Why would I, as an engineer, choose Silicon Valley over Boston? It's a petty reason, perhaps, but tech workers on the west coast enjoy prestige. In Boston, you

Why would I, as an engineer, choose Silicon Valley over Boston? It's a petty reason, perhaps, but tech workers on the west coast enjoy prestige. In Boston, you rub shoulders with a large population of well-heeled management consultants, bankers, and corporate lawyers whose annual bonus might be several multiples of your total compensation (this exists everywhere, of course, but the banking and management consulting industries are more conspicuous in the northeast). There's also a huge medical community and many doctors in the area. These constitute the high-status jobs, and unfortunately tech falls way lower on the social ladder.