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I moved to Austin post-pandemic (career move/not tech) from Chicago and I have my regrets. What I didn't realise was many of my disdains about Austin are exactl

I moved to Austin post-pandemic (career move/not tech) from Chicago and I have my regrets. What I didn't realise was many of my disdains about Austin are exactly what the article says... Here ambition dies... Now I can't unsee.

bwb 3y ago
Can you explain, why does ambition die?
- lazide 3y ago
  They probably figured if they went somewhere that wasn’t big city and could just not have big city people in the way, everything would be better. Then they realized same shit, different flavor, albeit worse in many ways, and many of their problems/issues were within themselves all along. Tends to kill some of the enthusiasm and drive.
  - LapsangGuzzler 3y ago
    I moved to Austin in 2012 and left in 2020. What was great back then was that salaries were almost comparable but the COL was so much lower. Until 2016 or so, Austin had the best salary to COL ratio of tech towns in the country. But that all changed when the Californians started showing up en masse. Austin was never truly going to compete with SF on its perks, but it was a cool town that allowed people to live comfortably.
    - predictabl3 3y ago
      I absolutely love that Texas has managed to convince their citizens that the states' problems are definitely most certainly all those California transplants (that they encouraged to immigrate) and not the states own self inflicted bs.
    - majormajor 3y ago
      What companies were paying these comparable-to-the-Bay 2012 salaries? I left Texas around when you moved there and was not finding "almost comparable" salaries to the Bay Area in many places at all. It was a big part of why I left - very few of my costs increased anywhere near as much as my salary did, so I was able to save and invest far more money per year.
      - hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
        Not going to name names but I agree with the comment you are replying to. At top tech companies in Austin I found salaries were about 10% less than SV salaries, but total COL was much lower than that.
- bas 3y ago
  Did ambition die, or did founders encounter a populace that believes in work/life balance?
  - startupsfail 3y ago
    It’s a difference between loving tech and loving cold beer and barbecuing. Add to that calling people “tech transplants” (Texans just can’t quit doing that, even if they move to California) and worse climate than SF Bay and suddenly no technology loving person wants to waste time in Texas.
  - myth_drannon 3y ago
    Populace that has less H1Bs and other visas holders that are modern day slaves who must work 16 hours a day, afraid from being kicked out of the country (look at X formerly known as Twitter for an example...) So it's not about what populace believes, every human being wants to live not to slave. It's all about their current precarious employment.
    - hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
      There are tons of H1B folks in Austin, so not sure what you're talking about.
      - myth_drannon 3y ago
        Well, tons of H1B folks in Tulsa, OK as well.
- compacct27 3y ago
  Hard to explain, but in a practical sense, the jobs are half rate in comparison. People don’t want to achieve quite as much. Your best bet for ambition is a remote job from SF or NY. Not the worst if you value other things!
- majormajor 3y ago
  The Bay Area is full of transplants who moved there out of ambition in the first place, so moving to a city that has largely been populated until now with those who either stuck around after growing up there or moving there for less-ambitious reasons is gonna give you that as a baseline. Austin, in particular, was long a "weird" laid-back-creative-vibe place. So even moving from a small town for more opportunities to Austin is a bit "lower ceiling" expectation/ambition-wise than moving to the Bay to work for a tech company. And then "tech transplant" is a broad bucket but one of the most common quoted reasons for going Bay Area -> Texas is cost of living. There's two ways to deal with cost of living: try to out-earn the costs, or move somewhere cheaper. One of those is decidedly less ambitious (even if more realistic, reasonable, and wise for most) and that's gonna be reflected in the resulting populations. Even at a larger scale: relocating your corporate HQ out of CA for cheaper housing and salaries.. that's less an ambitious growth move, more a cost control move.
strikelaserclaw 3y ago
why would you move to a place not known for ambition and have disdain for it lacking ambition?
- majormajor 3y ago
  Because you don't fully realize the connection between the high costs you don't like and the result of successful ambition and an influx of money making everything more expensive. You think you can have cheaper costs without anything else changing - the costs were somebody else's problem, not largely the fault of the successful businesses and lucrative jobs and the resulting monied demand.
- photoGrant 3y ago
  Because life is more complicated than that level of reductionist thinking?

