Why Midwesterners leave Silicon Valley and go home for better opportunities

When you work 12 to 15 hours a day, make a pretty good salary overall, and still have nothing to show for it other than, "I managed to rent a closet in SF"... yeah, the midwest is a FANTASTIC option.

It is hugely ironic that so many Silicon Valley companies are building solutions to enable exactly what they don't do - work from anywhere.

The Bay Area is a cool place to live. There is a lot to do there and a ton of resources. Seattle has it's merits too. Portland is experiencing the same flock of "hotness". After a while, the grind becomes greater than the "cool" and you soon realize that you're 12 hour day plus 2 hour traffic commute leaves you no time or energy to enjoy the city you live in anyway.

I think a lot of this comes from a lack of understanding that innovation doesn't have to be centered around a locale.

There are plenty of business in the midwest doing ho-hum widget making as there are in all parts of the world. There are also plenty of businesses trying to break into something and be the next "X"; I've worked at a few of them. They're great with their Startup mentality and you'd think you were on the set of HBO's Silicon Valley if you didn't look out the window and see a Midwestern Storm System.

However, I think the Midwestern Mentality will still remain here, which is what also might hold it back from becoming the Next Silicon Valley (but you'll read articles countering this). We're very family-oriented and generally nice, and that permeates a bit into the "move fast and break things" ideas that are so abundant and (sometimes) wasteful.

There's plenty of top developer talent (in their prime) who choose to remain here for the competitive salaries and affordable home costs and lifestyle.

It's a little bit of a badge of honor to deny interview requests with The Big Disrupters simply because you know that the salary they offer (with few exceptions) can't possibly give you the same quality of life as it does here.

Homes specifically: we're talking comps at 2x+ at a salary negotiation that doesn't touch that.

If salaries are competitive in the Midwest, then move there ... go for it.

I grew up in the Midwest and had second-thoughts about Silicon Valley after moving here decades ago.

I did a little thought experiment though and saw that, despite the cost of the real-estate, when it came time to retire, I could sell my over-priced house and move more or less anywhere I want to in the U.S.. While if I took a smaller salary in Kansas, I could have comfortably purchased a house there too but when it came time to retire....