[elgabogringo]

Sorry, I can't take this post seriously. Some thoughts without trying to get too political:

- I guess he was disappointed by Obama? Join the club.

- "I moved to Silicon Valley" No you didn't, you moved to San Francisco.

- The Bay Area is one of the most naturally beautiful metropolitan areas in the world. Beijing is one of the most polluted. You can have it.

- "I was confused by the sheer amount of narcissistic Ayn Rand followers." Really? Where are they, I've been here 15 years and have yet to find this mythic horde

All told, I'm getting really sick of the Euro-lectures-Americans schtick.

[bogomipz]

I have to question the perceptions and judgement from anyone that managed to live in SF and mentions one of the salient characteristics of its citizens is being an "Ayn Rand follower". Did he mistake the Giants logo for something else? Ditto for someone who equates San Francisco as a place where political and religious discussions are to be avoided. Both of these are just bizarre.

[gbin]

I think he meant in companies.

For example in France, you can openly express your political opinions at lunch with colleagues. By that, I mean you can totally disagree, yell at each other on touchy subjects and then resume your work as nothing happened in the afternoon. That will be the end of it. A political opinion is just that, an opinion and it is totally fun to argue, disagree bringing new points to the table etc.

Arguing on something else than a purely professional matter at your workplace is the last place you want to be here in San Francisco:

First it doesn't fit the local culture of non-confrontation; You'll have confused Californian eyes staring back at you: "You mean everything is NOT awesome ?!?"

Then, you cannot offend anybody, even slightly. Unfortunately it is really easy to do from a French culture where you make points at extremes as examples, use sarcasms or dark humor. You can be sure they'll be taken at face value on the receiver end and reported to HR instantly.

[jernfrost]

As a European I got to say most of us have this experience with the US. I don't know southern Europe so well but in much of Northern Europe we talk about religion and politics all the time. You can always count on your American colleagues getting really uncomfortable about that. There as so many cases of people coming from the US and having stories of how they put their foot in their mouth because they did not realize the social conventions in America does not allow politics and religion to be discussed freely.

I find that American very quickly get offended and visible angry if you aren't very careful about how you speak. As a nordic we are used to speaking quite bluntly and that is frequently interpreted as offensive by Americans.

[Svenskunganka]

> All told, I'm getting really sick of the Euro-lectures-Americans schtick.

What do you mean? I can't help but thinking that your statement is somewhat not related to Silicon Valley and tech, but rather something political (e.g Europeans disliking Trump) or some military/intelligence incident. Am I wrong? Either way, nationalism is only good to some degree.

[durandal1]

For someone raised with American exceptionalism, finding out that the US is a pretty sad place to live can be very hard. There are many great things about the USA, but the lack of societal empathy and general egoism is apparent to most outsiders.

[magic_beans]

The US is an enormous country. Every state, county, city, town, village, hamlet are different. Every block in New York City alone is an entirely new community with different values or joys or hardship.

Those people who "find out" the US is a "sad place to live" haven't found the right place.

[bogomipz]

What is your nationality so others can make sweeping generalizations?

[jernfrost]

"All told, I'm getting really sick of the Euro-lectures-Americans schtick." Oh, please. If it is something Americans are bad at, it is keeping their opinions to themselves and they are loud about it too. If you lecture the rest of the world about how to run their affairs, you can't complain when somebody in the rest of the world criticize you.

I've been subscribing to American news magazines for decades and if there ever was a mention of any problem in Europe, you'd be sure to hear the normal American lecture to the Europeans about how they need to rid themselves of their addiction to their welfare states. Get more flexible labour markets (read, get rid of worker protection laws). Basically the lecture always sums up to be: stop being yourself and be more like us.

If America insists on lecturing us about economics, maybe it should tolerate a European lecture on social policies.