70 story high rise in Atherton and Belmont! That will be the day :-)
I quite liked the Peninsula. SF wasn't really my cup of tea. God forbid people like me that lived on the Cliffs of Despair (Pacifica) and were relatively happy.
Sales reset the property taxes on properties. It was one of a few reasons I didn't buy a home in the Bay Area a few years back. Probably should have, my buddy that bought his house for 500k in the city is sitting on probably 1.2-1.4m now. Not bad for 3-4 years appreciation.
I live in Oklahoma currently. I have done 5 of the startups in OK, one in CA (SF) and one in Texas.
You make choices in life and there are tradeoffs. I don't have kids nor do I anticipate having any. If they come, so be it. I partially left the Bay Area because I couldn't see even raising a hypothetical family there. That, the sticker shock never completely wore off and I never donned my rose colored glasses either :-)
I can afford to do it until the day I die. I've set myself up rather nicely in that regard. I'd be retired already if it weren't for my startups & first marriage. But being retired in your mid 30s sounds boring as well (I'm in my 40s now). However, I waffle on that position, so take it with a grain of salt.
Depends on how you define success and failure. I've had 7 failed startups (#8 is in the process of failing at the moment). I consider them all failures because I didn't end up with FU money. Funny thing is startup 6 & 7 really got me close.
Although, even if I won a billion dollar lottery, I'd still move on to startup #9. Half the fun is in the building anyway :-)
American Indian tribes/nations have this down too. Chickasaw is booming here in Oklahoma. That doesn't count all the casinos where money is flowing out the back doors as well.
I've worked with fantastic developers without a degree. Typically, I've had to point out gaps in their understanding of the "why" behind things. I also had these shortcomings because I had an MIS degree. The difference when working with CS graduates is simple business knowledge seems to be their shortcoming. So working in accounting, finance, etc. they have a knowledge gap.
No one comes out of college knowing it all, it's just figuring out where your shortcomings are and always trying to fill in those gaps. I'm a mediocre software developer at best. However, I'm better than about 90% of the people I've worked with (IMO). The 10% that are better than me I strive to learn from and discuss topics constantly instead of being intimidated by their expertise.
If companies would simply hire good people and make growing them into well rounded developers, they'd have a hell of a lot better return on their investment than simply having a checklist of "employee must have" when hiring.
I'm on (failed) startup #8 at the moment with one of these friends. Our primary goal is to hire people that haven't had job experience in the field so we can train them on the proper ways to build software (well, our opinions on what's "right"). Assuming we ever get to the point of replacing ourselves. :-)