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Comment by api | Hacker News Reader

"I felt relieved: gone was the posturing so obvious in the previous candidates. They worked in advertising, at startups—Twitter employees who talked about how much money they made and the exotic locales where they took their vacations. Ross was a techie, but he didn't act like one. He seemed eloquent, optimistic, down-to-earth. He seemed trustworthy."

As an aside, that's a sad little bit of commentary on the tech scene these days.

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What an absurd statement by the author.

These people were interviewing for an apartment in a notoriously tough housing market - they were probably just "posturing" (mentioning their good jobs and money) because they thought it would help them get the apartment.

He sounds like an outlier of a landlord who prefers a sketchy semi-employed roommate to one with a guaranteed salary.

In his defense he has to cohabitate with the new tenant, not just collect rent checks from him.

dudes got a right to feel vibes, man.

He's not really a landlord if he's looking for a roommate. I mean, technically he is, obviously, but it's not a traditional landlord - tenant relationship when you're living in the apartment together.

And I'm not sure in what world talking up how much money you make or the vacations you take would endear you to a potential roommate - it'll just make you sound pompous.

In a world where roommates don't always pay their rent on time and in turn screw you because now you have to cover since they're not on the lease. Vetting a roommates's ability to pay rent is not unreasonable.

If you're in SF and the person says they are a techie, they can pay rent. You don't need to go into boastful details about it.

(in any case, you should really be signing a sublease agreement)

Yeah I've totally never run into someone who "owns a startup" and was "actually broke."

Ross Ulbricht did skip out on the rent, after all.

And roommates who make a lot of money but DON'T spend it on exotic vacations and other luxuries are much better than roommates who do spend every penny they make on ephemeral luxuries.

But then again, as long as your roommate has paid his rent in advance, one of the nicest times of the year in San Francisco is when all the burners are out of town.

http://www.jwz.org/blog/2014/08/i-wish-you-could-stay-on-the...

SF is one of those worlds. The rental market is intense, and people look for many ways to stand out. It looks like it worked for this case, just that it's not what they wanted in a roommate.

... and they posture to get jobs, friends, romantic relationships, to feel good about their place in the social pecking order...

I know some such people well.

(shudder)

Did you read TFA? It says they were both subletters and were not on the same lease. He wasn't a landlord, he wasn't on the hook for Ulbrich's half of the rent. He wanted a friend, not a tool for a roommate.

"Both Ross and I were subletters, so we never signed the same lease."

Actually, I will pick somebody to be real over "posturing." I hate people who try to be "showy" more and refrain from easing up occasionally.

I know this is converse to the way the "professional" world is and also converse to people who play along the rules of professionalism.

But dammit, it ain't real! And it needs to stop! Be who you are! And then change it from the inside out, if you need to.

The problem is if "who you are" is a quiet, fairly shy person, you will get run over by everybody in SF. Just my opinion. I've been to 40 different states and met people from all of them. The SF crowd has very little empathy towards other adults. Abandoned dog? Theyll adopt right away. Child with a peanut allergy? Theyll murder every peanut in sight and ban peanut butter city-wide. Grown adult trying to just find a place to live or get a decent job? You're entirely on your own.

I've seen fake empathy used more here to play people than legit empathy to help another adult struggling.

Also, it's as if only "normal people" act normally, when in reality even sociopaths tend to be very normal -- they enjoy music, good food and like having fun. I'm sure Saddam had a very human profile himself, so it befuddles me why people insist on contrasting people's humanness with their other activities, however abnormal some aspects might be.

Sounds like what I've heard about 1999. Sign of a bubble?

Definitely a sign of a bubble. Especially when reality is extremely close to the feelings expressed in that statement.

Nice observation guys, one I've wondered about myself. And totally off topic to the thread. Question is: how to prepare for the burst? I tend to think the current bubble is related to Fed policy, so when the money supply tights up, so will salaries. Just my two cents here.

Edit: Yay! down votes!

My guess is they are because your comment has nothing to do with anything being discussed.

I was referring to the collapse in software development jobs after the 'first internet bubble' burst in 01-02 and extrapolating another jobs collapse after this bubble bursts. Guess people here don't have that perspective.

> I tend to think the current bubble is related to Fed policy

Not relevant to the discussion, or the 01-02 burst, or salaries, or anything else.

Good thing that was just my .02, as indicated. Surely no one would down vote a personal opinion, clearly marked as such?

they would downvote a personal opinion.

and don't call him shirley.

Someone else mentioned it, but you have to stand out when applying for a room in SF. Fairly-priced rooms (~$1200/mo) will go in less than 36 hours of posting.

I know several people who have "Renter's" resumes, where they try to sell themselves as awesome people to live with. My guess is he is remembering them only because of the renter market effects.

If anything, it's a sign of a property bubble in SF.

There were tons of insufferable dotcom jackasses in SF in 1999, but the industry was smaller so they weren't EVERYWHERE.

Modern day Silicon Valley is Wall Street's younger brother. The exact manifestations may differ, but the underlying psychology is analogous.

This isn't even necessarily "bad" objectively (though it could be bad subjectively depending on who you are). It's just how it is now.

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