bandris

London has a special microclimate and pleasant weather all year around. No extremes and less rain than other parts of the country.

True. Generally whatever niche interest people have, they usually can find it in London. As a fellow passenger old lady once put it on the tube: "London might not be the prettiest but certainly the most interesting city".

Though personally I find it pretty enough.

Agree. Meanwhile the number of cars noticably decreased. Lower noise, better air, significantly more cyclists.

The 20mph speed limit certainly helped to achive this. (Too slow to move around with a car.)

Tax returns should be public. Like in Norway. That would sort out all kinds of "payment gap" issues as well.

Holding the option key allows exactly that. Menu item is called 'Zoom' for some reason.

That is being said, she managed to buy one soon after, when cars were still an exotic luxury.

“I will confess here and now that of the two things that have excited me most in my life, the first was my car: my grey bottle-nosed Morris Cowley. The second was dining with the Queen at Buckingham Palace about forty years later.”

Agatha Christie in her autobiography

This pandemic is also significant a moment in history when antivacc views gained wide social acceptance. This will hinder future vaccination efforts. I agree with you otherwise.

Opt-in rate = 43%

Yes. By that age people getting tired of "being managed".

Large companies have more management positions though. What should someone 40+ do at a small firm? Start again at BIG Co as developer and wait 5-10 years to become manager or tech lead? Is that the only option? Can we say 40+ developers at small companies are mostly buried without carrier path? (I think it can be the case for many.)

I agree with you that inexperienced (lower paid) or young developers might find the US attractive if there weren't visa issues. The older better paid ones, maybe with families even, would probably still choose the social safety of Europe, the mix of people and ideas, the density of interesting places, cultural events, etc.

I mainly reflected on the current trend I observered. Did not consider a sudden change in the US visa policy.

To give an example: I was among the first airbnb users when it started. In the past few years I used booking.com more because I liked both their website and booking experience better. And yes, they offer private accomodation. Booking.com improved a lot while airbnb stagnated. I admit that I am not the target audiance for the airbnb "experiences" feature though.

The US and California in particular lost it's appeal. 20 years ago it was the dream destination for many. Now, even some Indians steer away. I don't know a single European who would want to live in the US. Not even from Eastern Europe. The go-to place is London, Berlin, Stockholm, Amsterdam, etc.

FAANGS were started 1-2 decades ago. In past 5 years the trend changed. Ask PG. He will never move back to the US.

And no, Texas will never be the next big innovation hub.

Living in the US is dull and uninspiring if you lived away for long. Also the missing social net makes the situation worse and worse every year.

"America" is losing the talent pool.