Having lived in both LA & SF, and been involved with the dev communities in each, I'd agree with you. The original article just assumes that the goal of every

Having lived in both LA & SF, and been involved with the dev communities in each, I'd agree with you. The original article just assumes that the goal of every developer is to work for a startup. You move to SF/SV to work for either a startup or one of the web giants. That's our dream. It's our Hollywood. Those are the types of people you want working on startups. Developers who don't have this mindset are much more likely to just be cozy with their well-paying 9-5 gigs working for one of the many media/entertainment companies in LA. There's nothing wrong with that, it's good that they have priorities in life other than work. Those aren't the types that you want running your startup though, and they aren't the people who are attracted to the startup-life. It's not that they are scared, it just isn't appealing.