[endymi0n]

Writing from a German startup right now, I can't quite follow the author here. Granted - German copycats and especially the Samwer Brothers have brought some bad feelings into the community... but Berlin is getting better and bolder every day. It's basically almost all the goodness from Silicon Valley, but without the hype and craze. It's a friendly, crazy and green city with great work ethics - you don't live for working, you work for a living. Contrary to the article, accelerators, VC funding and the war for talent have long arrived here for sure - but it's all still pretty calm and well-thought out. Maybe there's still a little less innovation here, but on the other side, it's much harder to get funding without a business model that makes sense. Color definitely wouldn't happen here. We got all the cool things and conferences, but I'm pretty glad we're doing it the German way: No hire and fire, health insurance for everyone and the income disparity feels just so much more just compared to the states. I once thought of moving over to Silicon Valley, but by now I'm pretty glad that everything I want has moved over here without bringing the TSA, mass surveillance, corporate politics, discussion about the validity of evolution, a deadlocked two-party system and a growing helplessness over the unstoppable and unlimited capitalism that's ruining society already over there. All the best from Berlin - and if you feel the same, maybe it's time to come over? Dom

[davidw]

There are no corporate politics in Germany? That's pretty awesome.

In all seriousness though, you're cherry picking some of the bad stuff about the US. I'm sure if you wanted, you could do the same thing about Germany or anywhere else. For instance: the weather, the lack of anything remotely resembling a mountain near Berlin, and, most importantly, the lack of good Mexican food.

[zalew]

> the lack of anything remotely resembling a mountain near Berlin

Bavaria and Switzerland are not that far. Polish Sudety even closer and much cheaper.

> most importantly, the lack of good Mexican food.

Tex-mex is an American obsession. In Europe we have mediterranean. A doner-kebab is for us what a taco is to you, and say what you want, but kebab is a snack there's no shortage of in Berlin.

[davidw]

Perhaps I've been conditioned by living in Europe, but my definition of "not far" means I can ride my bike to it!

Kebabs are great (we have them here too in Italy), but sorry, I'll take good Mexican food any day:-)

[zalew]

> but my definition of "not far" means I can ride my bike to it

haha, well... I thought of going for a weekend, not after work. There are a few nice Mexican restaurants in Warsaw, so I know the deal, still sadly mex didn't somehow fall into the 'grab a taco and walk' category as I see on American movies, this space is totally occoupied by kebabs.

(btw, HN could display a country next to the nickname, so there's no "oh, you're not from the US too".)

[derrida]

The kebabs are something else in Berlin. Much more like a Taco than those greasy things you see elsewhere in the world.

[zalew]

Greesy kebabs with a lot of sauce 'spicy, mild or mix?' are a European invention I think. I've been to a few middle-eastern countries including Turkey and haven't seen sauce in kebab ever (still they give sauce in Berlin).

[derrida]

That is because they are Shwarma's and are completely different again. The kebab is a Berlin invention (according to TimeOut Berlin). Which makes sense, a marriage of the German sausage + bread culture with some dish from the middle east.

[yxhuvud]

If nothing else, putting kebab on pizza is pretty European ..

(Yes, including the sauce!)

[erikabele]

though not really Mexican we have Dolores here in Berlin - as good as calimex can get!

[endymi0n]

Let me rephrase. Of course there's corporate politics here. There will always be because greed is a very human trait. The difference is that greed is something commonly seen much more positive in the US. We just fired our president because of a "corruption scandal" that would have been piecemeal for Romney or Berlusconi (we're talking about some couple thousand bucks here). It's one of the first countries with a politically meaningful and rapidly growing movement for net neutrality and liquid democracy (-> pirate party). I wasn't trying to paint things better than they actually are - I was trying to raise awareness that you can still have a great quality of life and innovation in a business climate that's full of regulation, taxes and an exhaustive social net. If I stepped on anyone's toe, I'm sorry.

[hollerith]

>It's one of the first countries with a politically meaningful and rapidly growing movement for net neutrality

Although it does not use the term "net neutrality" (which I had never seen before about 5 years ago), the 1956 "Consent Decree" (a kind of court ruling), which resolved the second anti-trust suit against AT&T, imposed a version of net neutrality on the U.S. telephone network, and I have seen at least one writer credit that "Consent Decree" with enabling the growth of the internet beyond the purely government-operated stage (because the growth of the internet at that stage came from large organizations' leasing "dedicated copper" from AT&T Long Lines, which wanted to but was was unable to turn down requests for such leases because of the Consent Decree).

This version of net neutrality was restricted to large corporations (IBM was a very vocal advocate of this version of net neutrality) and the judicial system, and had almost nothing to do with popular opinion or electoral politics, but it was the law in the U.S.

[mjwalshe]

And unfortunetly there is just as much "corporate politics" in Germany as elsewhere - might be expresed diferently and via different routes.

[zalew]

Berlin is awesome. I know is a question with a very flexible answer but what are the monthly net rates a Py/Django/DB expat developer can expect in an average size company (not boring bigcorp) in 2012?

[endymi0n]

Very flexible indeed. Anywhere from 30k€/y (entry level, junior dev) till 60-70k€/y (top talent with work experience and some management duties) is possible for a regular full time job - sometimes more, but extreme rates are still pretty uncommon here. (Note though that you've got around the same standard of living here than for double the amount in dollars in the valley.)

[zalew]

Tx. Yeah, I quite know the standard of living, I'm from Warsaw, not the valley thought, and been there a few times ;)