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Ask HN: Advice for a 25 yr old moving to SF?

• uptownfunk 4y ago
  Why SF, I see a lot more action happening in NYC these days than SF.
• joshxyz 4y ago
  this thread is hilarious as hell, best of luck op
• smt88 4y ago
  Don't move there. It's a hellhole and the cost of living isn't worth it. Look at Austin, Denver, Atlanta, or Chicago instead. You don't need a 1,000 startups around you when you'll only ever interact with a few dozen.
  • PaulHoule 4y ago
    I like the startup scene in NYC myself. Also, like Randy Newman, I love L.A. I think it is a much more “normal” place that the bay area.
  • hifromLA 4y ago
    [flagged]
    • smt88 4y ago
      It has a level of homelessness and drug use that has shocked every American I've known who has visited in the last 5 years. It is on another level.
      • hifromLA 4y ago
        You say that as if it’s some big revelation. Everyone knows this by now, but I’m pushing back on the idea that the entire 7x7 is like this. It’s simply not. Could you tell me with a straight face that the Richmond is a hellhole? The sunset? The marina? Noe? Glen park? pac heights? Bernal? There’s a degree of nuance that is missing from the conversation. That is my point.
        • smt88 4y ago
          This 25 year old isn't moving to The Marina or Glen Park, some of the most expensive neighborhoods in the world. He's probably priced out of most of Oakland. Even young people who can afford to live in pleasant parts of SF will be miserable because they'll be surrounded by rich, entitled tech people in their 40s+, not down-to-earth 20-somethings.
  • screwturner68 4y ago
    Of all the "cites" you named Chicago is the most affordable and an actual city. Te big difference is the tech scene isn't nuts like in SV, Austin, etc the money is a lot smaller and the expectations are a lot higher -companies that don't make money aren't funded very long. That said Chicago is ranked the #9 city in North America and # 19 in the world for Startups and as I said compared to other startups in other cities our startups tend to make money. Having been in IT in some capacity for the last 35 years I'd say the IT scene in Chicago is strange and lagging behind other cities for reasons I just can't understand but if I was 24 and from a small town looking for city life Chicago is where I'd want to be- NYC is a close second and it would be number one if the housing was cheaper.
  • iancmceachern 4y ago
    I live in SF, and am from Denver and couldn't disagree more. The tech culture here is second to none, people still come from all over the world to work and study here. Myndvice to OP is to come to SF, get plugged into the tech and startup culture while your still young and can leverage that community and the empowerment that comes with it for the rest of their lives.
    • smt88 4y ago
      You can do those things in other cities too. You don't need to pay $6,000/mo in rent and step over human shit every day to succeed in tech. My net worth is higher than my peers in SF even though I've earned less than them, and it's because the cost of living is out of control. It's not worth the marginal career benefit.
      • iancmceachern 4y ago
        I pay $3200 for rent in a great location, a very nice loft. Your right, you don't. You also don't need to go to MiT to succeed in tech - but it really helps.
        • smt88 4y ago
          I pay $2,800 for a 3,200 sqft house in a safe, walkable, quiet neighborhood near downtown with better weather than SF. I'm not saying you can't have a good life in SF, but it's much more common to have a terrible life, and the (small) career opportunities aren't worth. I also think SF has particularly bad startup culture because of the particular VCs there, but that's a matter of preference. I'd rather work on "boring" startups with gray-haired industry veterans than a moonshot with arrogant, unproven 28 year olds who went to Stanford.
          • iancmceachern 4y ago
            It really sounds like you have a chip, or a few, on your shoulder. My wife and I were born and educated in the Denver area. We owned a home in the area with a mortgage way less than thr rents were talking about here. We tried to live in the area while progressing my career but there are real limitations. Once we moved to the bay area my career totally blossomed. It was indeed a lifestyle change. Back to the topic at hand, giving OP advice. He didn't post asking for advice on better cost of living, etc. He asked for advice on moving to SF. There is no substitute for your career than spending your younger years in a crucible like the bay area. It's good advice for them to move there while they're young and can take advantage of the connections made and knowledge learned for a lifetime.
• jiveturkey 4y ago
  Assume you are moving with a job in hand. Find someone, or a group, you click with at work and roommate with them. Don't live solo. Don't work for big tech. Find a startup.
