5 ms·

I work for Google in Mountain View, and I'd prefer to work in a filthy basement in Kansas. The commute would be better, and the cost of living lower...

lfowles 12y ago
Can confirm: It's certainly not a filthy basement, but it is in Kansas. Commute is great and CoL makes me wonder why anyone would want to live in SF/NYC :)
nostrademons 12y ago
Move to Mountain View? For the 5 years I was at Google, I never lived more than 2 miles away, my commute was 15 minutes by bicycle, and for half that, rent was only about $1400/month (it started rising rapidly in the last few years). But wait, it's not SF? Well, neither is Kansas, and as far as urban life & young people go, Mountain View is a lot better than Kansas.
- pearjuice 12y ago
  >only about $1400/month Interesting how you refer to that as "only". That's like 40% of the average American salary. But if you work at Google and you indicate $1400 with "only" I cannot help but assume Google employees are far above the average national income.
  - nostrademons 12y ago
    Rents for a 1BR in SF are now around $3000/month [1]. Mountain View has gone up significantly in the last few years, a sibling comment indicates it's around $2300/month, but comparatively speaking, it's still "only". Yes, this is insane. But people can pay them. Tech company employees are indeed far above the average national income. [1] http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2014/10/06/mapping_the_median_rent_of_a_onebedroom_in_san_francisco.php http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2014/10/06/mapping_the_median_...
  - jacalata 12y ago
    You don't have to assume that, the data is pretty freely available. Google tells me that the average national wage is $26k, google entry-level average = $128k.
- TulliusCicero 12y ago
  > rent was only about $1400/month Yeah, but now it's > The average cost for a 1-bedroom apartment in Mountain View is $2,356, according to myapartmentmap.com http://www.sanjoseinside.com/2014/10/29/rent-control-off-the-table-in-mountain-view-for-now/ http://www.sanjoseinside.com/2014/10/29/rent-control-off-the... Granted, if you're a software engineer at Google that's not too horrible, but it sucks that so much of your big salary goes to renting an average little apartment.

lfowles 12y ago

Can confirm: It's certainly not a filthy basement, but it is in Kansas. Commute is great and CoL makes me wonder why anyone would want to live in SF/NYC :)

nostrademons 12y ago

Move to Mountain View? For the 5 years I was at Google, I never lived more than 2 miles away, my commute was 15 minutes by bicycle, and for half that, rent was only about $1400/month (it started rising rapidly in the last few years). But wait, it's not SF? Well, neither is Kansas, and as far as urban life & young people go, Mountain View is a lot better than Kansas.

pearjuice 12y ago
>only about $1400/month Interesting how you refer to that as "only". That's like 40% of the average American salary. But if you work at Google and you indicate $1400 with "only" I cannot help but assume Google employees are far above the average national income.
- nostrademons 12y ago
  Rents for a 1BR in SF are now around $3000/month [1]. Mountain View has gone up significantly in the last few years, a sibling comment indicates it's around $2300/month, but comparatively speaking, it's still "only". Yes, this is insane. But people can pay them. Tech company employees are indeed far above the average national income. [1] http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2014/10/06/mapping_the_median_rent_of_a_onebedroom_in_san_francisco.php http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2014/10/06/mapping_the_median_...
- jacalata 12y ago
  You don't have to assume that, the data is pretty freely available. Google tells me that the average national wage is $26k, google entry-level average = $128k.
TulliusCicero 12y ago
> rent was only about $1400/month Yeah, but now it's > The average cost for a 1-bedroom apartment in Mountain View is $2,356, according to myapartmentmap.com http://www.sanjoseinside.com/2014/10/29/rent-control-off-the-table-in-mountain-view-for-now/ http://www.sanjoseinside.com/2014/10/29/rent-control-off-the... Granted, if you're a software engineer at Google that's not too horrible, but it sucks that so much of your big salary goes to renting an average little apartment.