Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 132 posts

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#41

Post by Maro »

In the last 5 years I've lived in Budapest, London, Dubai.

Each city is a trade-off.

BUDAPEST:

- low salary (not competitive) compared to other cities

- hard to achieve good savings rate b/c overall salary is not very high

- reasonable selection of tech startups/companies to work for (SAP, MS, MoSt, MSCI, IBM, LMI, Prezi, etc)

- most of these have secondary/engineering offices there, not the HQ

- top FAANG companies not available

- cost of living is low, so you will live very well off your salary

- if you can negotiate a western salary in BP, it'll be a good deal

- city life is excellent, best of the 3; if you're - low cost flights across EU

- don't do a startup here, there's no local market/VC money (I tried)

- ignore the politics

- least diversity of the three cities

- weather is great

.

LONDON:

- highest salaries in EU, 2-3x compared to BP, 25-40% lower than in SF

- cost of living is very high (but not as high as SF)

- hard to achieve good savings rate with family

- good savings rate achievable if single, if you optimize

- excellent selection of companies to work for (FB, Google Deepmind, lots of others)

- city is very big and dense, 10M people

- lots of commuting, like sardines if you take the tube (solution: go at 10am, leave at 6pm)

- excellent culture (eg. museums are free entry)

- Brexit is unclear

- lots of diversity

- weather not so nice

.

DUBAI:

- high salaries, income is not taxed at all

- very high standard of living, at a reasonable cost of living (cheap compared to salaries)

- can live very comfortably (nice car, wide roads, best food, shopping)

- outstanding savings rate achievable

- get very hot (40-50C in the summer), nothing to do, have to be inside

- weather and beach is perfect in the winter at 25C, when it's freezing in Europe

- lots of expats

- a lot less tech companies to work for than in the other 2 cities

- top FAANG companies not available

- laws, customs, rights, social structure very different than in Europe/US, can be uncomfortable/frustrating

- lots of diversity

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#42

Post by mdolon »

augustocallejas wrote: post #11
bufferoverflow wrote: post #2

You forgot the environment. NYC is full of garbage, not enough parks, and the rivers are so dirty, you're not allowed to swim in them. It's noisy and full of stress. That's why I moved to Hawaii and never looked back. Working remotely is a lot of fun, and is just healthier, both environment-wise and mentally.

> That's why I moved to Hawaii and never looked back. Working remotely is a lot of fun, and is just healthier, both environment-wise and mentally. I work from Hawaii remotely too. Downsides to here are entertainment and food. Flying back to LA periodically is helpful for that.

Are there any good tech meetups/groups there that you'd recommend? I currently live in NYC but will be working remotely from Hawaii from Dec 15-Jan 15.

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#43

Post by mrfusion »

existencebox wrote: post #9

Seattle: - Traffic is terrible, combined with subpar public transit compared to north-eastern cities. - housing is far more expensive than it's worth, if you don't want to spend upwards of 500k-1m your commute will be at least an hour. - Culture is lacking. Fewer good music and performance acts than in the NorthEast, or even what I saw when I was in colorado. Less alt scenes than I was used to (unless you're in a sel…

Can you tell me more about the cultural friction? Driving too?

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#44

Post by ghaff »

aphextron wrote: post #39
poulsbohemian wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone I've ever spoken with about real life in Hawaii has said: 1) Schools are not good, IE for those with kids 2) Food, gas, etc are expensive 3) Tensions with native Hawaiians, ie: "this is a locals-only beach" 4) Island madness is a real thing (desire to be somewhere not surrounded by water, experience an actual change in weather, etc) Have you found that to not be the case?

>Everyone I've ever spoken with about real life in Hawaii has said: 1) Schools are not good, IE for those with kids 2) Food, gas, etc are expensive 3) Tensions with native Hawaiians, ie: "this is a locals-only beach" 4) Island madness is a real thing (desire to be somewhere not surrounded by water, experience an actual change in weather, etc) From my 3 years living there I'd say this is spot on. It's pretty bi-modal…

Yeah. A friend of mine moved there and does a combination of remote work and travel. She loves it.

