> 5) Silicon Valley also has an insidious infection that is spreading -- a peculiar form of McCarthyism (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism</a>) masquerading as liberal open-mindedness. I'm as socially liberal as you get, and I find it nauseating how many topics or dissenting opinions are simply out-of-bounds in Silicon Valley.<p>I experienced this first-hand last weekend. My friend throws dinner parties where we discuss a different philosophical topic each time. The topic of last dinner party was sexual harassment and sexual agency. One person stormed off at the beginning because she got offended at the topic and ostensibly some mild language my friend used in a hypothetical situation. He was later crucified on social media.<p>When I was growing up, it was the right that constrained discussion while the left pushed boundaries. Now more often the left constrains speech. Rather than air positions in the marketplace of ideas, they would rather bully, shame and act offended at things they disagree with.
For some reason I was expecting it to be fluff but it's actually a really poignant, self-aware breakdown about the cons of SF and the quest to pursue happiness.<p>This stands out:<p>> Even though Silicon Valley has the highest concentration of brilliant people I've found anywhere in the world, it also has the highest concentration of people who think they're brilliant. The former are often awesome, keenly self-aware, and even self-deprecating (let's call that 15% of the population), but the latter are often smug, self-satisfied, arrogant, and intolerable (let's call that 60% of the population).<p>Which is why it's funny that people think trolls are an online phenomenon. They are simply a reflection of a real-world in which most people are (subjectively perhaps) those you neither want to talk nor listen to.<p>The difference is that online, the filter of proximity and permission that works so beautifully to delineate our offline relationships, is void.
<i>3) Silicon Valley is often a culture of cortisol, of rushing, and of fear of missing out (FOMO). There is also a mono-conversation of tech that is near impossible to avoid (much like entertainment is some parts of LA), where every dinner has some discussion of rounds of funding, investing, and who is doing what with Uber, Amazon, or someone else. This can be dodged, but it takes very real and consistent effort. I don't want to spend 20-30% of my daily mental calories on avoiding the mono-conversation.</i><p>Sydney has this problem, except the conversation topics are real estate, what high school you went to, and gym memberships.
I'm not very fond of Tim's product, but I agree with him in his perspectives on SF and the Bay Area in general. Too much of it feels toxic at this point, and it has felt that way (to me) since about 2011 or so. It pushed me further and further into a state of introversion. While I used to go out and talk to people, I got tired of people wanting to talk "the mono-conversation" as he called it. It's been great for professional development as I have a lot more time to tinker with things, but it certainly hasn't helped me too much socially. I don't really care about who's funding who, who paid for what, what shit that founder just bought in Hayes Valley, or who's sleeping with whomever. I just want to poke at things, find bugs, and make shit.
He's so right about #5. See what's happened to Peter Thiel. People were calling for him to be fired because he supported a major party nominee. That's not a good sign for so many reasons.
I left too, but apparently actually enjoy the cortisol rush. I moved to NYC because I liked the ambition in SF but not the monoculture of having all that ambition in one industry.<p>For people who are wondering about the mono-culture, the question to be asking is "Does my job actually make a positive difference in the world?" Quite often the pay makes you feel like it does, but the actual work is meaningless or harmful to society.<p>Ignorance is bliss, so maybe don't ask yourself that question. But if you do care, it is an extremely hard question to get to the bottom of. I bet the founders of Twitter and Facebook really did think they had made the world a better place, but now that's much less clear.<p>In any case, it warms my hear to imagine Tim and his dog in Austin--truly a great American city. Love it there.
Do any of us actually <i>want</i> to live in the Bay Area?<p>If you like cities then New York is bigger, denser, more diverse, less poop, has a public transportation system that actually works, and yet somehow the rent is cheaper. If nature or beaches are your kinda thing there's Oregon and Hawaii not far away. Want urban sprawl and traffic? Los Angeles has San Menlo Alto beat (but not by much).<p>But, for those of us in tech, the opportunities here are unlike anywhere in the world. And, despite all the drawbacks of the Bay, there's just something inspiring about being here with the leaders and top experts in our field.
> Golden Gate and tech are terrorist targets, and I don't like being close to the bullseye.<p>This has been on the top of my mind more than I would like lately, what with the ramped up rhetoric coming out of the white house regarding North Korea -- to the point of considering actual plans for how to deal with such an event. Does anyone here have any thoughts on how to assess the risk of this, or is it just irrational?
> The people are also -- in general -- much friendlier.<p>This is the biggest factor for me as someone who grew up in Texas and is now in Los Angeles<p>I feel like this happens in cities with a lot of transplants. Most people move to big cities because they are (or think they are) the best at what they do. That makes it difficult for me to know who to trust since I don't know off the bat if someone is talking to me because they are genuinely nice or because they want to see if I can be used to help them achieve their goals. It's a vicious cycle because it causes me to put my guard up and in turn be less friendly than I am with people I really know.
But I agree 100% with Tim. You couldn't pay me to live in SF or California again. Liberal leftist gestapo run wild have destroyed the entire state. SF in particular.
I lived in Austin for 2 years after being in Boston, NY, Hong Kong and LA. Have to say I was bored out of my mind in Austin. The "music scene" is typically a guy with a guitar hopping up on a stage somewhere at 11pm. The outdoors = one lake in the middle of town and a very few hiking trails. NO arts scene or galleries to speak of. The culture revolves mainly around drinking. It's a city for obnoxious Millennials and all the people who got sick of CA and and now bringing all that to Austin. Sorry, but many people I know who lived in Austin for years have left for Utah, Idaho, Colorado - even places like Nashville and Columbus. Hope Tim likes it more than I did!