is what you do with your time, when you fuck off on the internet for the 4 out of the 8 hours you work.