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Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

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Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#71

Post by [deleted] »

ousta wrote: post #65
Chiminh wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on the preferences Paris can be a pretty poor city or the best city in the world. I clearly fall into the first category. Living 'intramuros' is very expensive when adding the fact that salaries are not on part with major tech hubs. The city is dirty, very polluted (2nd worst area in Europe by air pollution after Moscow - don't have the reference link though), people are rude, and everything so cramped it m…

Please give me any example of a major world city where living 'intramuros' is cheap lol.... Salaries are on part with major tech hubs (NYC OR SF are WAY MORE EXPENSIVE than paris and salaries match at the end) Paris is the 15th most polluted city in europe and not the 2nd... "People are rude" - is a generalization and racism toward parisians. plus if you feel like everyone is rude start asking yourself some questions…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#72

Post by jdmg718 »

reacweb wrote: post #40

French here, not in a startup but in an international company. Meetings are in english as soon a non french speaker is there, but during lunch, discussions are often in french even when non french speaker are present. I know it is not very polite. I really think you must learn french if you come to work in France. Even if your french is totally broken, the effort to speak french will be really appreciated. I have som…

I don't know in France but at least in Spain iOS usage is a small percentage compared to Android's

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#73

Post by jonathankoren »

reacweb wrote: post #40

French here, not in a startup but in an international company. Meetings are in english as soon a non french speaker is there, but during lunch, discussions are often in french even when non french speaker are present. I know it is not very polite. I really think you must learn french if you come to work in France. Even if your french is totally broken, the effort to speak french will be really appreciated. I have som…

> I really think you must learn french if you come to work in France. Even if your french is totally broken, the effort to speak french will be really appreciated.

This reminds me of the a story an American friend told me while visiting France. She was at this stand buying something, when the American tourist in front of her, asked the shopkeeper something in English, and the just responded back in French. Frustrated, the tourist left. When it was her turn, she tried to stammer something out in whatever French she could remember from high school. The shopkeep smiled, and then immediately switched into English to complete the transaction. ;)

> I have noticed that OpenOffice (or LibreOffice) is far less popular here than in US. I think that IOS and linux are also slightly less popular than in US.

I don't think OpenOffice is popular at all in the US. I don't think I've anyone that used it. Linux used to be popular with developers, but it seems like almost everyone has switched to macs. iOS is popular though.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#74

Post by baud147258 »

hluska wrote: post #51
baud147258 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

French here too; regarding language, it's rather annoying when there's one only person who don't speak French at work, forcing everyone else to switch. But if the co-workers are young enough, there shouldn't have too much difficulty for them to speak English. And regarding code, all the variable + comment are usually in English.

I'm Canadian (from the western part of the country) who grew up speaking pretty decent French, but lost everything but some traces of my accent when my Grandma passed away. I consider losing that language one of the great failures of my life. I understand that that would be annoying. In your shoes, I'd be annoyed if they didn't even try to learn French. I find that when I meet French speakers and want to practice, th…

It depends, in a meeting or for work-related discussion, English would be talked unless everyone is proeficient in French. But in casual conversation, I think you could easily ask people to switch to French.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#75

Post by sametmax »

ousta wrote: post #65
Chiminh wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on the preferences Paris can be a pretty poor city or the best city in the world. I clearly fall into the first category. Living 'intramuros' is very expensive when adding the fact that salaries are not on part with major tech hubs. The city is dirty, very polluted (2nd worst area in Europe by air pollution after Moscow - don't have the reference link though), people are rude, and everything so cramped it m…

Please give me any example of a major world city where living 'intramuros' is cheap lol.... Salaries are on part with major tech hubs (NYC OR SF are WAY MORE EXPENSIVE than paris and salaries match at the end) Paris is the 15th most polluted city in europe and not the 2nd... "People are rude" - is a generalization and racism toward parisians. plus if you feel like everyone is rude start asking yourself some questions…

To any american, people in Paris will feel rude. To any russian, they will feel over friendly.

It's not racism, it's just social expectations clashing.

But yeah, try to live in Manhattan...

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#76

Post by sametmax »

ThePadawan wrote: post #60
sametmax wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you will be paid much less. But you will stay less hours at the office as well. And you'll get way more time off. Also you get to go to the Fontainebleau forest, eat to the "Pates vivantes" in the 9e, and can just walk to buy stuff most of the time. Or roller skate.

I believe they were unhelpfully commenting on your grammar. They read "2 to 3 times less" as "-200% to -300%" instead of "33%-50%".

Ah :) Well, french and all that.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#77

Post by Chiminh »

ousta wrote: post #65
Chiminh wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on the preferences Paris can be a pretty poor city or the best city in the world. I clearly fall into the first category. Living 'intramuros' is very expensive when adding the fact that salaries are not on part with major tech hubs. The city is dirty, very polluted (2nd worst area in Europe by air pollution after Moscow - don't have the reference link though), people are rude, and everything so cramped it m…

Please give me any example of a major world city where living 'intramuros' is cheap lol.... Salaries are on part with major tech hubs (NYC OR SF are WAY MORE EXPENSIVE than paris and salaries match at the end) Paris is the 15th most polluted city in europe and not the 2nd... "People are rude" - is a generalization and racism toward parisians. plus if you feel like everyone is rude start asking yourself some questions…

I did not say other tech hubs would be nicer to live in, as I could not compare (apart from London). It's just the experience I had living in Paris. By expensive I meant expensive when adjusted with the relatively-low salaries. In the end the only way to know, as parent comment said, is to try the experience. I just stated what I feel is not an uncommon opinion.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#78

Post by sametmax »

sol_remmy wrote: post #45
sailingparrot wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> even including social benefits, the salary is 2 to 3 times less Yea... no. Especially if you factor in the cost of life. Edit: Average salary in SF for tech workers is $142k vs $56k in Paris [1]. Once adjusted for cost of living, Paris is roughly 86k$ [1]. Now, you add all the social benefits, like free health care, retirements etc. And if you have/plan on having children, you can add free education as well. All in…

Absolutely. The free healthcare alone makes up for the lower salaries in France. My friend is diabetic and in poor health, he would go broke if he lived in America and not Europe.

Not in tech. The difference it tech salary is bigger than for other fields. It's unusually low in France, and usually big in the US.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#79

Post by [deleted] »

sametmax wrote: post #62
Chiminh wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on the preferences Paris can be a pretty poor city or the best city in the world. I clearly fall into the first category. Living 'intramuros' is very expensive when adding the fact that salaries are not on part with major tech hubs. The city is dirty, very polluted (2nd worst area in Europe by air pollution after Moscow - don't have the reference link though), people are rude, and everything so cramped it m…

Agreed. But I'll take Paris over the valley any day.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#80

Post by ousta »

Jonas_ba wrote: post #68
ousta wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

please give me one example of a major city where renting an apartment as a foreigner is not a nightmare lol.. in USA you need a credit score....

I guess any other city than US. I'm fine with paying up front for multiple months, but I was asked multiple times to provide details of my salary for the last 3 months, working for the company that employs me, a FR guarantor (which not coming from France is not that easy to find, I was lucky my company helped me here) + your salary needs to be 3x rent and there's about 20 people looking to move in to every apartment…

same in any major high density city. london is worse. ny is worse. sf is worse.
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