Chicagoist writer Chris Karr interviews Chicago-based Google engineers Brian Fitzpatrick, Jon Trowbridge and Ben Collins-Sussman, otherwise known as "the guys who didn't want to move to California." Asked why they didn't make the move to SF or NYC, the engineers had this to say:

I could sell my home right now and buy a shed in Silicon Valley.

I would gladly sit through six or seven months of Chicago winter to experience fall.

San Francisco has more pets than kids.

Ouch. You don't have to hit to hurt.

[Chicagoist]