You're right: you can't control how people treat you, but you can choose your environment. You can choose which people you are surrounded by. If you don't wan

You're right: you can't control how people treat you, but you can choose your environment. You can choose which people you are surrounded by. If you don't want to be in a hypercompetitive environment, Palo Alto is probably not the place to be. Unfortunately those kids didn't have a choice. After being here for more than a decade, my experience is that the Bay Area is kind of a mixed bag. There is certainly the harsh truth that you need a certain amount of economic output to survive here. Lots of artists have been pushed out of SF over last decade or two, despite producing a lot of value for society. So this minimum requirement means is a lot of rat-race-ness, long commutes, and boring jobs. But there are also a lot of curious and interesting people who aren't necessarily motivated by money. And they are doing very interesting things.