Minnesota or Alaska. Summer is three weeks long. 
Woah! That totally sucks. I donât think she should blame herself though. Once youâve moved, you do your best to make things work. Iâm sure this has been an education for her, that will make her all the wiser.
The people who clearly will suffer the most are those who lent the money.
Iâve been hearing those same comments my entire life in the BA. âThe next generation is priced out.â I was sure I was one of them.
And, Iâve shared that I know a lot of people over the years that have relocated elsewhere quite happily.
But I know at least as many that have stayed. And somehow made a life here.
Patience Grasshopper. Patience.
Oh, and a plan. Save, save, save. Look, look, look. Be ready to move at the first solid opportunity. Compromise! One canât have everything they want.
Besides, we canât all live in SF or even Orinda for that matter. We have to spread out a bit more.
Have you ever looked at the job listings on Beyond.com and followed up? This kind of crap is all over the place. Iâve responded to a few of those ads and talked to some of the principals.
I learned long ago that anyone can hold themselves out to be a business entity, advertise for jobs and be about as legitimate as the gambling center that was set up in âThe Stingâ for that grift. There are tell tale signs that they are grasping as straws and will use and abuse you as long as youâre willing to play along. Starting with how they interview you.
Back in 1982 or so, I was working for a startup that had expanded nationwide and had about 500 employees that had been bought out recently by a reputable, longstanding firm headquartered in Dayton, OH. That firm was publicly traded but family owned. a la Ford. Theyâd been around since the early 1900s.
The VP from that midwestern firm that oversaw us came up with this brilliant idea for a joint venture with H&R Block and developed a plan with them. It was basically moving from batch processing tax services on a mainframe to offering the same tax services on PCs in the clientâs offices.
IBM PCs had just come out. I think they were up to the XT then IIRC. We didnât even call them PCs. They were called microcomputers and the old time programmers on our IBM 370 system laughed at them and said theyâd never amount to anything for business.
It sounded exciting.
We went out and hired some ten or twenty programmers to get the project off the ground. Most came from out of the area. Many from LA. They moved their families up here one week. Came to an orientation the following weekâŚand received pink slips with two weeks pay on Friday of that second week!
It turned out that brilliant son had only a verbal agreement from H&R Block and, when they found out we werenât using IBM branded equipment for the venture, they pulled the plug and walked away.
Brilliant son (VP) got to retain his position and pay. The poor schlubs that had relocated for this opportunityâŚwell, I donât know how they fared. I never got to know any of them. The shock factor for all of us was beyond belief.
It was a good life lesson about not trusting employers. Even ones with longstanding and conservative reputations.
While I agree in general that one can stay in this region and make a go of it, it certainly is a challenge especially with everything going up. This region is super competitive though IN EVERYTHING and you really canât sit on your laurels and just think you can skate by. I mean, my wife and I both work full-time and we have positive cash flow from the rentals and we still think we are just middle of the road folks. Now, granted we donât have any kids and we both were not born with silver spoons so that has helped us stay grounded and alert.
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An NYT article on China going big on startups, and Hangzhou has the star mention:
The Chinese government is investing directly in a huge number of startups. I know the standard American conventional wisdom is that government doesnât know what it does in investment and itâs best left to private sector. I know that argument. But I am excited to see China trying another strategy and challenging this conventional wisdom.
Told you Hangzhou is challenging SV 
. Chinese government is always wary of the Southern Province, probably because Nationalists originated from Guangdong and Fujian. IMHO, shenzhen is super without any government help.
Read that article. Amazing. The help is mostly provided by provincial governments. And yes Shenzhen is in the game too. The whole China is in. The scale of government support is unprecedented.
Iâm aware of this trend from the numerous talks by Jack Ma. He is giving many talks to encourage entrepreneurship in China especially Hangzhou.
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No way