I grew up in south SJ and lived in the area for 39 years. I couldn't afford to buy a house where I grew up which wasn't particularly special, it was perpetually haphazardly crappy with uneven sidewalks, terrible roads, and unkempt yards. The core issues for the housing affordability problem are Prop 13, lack of new housing supply, and the gentrification by almost every rich person in the world buying up property and turning it into a Tulip mania. SF is even more insane with delusional and FOMO people obsessed with living there but without the funds or long term plan to afford living there.
Given that tech is now a prime enabler of authoritarianism, I have no love left for SV or doe-eyed engineers lacking a conscience or ethical compass as to what they're actually doing or how they're helping and/or harming society. The Peter Thiel orbiters I met skewed towards Machiavellian creeps, as were about 1/3 of startup people whose "aura" screamed a-hole. There were way too many people I met who were only in software engineering and startups for a big pay{check,day} without much else in the way of curiosity, taste, hobbies, social skills, or critical thinking skills... so not many hacker+painters who could sell something or throw a good party too. The engineers just didn't seem to realize that if they're not also real owners then they're just the help and eagerly fired and replaced with cheaper substitutes. Worker-owned co-ops or meaningful equity or such an employee is wasting their life toiling for someone else who will throw them away and/or underpay them.
Oh well, the zeitgeist of the homebrew computer club sold-out and left the building 3 decades ago.
Given that tech is now a prime enabler of authoritarianism, I have no love left for SV or doe-eyed engineers lacking a conscience or ethical compass as to what they're actually doing or how they're helping and/or harming society. The Peter Thiel orbiters I met skewed towards Machiavellian creeps, as were about 1/3 of startup people whose "aura" screamed a-hole. There were way too many people I met who were only in software engineering and startups for a big pay{check,day} without much else in the way of curiosity, taste, hobbies, social skills, or critical thinking skills... so not many hacker+painters who could sell something or throw a good party too. The engineers just didn't seem to realize that if they're not also real owners then they're just the help and eagerly fired and replaced with cheaper substitutes. Worker-owned co-ops or meaningful equity or such an employee is wasting their life toiling for someone else who will throw them away and/or underpay them.
Oh well, the zeitgeist of the homebrew computer club sold-out and left the building 3 decades ago.