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Comment by larrykubin | Hacker News Reader

I live in Seattle, but have worked remotely on a startup based in SF. There is definitely a cultural difference. Many of the SF folks I know seem to be ashamed to work for a big company and not "doing their own thing". These people work for very well respected companies with great products, but always seem to be planning their escape to something new. If you are doing some crazy ridiculous experimental thing in SF, it is "cool".

In Seattle, I have talked to many employees of Amazon and Microsoft and they seem more proud of working at a top big-name company. They are working on products that are already used by millions of people around the world. When I mention that I work on no-name startup, I sometimes get the feeling that they feel bad for me. It's like "Oh that's cute, if you are looking for real job, I can probably get you in at Amazon".

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> many of the SF folks I know seem to be ashamed to work for a big company and not "doing their own thing".

I really wish that this weren't so prevalent. Sacrificing your ambitions to provide stability and safety for your family is a noble thing, and I wish the public rhetoric appreciated this more.

the public rhetoric is that you should go to SF if you want to take risks like that

It's not necessarily good for society on the extreme either way.

It's beneficial to the world to encourage people to take some level of risk. It's bad to encourage people to take stupid risks, but it's also a bad outcome if the next Elon Musk decides to spend his life working as a line engineer somewhere forever for safety. This is one of the biggest problems with inequality/etc. -- a person from a poor background gets a $20/hr job and would be unable to do anything which puts that at risk, even if it has a huge positive expected value. A rich person could comfortably optimize for EV.

(Incidentally decoupling survival from wages is one of the big benefits of basic income; it's possible this would lead to a more beneficial deployment of human capital and thus greater wealth overall.)

Go elsewhere, the majority of the US thinks working for a big company with a stable future is the dream. The thing that makes silicon valley special is the encouragement to take risks and 'disrupt' the status quo.

this is so true of Seattle culture. I expect it to change over time however. Amazon for example has tremendous turnover even among devs.

I think amazon has lots of turnover because they treat people like shit and overwork them. 25% of seattle programmers are recovering ex-amazon people. another 1/4 are angry or depressed ex-microsoft people.

Sounds like a good area for GE ads to target. I enjoy those commercials.

Seriously. I think they make it clear even to non-techies that GE is the place for Train Engines and Bulbs! I was shocked they were perpetuating the perception people have of GE.

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