However, in my personal experience, it is not an accurate summary of the Bay Area. The startup scene may be truly this toxic, but I think such toxicity plagues any small, homogeneous group of people. It is hardly a tech problem. Indeed, mom-and-pop shop in small towns can be very abusive too.
To offer a counter anecdote, my experience with FAANG has been very positive. My workplace is the most meritocratic, efficient, and transparent organization that I've been in. (And I did spend 6 years on the East coast doing things unrelated to tech.)
I'm certain that the author's experience is true. I also want to caution against generalizing these issues to all of tech in the Bay.
You can’t generalize the claim that things are different at FAANGs either.
[1] The suicide rate among their employees was below the general population’s.
Was their suicide rate lower or higher then that of employees with a similar socioeconomic status?
edit: i mean, I do.... but not everyone does.
I would suggest to any techie who finds this not true to leave the bay area for a couple months then come back. It is amazing how entitled everyone is over here.
Now I'm excited to eventually go back to the bay, but it was very valuable to take a step back, go away and think about it!
Taking a step back allowed me to see how most people live outside of the bay area and how big our bubble is. As you I'm excited to be here but I take everything with a grain of salt.
Almost everyone uses a smartphone and a computing device. I have never been able to understand this "non tech" part all too well.
One who could operate a phone and open a browser and search well is all one needs to be called 'technical' , thanks to the power of fast search and cheap Internet.