I just spent a few days down in the area, where I grew up and used to live, and came back to my home. And I can tell you all with certainty- the only reason people are paying this is that they're all in a shared hallucination/brainwashing.

I'll keep my home city a secret for now- it's easy enough to find- but let's see- I make a Valley-sized salary, live in a house with a yard less than 5 miles from downtown that costs about 25% of the equivalent in the Bay Area, my office is about 10% of what Google pays, I never sit in traffic, I work on challenging problems, I can indeed barbecue 12 months out of the year (with the best beer, wine, and meat in the world) and I know a thousand other engineers all doing the same.

Any engineer or entrepreneur staying in the Valley or even SF right now should lose credibility immediately for poor business and lifestyle choice.

And what's happening to SF right now is interesting. It's becoming a suburb- but the poets are still there. Always.