Michael, you tend to make interesting points that get brushed under the rug because you can't resist throwing your hobby horse issues into every conversation.
"mainstream business culture of entitled executives and board-whores"
This ignores the huge and growing influence of engineer-led companies, YC empowering founders vs financiers, and technical VCs like a16z. The tech leadership here is miles better on average than any other city I've worked in or know through friends.
"Snapchat and Clinkle setting the tone in the current Valley"
I know these companies piss you off, but they're not setting the tone in the Valley. They're more like an NBA player getting a max contract without making the playoffs. Google, Facebook, Apple, Twitter are all waaaaaaay more important than anyone taking VC money right now. And if you're talking about "hot topic" companies, Whisper and Secret are relevant now than either of the two you mentioned.
"rents becoming unaffordable"
This is not a tech issue, this is a structural local government land use issue present everywhere in the US but more of an issue here because of SV's wealth (vs income) generation.
"no-poach agreements all over the Valley"
This is a big deal for a large number of employees, but Facebook crashed that party years ago, and it didn't apply to startups anyway. Besides, breaking that cartel probably raised rents even more.
This ignores the huge and growing influence of engineer-led companies, YC empowering founders vs financiers...
Do you think that engineer-driven companies are increasing? It seems to be going the other way. Maybe the bad guys aren't more numerous than before, but they've learned to speak our language. There are plenty of companies with horrible culture/management that claim to be doing machine learning and take in just enough talent to convincingly tell a story (see: Knewton, which presents itself as a "big data" company but (a) isn't really doing ML, and (b) has the worst kind of MBA culture).
I'd love to see you be right. I do think that, if you exclude elite tech-literate hedge funds, the Bay Area is still the most progressive employment culture in the U.S. That's damning with faint praise. It still has a lot of trash that I hope will be taken out when the bubble ends.
The tech leadership here is miles better on average than any other city I've worked in or know through friends.
I think you're right, sadly. For as much awfulness as there is in the Bay Area, I feel like the technical culture in the rest of the country is even less evolved.
The ethics are (surprisingly?) better in top hedge funds, and there's more of a meritocracy, but (a) that's not a very useful economic sector and (b) it can't scale up and employ more than a small number of elite people.
Google, Facebook, Apple, Twitter are all waaaaaaay more important than anyone taking VC money right now.
Point taken. But Google uses closed allocation and while that may be the right thing for Google, the idea that any company can be a cultural leader in technology (which Google still is, at least in reputation) and run closed allocation is cataclysmic.
this is a structural local government land use issue present everywhere in the US but more of an issue here because of SV's wealth (vs income) generation.
Fair point. The (mostly undeservedly) hated "techies" are almost an entirely separate set from the NIMBYs who are causing the problem.
The issue with rent, though, is that it encourages bad culture. Manhattan doesn't magically turn people into assholes, and neither does San Francisco. But when people absolutely need to be employed 12 months out of the year or risk total financial catastrophe, they can be taken advantage of in ways that you wouldn't see in more affordable locales, and that attracts... the kinds of people who want to exploit a pool of captive labor.
I don't know if the ratio of engineering led companies is growing, but with Twitter and Facebook going public instead of getting acquired, AirBnB, Dropbox and Github all getting huge, and Zuck's approach to big acquisitions so far (founders of Instragram, WhatsApp, and Oculus still running those companies), technical founders seem like they have more expectation of staying in control than before. I can't see any big tech co now bringing in a "grown up" a la early Apple or even Eric Schmidt at Google. And as an employee, it's super easy to find authentically tech-driven companies.
The "increasing" I mentioned had much more to do with a16z's surging influence and success as a VC.
"Knewton"
Never heard of Knewton, there are always going to bad examples. But you only work for one company at a time, and since there are so many great companies here, the bad apples don't matter as much. Bad/weak/deceptive companies are much more dangerous in smaller, thinner tech job markets (basically everywhere outside of SV/SF/NYC/Seattle/Boston).
And yes, the salaries in tech don't matter because tech workers without successful founder equity are still collateral damage between rich powerful companies and rich powerful property owners. I love my career intangibles here but I don't feel richer despite a big pay raise when I moved.
"mainstream business culture of entitled executives and board-whores"
This ignores the huge and growing influence of engineer-led companies, YC empowering founders vs financiers, and technical VCs like a16z. The tech leadership here is miles better on average than any other city I've worked in or know through friends.
"Snapchat and Clinkle setting the tone in the current Valley"
I know these companies piss you off, but they're not setting the tone in the Valley. They're more like an NBA player getting a max contract without making the playoffs. Google, Facebook, Apple, Twitter are all waaaaaaay more important than anyone taking VC money right now. And if you're talking about "hot topic" companies, Whisper and Secret are relevant now than either of the two you mentioned.
"rents becoming unaffordable"
This is not a tech issue, this is a structural local government land use issue present everywhere in the US but more of an issue here because of SV's wealth (vs income) generation.
"no-poach agreements all over the Valley"
This is a big deal for a large number of employees, but Facebook crashed that party years ago, and it didn't apply to startups anyway. Besides, breaking that cartel probably raised rents even more.