I had a stable job that paid enough to live a decent lifestyle that I could have worked at for who knows? 20 or 30 years, there were employees that had worked there for 50 - 60 years. When faced with the prospect of living the same life doing the same thing for the rest of my days, I woke up and set out to live with a purpose. I'm 29, my dad died at 49, keeping that in mind lights a fire under my ass every day.
It's equidistant from SF and Palo Alto, with rent way cheaper than both. The downtown area is well developed with lots of restaurants. San Mateo also has good transport links with easy freeway access to the 101, 92 and 280, and most of the caltrains stop here.
Old Town Sushi FTW, seriously though San Mateo is a great location I'm right next to downtown, Half Moon Bay is only 15min away. I need to stop, I don't want the secret to get out and my rent to go up. :P