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Comment by samcheng | Hacker News Reader

Another interesting profile is that of the Google engineer living in the parking lot:

http://www.businessinsider.com/google-employee-lives-in-truc...

Interesring. It seems... Very practical and economical? I would wager a lot of people would do that if only they weren't afraid of a stigma.

Those living and working in SV are among the richest people to ever live. But studies of happinesss suggest we're not really happier for being richer--it appears people get caught up in "buying things we don't need, to impress people we don't like."

I don’t think there’s a real stigma for people who can afford to rent an apartment but live in an RV... it’s almost hip at this point. However I don’t think it’s as practical as you think. Addresses are very important.

Well, I should have been more up front that for the record, I lived and surfed for 8 months out of campervan I built myself in Australia. It was pretty great. I didn't really have any major issues, it seemed really practical to me? But I didn't really have a day job then.

I'd do it out of pure spite for the NIMBYs who have made it impossible to pay reasonable prices for housing.

There's a huge difference between the Googler who lives at the Googleplex (with showers, cafeteria, plenty of rooms to hang out, etc.) and only sleeps in his RV and the Standford admin who has nowhere else to go than her RV.

> showers, cafeteria, plenty of rooms to hang out

I think I understand where you're coming from, but Stanford does not have these things?

The woman is 60. Most people taking showers in the university showers are undergrads in the dorms. The age difference would make it uncomfortable and admin staff do not get the same privileges as current students anyways because they don't pay tuition. Stanford has a dining hall, but you need a meal plan, it's not free.

Google offers those things if you're an employee.

Funny, I thought you were talking about a different Google engineer. Back when I was contracting there we had two people on the project who lived on campus in converted vans. One was an engineer, the other a vehicle operator.

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