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#45

Post by anon31vn »

When I lived in Chicago:

-The Racism, shocked how open people would shit talk muslims/blacks/indians.. being a minority myself I definitely thought it was weird. people in the workplace were definitely less sensitive when criticizing those groups based on the places I had worked at; will talk crap at how the black neighbors should take better care of their lawns. the city + state is incredibly segregated.

-This spills in from above, I could not for the life of me crack into any real leadership positions.. kinda bs, seeing as both west + east coasts previously + currently hold lead positions. During hiring, people I'd advocate for people who were miles more technically skilled + well-rounded for upper positions. It would get overlooked for some white person who could throw drinks down better w/ the CEO

-Cost of living is definitely cheaper, but I have no idea how some people are able to pay off their student loans with the wages around there

-People settle down a lot sooner than the rest of the coasts.

-People are less driven to create companies, so the frequency of interesting startups in chicago are a lot smaller compared to the coasts. a good proportion of the smart tech ppl in the city end up working for some financial company.

I'm a million times happier since I've moved out of the state and feel much more appreciated/welcomed. Definitely do miss the restaurants + music scene.

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#46

Post by uh_what »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #17

Mr. Strawberry, you live in one of the most affluent cities in the world, with virtually every convenience mankind can imagine. Yes, having a car is expensive there. Yes, getting great produce for cheap may require you to transport yourself outside your block or neighborhood. Yes, housing there is incredibly expensive. Yes, traffic is bad. Nobody has an easy time looking for good healthcare in the US. Call your insur…

Your response is ridiculous. As a native New Yorker, his comments are spot-on.

His post (and this thread) is a good resource for weighing the pros and cons of moving to any city. Many people move to NYC with ridiculous expectations of living their dream and become despondent when they realize the subways smell like urine and the people can be as cold as the weather.

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#47

Post by swaggyBoatswain »

I live in Orlando

1) People can't drive. There's too many old drivers who shouldn't be on the road, driving half the speed limit. Equally as many aggressively annoying drive. And tourists who are asking to get T-boned constantly.

2) There's only 1 rock climbing gym 30 mins north of downtown. Consequently its also very flat here. I like mountains

3) Constant construction, roads constantly closing, so navigating around the city is sometimes a PITA.

4) Homelessness situation has been getting worst over the years. Especially downtown

5) Your face is plastered all over AWS servers in Orlando, if you care about privacy this isn't the right city

6) You know, Florida. r/floridaman. It has some merit of truth to it

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#48

Post by ghaff »

instaheat wrote: post #12
bufferoverflow wrote: post #2

You forgot the environment. NYC is full of garbage, not enough parks, and the rivers are so dirty, you're not allowed to swim in them. It's noisy and full of stress. That's why I moved to Hawaii and never looked back. Working remotely is a lot of fun, and is just healthier, both environment-wise and mentally.

My wife and some friends visited NYC recently. My wife was the only one that liked the city, albeit only to a degree. I definitely think NYC is a great place to visit, but I could never see myself living there. I love the public transport system but hate so many other aspects of life there.

Even many people who like visiting NYC a lot don't like living there. I'm definitely in this category. I'll take a long weekend just about any time of the year. But the one summer I lived there, I couldn't wait to leave after a couple of months.

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#49

Post by paulopontesm »

Lisbon, Portugal:

1. House rents are really expensive (as in London/Amsterdam expensive) 2. The wages are low (completely the opposite of London/Amsterdam) 3. It's really hot today

Contrasts with: 1. Amazing food (oh god, the food!!) 2. The city is pretty 3. Smart, nice and educated people 4. Really nice weather (motorcycle with amazing weather 90% of the year)

Healthcare and a good education accessible to "everyone" is also a nice thing.

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#50

Post by sneak »

grenoire wrote: post #5

Amsterdam is altogether great alongside the Netherlands, but its ever-increasing popularity among tourists is making it less and less bearable to live it. It's overly crowded and the housing market is facing serious troubles due to certain overly-liberal government policies and amount of expats coming in for newfound startups. Still 10/10 though!

It is impossible to buy hot food in Amsterdam late at night. This to me marks a city as entirely non-functional. It’s not like I’m asking for 10 gigabit fiber to the home, just pizza. It’s bizarre.
Post reply on HN