Comment by simonsarris | Hacker News Reader

Comment by simonsarris | Hacker News Reader

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Thanks to StackOverflow I'm relatively reputed(?) in one teeny niche of the programming world. This leads to a few recruiter emails per week, and almost all of them I reply to with a cheeky way of saying that I'm not going to move[1].

One company to date has said that not-relocating my entire life is OK with them. The rest can be summed up with the reply that ended an email exchange with an SV angel:

> sorry to hear that, and let me know if you ever decide to head west, young man :-)

Alas I'm a person before I'm a programmer. And I always will be. And I have a family and friends and a home in New Hampshire that do not fit on airplanes so neatly.

Even apart from the tangibles, I cannot fly the feelings. I cannot fly the sights and smell of my hometown to the Bay Area. I cannot fly the white mountains, so isolated from the civilized world and yet they feel so familiar to stand atop the notch and look around, as if I've been there a thousand times, as if I've always been there.

Maybe that's dopey. I don't know. There are streets to know intimately and sights and mountains and sunsets in other parts of the world. But I feel like I belong here. Life is peaceful, I live slowly, I walk everywhere. I can be in love with the world on a time-scale, a thing at least partially set by surroundings, that works for me.

[1] http://simonsarris.com/blog/626-why-i-love-recruiters

This morning, I turned left out of the driveway on my bike to head to work -- the same driveway that I've lived on since 1989.

It's "early spring" already in Silicon Valley, and the distinct smell of the brisk, moist air and the sight of the fresh, yellow-green-Crayola-colored grass that has sprouted up all over the hills following the winter rains made me think, "ah, it's this time of year again."

I couldn't help but keep looking at the rolling hills, the bright green grass growing naturally everywhere, and the old, tired oak trees. And it came to me: how can I live anywhere else? I love it here.

I've considered moving to places like NYC several times in the past, and even recently. I know that NYC is a great city, and having gone to an East coast school, I have many people I'd be able to call friends there. But I know that this is home for me, and a hypothetical marginally better employment situation won't be able to overcome its gravity.

I happen to live in SV, but not because it's SV. I live here because it's home for me, and home to the friends I've known since childhood and adolescence seem to keep hanging around here along with me. I am lucky to have the best of both worlds right now. But if the world changed tomorrow and all the tech jobs moved to NYC, you'd probably still find me turning left out of my driveway like I always have. Just like you I guess :)

Two opinionateddevelopers, just with different opinions.

Thank you to you both:-)

Beautifully written!

California is, quite possibly, the hands-down worst state.

It also just happens to have the absolute best weather and scenery.

I'm with you man. That's how I feel. SV is good ... if you want to live in SV. Not because you want to go there for a job, not when jobs need you more than you need the jobs.

> not when jobs need you more than you need the jobs.

THIS!!!!

One thing caught me in the article. We need opinionated developers - who follow something they believe we need and tell people about it.

Usually opinionated is a bad thing - you seem to have the good opinionated. It's your opinion that rugged mountainnscenary and the well being of family and friends is worth more to you than salary and fussball.

I am seriously coming to the belief that setting clear tasks and assigning them to developers is a negative - I work much better on an idea I can see being great than I do on some half baked imposed task

I believe google uses an auction / pricing system - the more the boss wants it the more points it gets.

I think I know what I want scrum points to mean now - prizes

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