That is essentially it - the upper class has the confidence (and safety net) required to take big swings, and the lower class has nothing to lose. The middle class has been conditioned to live conservatively.
It's pretty difficult to define, and the definition will vary person to person. It's similar to asking what makes a good coach? For me it's a combination of energy, attitude, verbal clarity, and also a personality that I find attractive and pleasant, i.e. the type of personality that I'd enjoy spending an hour listening to and taking instruction from. Also of course a sound knowledge of form, technique, and healthy strategy.
The Peloton instructors are also universally the best spin instructors I've ever encountered, and I've been to countless spin class in every large US city over the past decade. Some have come close, but being able to have world class spin instructors in my living room has been the huge selling/sticking point for me.
I'm slightly older than you, so we're both millenials, and I've noticed a lot of my friends sort of struggling with the fact that we're no longer the "young and cool" crowd. The Gen Y/Z TikTok crowd are the cool ones now, and speaking anecdotally the people I know in their late teens and early twenties are quite a bit more sheltered and childish than my friends and I were at that age. We were using fake IDs to get into bars and shows, and my younger cousins are literally spending Friday/Saturday nights inside on social media (pre-Covid).
I think you make a lot of good points here, but I think a little more weight needs to be placed on the "big paychecks" part. When my wife and I bought a house here (in SF) a couple of years ago, we had to make offers on nearly 20 homes over the course of 18 months before we had an offer accepted, and we were coming in with an all cash offer at or above asking price every time. The problem we ran into was that there were usually ~7 offers ahead of us (also all cash obviously, but even higher over asking). The income disparity is so extreme these days, and I hesitate to say "income" because these are not senior engineers at FAANG that we were bidding against, these were people who likely earn 10s of millions a year and/or come from extreme family wealth. The wealth gap really is staggering.
I grew up in the Southeast and went to college there. I've since lived in Palo Alto and SF, and I'm staying in SF for the long haul. There aren't many things that are truly unique to any one city or region, but the reasons why I loved Palo Alto and currently love SF include:
1. the intelligent, interesting, generally well-mannered, and equally laid-back and hardworking people.
2. the weather (heat and humidity are hell to me) - I'm a runner and a cyclist and I love being able to do those things every day of the year in comfort.
3. beautiful nature in my backyard - Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, Mt. Tam, the Berkeley hills, Ocean Beach, day trips to Sonoma, weekend trips to Tahoe, weekend trips to Big Sur, proximity to Yosemite.
4. the walkability of my neighborhood (I live in a nice neighborhood with clean streets and rarely encounter any homelessness - I've still never actually seen a needle anywhere). My favorite sushi restaurant is one block away, 5 craft coffee shops within 3 blocks, Whole Foods within walking distance, multiple restaurants (all of these I have in mind are still open).
5. Biden/Harris flags and bumper stickers everywhere - maybe I enjoy an echo chamber but after spending considerable time in the Southeast, I love being in a solid blue city.
Those jobs that the employees chose to take would not have existed without Josh actually starting the business. He created something. He took the initiative to be a builder and took the risk and responsibility that comes along with that. The investors wrote a check that amounts to peanuts for them. The employees put in their 8hr days and collected a regular paycheck. The founder is the person who deserves the payout here.
I'm glad you pointed this out. I've had this thought floating around in my head for a long while. The only affordable high-density cities I can think of are in Thailand, Africa, and maybe Eastern Europe? I think NYC is our best comparison though... it's actually much more expensive per square foot to buy in Manhattan than it is in SF, and the rental prices are approximately the same.
Does SF really need investment from FAANGs? SF was a pretty awesome city before the tech boom of the 90's + 00's, and currently none of the FAANGs have a major office presence here... FB in Menlo, Apple in Cupertino, Amazon in Seattle, Netflix in Los Gatos, and Google in MV.
Part of the reason why this doesn't happen is because the owner-investors are so wealthy that the 36-72k in rental income would mean nothing to them, and it isn't worth the hassle of being a landlord.
I think it will be big among the population of people who play video games (i.e. young people who aren't strapped for time and energy). As a relatively young adult (30s no kids), I can't imagine fitting anything like this into my day. Wake up at 6am, exercise, work for 8-10hours, eat dinner, then trace an area out on my floor and enter another world while my wife sits on the couch alone? I think the tech is cool, but can't practically fit into my life of real-world responsibilities.
I had my quarter-life crisis at around the same age, but almost the inverse of what you describe. I spent my 20s coasting through undergrad and coasting through my job (read: not caring much about it). I was primarily focused on friendships, dating, and just generally having a lot of fun. Then I hit my late 20s, and after numerous flings and half-serious relationships, I got into a relationship with someone who totally shifted my perspective. I suddenly became extremely ambitious and focused on my career, and stopped the partying and fun-seeking completely. Now I'm chasing the start-up dream and what I feel like most of my peers were focusing on in their 20s.