I lived in SV (specifically, in Sunnyvale) for a year, somewhere around 10 years ago. The rent was absurd, the stable job opportunities were crap, the apartment was laughable (and not in a safe part of the neighborhood), and the pay for a full time job in the QA industry (which took several months of doing temp work to get) was barely enough to live on from month to month.

I don't regret leaving. Moving to a small town in Montana (of course, we don't really have any big towns in Montana) gave me an immediate salary hike, lower rent, and a company which was willing to foster me up through the ranks to development. There have even been enough opportunities to switch jobs when I wanted harder work.

> What's, really, the upside of living in Palo Alto?

Good question.