If you're looking for a great place to live, Silicon Valley or San Francisco aren't it: even elsewhere in Bay Area (e.g., Sonoma County, bedroom communities in

If you're looking for a great place to live, Silicon Valley or San Francisco aren't it: even elsewhere in Bay Area (e.g., Sonoma County, bedroom communities in the East Bay) is far more hospitable. I was very pleasantly surprised when visiting Chicago, Seattle, Berlin, Brussels: these are world class cities where transportation is a breeze, average food quality is amazing (although, San Francisco still wins out on the "high"-end dining options). This was quite a shock from growing up in Former USSR and then moving to California (where San Francisco and Los Angeles were my example of "cities"). However, there's good reason I am here in Silicon Valley. Athens at the time of Pericles and Socrates wasn't a great place to live either, far worse than Silicon Valley. Same goes late Republican and early imperial Rome, Tang dynasty Xi'an, Florence and Venice during the Renaissance, Victorian London, etc... On the other hand, people willingly sacrificed their standard of living and prestige to live in these cities and and pursue activities they found meaningful. Being a big fish in a small, provincial ponds sucks: if you want to grow intellectually or professionally, you should be around smart and ambitious people. To be fair, there are pockets of talent elsewhere (New York, Seattle) but they're generally rather insular: a lot of the places tend to be a combination of a revolving door for some (people joining and leaving in 18 months, very frequently moving to Silicon Valley) and a life long commitment for others (lifetime "softies" at Microsoft). While exceptional talent does exist in many place outside of Silicon Valley, the stories of people joining a company, staying long enough to make a significant impact and then applying their lessons elsewhere (e.g., the "Fairchildren", "Paypal Mafia", Xooglers) are not as common in less-fluid engineering job markets.