Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#341

Post by morgante » Mon, Jan 02, 2017, 9:23 PM UTC

vinceyuan wrote: post #269

morgante wrote: post #35

Hong Kong. I love the food, culture, and fantastic public transportation. It has a nice mix of Asian and British influences. The city has tons of energy and is always alive. Plus, despite being a huge metropolis, there are tons of hiking opportunities nearby in beautiful natural areas. Unfortunately I'm not alone in loving it so real estate is crazy expensive (even more so than NYC/SF).

Food, public transportation, beach, hiking in HK are good. But housing in HK is super expensive. You can't find a room in any other cities smaller than HK. People feel desperate because of the super expensive housing. The city's economy is kidnapped by real estate. I am living in HK and thinking about leaving.

Yup, that's really why I'd only consider living there if I'd acquired a decent amount of wealth already (at least $1M USD).

Hopefully the boom will end at some point making it affordable again, but I don't hold out much hope for that.

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#342

Post by mindcrime » Mon, Jan 02, 2017, 9:48 PM UTC

I'm pretty content where I am now (Chapel Hill, NC) but if I had Ludicrous Money I'd love to have a condo in downtown Chicago. I wouldn't want live in Chicago year round, mind you (too cold in the winter), but I love spending time there.

I'm also partial to the Portland, Oregon region, as well as New Orleans. Both of those would be pretty high on my list of potential places to live, if I ever left Chapel Hill.

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#343

Post by pvaldes » Mon, Jan 02, 2017, 9:50 PM UTC

jaclaz wrote: post #312

joshvm wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Internet is fine. The Canaries are a staging point for several transatlantic fibres. There is also an extremely active astrophysics group on both Tenerife and La Palma who shunt a lot of data around the world. You'll pay more for it, but that's because Spanish telcos are a monopoly. You might not get 100Mbit, but certainly 20M+ is normal. Tourism isn't really a problem because the tourists stick to the resorts. The u…

Actually gas is around 30 to 40% cheaper than - say - France or Germany: France 1.42: https://gasoline-germany.com/international.phtml?kontinent=E... Germany 1.35: https://gasoline-germany.com/international.phtml?kontinent=E... Canary Islands 0.89: https://gasoline-germany.com/international.phtml?kontinent=E... Generally speaking I would say that overall prices are 10-15% lower than continental Spain and 20-30% lower…

Yes, gas and gadchets (computers, cameras, phones, etc) are cheaper. There are some fake imitations around also.

Respect to the car issue, even if its convenient to have one, you can probably go everywere by bus or bike. Islands have a reduced sense of distances and are a small world. Tenerife Island has around 70Km from one point to the other extreme. Other islands are smaller. Some people love it, other go into claustrophobic mode after a while. People often escape by ferry to other islands or fly to the continent some days to reset.

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#344

Post by merb » Mon, Jan 02, 2017, 10:03 PM UTC

timr wrote: post #46

dvcrn wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Culture yes, but depending on the company, the working environment is not that awesome :p Also it's very easy to feel isolated as a foreigner and seeing thousands of people squishing themselves into the trains every morning doesn't make it better. Though the startup scene here is changing very strongly and bigger companies from all over the world open offices here and consider Japan as the 'gateway into the asian mar…

it's very easy to feel isolated as a foreigner and seeing thousands of people squishing themselves into the trains every morning doesn't make it better. I'm here now, have been for six months (on sabbatical; studying Japanese half-time). It's interesting...sometimes I feel isolated (as anyone would when you don't speak or read the language fluently), but folks here have been quite friendly and supportive. I've found…

> ocially isolated expats come here expecting one long manga/anime/kawaii/samurai adventure that will fix their broken lives

Well I guess I'm somewhat inside that niche, however I would not expect my broken live to be fixed without any effort. Also before going there, I would probably learn japanese or make holiday there. Well I'm not good at getting friends and I doubt that neither in japan I would make many. I just love their culture and their food (at least some, katsudon I also heard that they have a special work mentality (which you also described). And somehow if my work is good I love it, which makes me like the longer working hours. For me that make's me more happy than actually making friends (I know I'm a wierdo) and somehow I think japan would be a whole new challenge for me. But as already stated I doubt I couldn't be there for more than 6 months to 1 year. I still love my home besides the fact that I live in a small town in Germany which is nothing compared to the SF area or any japanese town.

