Palo Alto: Teachers->Engineers->Doctors->Lawyers->CEOs->?
This quote really stood out the other day, and I thought I’d bubble it up:
What personality do you need to succeed in Silicon Valley [Burbed.com]
madhaus aka guitar hero Says:
May 29th, 2008 at 12:14 pmbuckborden, yes, your parents are living upper-middle class with those vacations every year. But given their jobs it reminds me of something I heard about Palo Alto back in the late 1980s:
- If you bought here 40 years ago, you’re a teacher
- If you bought here 30 years ago, you’re an engineer
- If you bought here 20 years ago, you’re a doctor
- If you bought here 10 years ago, you’re a lawyer
- If you’re buying here now, you’re a CEOThere is no way that teachers can lead the life your parents have now. Wages depressed in the 1970s due to stagflation, and led to the two-income family becoming the norm; it’s not really clear which one came before the other. I’d bet many of us (who grew up in the US) had better standards of living on one income then many can find in the RBA, or any of the expensive metro areas, on two.
Further proof that Palo Alto is where you want to be. And that was in the late 80’s. Now it’s probably “VMWarer, 2004 Noogler, FaceBooker”.
Success breeds success. So if you want to be successful, better live in the Real Bay Area like Palo Alto.
I wonder what a pithy saying for that would be for Mountain View or Sunnyvale.
Any takers?
June 1st, 2008 at 10:00 am
There is hope:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/01/MN8O10QHQ5.DTL
But note the caveats:
>>Admittedly, the discounts can come with caveats - iffy neighborhoods, maintenance issues
June 1st, 2008 at 1:24 pm
As a lawyer who bought a shack in Palo Alto 5 years ago, I loved this quote. Never heard it before, but it generally fits. Very interesting to hear that the quote dates from the 1980s. Of course now you could change the last line to:
-If you’re buying here now, you are Chinese or Indian and have kids.
Probably more accurate.
June 1st, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Okay, since I read that quote (and I attribute it to Joanne Jacobs in the Murk), I’ll take a crack with it.
Sunnyvale (hey, I know it best)
- If you bought here 40 years ago, you’re a mechanic
- If you bought here 30 years ago, you’re a defense analyst
- If you bought here 20 years ago, you’re a software engineer
- If you bought here 10 years ago, you’re a network engineer
- If you’re buying now, you’re two VMWare engineers who can’t afford Palo Alto
Cupertino
- If you bought here 40 years ago, you were a white techie and you’re moving out because none of your new neighbors are
- If you bought here 30 years ago, you were a white engineer at HP or Tandem but you’re fine with your new neighbors
- If you bought here 20 years ago, you were an engineer of no specific race and you’re fine with your new neighbors
- If you bought here 10 years ago, you were two engineers and you’re fine with your new neighbors
- If you bought here 5 years ago, you’re two engineers and you’re never home to meet your new neighbors
- If you bought here now, you are a 3 generation family with money from Taiwan, China, or India