So in what I wrote above, there are two chunks of money I'm saying you could throw in the CIM: the money you'll make by staying at FAANGs instead of playing startup lottery, and the money you'll save by living somewhere cheaper.
The conventional wisdom (again) is to stay at FAANG and stay in the SFBA. You can also leave SFBA and work at smaller companies that don't offer FAANG comp, and it can still make sense because of the latter chunk of money (lower costs from housing and general CoL).
The conventional wisdom (again) is to stay at FAANG and stay in the SFBA. You can also leave SFBA and work at smaller companies that don't offer FAANG comp, and it can still make sense because of the latter chunk of money (lower costs from housing and general CoL).