  • PaulHoule 4y ago
    My take on the job market is that the Bay Area could be in recession (FAANG is firing, VC investments seem to be retreating) but normal employers in the rest of the country are struggling to fill positions.
• baremetal 4y ago
  >Any advice? General or specific, I'll take anything. Be careful of the homeless and the drug addicts. Spread some cash around the homeless that frequent where you live so that they aren't hostile. Don't step on any poop, and keep an eye out for needles when you walk. Oh and leave your car unlocked with the windows down. Don't leave any valuables in your car. Don't venture outside at night unless you are streetwise and know how to handle yourself.
• paulcole 4y ago
  First, realize that almost all advice you get in your life will be awful. Second, say yes to any and every social invitation and opportunity you have.
• throwawaysalome 4y ago
  I hope you like dudes.
• kleer001 4y ago
  25 eh? I envy you. You're frontal lobes have just come online. You can finally make good long term decisions. Sadly the time to move to the SF bay was in the early 1990's. So, don't chase someone else's dreams. Your goals can be met easily by going to university. Actually, best met. Go. You're not done learning, you've only just begin. Don't feel weird that you'll be 5-7 years older than everyone else. Just be cool. Keep your head down, filter your friends fiercely. Don't be a creep or a douche, haha. Then graduate with a degree and a wife and a bevy of friends. Don't want to go to university? Making friends is going to be 1000x harder. No joke.
  • gnatman 4y ago
    Sounds like you're telling OP not to chase "someone else's dreams" and instead to chase YOUR dream.
    • kleer001 4y ago
      That's the very definition of advice, an opinon. Esp considering their 4 points.
  • 49erfangoniners 4y ago
    Anyone 25+ can tell there is so much ego and condescension in this comment that its author is instantly discredited
    • quickthrower2 4y ago
      Yeah and I don’t think he has talked to many of the wise 18 year olds out there: there are loads of them!
  • 0xy 4y ago
    Ah yes, take on $200,000 in debt for a worthless degree instead of just starting your career. This advice is predatory, considering the rapidly diminishing value of degrees in the tech industry. Universities prey on the young in order to bankroll the burgeoning university administrative class.
• tompark 4y ago
  * FiDi or SoMa got kinda seedy during the pandemic, so you might want to avoid living there. Since you're young, you might like the vibe in the Mission or Marina/Cow Hollow. My favorite neighborhoods are the ones with Victorians/flats west of Hayes Valley (Duboce Tri, Lower Haight, Castro, Divis/Nopa, etc). * When I first moved to SF I got a 1br apartment, but later rented a very nice 2br2ba flat as the "master tenant" and got a "subtenant" roommate. Maybe you wouldn't consider having a roommate, but it's nice to have someone else around. If you set the rent price relatively low for a high-end apartment where each person has a private bathrm, you'll get more roommate applications than you can handle. Winnow the emails down to dozen or so. When you interview a dozen candidates, there's almost always one person who stands out as someone who would make for a great flatmate. (Warning: if you rent a 3br place and get 2 roommates, it's a lot more complicated. Difficult to know who did what, e.g. left food in the frig, etc) * You might consider joining a lot of meetup.com groups. I joined literally over 100 SF-based groups and during the 2010's would go to at least 2-3 per month. I stopped going to meetups during the pandemic but it seems like in-person meetups are ramping up again. * You run a mobile game studio? Join the Stanford Games/Entrepreneurs list. https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/gsb-videogames https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/gsb-videogames It doesn't have as much chatter as it used to, but every once in a while there's some insider discussion. I used to be in the game industry, so I'd offer to connect you with people, but it's been some years so my contacts are kinda old. * Your main goals are mostly professional, but consider the opportunity for other things. When I first moved here, it was supposed to be temporary for maybe 3 years max, so I tried to take advantage of things here that I couldn't do back in Atlanta. I did things like: every winter I joined a shared ski house in Tahoe, I volunteered as a National Park Service docent at the Point Bonita Lighthouse, and did more biking/hiking/outdoor stuff that I rarely did in Atlanta bc it was too hot there. This mindset turned out to be a nice forcing function to push me to do things that I wouldn't have done otherwise. Like, you're right by the ocean so you might consider taking up scuba, surfing, kayaking. * Feel free to contact me. My email is in my profile.
• giardini 4y ago
  Be gay.