Comment by gwbas1c | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gwbas1c | Hacker News Reader

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I remember when Stripe emailed me as a job candidate. At the time, I was sitting in the bar directly behind their office, and basically replied that they (one of the Collison brothers) could come right now and have a beer with me. (I was sitting in the Rose and Crown, and they were in the office behind the Wine Room on the same block.) *

> why wouldn't established companies like Stripe just ... off to another city entirely?

Because the employees they want to hire live and work in Silicon Valley. There's a lot of advantages to the area: Good weather, good cultural actives, good jobs...

Keep in mind that companies loose people when they move within the same geographic area. (For example, someone commuting over the Golden Gate bridge might decide to leave because now the commute is much longer.)

* By the time I screened with them, I had a job offer in hand that I really wanted. (This was long before Stripe became successful.) I lived a few blocks away, so I asked to screen in person, and then decided to take the job with the other company. I don't even know if they would have hired me!

>good jobs

This specifically. I think that for a lot of tech workers the valley is a great security blanket. They know if their current gig falls through there will be another one waiting just around the corner. No need to uproot and move. It's actually sort of strange on the surface. There are a lot of engineers in the valley who move around to various companies fairly frequently which looks on paper like they don't have a lot of stability, but in reality the sheer number of available jobs is providing that stability, even if their longevity of employment with any one company does not.

> Good weather

The weather in San Francisco is overrated, it's always cold and windy and there are never any seasons.

I'm sorry you're getting blasted for your opinion, especially since it's one I share.

I LIKE seasons. I LIKE snow. I LIKE watching leaves fall in the autumn and rebirth in the spring. I LIKE sweaterweather falls and, cold winters, and hot summers.

San Francisco's climate has "mild," going for it. It seems to be permanently pants and tee shirt weather (but don't forget your jacket). The summers (sept/oct) are nice, but limited for what you expect in California. It's frequently windy when the sun is shining, and the fog is constantly sitting nearby, threateningly.

The best you can say is SF's weather is different, but I certainly do not understand the hype.

I also enjoy the seasons, especially as a way to subconciously tick off the years, but I also understand the appeal of SF.

SF's weather is a steady climate without much variance, where it typically only rains two weeks of the year. No freezing temperatures, no heat waves, just a cool climate that doesn't have much variance.

South Bay is similar, but warmer and almost perpetually sunny throughout the year too.

And don’t forget face mask weather when the clouds of smoke engulf the city from yearly CA wildfires.

Depends on personality, but compare it to other climates where for parts of the year you can't comfortably go outside. Northeast you get snowed in regularly, 40 straight days of darkness and rain in northwest, 90+ days of 100 (ish) degree weather here in Austin.

Probably grass is always greener type thing.

I prefer to divide climates into two categories.

1. Places where during certain times of year, sitting on a bench for a few hours will cause you to die from exposure to the elements.

2. Other places where you can sit on a bench all day on any day of the year and walk away from it.

The Bay area is definitely in category 2 and that is a nice thing.

Yeah, this is my definition of good weather: I want to be able to go ride my bike outside without being cold and miserable (wet!) or uncomfortably hot. Even the best of clothes only go so far with the former and there's not much you can do about the latter besides drink a lot of water.

Except its going to be 84 and sunny today. Summers are brutal but the rest of the year is pretty nice.

I grew up in the South, and worked in the Bay Area for 9 years, 7 in SF. Summers is SF are most assuredly not brutal.

Most of the microclimates in the Bay Area are disgustingly peaceful, but as the parent notes, there is a distinct lack of seasons (there's approximately two: dry summers, wet "winters") and real weather (I greatly missed thunderstorms when I was there).

Brutal is a bit overstated, but it can be very chilly (especially in the foggy areas) compared to what people expect of summer. You often need to wear or carry along warm clothing even in July.

A lot of sweaters get sold at Fisherman's Wharf during summer months to people caught unaware.

Scorchingly hot summer is just a few hour drive away though

you're making the case for Los Angeles then, not San Francisco.

Local weather is something you experience every day, not something you travel to. Same goes for snow and tahoe.

In the Bay Area, we have two seasons, brown and green.

Four: rain, green, brown, fire.

Bay Area is big and micro climates can vary!

We lived in the Sunset district which was manageable but later moved to Mill Valley and the summers were _very_ brutal, to me. A couple other office mates lived in San Rafael and I distinctly remember everyone complaining about the heat and sweating.

We all eventually bought air conditioners for our bedrooms just so we could sleep comfortably at night.

But brutal is all a relative term. Someone growing up in the south with no access to AC would not call it brutal while I and my other office mates who were used to AC were "dying" without it

> Summers are brutal

Summers in the bay area are not even remotely brutal.

Maybe brutal in the sense of cold and foggy when people expect it to be sunny and warm.

Sorry, I know. It's a very spoiled statement. I mean they're just unexpected in SF (especially the western side of the City).

It tends to be cold, wet, damp, foggy and bone chilling early morning. Not like Winters/Summers in Chicago brutal, but definitely the time I struggle with most (as a new yorker who clearly has to weather acclimated here, I know it sounds ridiculous)

84º days are brutal once you're acclimatized to 68º summers, especially in a city built for a cold windy climate.

You've reinforced the commenter's point that there are no seasons.

Based on the prices people are willing to pay to live there, it’s obviously highly desirable among those who are on the higher end of the wealth distribution.

The Rose and Crown is in Palo Alto? So I guess they've already moved within the Bay before.

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