Asking here is a mistake. Living in the culture of the Bay normalizes you to the idiosyncrasies that stand out to outsiders.
Like any loose collective, the techies in the bay will allow themselves to be labeled as a subculture when their ego is getting stroked. But if pressed with a criticism you'll find that they're just a diverse group of people that may share a profession and hobby or two but can't possibly be a considered a subculture with general defining traits. And neither way to see them is wrong.
The good news is that the prominent attitudes are not shared by everyone, or even most people. The bad news is that the people that exhibit them are annoyingly prominent. And everyone worth knowing has a coping strategy to blend in.
Like any loose collective, the techies in the bay will allow themselves to be labeled as a subculture when their ego is getting stroked. But if pressed with a criticism you'll find that they're just a diverse group of people that may share a profession and hobby or two but can't possibly be a considered a subculture with general defining traits. And neither way to see them is wrong.
The good news is that the prominent attitudes are not shared by everyone, or even most people. The bad news is that the people that exhibit them are annoyingly prominent. And everyone worth knowing has a coping strategy to blend in.