Edit: Great comments from a lot of people, Thanks that makes me actually more engaged to make savings to visit Japan at least once in my life.

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#345

Post by miguelrochefort » Mon, Jan 02, 2017, 10:09 PM UTC

cylinder wrote: post #320

miguelrochefort wrote: post #262

New York or San Francisco. With their salaries, I could retire at 30 instead of 65.

Have you looked into the rent and taxes in NYC? As a determined single person chasing FIRE you probably could pull off some arbitrage by renting a room somewhere far, but a more reasonable lifestyle and raising a family, I doubt it.

Looks fantastic to me.

New York City:

- Gross income: $150,000

- Net income: $95,000

- Rent: $25,000

- Money left: $70,000

Montreal:

- Gross income: $35,000

- Net income: $27,000

- Rent: $6,000

- Money left: $21,000

Would you switch place?

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#346

Post by vram22 » Mon, Jan 02, 2017, 10:23 PM UTC

uiri wrote: post #317

dmichulke wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I advise Kazan (here pronounced caution ) though: Average low in Jan/Feb: -13 deg. C (~ 8 F) Record low: -47 deg C (~ -52 F) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazan#Climate

Not that much worse than Minneapolis: Average low in Jan: 7.5 F (~ -13 C) Record low: -41 F (~ -41 C)

An ex-colleague (in a company I worked in earlier), who was based in Minneapolis or somewhere in Minnesota, came for a visit, and told us that he got frost-bite as a kid, and parts of his face were still sensitive due to that, many years later.

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#347

Post by ThomPete » Mon, Jan 02, 2017, 10:50 PM UTC

mahyarm wrote: post #330

ThomPete wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not cheap thats for sure and my wife isn't working. But New York although expensive is surprisingly child friendly and have experienced a surge in the number of people with kids (think like 30% in the last 5 years.) Once they hit Kindergarten there is plenty of good schools for free. I am hoping to be able to stay here for many years and have my boys be real New Yorkers.

How is it child friendly? I've heard the stereotype is quite the opposite. Do you rent or did you buy that place? Also I work at the same building as square HQ in SF, haha.

Well because of the increase of kids it's changed quite a bit. Williamsburg for instance have a lot of parents. So basically a lot more places are fine with kids.

I have never had my kids out anywhere and had a problem with them and I go out to eat a lot. But of course there are places I wouldn't take them.

So you at Uber? :)

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#348

Post by iLoch » Mon, Jan 02, 2017, 11:00 PM UTC

mahyarm wrote: post #335

iLoch wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Access to guns is extremely restricted. Canada is the second largest country by land mass, and thus police protection is not readily available at all times. In these cases, and others where protection of life is concerned, hand guns and other firearms may be authorized. There should be no instance where a common civilian is issued a hand gun or the authority to do concealed carrying. I've been in Canada my whole life…

It's not that big of a deal to get a gun in Canada. It's easier and faster to get a firearms license (weekend safety course) than it is to get a driving license. People don't feel like it's a big burden to carry their driving license when driving either. Canada just doesn't have that big of a gun culture is really the main difference, and if people have guns they don't really talk about it. For example, my father had…

Great perspective, thanks!

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#349

Post by partisan » Mon, Jan 02, 2017, 11:35 PM UTC

kelvin0 wrote: post #177

carlob wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the politics?

I hear the settlements are beautiful this time of the year. Seriously though, it looks like an interesting place and quite polarized in many ways, I might be wrong.

I don't have a dog in this fight, but why wouldn't this apply to the US, for example? Sunny with a chance of drone strike and subsequent white wash, for example. Have you followed the elections lately? Or the riots in various cities? Or the record-breaking murder rate in Chicago.

Seems weird to me to bring this up here.

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

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Post by partisan » Mon, Jan 02, 2017, 11:46 PM UTC

cm2012 wrote: post #17

I live in NYC, but would probably want to live in San Diego or some other warm pretty place in the usa.

I'm a NYC native who spent some time in San Diego for work. I was just reminiscing about the weather there. I spent many weeks there over the course of a year and had nothing but perfect weather to contend with. And the food was great.

I'm not sure I could live there, however. The downtown area is limited and a little run down. It also seems like you have to drive everywhere. The salaries don't reflect the cost of living. The IT market was a little anemic, but remote work could make these last points moot.

It's worth a visit all the same.