4 ms·

I like this idea a lot, but here's the issue that I find. For most projects, I get to a point where I actually care (sometimes that happens way too fast) about

I like this idea a lot, but here's the issue that I find. For most projects, I get to a point where I actually care (sometimes that happens way too fast) about the health of the project, which means that I want to be in a decision-making role-- not necessarily "management" but some sort of creative or technical leadership. Getting that seems to require in-person contact. It requires trust so it rarely happens when people haven't shared physical space. What you're paying when you suffer Manhattan or Bay Area rent is the career benefit (?) that it confers to live in such a place. You may be overpaying; you probably are. I don't think anyone has good data on this, which is why the extortionist mega-landlords who set prices (by limiting supply through NIMBY regulations) can get away with so much. No one has a good handle on what it's actually worth to live and work in a star city. I think a lot of people pile into star cities because they're driven by FUD and FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). I don't know what "the right answer" is but I can see the appeal of living in these high-rent areas. It really sucks, though, because we're in an uncanny valley where people are just mobile enough to stratify by ambition (with a lot of noise in the mix; I am not saying that people who don't live in expensive places aren't ambitious, but the correlation exists) in their 20s, but not enough to render location obsolete.

mosburger 14y ago
> Getting that seems to require in-person contact. It requires trust so it rarely happens when people haven't shared physical space. It's difficult, but it's not impossible. I was recently promoted to CTO, and the company I work for is based on the opposite coast from me. It helps if you work for a company where working remotely is part of the culture - we have people all over the world in many different timezones, about one third of use work remotely. You can definitely make it work in the right company.
dxbydt 14y ago
Ok, so I piled into star city purely because of FOMO. What are you going to do ? FOMO is real. You sit in Charlotte and say "I want to write cutting edge machine learning code in Scala", you get back emails from Managing Directors who make 400K saying "you've misspelt Scale as Scala" ( true, I swear ). The level of ignorance outside of SF/SV is staggering. Its ok if you want to do generic bread and butter crud apps in ruby/js/whatever, but if you want meaty sizeable R&D type work, you are not going to find it in Kentucky and the midwest outside of some very small pockets. FOMO is very real.
- michaelochurch 14y ago
  What makes you think that non-PhDs (except for the politically skilled) are more eligible for "meaty sizeable R&D type work" in Silicon Valley? You may be right. I have no idea. I'm not in SF/SV. I will say that I'm not convinced that VC-istan has any real edge over the rest of the business world. It's just better at marketing itself. FOMO is real but it's not only about geography. There are just very few companies that will pay for anything interesting. It's not like every 22-year-old in Silicon Valley gets to work on cutting-edge machine learning algorithms. Ultimately, it's hard to get decent work. I don't know if moving to an otherwise overpriced location has decent ROI. I just don't have the data to answer that question.
  - jumby 14y ago
    "I'm not convinced that VC-istan has any real edge over the rest of the business world. It's just better at marketing itself." It's going to be funny when everyone starts figuring that out!
    - michaelochurch 14y ago
      2013: Flight to Substance?

mosburger 14y ago

> Getting that seems to require in-person contact. It requires trust so it rarely happens when people haven't shared physical space. It's difficult, but it's not impossible. I was recently promoted to CTO, and the company I work for is based on the opposite coast from me. It helps if you work for a company where working remotely is part of the culture - we have people all over the world in many different timezones, about one third of use work remotely. You can definitely make it work in the right company.

dxbydt 14y ago

Ok, so I piled into star city purely because of FOMO. What are you going to do ? FOMO is real. You sit in Charlotte and say "I want to write cutting edge machine learning code in Scala", you get back emails from Managing Directors who make 400K saying "you've misspelt Scale as Scala" ( true, I swear ). The level of ignorance outside of SF/SV is staggering. Its ok if you want to do generic bread and butter crud apps in ruby/js/whatever, but if you want meaty sizeable R&D type work, you are not going to find it in Kentucky and the midwest outside of some very small pockets. FOMO is very real.

michaelochurch 14y ago
What makes you think that non-PhDs (except for the politically skilled) are more eligible for "meaty sizeable R&D type work" in Silicon Valley? You may be right. I have no idea. I'm not in SF/SV. I will say that I'm not convinced that VC-istan has any real edge over the rest of the business world. It's just better at marketing itself. FOMO is real but it's not only about geography. There are just very few companies that will pay for anything interesting. It's not like every 22-year-old in Silicon Valley gets to work on cutting-edge machine learning algorithms. Ultimately, it's hard to get decent work. I don't know if moving to an otherwise overpriced location has decent ROI. I just don't have the data to answer that question.
- jumby 14y ago
  "I'm not convinced that VC-istan has any real edge over the rest of the business world. It's just better at marketing itself." It's going to be funny when everyone starts figuring that out!
  - michaelochurch 14y ago
    2013: Flight to Substance?