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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?

#91

Post by reacharavindh »

flavor8 wrote: post #65
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…

You'd have to be quite apolitical to consider a move to Poland right now.

This is what my Polish friend said as well, that they're growing like crazy, and drastic negative politics alongside with it as well.

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

#92

Post by dewey »

itake wrote: post #63
mdeg wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

KL is also polluted and very dirty. I couldn't recommend it to someone used to clean air and clean streets.

also the internet in MY is very slow an unreliable. edit: fix abbr

ML is Mali, Malaysia is MY.

I’m there a few times / year and never had a problem. Maybe if you rely on some coffee shops WiFi it could be a problem but that’s a general problem. Internet is really cheap too if you get a SIM card.

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

#93

Post by jacek »

galfarragem wrote: post #76

Definitely East Europe or if you want to go mainstream: Berlin. You can also live cheaply in South Europe but the intellectual atmosphere is not the same. This area is good for summer hollydays. The only problem, in both areas, might be the language. English is enough to survive but maybe not enough to thrive.

I moved from USA to Berlin this year. Amazing city, but prices (rent+life) are growing rapidly.

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

#94

Post by sitepodmatt »

itake wrote: post #63
mdeg wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

KL is also polluted and very dirty. I couldn't recommend it to someone used to clean air and clean streets.

also the internet in MY is very slow an unreliable. edit: fix abbr

It's a lot more variable than surrounding countries in that you're more chance of winning the lottery than finding a coffee shop / restaurant / bar with usable internet, or working government sponsored free internet but 4G sim cards and coworking spaces, and chain hotels, it works well.

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

#95

Post by Udik »

pzduniak wrote: post #47
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…

Avoid working for local companies in Poland unless you like low pay. Just find yourself a nice remote gig (there's plenty of them if you know how to find them) and live like the top .001% of the country or whatever. There's a good reason why being a "digital nomad" is becoming more and more popular. Healthcare starts at ~$130/mo if you manage to not pay for the retirement fund scam (rarely possible), goes up to like…

> find yourself a nice remote gig (there's plenty of them if you know how to find them

Any starting point?

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

#97

Post by cleansy »

siquick wrote: post #90

Barcelona - one of the best all-around cities in the world (climate/culture/architecture/world proximity/quality of living/beach/mountains) and a growing tech scene. Very easy to pick up development work here for a local company, you won't be required to know Spanish/Catalan for a job. The only downsides are that the pay is relatively low (€43k average for SE) and it can be quite difficult to find a place to live wit…

I second this. But definitely try to get a remote SE job there. The pay is laughable compared to for example Berlin. Which is also a great city to work and live in.

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

#98

Post by fastbeef »

smueller1234 wrote: post #88
fipple wrote: post #68

The answer here is places that are COLD. For any type of city, the one in a colder place is cheaper. Minneapolis might be a good choice, or Chicago if you want a bigger atmosphere. You’ll have to put in elbow grease to create an intellectual milieu but it is there.

That cold-cheap bit is decidedly not applicable to Europe, by the way. Scandinavia is overall among the most expensive places in Europe. I'd imagine Switzerland is more expensive by a bit, but Oslo and Stockholm are brutal as well.

The cost of housing / income ratio in Stockholm is so out of whack that it’s basically impossible to enter the housing market without at least €50k-75k in savings to have as a down payment for an apartment anywhere nice.

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

#99

Post by mahasvin »

59nadir wrote: post #53
ivanech wrote: post #35

I have a software engineer friend who moved to Budapest, and she swears by it. It's a beautiful city with several universities, and it's incredibly affordable.

Hungary consistently ranks as having the lowest percentage of English speaking people in Europe. It's perhaps one of the few countries where this would actually still be an issue in Europe.

Well, its survivable. I drove twice via "non-central" Hungary this year. And people understand basic English. However, can't comment on availability of English-speaking communities of smart individuals in Hungary.

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

#100

Post by jen729w »

mdeg wrote: post #59
dtkav wrote: post #34

I just moved to Hobart, Australia from SF. It's quite affordable. I pay A$400 /mo rent in a share house, and walk 20 mins to a downtown co-working space every day (also A$400 /mo). Lifestyle is pretty incredible. It's small, but still a state capital city, so there's plenty going on. Hobart is also the home port for the Australian and French Antarctic programs, so a lot of smart folks come through. Plus it was a tria…

I'm in Melbourne right now but I'd love to move over the strait to Hobart. Do you have a remote job? The only thing stopping me is not being able to find work there - of the many things Hobart has, a thriving high tech industry is not one of them.

Melbourne here too wave -- greatest city on Earth, IMHO (I'm not from here), but we were in Adelaide just last week and it's getting interesting there. I assume rent is cheaper than Melbourne due to lower demand.
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