I wish this didn't bother me so much, but ever since the Silicon Valley Episode where Big Head says: " Jesus! Why is it so expensive here? Look at this place, it's a shithole.", I can't seem to find a good answer to this question...

I certainly count myself fortunate to be able to afford to live here with my family. But I can't see the value of moving people to the area (as I was contemplating moving team members from out of state here). Even at six figure salaries they'd have to share an apartment to be able to save anything at all.

- Better weather, but LA is arguably nicer & less expensive.

- Better community of techies who somehow inspire you to do better? After being here for a year and attending meetups and community event, I know for a fact that's not true. Despite the density of people here, people are surprisingly disconnected, chance encounters are rare at best. Most of the interactions seem shallow at best and conversations often seem transactional.

- Better job prospects for devs? I guess for a software engineer it'd come down to better job prospects, but to be honest, it's not like the rest of America sucks for software jobs.

- Better social life? This may be availability bias as I am not single and live in the 'burbs with my family, but every single person I know seems pretty miserable & isolated. A couple of them actually moved out of the area because of the poor quality of human interaction/dating. It seems everyone works all the time. (Which works great for me as I'm on the employing side).

+ If you run a tech company & have enough money to move here and hire from the local talent pool, it's a decent proposition.

+ Relative to other places in the country it's pretty diverse and progressive

Some might say access to VCs and funding etc, but that seems to take some pretty serious effort and it might be a better idea to make the hike up from Gilroy or Hollister and not spend a 6 figures in rent for the privilege.

I think the area is beginning to emulate the inequalities that I saw growing up in a 3rd world country. The amount of homeless working people in the area is mind boggling. It seems like most people in the area are just too busy/too successful to do much about it (I include myself in this group unfortunately). California has been having an exodus of residents, but mainly middle class down. I don't see how this is sustainable long term.

*https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_script...