SF and more broadly the bay area has much better job opportunities than where I'm from on the east coast, but after spending a few months living in the city from living on the peninsula, I really hate it.
SF is not a real city and the default is to be surrounded by the most extreme greed and antisocial behavior imaginable on a near constant basis. It's also more literally disgusting and expensive. I believe that there are probably ways to help mitigate this, but I have been unable to do so.
It is very easy to make a lot of money here especially if that's your primary focus. If you're even marginally competent technically and lack a strong sense of ethics, you will thrive in the area. There are many amazing programmers here, but there are even more bad programmers making, to be frank obscene amounts of money for their level of competence and ability to provide value.
It goes beyond being a tech monoculture, that exists but it's secondary. The thing that everyone here has in common is a greed monoculture. Getting rich at any cost is the name of the game. I don't think it was always like this, but I've only been here for 3 or 4 years so I don't really know.
Do I regret moving to the area? I don't think so, I've changed so much while here. I don't know how I would have changed somewhere nicer. I feel good that I've decided to leave soon.
SF is not a real city and the default is to be surrounded by the most extreme greed and antisocial behavior imaginable on a near constant basis. It's also more literally disgusting and expensive. I believe that there are probably ways to help mitigate this, but I have been unable to do so.
It is very easy to make a lot of money here especially if that's your primary focus. If you're even marginally competent technically and lack a strong sense of ethics, you will thrive in the area. There are many amazing programmers here, but there are even more bad programmers making, to be frank obscene amounts of money for their level of competence and ability to provide value.
It goes beyond being a tech monoculture, that exists but it's secondary. The thing that everyone here has in common is a greed monoculture. Getting rich at any cost is the name of the game. I don't think it was always like this, but I've only been here for 3 or 4 years so I don't really know.
Do I regret moving to the area? I don't think so, I've changed so much while here. I don't know how I would have changed somewhere nicer. I feel good that I've decided to leave soon.