bwb 3y ago

Can you explain, why does ambition die?

lazide 3y ago
They probably figured if they went somewhere that wasn’t big city and could just not have big city people in the way, everything would be better. Then they realized same shit, different flavor, albeit worse in many ways, and many of their problems/issues were within themselves all along. Tends to kill some of the enthusiasm and drive.
- LapsangGuzzler 3y ago
  I moved to Austin in 2012 and left in 2020. What was great back then was that salaries were almost comparable but the COL was so much lower. Until 2016 or so, Austin had the best salary to COL ratio of tech towns in the country. But that all changed when the Californians started showing up en masse. Austin was never truly going to compete with SF on its perks, but it was a cool town that allowed people to live comfortably.
  - predictabl3 3y ago
    I absolutely love that Texas has managed to convince their citizens that the states' problems are definitely most certainly all those California transplants (that they encouraged to immigrate) and not the states own self inflicted bs.
  - majormajor 3y ago
    What companies were paying these comparable-to-the-Bay 2012 salaries? I left Texas around when you moved there and was not finding "almost comparable" salaries to the Bay Area in many places at all. It was a big part of why I left - very few of my costs increased anywhere near as much as my salary did, so I was able to save and invest far more money per year.
    - hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
      Not going to name names but I agree with the comment you are replying to. At top tech companies in Austin I found salaries were about 10% less than SV salaries, but total COL was much lower than that.
bas 3y ago
Did ambition die, or did founders encounter a populace that believes in work/life balance?
- startupsfail 3y ago
  It’s a difference between loving tech and loving cold beer and barbecuing. Add to that calling people “tech transplants” (Texans just can’t quit doing that, even if they move to California) and worse climate than SF Bay and suddenly no technology loving person wants to waste time in Texas.
- myth_drannon 3y ago
  Populace that has less H1Bs and other visas holders that are modern day slaves who must work 16 hours a day, afraid from being kicked out of the country (look at X formerly known as Twitter for an example...) So it's not about what populace believes, every human being wants to live not to slave. It's all about their current precarious employment.
  - hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
    There are tons of H1B folks in Austin, so not sure what you're talking about.
    - myth_drannon 3y ago
      Well, tons of H1B folks in Tulsa, OK as well.
compacct27 3y ago
Hard to explain, but in a practical sense, the jobs are half rate in comparison. People don’t want to achieve quite as much. Your best bet for ambition is a remote job from SF or NY. Not the worst if you value other things!
majormajor 3y ago
The Bay Area is full of transplants who moved there out of ambition in the first place, so moving to a city that has largely been populated until now with those who either stuck around after growing up there or moving there for less-ambitious reasons is gonna give you that as a baseline. Austin, in particular, was long a "weird" laid-back-creative-vibe place. So even moving from a small town for more opportunities to Austin is a bit "lower ceiling" expectation/ambition-wise than moving to the Bay to work for a tech company. And then "tech transplant" is a broad bucket but one of the most common quoted reasons for going Bay Area -> Texas is cost of living. There's two ways to deal with cost of living: try to out-earn the costs, or move somewhere cheaper. One of those is decidedly less ambitious (even if more realistic, reasonable, and wise for most) and that's gonna be reflected in the resulting populations. Even at a larger scale: relocating your corporate HQ out of CA for cheaper housing and salaries.. that's less an ambitious growth move, more a cost control move.

strikelaserclaw 3y ago

why would you move to a place not known for ambition and have disdain for it lacking ambition?

majormajor 3y ago
Because you don't fully realize the connection between the high costs you don't like and the result of successful ambition and an influx of money making everything more expensive. You think you can have cheaper costs without anything else changing - the costs were somebody else's problem, not largely the fault of the successful businesses and lucrative jobs and the resulting monied demand.
photoGrant 3y ago
Because life is more complicated than that level of reductionist thinking?