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Comment by jasonlfunk | Hacker News Reader

This is really an interesting idea.

Since the developers who live in cheaper parts of the country/world are now, effectively, paid more than those who live expensive parts of the world, are they not incentivizing employees to move out of the big cities?

I'm also curious about traveling expenses. I don't know if they do or not, but if they had an "all hands" meeting in Chicago, would they fly their employees in from all over the world? If so, do the people who live 10 blocks away from the office get the same "travel voucher" as those who live 10 hours away?

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> Since the developers who live in cheaper parts of the country/world are now, effectively, paid more than those who live expensive parts of the world, are they not incentivizing employees to move out of the big cities?

They do a lot of that by creating satellite offices. But there's always some level of advantage to being closer to customers.

Anecdotally, there's a non-trivial correlation level between people who like the breadth of activities available in the city and level of professional development.

> are they not incentivizing employees to move out of the big cities?

Yes, that's broadly, rapidly occuring in the US (I can't speak to any other markets). It's a trend that will likely result in Silicon Valley getting partially distributed to two dozen cities in the US. Something changed in the last five or so years quite dramatically when it comes to telecommute work. It went from a concept that never seemed to quite live up to its potential, to now delivering. Credit probably goes to the dramatic cost of living increases since the great recession in major cities, ~5x increase in average broadband speeds in ten years + high quality mobile, and companies gradually dipping their toes into the telecommute world and finding value there (constantly reinforcing upward cycle, more companies try it + more people try it, volumes increase, repeat).

People have been suggesting this is gonna happen to Silicon Valley "any year now" for over a decade. Instead the startup world just shifted its center to SF, which is no more affordable than the valley.

> If so, do the people who live 10 blocks away from the office get the same "travel voucher" as those who live 10 hours away?

I'd consider those near the Chicago offices as the lucky ones. No flights, no hotels, they get to tuck in their kids and sleep in their own beds. So I'm sure they won't feel like they're due anything.

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