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Comment by ashwinaj | Hacker News Reader

As someone who's lived in Austin (left in Sep 2012 to the Bay area and still have friends there) I chuckle when people say Austin is a tech hub. Sure there are satellite tech offices and a growing startup scene, but it is nowhere close and I mean like light years away from the innovation done in the Bay area.

And I don't understand the fascination with Austin; downtown area is nice, rest is all boring suburbs (IMO) just like any other place in Texas.

Edit: Does anyone care to comment on the downvotes?

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My experience of living in the Bay Area was mostly "boring suburbia" as well, which I suspect you can find nearly everywhere in the US. There's SF, which is a very dysfunctional city, and incredibly expensive to live in. But most of the tech jobs and employees are in Silicon Valley, which is slightly cheaper but still expensive, and very much suburbia. The quintessential Bay Area experience to me is sitting in traffic on the 101, while trying to get to or from a suburban office park in Santa Clara or Mountain View. Followed maybe by dinner in a San Jose strip mall. I would not move back unless it was really a can't-say-no offer job-wise.

Just my opinion, I'll take the Bay area suburbia any day over NW Austin, Cedar Park, Round Rock etc.

>Edit: Does anyone care to comment on the downvotes?

Probably the dismissive tone.

The Bay area is unique throughout the world, so saying a city isn't a tech hub just because it isn't the Bay is silly. Forbes and others have written quite a articles about how Austin (And Dallas, and Chicago, and others) are all well on their way to being tech Meccas, and have backed it with actual data, e.g. http://www.forbes.com/sites/navathwal/2015/02/12/5-markets-p...

So, your comment can come across as antagonistic and with a fair amount of hubris.

Please don't link to Forbes.

They've decided that they don't want people to see their articles without advertising.

We should respect that and quit linking to them.

Ok, fair enough.

How do you define a tech hub? Is it R&D or is it operations (maintenance/sustaining, DevOps, tech support, biz dev)?

If it's R&D, clearly Austin is no tech hub. Only a handful of semiconductor companies and maybe a few software companies do _substantial_ R&D in Austin (a minor project doesn't count).

I think you are missing the acknowledgement of the understandable myopia that most greenhorn Austinites have.

Austin has had many years of tech manufacturing and roots for large enterprise companies, so in a sense it has been heavily a tech hub for decades, but not when it comes to software and startups for which Silicon Valley is known for.

Your pretentious and heavy-handed description description of the suburbs and outer environs ignores the beautiful nature trails, pristine open-land, outdoors-oriented, and mostly nice attitudes of comforted Texans.

there are ~25 square miles of america most techies would consider acceptable.

different strokes.

I also lived in Austin and am in The Bay Area now as well. Back in Austin I had a drum kit to play, rent was $1000/month for a decent one bedroom (took time to find but it was there), and there were plenty enough tech meetups and companies that were plenty substantial to check out, and I personally would love to move back there in a decade or so when I'm more senior in my career, especially when it comes to owning property downtown, which is impossible in The Bay. That being said, your opinion is valid and I don't know why it was downvoted either.

Lived in Austin for 15+ years, and I agree with you on all points. Austin is incredibly overrated in the media and in its own mind.

I couldn't agree more.

In my experience, most of the people that really love Austin are the types that have never lived in a large diverse city before. Of course Austin is great compared to some small town. There's no point of reference.

/lived in Austin for 12 years

Tech hub comparisons to Bay area don't mean much, I think. Is there any place at all that's comparable? Anywhere in the world? It doesn't mean other places aren't tech hubs. (and doesn't mean Bay area can survive this kind of unique environment for long) I'd rather see comparison by tech-vs-size that involved other, more normal places. Or as a percentage of jobs.

For example, check http://www.city-data.com/#mapOSM?mapOSM[zl]=5&mapOSM[c1]=35.... SF:Austin is just ~14%:11% (people in tech, science and engineering)

> And I don't understand the fascination with Austin; downtown area is nice, rest is all boring suburbs (IMO) just like any other place in Texas.

I always have lots of fun in Austin. The food is great, there is live music everywhere, and the people are all super friendly.

You enjoy it since you're a visitor. It isn't necessarily the same as living there.

> live music everywhere

Only in downtown Austin.

Not true at all. Perhaps you only like the type of music that is downtown.

The truth is some of the most legendary venues are far from downtown.

Two quick examples: Poodies Hilltop Roadhouse and Giddy Ups.

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