Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 21-Dec-2025 09:42:57 JST Adrianna Tan

   People from out of town who are vaguely into tech are always excited about coming to see the campuses of the big tech companies they know. It’s hard to describe to them how it’s pretty much like coming to see a parking lot, it’s not that exciting, it’s very devoid of life and energy by design

   • Embed this notice
     Chris Petrilli (petrillic@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 21-Dec-2025 09:44:05 JST Chris Petrilli

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte look at this sprawling suburban strip mall!

   • Embed this notice
     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 21-Dec-2025 09:44:34 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     I think it would be impossible to describe the car-centric design of Silicon Valley suburbs and towns to people outside of this country. I know when I first came to visit I was like wtf is this place

   • Embed this notice
     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 21-Dec-2025 09:47:55 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     • jbaggs

     @jbaggs I didn’t even have a mental model for a suburb

   • Embed this notice
     jbaggs (jbaggs@infosec.exchange)'s status on Sunday, 21-Dec-2025 09:47:56 JST jbaggs

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte When my parents moved to the area decades ago, my father described it to my mother as just one sprawling suburb that doesn't end.

   • Embed this notice
     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 21-Dec-2025 09:51:09 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     • Mastodon Migration

     @mastodonmigration I had never seen a suburb in my life until I visited Silicon Valley. I felt very unnerved by it, the way things are car-scaled and not for walking / transit. I still avoid going there

   • Embed this notice
     Mastodon Migration (mastodonmigration@mastodon.online)'s status on Sunday, 21-Dec-2025 09:51:10 JST Mastodon Migration

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte

     True, but it is not unique for CA. Lots of the LA area is the same or worse.

   • Embed this notice
     Jeff Miller (orange hatband) (jmeowmeow@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 21-Dec-2025 09:58:53 JST Jeff Miller (orange hatband)

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte Now that I think about the office buildings of Cupertino, Santa Clara, and along South Bay US 101, the Foothill Expressway and Page Mill Road, they do have a strong flavor of low-rise boxes surrounded by parking lots. A larger corporate campus would have landscaping, breezeways and open courtyards, looking like a community college.

     When I was at Google HQ, they were taking over several of these office boxes every year, limited by the Baylands, US 101, Intuit, and NASA Ames. At least there were Android operating system release mascots to pose alongside, and one city park. Otherwise as you say.

   • Embed this notice
     Luke Kanies (lkanies@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 21-Dec-2025 12:46:52 JST Luke Kanies

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte I grew up in this country, and those areas are hell to me.

     I think it’s the combination of the built world (how car centric it is, how walkable it isn’t ) and the stepford-wives aspect (“we live in the best of all possible places, and everyone here is smart and well educated and beautiful”).

     Like, it sucks. But everyone always acts like it’s awesome. Dude, your food mostly sucks, and there aren’t many choices.

   • Embed this notice
     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 21-Dec-2025 12:50:59 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     • Luke Kanies

     @lkanies San Jose at least has amazing immigrant food, but the car-centricity is still annoying. I never felt as unsafe riding a bike as I do down there.

   • Embed this notice
     Luke Kanies (lkanies@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 21-Dec-2025 13:02:30 JST Luke Kanies

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte yeah I just mean the bits between SF and SJ.

     Palo Alro and Woodside and Mountain View and all that.

   • Embed this notice
     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 21-Dec-2025 13:05:01 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     • Luke Kanies

     @lkanies home of the $35 salad

   • Embed this notice
     Luke Kanies (lkanies@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 21-Dec-2025 13:14:31 JST Luke Kanies

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte god that fucking hotel by Stanford (near the highway, not Palo Alto). I met someone for breakfast there once and they tried to charge me $12 for a latte (in like 2014). And I just guffawed and said “really?”. They took $4 off.

     So, still the most expensive coffee drink I’ve ever had. But hey, it could be worse.

     (Nearly positive I was meeting a VC and wasn’t even paying.) (I’ve been to that hotel lots. Just… that one stood out.)