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Comment by blakeyrat | Hacker News Reader

At the time I made the choice, I didn't know that this industry was so concentrated in only large urban areas. In fact, I was basically hearing the opposite: "tech is HUGE, those jobs will be EVERYWHERE in 10 years!" Well. It's been 20 years, and they aren't.

So, yes, I made a choice to get into software development. It wasn't an informed choice.

How about we come at it from the reverse angle: why are all those 55-person tech companies founded in Seattle? They pay more taxes. They pay more for office space and pretty much everything else. They create a longer commute for everybody by centralizing all the work. What's the problem with spreading-out a bit?

Anyway, the question was how to help blue-collar workers, and I just gave an answer that amounts to basically, "move jobs where they are".

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They are in Seattle because that's where the talent is. The talent is there because it's where all the jobs are. People want to be near jobs because they want to be able to move jobs easily. They want to be able to move jobs because that gives them negotiation leverage and also because jobs are less stable than they used to be.

This is all interconnected, and nothing is going to change it in the foreseeable future. I'm sorry, it's just the reality. You can commute, work remote, move to the city, struggle to put together a teeny company in a small town, or do some other kind of work. That's just modern reality.

Assume that the people funding the companies are not total idiots. So there must be good reason to fund companies in these hot cities---especially given all the down sides yous mentioned. What could they be?

Companies are (generally speaking) founded by people with type-A "go go go!" personalities, who love to be in the center of large cities with all kinds of hustle and bustle. The kind of people who couldn't even imagine living anywhere else.

That's not to say they're idiots, of course not. But it might be to say that the reasons for placing their company in the center of a large city aren't very rational or well-considered.

The country pumpkins are free to start their own companies, if they like it better there.

And lots of them do. See all the startups in decidedly suburban Silicon Valley. (And yes, I am being a bit snarky here in equating everything outside of cities, be that suburban sprawl or proper countryside.)

Also see SAP in Walldorf.

Access to rich people, mostly.

I have remote coworkers in Montana. The company flys them out every couple of months, and they get paid as much as anyone should in Seattle too.

I think there are quite a few companies which will accept remote workers, so in some sense, you can work in tech literally anywhere.

I'm in the opposite situation. Been living somewhere I hate for a long time now. No interest in a traditional family and always wanted to live in the city. If I had a savings, I would gladly dump it into living in the city. For now, I at least have a computer...

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