10 years ago yesterday I moved to America with 1.5 suitcases, ~2k in the bank, a place to crash, and a freelancing client lined up. A few thoughts.
10 years ago today,
— Swizec Teller (@Swizec) April 4, 2025
moving to USA with nowt but a freelancing client, 1.5 suitcases, ~2k in the bank, and a place to crash
wild pic.twitter.com/cSTwknZJhx
America has changed
Right now is a strange moment to be writing this. Lots changed in just the past few weeks. Markets are crashing, trade wars are starting, things are looking bad out there.
The vibes are off.
10 years ago America still had that Land of Milk and Honey brand. The place you go to make dreams come true. That brand feels gone. Or I've been here too long and have lost my outsider perspective.
In truth America, Silicon Valley/SFBA especially, has always been a bit cyberpunk – a thriving society built on the backs of a disposable workforce. But you don't see that until you move here. You don't grok the disparity until you see a $300,000 McLaren sports car parked next to a person sleeping on the sidewalk.
But as Freakonomics once said about America:
Our worst critics prefer to stay.
I agree.
What's it been like
Honestly, a bit of a grind. Starting a new life in a hyper competitive part of the world (SFBA) where you don't know anyone, don't really belong, and have zero recognizable credentials is hard.
If you've seen a movie where a talented young star goes to Hollywood and has their ego shattered because everyone there is a local talent like them ... that's how it feels. You come here and holy shit. Dozens, hundreds, of people running around with twice your talent and drive.
Like I put in a HackerNews comment recently:
Turns out there are faster kids, they just aren’t at your school
Moving from Slovenia to SFBA in my mid 20's (~2015) was ... super fun like that. Sooo many people here are that most brilliant super talented engineer/founder/whatever from their home locale. But here we are just the norm.
In truth it's only the last few years that it feels like I've even reached the start line for the big career marathon. After running full tilt for years, I now get the same opportunities as a kid who just graduated from a recognizable american college.
Pencilsword: On a Plate describes the effect perfectly.
You don't even notice how credentialism-based the tech world is until you do. It's all about back room deals, access, and brands on your resume.
This can be manufactured with hard work, but for people with the right background it comes so easy they don't even notice. You don't have that background as an immigrant.
Worth it?
Yes. Like I wrote before, the Fire Under Ass is unreal and the people encouraging.
You say "Omg huge win I just ..." and everyone goes "Wow nice! Why not more?". Whereas in Europe the reaction is more tall poppy syndrome, blatant disbelief, or just bad vibes.
If we compare raw numbers: my savings now make more in annual interest than I made in freelancing revenue back in 2014. America is a great place to build your career.
The agglomeration effects are hard to grok from afar.
The level of talent and the amount of investment dollars sloshing around boggle the mind. In 2024 Silicon Valley alone had more startup investment than all of Europe combined.
All that investment activity shows up in a flexible job market, higher salaries, and fun work to do. It’s like a high multiplication factor on your efforts.
Plus it's kinda cool how many globally recognized brands are just like "Oh yeah friend of mine works there". Just your friendly neighborhood firm powering half the world's something something.
Do it again?
Everyone always asks "Would you do it again?"
Hard to say. I now know too much about what it takes. This sort of thing, you gotta just go for it and not think too hard. Keep enough cash for a ticket back home and figure things out as they come.
Cheers,
~Swizec
PS: the nice thing is that after a few years Americans accept you as one of theirs. You don't get that in most places.
Continue reading about 10 years in America
Semantically similar articles hand-picked by GPT-4
- San Francisco v. Europe part 2
- Thoughts on San Francisco after 2 weeks in Europe
- Does it even make sense to move to San Francisco?
- I went through YC as an intern, here's what I learned
- Lifestyle inflation after 3 years of San Francisco
Learned something new?
Read more Software Engineering Lessons from Production
I write articles with real insight into the career and skills of a modern software engineer. "Raw and honest from the heart!" as one reader described them. Fueled by lessons learned over 20 years of building production code for side-projects, small businesses, and hyper growth startups. Both successful and not.
Subscribe below 👇
Software Engineering Lessons from Production
Join Swizec's Newsletter and get insightful emails 💌 on mindsets, tactics, and technical skills for your career. Real lessons from building production software. No bullshit.
"Man, love your simple writing! Yours is the only newsletter I open and only blog that I give a fuck to read & scroll till the end. And wow always take away lessons with me. Inspiring! And very relatable. 👌"
Have a burning question that you think I can answer? Hit me up on twitter and I'll do my best.
Who am I and who do I help? I'm Swizec Teller and I turn coders into engineers with "Raw and honest from the heart!" writing. No bullshit. Real insights into the career and skills of a modern software engineer.
Want to become a true senior engineer? Take ownership, have autonomy, and be a force multiplier on your team. The Senior Engineer Mindset ebook can help 👉 swizec.com/senior-mindset. These are the shifts in mindset that unlocked my career.
Curious about Serverless and the modern backend? Check out Serverless Handbook, for frontend engineers 👉 ServerlessHandbook.dev
Want to Stop copy pasting D3 examples and create data visualizations of your own? Learn how to build scalable dataviz React components your whole team can understand with React for Data Visualization
Want to get my best emails on JavaScript, React, Serverless, Fullstack Web, or Indie Hacking? Check out swizec.com/collections
Did someone amazing share this letter with you? Wonderful! You can sign up for my weekly letters for software engineers on their path to greatness, here: swizec.com/blog
Want to brush up on your modern JavaScript syntax? Check out my interactive cheatsheet: es6cheatsheet.com
By the way, just in case no one has told you it yet today: I love and appreciate you for who you are ❤️