One Year in San Francisco as a Software Engineer
&gt;But when you go home after work, also be prepared to see the dystopia that your industry has created as a by-product.<p>Has this actually been concluded? That it is the &quot;tech industry&#x27;s fault?&quot; Because I feel like I could fence off any claims as such by asking, &quot;well, why didn&#x27;t the government do anything about it?&quot;<p>Based on my experience in multiple major metropolitan areas, the &quot;tech industry&quot; here in SF seems to be the most engaged in &quot;doing something about it&quot; than anywhere else. Is it because the problem is bigger? Maybe they&#x27;re just better at marketing than the companies in other cities? Fair questions. Maybe.<p>I remember reading in the local papers when I lived in Mountain View that Google was going to assign some # of a new housing project they wanted to be low income housing - at my understanding, to be a total loss to them. They were going to build bridges, footpaths, and parks to &quot;offset&quot; the burden of the increased number of residents in Mountain View. I have seen similar from other companies.<p>In Houston, BP nuked the gulf of mexico and then fought <i>everyone</i> over how &quot;responsible&quot; they are for it. Chevron donated some fossils to the Museum of Natural Science. I dunno, I just feel like people are being unduly critical of the tech industry in SF, as if some homeless people poop on the streets because rich engineers ride buses paid for by google. Why isn&#x27;t there better public transit, so the buses aren&#x27;t necessary? Why block the proliferation of scooters and bicycles, so people are far more motivated to take Lyft or Uber? Why aren&#x27;t there more public, 24&#x2F;7 restrooms? And why isn&#x27;t the Oil industry taking more flack for turning Houston into a 75x75 mile square of choking freeways? Because poop is grosser? Grosser than runaway climate change? Poop happens in Houston, too.<p>I just feel like SF is a big giant target, the go-to punching bag, because Big Tech, and yet meanwhile Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Finance, Big Ag gets away with dramatically worse in cost and human suffering.