Was the Silicon Valley a mistake?

>>59746227
There's more to life than money anon

Ask yourself what you would do if you won 50mil from the lottery. If it's not the same as what you're currently doing, then you're in the wrong profession.
t. postdoctoral fellow

>>59746227
I live and work in Silicon Valley. While people here do make a lot of money you have to remember the COL in this area is very high; high enough that you end up with less money than people working similar jobs in other areas like Austin.

>>59746349
There is more to life than money but you have no access to most of those things at all without money.

>>59746227

There is companies moving out of places like Silicon Valley due to the salaries people are asking there... When only a handful of developers costs $1mil/year in salary alone, and office space is expensive to rent, and everything else is expensive to acquire locally. Imagine just how many of those $1.99 cent phone apps you actually have to sell to start turning a profit. Investors are reluctant to drop money there when operational costs can be practically cut in half in other major cities.

Silicon Valley made perfect sense back when tech wasn't as popular as it is today and you needed to network with other tech types. Not so much with the rapid proliferation of tech everywhere.

>>59746779
personally after living in Cali for a year in the past, not even factoring COL I'd never want to live there ever again.

>>59746779
>implying

How much do you personally have left over after taxes and living expenses? I hear a lot of worst case hypothetical scenarios about living in SV on 100k, but I never hear real numbers.

>>59746903
never been, but I've heard everywhere that's reasonably populated smells like piss because bums can live anywhere, all year long and the warm pavement just spreads the smell around. At least they have to find somewhere else to go during the winter anywhere where there's 4 real seasons.

Between that and the taxes, I don't know why anybody would want to live there.

>>59746903
59746779 here. I personally love california and lived here all my life, but all the good areas to live in are far too expensive. I'm going to move to a different state at some point to buy a house

>>59746947
about 35k after taxes, 401k, living expenses

>>59746349
>If it's not the same as what you're currently doing, then you're in the wrong profession
I take it your doctorate was not in economics?

>>59746349
>postdoctoral
Eg could not find a job and hides in academia

>>59747434
nope, math
>>59747445
didn't apply anywhere outside academia, I love it here

>>59746349
Woah it really makes you think.
Funny how these things come from people who have enough money to never work a day in their life.

>>59746349
>Ask yourself what you would do if you won 50mil from the lottery. If it's not the same as what you're currently doing, then you're in the wrong profession.
>t. postdoctoral fellow

How to make yourself look like a priggish asshole in 2 lines.

>>59748279
>I'm not rich and I work hard every day of my life. And I enjoy my work.
>>59748347
How is saying "pick a job you can enjoy" priggish? It's common sense
>hurr but not everyone has the luxury to choose
that's defeatist thinking, you limit your own options by having no grit or foresight or aspirations

>>59746779
>muh cost of living

Cars cost the same for you.
Groceries cost the same for you.
Everything you can buy online costs the same for you.

Cost of living differences are vastly exaggerated. People who live and work in Silicon Valley are flat out richer for being there.

>>59748956
most people in SV spend half their income on rent alone

>>59746227
Sounds like someone's butthurt he couldn't invert a binary tree during his whiteboard interview

I bet you voted for Trump too

>>59749183
[Citation needed]

>>59746349
Why lots of money is good:
1.you can pay for treatments if you get seriously ill
2.you can have a lot of free time to have fun and be with family
3.you can eat high-quality food
4.you can fund your own tech-related projects
etc.

Who ever says money can't make you happy is a cunt.I work 12 hours a day and I earn just enough to pay for rent and food,but traveling and any kind of improvement in life is out of the question.

>>59749215
https://www.zillow.com/research/living-costs-silicon-valley-seattle-12314/

It's literally half their salary being blown on rent.

>>59746349
What the fuck?

If I won 50m from the lottery I wouldn't be working.

>>59749244
>Before accounting for taxes, a single entry-level software engineer in Silicon Valley would spend 40.1 percent of their income on a mortgage payment or 39.1 percent of their income on rent.
>entry level aka shit salary
>39.1
>not even 50%
>what are roommates

>>59748956

Rent costs more.
Weed costs more.
Hookers cost more.

You're kidding yourself if you think the added income makes up for the huge cost of living increase. If I worked and lived somewhere else I could probably afford to give three or even four $5000 'grants' to complete strangers who are women of the same race and broad social class as me.

>>59749340
>$5000
Do you get to torture them like in hostel?
No hooker costs that kind of money.

Silicon Valley arose for many reasons in its current location but now it is mostly living off of inertia.

Two of the biggest reason were the military and universities. Both are still valid but the military's tech spending is spread around as is its talent pool. The universities in the Bay Area are still very good but the gap between them and other university towns is narrowing especially now that admissions is based as much on social issues as it is on academic achievement.

Other tech centers have always existed and once upon a time Boston out did the Valley but they lost that race long ago. What's happening now is other cities are reaching the critical mass of local talent to compete with the third advantage of being in Silicon Valley: the ability to easily recruit talent away from other local companies. Not needing to lure talent away from a distant locale is a huge benefit and one that has kept talent locked up in the Bay Area for decades. Now that advantage is fading away.

The Valley likely will be the tech epicenter for a long time but it will stop dominating over everyone else. Instead of being a whale surrounded by guppies, it'll be an elephant surrounded by hippos.