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Comment by duh | Hacker News Reader

> I'll never be rich

This seems like something of a false dichotomy to me. The professors at my school (UCSD) in math, econ, and engineering were all industry consultants and/or entrepreneurs and drove around in very nice cars like Porsches, Benzes, Lexus etc. (I never saw their houses but a good many of them live in La Jolla).

In fact, many of them were so busy with their 'extracurricular' activities that they sometimes attempted (unsuccessfully) to schedule exams and lectures at hours like 7am or 9pm.

The Chancellor drove a turbo porsche! I can only imagine what the faculty at a school like Stanford is like...

It always seemed to me that being a professor opened doors into industry, instead of 'locking' you down.

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There's a noticeable gradient in car preferences as you go from northern to southern California. At multiple points in my career at UC Berkeley, I saw older model, unshowy American cars parked in the "NL" parking spots. (Guess what NL stands for, hint not a country in Europe.) After I graduated and started working in the Bay Area I met many people would could not have been making <$200k driving normal everyday cars. The most extreme example would be someone whom I knew for a fact was worth eight figures driving a Cadillac. It was shiny and new but, really? A Caddy?

As I went to high school in LA, where it seems like 2/3 of the population over 20 is driving a late model BMW, this was something of a eye-opener: a lot of rich people just aren't that into cars. That, and the whole conspicuous consumption thing is a lot more en vogue in some places than in others. So to answer your question, the faculty at Stanford probably drive a lot of Hondas. (Someone chime in if I'm wrong, haven't been to the Farm in a while.)

I have no idea what you're talking about, Silicon Valley and SF are filled to the brim with expensive and exotic cars. Cruise around Atherton and Los Altos hills or go to downtown PA or the nice parts of cupertino - Ferraris, Astons, Porsches, BMW, Lexus, etc, etc. Even as far as Santa Cruz I have seen plenty of people in their nice sports cars driving fast on 17 all the time.

This notion that "rich people aren't into cars" in northern california is absolutely laughable. Sure there are MORE nice cars in LA, but that's only because LA is a much larger metro area.

I've lived in both the bay and LA and I can tell that this game of "spot the differences" that so many people play are observations based on selection and confirmation bias. You're just looking for evidence that supports ideas you already have.

In my opinion SF and LA are pretty much the exact same culturally. People from SF just hate to admit it.

My impression is that professors get to work with industry on their terms: they only collaborate for specific projects that are of interest to them, and they do it in a non-corporate environment, with students to do most of the dirty work.

My neighbor drives a BMW convertible, pays around 1700/month in rent and is a polisci professor at Stanford.

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