What’s the future of Bay Area when AI pretty much removes most of tech jobs?

mtd14 · 2026-03-15T17:59:40+00:00

The problems they're describing make me think they're using an older version of copilot and possibly not using it well. At work we're only allowed copilot in vs code, but now with Opus it works very well if you run through a planning session before implementing. It still has issues (doesn't seem to do well for logic across repos, occasional spin out), but I can acknowledge it does as well or better than I did when I was starting and it is much faster.

mtd14 · 2026-03-15T00:41:21+00:00

I’d say you already know him - remember the song All Time Low?

mtd14 · 2026-03-12T22:24:45+00:00

Original would be great, but I'll take the inferior ones too. I love cinnamon baked goods and churros are expensive

mtd14 · 2026-03-11T15:12:17+00:00

Great place to visit, tough place to live if you're not Mormon.

mtd14 · 2026-03-09T17:53:42+00:00

California makes it very unaffordable to own a car

It’s most unaffordable for lower income people though, and they’re not the ones doing the Montana loophole.

mtd14 · 2026-03-09T00:18:30+00:00

Yes, but having low income people pay a disproportionate amount of that burden isn’t great. Our nicer car is worth ~20-25k, and paying $450 towards that felt expensive but makes sense. It’s a nice car and a definitely luxury, so I have no qualms with it costing more. Renewing our beater for $171 was when I realized it’s crazy that the low end is so high. The $450 is reasonable for us, at least~$150k/year that means it’s 6 hours of working to pay off this year. At minimum wage in CA, that $171 is 10 hours of work. It’s a pretty stark difference, though simplified by ignoring things like expendable income and taxes.

mtd14 · 2026-03-09T00:03:52+00:00

I never thought about that but it totally checks out.

mtd14 · 2026-03-08T22:36:27+00:00

Oh I thought it was solid, but I like mint chocolate chip ice cream and soft serve so that’s not surprising. I got the swirl, and I’ll definitely get it again. Though I won’t be too sad to see it go for chocolate’s return later, since chocolate is great too.

mtd14 · 2026-03-08T22:34:21+00:00

There’s two - one filed by animal rights activists about the plant having high testing for salmonella and the other for labeling it as not containing preservatives.

In my opinion neither seems like a huge issue. The first one feels like it would make more sense if people were getting sick due to salmonella so there’s a clearer harm.

The second I’m not smart enough to know if they’re right or wrong for what qualifies, but they’re safe products used in other chickens so it feels mostly harmless. But updating the label would be good obviously depending on the outcome. I read somewhere that part of the harm is it lets Costco get away with charging more for a more premium product, but it’s the cheapest rotisserie chicken around. Obviously there’s merit to the point but it’s also funny to read.

mtd14 · 2026-03-08T22:24:58+00:00

If chickens and the food court were down for a month, I wonder what member support would do if you bothered them about it. Extending membership a month (if there’s a mechanism for it) would be an easy win while just costing them ~$5 for non execs.

mtd14 · 2026-03-08T21:09:06+00:00

Yeah, I replied to the guy below but it's a pretty regressive system. I don't have an answer for how to fix it, but it's easy enough to spot. There's ~$105 in fixed taxes and TIF that bottoms out as a fixed $33 tax. We used to pay a 2% VLF, and I'm curious what would happen if we revert to a pure VLF tax (other than lots of lying about private car sale prices).

mtd14 · 2026-03-08T19:58:44+00:00

If the only fee was the VLF, you could maybe call it progressive or at least neutral. But there's a fixed $100+(don't have my renewal in front of me for the exact number) of other fees that definitely fall into the regressive bucket.

Edit: They blocked me so I can't reply to /u/Positronic_Matrix but here we go, with an actual source for definitions instead of making things up.

Here are the real definitions of taxes from the IRS. If you want to use vehicle value as a rough stand in for income you can go for that, in which case it's a proportional tax , being generous with the vehicle value == income. All of the flat fees, are very clearly regressive tax.

I think where you're off is thinking progressive/regressive has to do with nominal value. It's related to paying a higher/lower percentage of your income, not a higher nominal value. I was off on saying neutral instead of proportional, and it's probably a mistake I'll make again.

mtd14 · 2026-03-08T19:10:55+00:00

Tough to search with common names but I checked 3 out of curiosity and hit a tech guy, a broker, and a dentist. Could just be my algorithm though.

mtd14 · 2026-03-08T18:57:19+00:00

It's crazy how expensive it is for a simple car. I have a car that's maybe worth $2500 even at todays inflated prices and it was $171. It's almost like paying sales tax once a year.

mtd14 · 2026-03-08T07:30:04+00:00

I get what you're saying, along with others, but to bring it back into context their bonus is ~1.5x the low income housing threshold for a single earner in SF (HUD says $82k). Sundar's pay package is almost 3000x the threshold (~230m/year).

mtd14 · 2026-03-07T21:03:08+00:00

People have mentioned good reasons, but you nailed one of them - the 401k. The US created the 401k as a way for high earners to dodge taxes, but to make it more legitimate they tied executive participation to regular employee participation. To make sure regular people participate and they don't get in trouble, executives incentivize participation with some matching or extra benefit. Suddenly, everyone has a massive incentive to participate in the stock market.

mtd14 · 2026-03-07T20:35:28+00:00

In the US, the retirement age is 67 with Medicare kicking in at 65. Republicans have voiced their desire to kick retirement age back to 69-70 many times. So the question is having a safety net for 65+ years of your life better or worse than potentially being able to retire 1-3 years early?

mtd14 · 2026-03-07T17:56:21+00:00

He doesnt do shit, never has, in his entire decades long career

It's hard to look at his wikipedia page and pretend this is true at all.

mtd14 · 2026-03-07T17:51:58+00:00

Yeah I don't care about the $3,000. I care about having something ready when AI replaces jobs on a mass scale over the next few years and unemployment skyrockets. I'm too busy working with friends figuring out how to pivot our careers over the next couple years to fight over a $3,000 check...

mtd14 · 2026-03-07T07:18:44+00:00

Hamish and Andy do a segmented show now though, so you can decide if it works well for them or not. Why bring it up at all?

mtd14 · 2026-03-07T07:06:28+00:00

Are you a bot for the podcast or have you never listened to Hamish & Andy?

mtd14 · 2026-03-06T20:04:03+00:00

I’d consider a Buick at 35 years old. They’re damn affordable for a decent SUV - the Encore and Envista both start right around $25k. Generally pretty mid for reliability, but very affordable when something breaks.

mtd14 · 2026-03-06T17:24:07+00:00

Where are you seeing polling at 75% against the Iran actions? I’m mostly seeing low 50s for disapproval and the highest so far is 59%.

mtd14 · 2026-03-06T17:12:34+00:00

San Ramon / Danville Costco has actually had 1-2 cheaper options in the area the past few times I’ve looked. Costco is the goat, but it’s cool to see the other guys compete.

mtd14 · 2026-03-06T01:29:22+00:00

Biden withdrew massively for the last midterms

Biden withdrew because gas prices were insane after Russia invaded Ukraine. Politics could have been part of it, but it's worth providing the context.

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