I had a long commute in Austin, and before that, in Houston. I'll never do it again. No amount of money can make up for the time lost, or the impact on mental well-being. Now that I'm transitioning myself out of "gotta work every waking minute" startup mode, and into "sustainable life that includes building a company, but also has time for friends and hobbies", I've realized I'm spending an awful lot of time on the Caltrain going up to the city to meet up with friends and do things (the kind of thing I like to do is see and take part in great live music, comedy, theatre, etc. in small venues, and pretty much none of that happens in Mountain View). Since I don't have an office to go to every day down here on the peninsula, it's kinda dumb for me to stay here.
And then it's cool for a short period of time, but pretty soon days fade into weeks and every time you dread it, especially when you realize its 45 minutes each way. Suddenly you're spending 10% of your waking time (which is like 40% of your free time) commuting and before you know it you're looking on Monster.com/eHarmony again.
Just a cycle I've observed many times that seems to occur with 100% frequency, though oddly I've never had either a job or girlfriend who was over 15 minutes away.