Live closer to work? LOL. Let's see, where are these companies located? Cupertino, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Menlo Park... Where STARTER homes are $1 million??? In the Bay Area it is impossible for a regular tech worker to live close to work. Your only real option is a long commute. I'd rather do it in an air conditioned bus with my laptop open than in my old beater with the fan on and my blood pressure rising...

The bus stops at your home's front door?

The cost of living is much more than 2X, especially for housing, which can be up to 10X the cost of normal areas in the USA. When I moved out here from "flyover" land, my salary increased by about 1.5X but my cost of living practically tripled. It was not a good deal.

There is no serious public transport system between SF and the South Bay/Peninsula (or between tri-valley area and South Bay/Peninsula, or really between anywhere and South Bay/Peninsula). There's only Caltrain which is a sad joke. These companies are stepping up BECAUSE the government has failed. /Disclaimer, I do not work for a company that provides such bus service, but would love to--it's a HUGE benefit to not have to commute yourself 3+ hours to/from work

How about 1m x 1m resolution in 14 characters: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_grid_reference_system

Yea, gotta say, those are pretty awful job postings. I'm not surprised you'd have trouble filling those positions. They basically just include lists of ways HR will try to disqualify me. They tell almost nothing about what I'd be doing, why I'd want to do it, what makes the opportunity so special or distinct. I mean, as written, minus company names, those job descriptions could apply to half the companies in the valley.

Nobody cares that a company combines and* award winning communications platform with best-in-class reputation and networking tools into one powerful web-based application that seamlessly integrates with existing workflow systems to help businesses build oh my god my brain is leaking out onto the floor out of boredom already

*LOL typo

I'm sorry, what exactly makes Waze's talent "top" as opposed to any other software company out there that could get bought?

And if Google is hurting for talent (something tells me it isn't), surely they could hire people for less than $12 million per head in this difficult job market.

The only talented person in this transaction was whoever convinced Google to pay over $1.2B.

Why do you use envelopes for snail mail? Do you have something to hide? I think you should be investigated unless you put your letter in a clear ziploc bag with a stamp on it.

Unlikely. People that are good at implementing solutions are not always the same people that are good at envisioning them. My experience is that techies are the worst people to have at a brainstorming session. When an idea is floated, instead of expanding on it, they start nitpicking the technical details. Example: The people on the plane came up with some interesting and provocative ideas, and nearly every comment here is "This won't work because ...."

But they did not come up with interesting nor provocative ideas. "Education is good"--wow, that's provocative. They came up with boring, politically correct, half-ideas that won't be implemented because no participant can or needs to (they're already rich and successful). In reality, what happened was: Silicon Valley's self-professed "elite" got onto a plane and pitched half-baked "ideas" at each other for hours and saying STEM a lot. By "elite" we mean "people who substitute money for brains and talk for ability". Basically venture capitalists, CEOs, and "founders" taking a few hours to brainstorm ridiculous ideas, unburdened from actually having to fund or build any of it.

Your housing expense should be about 28% of your salary, which at $100K is a monthly rent of $2333. It is do-able if you're single, but not if you have a family and kids. Forget buying a house and settling down though, a decent house in a safe neighborhood with decent schools is going to run you over $500K.

I don't know where you live, but where I live, making as little as $70K means you're eating ramen noodles and need to find a few roommates to afford rent. Forget starting a family.

Using a single income figure as a cutoff is kind of pointless. With $100K you can live like a king in Middle Of Nowhere, USA. With $100K in San Francisco or New York City you'll barely be able to afford rent.

A lot of tough talk, but what can everyday Americans do to change their government?

Join a militia to do some group violence? Hear that--that's a drone coming, you've got about 10 seconds...

Go solo against the government? Enjoy your one-way ticket to a secret prison somewhere.

Civil disobedience? How does spending the rest of your life in prison sound?

March in protest? Worked in the 60s, not anymore, unless you like a mouthful of pepper spray and a tear gas canister shot into your skull.

Vote? LOL

LOL I've seen the "resign then offer to contract" stunt work maybe once, for one guy, during my 15 year career. Try it, and more than likely you'll get a response from the boss: "Well..... bye."

LOL I'd love to hear that conversation actually happen. Beautiful.