patrick.net

“Our concentration in San Francisco is not serving us any longer, and we will strive to be a far more distributed workforce, which we will use to improve our execution,” Dorsey said on Twitter’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday, adding that he expects to spend time traveling this year.

San Francisco, while always posing a unique set of challenges, has become an unmanageable place for many companies as they look to expand. It commands the highest salaries of any U.S. city and has some of the most expensive real estate, both commercial and residential. Meanwhile, there are hundreds of nearby companies, including the most valuable in the world, ready to poach your top developers and sales reps.

They should also point out the mass homelessness and shit and needles in the streets.

Twitter, gtfo

Patrick says

They should also point out the mass homelessness and shit and needles in the streets.

I have worked as a 1099 for California companies living in Florida. I do have to pay California income tax as a 1099. California Franchise Tax Board is very aggressive at getting their taxes from out of state workers who are paid by California companies.

I suspect more California companies will outsource work or reduce its dependency on in-state workers.

I don't get it about Google.

On a daily basis, I see the Googlers get on their SF bound buses around 5-5:15. It's a long slog to SF, even in the HOV lanes. I know this from occasionally driving in that lane, around that same time, for weeknight evening events in SF. It's even longer for those buses to crawl along in the street traffic to the various drop points after they get off 101.

Occasionally I've found myself driving SB on 101 during the afternoon/evening commute. I've seen the Armada of Google buses, bus after bus heading NB on the opposite side of the freeway in stop-and-go traffic. They start to appear around 3:30 PM ish, and I've seen them as late as 7-ish.

How productive can these folks be, spending 3-4 hours per day on the road? Yes, I know, they're all madly working away on their laptops while riding on the bus. More productive than at the office cubicle?

Are they really that oh-so-much-more talented than folks who can work from a laptop outside of the Bay Area, as to make all the hassle and expense worth it for the company and its stockholders?

Somewhere else with a more comfortable affordable place to live, on a lower salary? Is the Bay Area really that so much more magical, - that these folks are even more creative and productive living the way they do, than if they were anywhere else?

How Hip is it to live in the MIssion if you step off the G-bus after 7 PM and then hafta step back on in twelve hours?

Oh yeah, check out the roads in the morning commute. The Armada of G-buses is still on the clogged freeways even up to 10 AM. Really? That much more productive?

Homie is Skeptical.

Google docs, sheets, and Gmail are some huge piles of crap at this point. There isn't much good work going on. At Google.

Yeah, the big techs need to decentralize and have a more distributed workforce spread out across the country.

Just like NAVSEA has its headquarters (HQ) at the Navy Yard in Washington DC, and then all its work centers spread out across the country in Florida, Maryland, Virginia, California, etc.

The program managers or program executive officers are the the HQ and the workers are at the work centers.

Before video conferencing and emails there was a lot of reliance on biweekly program conference phone calls and also weekly fax reports of cost/schedule/performance (i.e., contract performance reports, etc.).

I think some of this was driven by politics as that is how the Pentagon is able to distribute taxpayers money as well as ensure not all its workers are under one roof.

I think some of this was driven by politics as that is how the Pentagon is able to distribute taxpayers money as well as ensure not all its workers are under one roof.

Bingo. Like how the B-1 bomber contractor made sure to have suppliers in nearly every state.

HeadSet says

I think some of this was driven by politics as that is how the Pentagon is able to distribute taxpayers money as well as ensure not all its workers are under one roof.

Bingo. Like how the B-1 bomber contractor made sure to have suppliers in nearly every state.

I've seen some supply chain diagrams and organizational charts for major acquisition programs like the Littoral Combat Ship and F-35 fighter.

Lockheed's HQ is on top as Level 1 (i.e., prime contractor) and the diagrams and charts list the Level 5 companies/suppliers.

One thing about corporate political survival mechanism (or any politics) is that you always have to be personally close to the decision making centers or have a trusted confidant and advisor close to these centers. Run too far afield, decisions get made above and around you and you are the last to know or participate.

California demonstrates that you can get masses to compete viciously, even when what they are competing for doesn't exist any more. Da Weather? When it's not traffic jam-ey, earthquake-ey, mud slide-ey, flash flood-ey, choking smok-ey, or grid shut down-ey.

If wake up call becomes epidemic is when the pedal hits the metal, and what will be left over afterwards?

Even the country areas where things are cheaper, they are full of cultisits, weirdos, Seventh Day Adventists, Mormon outposts, bikers and meth heads and labs, marihuana farmers, small towns with vicious cliques and welfare suckers scrimping by. The Central Valley? Well, let's not go there.