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Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

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Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#641

Post by jayalpha »

arijo wrote: post #542
mhjas wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have had my eye on Portugal for a number of years, but there are a few things that seem less than ideal. * Cost of living for a good quality of life still being relatively high or rising, especially in Lisbon and other tourist/expat areas. And a second tier city in Portugal is much less of a clear choice since that is comparable to a lot more places. * The tax system being very complicated. One can always argue abo…

The tech scene in Lisbon and Porto IS happening - just take a look at companies like Farfetch, Outsystems, Talkdesk, Feedzai, Unbabel and many other smaller startups w/their HQ based in Portugal. I myself work at a Porto based startup (Bottlebooks) w/American and Slovak founders. Portugal has everything going for it to be the California of Europe - highly educated (and english speaking) youth and a will to conquer th…

California or Florida of Europe?

* highly educated

Universities are not very good.

* and english speaking

Don't they speak Portuguese?

*youth and a will to conquer the world.

Unlikely. And Silicon Valley is not about guys with laptops creating some websites. It is all about high tech, top universities, supply chains and synergy effects. You may be able to to a technology heavy start-up in the UK, Germany, China, Japan, Korea but in Portugal this is difficult. You lack the industrial supply chain of customized high tech products. Just working on your laptop you can also do in Kenya (which actually is quite innovative in IT).

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#642

Post by ajuc »

stef25 wrote: post #251
msadowski wrote: post #22

If you feel adventurous you can consider moving to Poland. I would recommend Krakow. Most young people will speak English, there are couple of top Universities there (PK and AGH for technical schools, UJ for humanities, medicine and some tech too and UE for economics). The tech scene seems to be constantly growing, with lots of international companies having their offices there. As a senior dev in Poland you can earn…

Salary-wise, surely anything in W-Europe is better than E-Europe?

In programming the differences are minimal. Like 5-10%?

Adjusting for costs of living it makes no sense to move abroad from Poland if you work in IT, unless it's because of some niche you want to work in, that you can't find in your city.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#643

Post by gawkface »

lumos_42 wrote: post #479
sandGorgon wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This, except New Delhi. Bigger roads, much better infrastructure/subway system. We actually have close to 7-8 world class universities in the city (IITD, AIIMS, NSIT, DCE, IIITD, etc). Rentals are also cheaper.

Delhi is not really an intellectual city. Also, forget Delhi if you're a girl.

Haha so true! Forget anything India if you are a girl

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#644

Post by antaviana »

village-idiot wrote: post #614
antaviana wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One clarification: Gross salaries in Spain are not as gross as in other countries. For example, a salary advertised as EUR 45K in Spain does not include taxes and benefits (mostly unemployment insurance and medical) paid by the company. So a SE with a gross salary of EUR45K directly costs the company employing here some EUR60K (i.e. some USD70). The employee full cost to the company is never konwn to the employee (so…

A month per year worked is awesome, but that seems insanely expensive. How can anyone afford to hire anyone with that risk?

By offering a smaller nominal gross salaries than in “wild west” countries.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#645

Post by crispyambulance »

bsvalley wrote: post #637
crispyambulance wrote: post #618

So you haven't traveled too often, but are considering relocating yourself to somewhere you've never been? There's nothing wrong with that. However, I would recommend that before you attempt to settle down or start using the word "relocate" you do a bit of serious traveling. One could say that there's a place in the world for every person. One could also say that people adapt to wherever they are. Both are partially…

+1 True Though, traveling while on "vacation" and moving to a place are 2 different things. You could get a very positive vibe when you visit a new place several times because "entertainment" is roughly 80% of your goal. But from experience, things usually don't turn out that well when you settle and dig a little more by doing "boring" stuff. Things that travelers don't have to think about. But it goes back to your s…

Yes, you're right about the difference between tourism and living.

By "serious travel" I meant to indicate long lengths of time away in other places conducting one's life-- not simply a PTO allocation.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#646

Post by nervousvarun »

Shorel wrote: post #589
tropdrop wrote: post #147

If you would like to remain in United States and do not mind having proper seasons, I would strongly consider Chicago, the last affordable big city in the United States. University of Chicago pulls a robust intellectual community (81 Nobel Laureates), but there is also a deep intellectual history around the arts and music that transcends the work of the university - something that I'm not sure I can say for a place l…

What would be authentic Mexican food?

Not OP but for me...something that's not TexMex.

Obligatory fajitas is not Mexican. It's American-Mexican (TexMex).

One TLDR/cusory menu check for authentic Mexican: are there mole sauce based dishes on the menu?

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#647

Post by adamcharnock »

andai wrote: post #546
adamcharnock wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glad to see this as the first comment I read. Im currently sat in Portugal on 4ha of land I have brought over near Fundão. It is more out of the way, but still has excellent access to cities. Plus it is absolutely beautiful. I’m a freelance software developer and can happily work out here even on a plot of land which has no power/net connection. The 3G/4G is great, and everything easily runs of a single solar panel.…

If no house, what is your solar panel currently attached to? That sounds like an interesting setup.

Simply propped up facing the sun. Sat on the ground. Super simple, but rather effective.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#648

Post by iaml »

cosmolev wrote: post #592
iaml wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would highly suggest against moving to Russia, even if you are looking for cheap places.

why?

Because most russian devs I know want to leave and the only reason they haven't yet is because they don't have the opportunity.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#649

Post by adamcharnock »

nik736 wrote: post #631
adamcharnock wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glad to see this as the first comment I read. Im currently sat in Portugal on 4ha of land I have brought over near Fundão. It is more out of the way, but still has excellent access to cities. Plus it is absolutely beautiful. I’m a freelance software developer and can happily work out here even on a plot of land which has no power/net connection. The 3G/4G is great, and everything easily runs of a single solar panel.…

Where's the blog post? :-)

Since you ask:

https://blog.adamcharnock.com

But this reminds me I haven’t posted for ages!

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#650

Post by stevejb »

andai wrote: post #546
adamcharnock wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glad to see this as the first comment I read. Im currently sat in Portugal on 4ha of land I have brought over near Fundão. It is more out of the way, but still has excellent access to cities. Plus it is absolutely beautiful. I’m a freelance software developer and can happily work out here even on a plot of land which has no power/net connection. The 3G/4G is great, and everything easily runs of a single solar panel.…

If no house, what is your solar panel currently attached to? That sounds like an interesting setup.

Not OP, but I have done work with literally a camping solar panel charging a 12V battery and a car power -> laptop power adapter. The setup cost me approximately $1000 AUD. I use the solar power for other things as well.
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