Working in SV magically makes you a better developer now?

Wow!

Isn't it more likely that there are more bad developers on average in SV than anywhere else as they're so desperate they'll take anyone? If I was struggling to get a job as a developer it'd seem like a natural place to go.

You could blame every job loss on startup babble too. "The burn rate was too high so the let our entire team go", "In my 4 month CV gap I was exploring my own idea for a job-sharing-app but failed to find funding", and on and on...

It makes sense. I would expect the best architects to be in Chicago, the best finance folks in NYC, and the best media folks in LA -- why would tech be any different?

The Bay has a lot of extra draw for really talented developers. For the really good developers it's less about "what job can I get" and more about "what job do I want?". When they have the luxury to work at virtually any company they want, SV is the place to be just by the numbers.

It makes a big difference to students too -- most hot shot developers out of college are going to take an offer from a flashy Bay Area sweetheart over the local healthcare IT shop any day.

> Working in SV magically makes you a better developer now?

I don't think that follows from the comment. You've reversed the causality. The comment was just saying that there's a correlation between better developers and living in SV. Not saying I agree, but it seems likely. Wouldn't it be a self selected group of more driven programmers?