Ask HN: What are the drawbacks of living outside the bay area?
If moving to Silicon Valley, what are the drawbacks, if any, of living in, say, Half Moon Bay or somewhere similar? Is the traffic bad? Is it a drag on nightlife, etc.?
40 minutes to Cupertino with no traffic on I-280.
37 minutes to Palo Alto Square.
A mere 30 minutes (no traffic) to El Camino in Redwood City, but does Redwood City even count as Silicon Valley? It's certainly on the edge.
40 minutes to Mission Street in SF.
All these numbers are Google's estimates and are subject to going way up when traffic is happening.
Though I've never looked, my hypothesis is that Half Moon Bay is not substantially cheaper for rent than either SF or the Valley. There are fewer people, but there is also a smaller supply of housing, and the relative size of the rental market is smaller.
And, in the absence of a tremendous bargain on rent or an irrepressible love of daily walks along foggy Pacific beaches, I'd rather live right next door to something. Live next door to the night life, or live next door to work, but don't commute 40 minutes to everything.
If you want water to look at SF offers many pretty vistas and has the virtue of being the local nightlife. Commute to Silicon Valley is nasty but you'll at least have lots of company.
If I thought I loved Half Moon Bay so much that I wanted to try living there, here is what I would do: Rent some temp housing next door to work. Then, every day after work, drive to Half Moon Bay. Spend a few hours picnicing, admiring the water, etc and then drive home. That experience will be just like living there, except you'll only fight rush hour once instead of twice per day and your kitchen and bed will be on the wrong side of the mountains. After a month of that, plus some local research and side trips, you'll be able to answer your own question.
If you want better nightlife options you can live in millbrae and take bart up to the city. It is unfortunate but BART doesn't go all the way to san mateo.