This. I feel like the article is a little bit too negative, but I've been something pretty much similar. I moved to SF, worked for about 4 years, loved it, but then moved back to Europe and realised "oh wow, it IS a bubble".

Now I'm excited to eventually go back to the bay, but it was very valuable to take a step back, go away and think about it!

I'm in the exact same situation as you. Worked here for a couple years then left the bay area for a couple months in between jobs and came back.

Taking a step back allowed me to see how most people live outside of the bay area and how big our bubble is. As you I'm excited to be here but I take everything with a grain of salt.

Everything's a bubble, and that's ok. Wouldn't want every city / region to be the same

When I leave for any length of time, what really strikes me is the entitled impatience. It's always a bit of a shock.

What entitlement do you see?

Lack of self-awareness. Attributing outcomes to merit when such things are often pseudo-randomly distributed. Lots and lots of arrogance, whether overt or subtle.

mistreatment of service workers is absolutely rampant in my experience