^This. I've lived in both SF and Austin. Austin is a bad ass city. In terms of quality of life, as a young and single male, it is a complete and total no brainer that Austin is better than SF. Better nightlife, more attractive women, cheaper cost of living, less bums, more sunlight, better weather (if you prefer hot to cold), better urban/outdoor balance...
BUT, in terms of the startup scene, SF is in another league. Austin has some successful startups, but they seem to be largely enterprise focused. It's going to be a long time before you see a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Yelp, Dropbox etc. founded here. If you're doing a startup, particularly in the consumer space, SF is the place to be.
Austin has some successful startups, but they seem to be largely enterprise focused.
And? Is that supposed to be bad or something? I don't know about you, but I find consumer webapp startups to be dead boring. Who cares about building yet another way for people to share pictures of cats doing stupid shit, or whatever? At least with enterprise software, you're doing something that's actually improving someone's productivity, helping other businesses grow and prosper, etc.
Disclaimer: I am the founder of a (non-SF based) enterprise focused startup. So, yeah, I'm a little bit biased. :-)
Heh... "90 degree summers" is mild. More like 105. Summer is brutal, though I actually haven't found it all that humid. That said, we were throwing pool parties in November while my friends in SF were walking around in coats.
Sept-Nov is nice in SF, but otherwise it was too cold and windy for me. I lived in soma, though -- if I were to do it again, I think I'd live in the Haight, mission, pac heights or the marina and I'd probably have a different experience. The variance between neighborhoods in terms of climate and culture seems to be greater in SF than I've found in Austin.
Are the women really more attractive in Austin? One of the things mentioned in the article is that in SF, people are in shape. How are things in Austin?
I've lived for several years in Silicon Valley and Austin, and would have to agree that Austin has more attractive young women. The University of Texas probably has a lot do with it. It also helps that that Austin has 10-11 months of warm weather (January is our winter), so you're seeing more skin here, to put it bluntly. :)
Austin has more in shape and attractive people by FAR. I moved to SF a couple years ago and moved back... SF was like clowntown when it came to fitness... Austin is orders of magnitude better when it comes to the fitness scene.
I also heard Austin is like a Californian oasis in TX (when it comes to politics/race/etc.)
There is also visiting a different country if you want to find a spouse. The foreigner mystique (esp. if you are pale and Caucasian) is still somewhat alive... based on the vlogs/blogs I've read about: South Korea, Japan, China, etc. Foreigners who blog/vlog eventually talk about foreign guys who date outside of their league because of the foreigner mystique. "Why are so many beautiful women have ugly white boyfriends?"
The paleness comes in handy because of some dumb stereotype: People who are pale work in offices, not in fields, and are wealthier.
Oh, there's no doubt that there's a sizable portion of East Asian women who have a Caucasian fetish. While this is good for dating and hooking up (even the most clueless and ugly white guy will get so much action in Tokyo, Shanghai, or Seoul), I disagree that it's a good basis for a marriage, particularly a cross-cultural one.
However, I'm not sure what this has to do with SF vs Austin, other than for the sizable Asian population in SF (in which regard Austin isn't "a Californian oasis in TX"). In that regard though, SF is a good place to be, as the Caucasian fetish is in full effect among Asian American women as well: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/01/29/us/20110130mix...
I've lived in a Austin (5 years), NYC (6 years), and recently moved to SF. In my experience, Austin has many more attractive people, in general, than SF. NYC has more than both of them, but also 10 times the population, so there's that...
BUT, in terms of the startup scene, SF is in another league. Austin has some successful startups, but they seem to be largely enterprise focused. It's going to be a long time before you see a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Yelp, Dropbox etc. founded here. If you're doing a startup, particularly in the consumer space, SF is the place to be.