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Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities?

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Re: Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities?

#251

Post by TACIXAT »

iplaw wrote: post #217

Just because developers can feasibly work from anywhere, especially remotely for already-established companies, do not immediately presume that it is best for developers to work from anywhere. Working remotely is not for everyone. Some people have problems with efficiency and procrastination when working from home or when working without immediate oversight. Some people have poor communication skills which are furthe…

Austin seems incredibly cheap to me (when considering southern California as the alternative). You can get a nice house on a large lot for less than 500k. It's not in the city center but I prefer having more space anyway. In San Diego and any reasonable commute around it you get a repair project with anything below 500k. Couple the cheaper housing with income tax savings and I see the appeal.

Re: Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities?

#252

Post by Swizec »

dredmorbius wrote: post #156
Swizec wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I moved to SF from Slovenia. The percentage of my income that I save* is smaller, but the absolute number is still bigger. Turns out the glass ceiling for "smart dirty immigrant" jobs is much higher than the ceiling for "remote dude" jobs as well. Add the nice bonus that there's simply more to do in a megalopolis of 6mio people than a city of 300k and it's kind of a no brainer. Unless of course you're okay stagn…

Oponents / proponents sounds a lot like sour grapes / rationalisation.

Exactly. I think there's a lot of that.

Re: Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities?

#253

Post by rmc »

Anderkent wrote: post #166
henrikschroder wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Oh, and there were 6 of us, in a 3 bedroom apartment. This is such a weird American phenomenon, the whole roommate thing. What on earth can make adults choose to share their home with a stranger? Why isn't there intense pressure for building many small apartments, rather than building larger apartments that are meant for roommates? Is it connected to the equally weird college dorm roommate system? Why are people ac…

> This is such a weird American phenomenon, the whole roommate thing I think you're just sheltered; in every country in Europe that I lived in or had friends live in (Poland, UK, Portugal), students and young professionals flatshare. Or live with their parents, but it comes out to the same thing. If you're not already independently rich, you can't afford a single bedroom flat on your own. The simple fact is that a tw…

Yes, but when Americans (e.g. college students) talk about "roommates" they mean they share a bedroom! Literal roommates

Re: Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities?

#254

Post by cardiffguy »

septimus111 wrote: post #139

Here in the UK the difference between London vs the rest of the country is insane: I would love to live somewhere with a better quality of life but it's much harder to find a good job outside London. I wonder how much of the resistance to setting up offices in smaller cities is due to senior managers and engineers not wanting to move away because of kids / partners, or because at their level of income they can pretty…

I was earning a London weighted salary of 10% on top of my basic. I've since moved to Cardiff have lost that weighting but gained a house.

It's swings and roundabouts, Cardiff isn't as happening as London or even Bristol (certainly food wise) but money certainly goes further. The worry is if I lose job at 'Thisbigcorp' there are fewer places that would offer a package this good.

Working from home is fairly standard a couple times a week here too.

Re: Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities?

#255

Post by arcanus »

TACIXAT wrote: post #251
iplaw wrote: post #217

Just because developers can feasibly work from anywhere, especially remotely for already-established companies, do not immediately presume that it is best for developers to work from anywhere. Working remotely is not for everyone. Some people have problems with efficiency and procrastination when working from home or when working without immediate oversight. Some people have poor communication skills which are furthe…

Austin seems incredibly cheap to me (when considering southern California as the alternative). You can get a nice house on a large lot for less than 500k. It's not in the city center but I prefer having more space anyway. In San Diego and any reasonable commute around it you get a repair project with anything below 500k. Couple the cheaper housing with income tax savings and I see the appeal.

Yea, Austin isn't cheap anymore but it's by no means expensive when compared to the coasts. It used to be something like a factor of two more expensive in SF or NYC, and I don't think it's quite that large a gap.

The Austin city center is also so much smaller than many major cities that it can be misleading. Just 1.5 miles from downtown the price of housing starts to drop substantially.

Re: Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities?

#256

Post by arcanus »

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #175
henrikschroder wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Oh, and there were 6 of us, in a 3 bedroom apartment. This is such a weird American phenomenon, the whole roommate thing. What on earth can make adults choose to share their home with a stranger? Why isn't there intense pressure for building many small apartments, rather than building larger apartments that are meant for roommates? Is it connected to the equally weird college dorm roommate system? Why are people ac…

Two factors perpetuate this: 1) Americans have a self-hating working class. 2) American home-owners are politically organized, and constantly lobby to prevent the construction of both new single-family houses and apartment buildings in general.

> American home-owners are politically organized, and constantly lobby to prevent the construction of both new single-family houses and apartment buildings in general

That's over-generalizing. Many locations in the USA have sensible zoning. SF is the exception.

Re: Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities?

#257

Post by [deleted] »

rmc wrote: post #253
Anderkent wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is such a weird American phenomenon, the whole roommate thing I think you're just sheltered; in every country in Europe that I lived in or had friends live in (Poland, UK, Portugal), students and young professionals flatshare. Or live with their parents, but it comes out to the same thing. If you're not already independently rich, you can't afford a single bedroom flat on your own. The simple fact is that a tw…

Yes, but when Americans (e.g. college students) talk about "roommates" they mean they share a bedroom ! Literal room mates

[deleted]

Re: Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities?

#258

Post by John23832 »

arcanus wrote: post #255
TACIXAT wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Austin seems incredibly cheap to me (when considering southern California as the alternative). You can get a nice house on a large lot for less than 500k. It's not in the city center but I prefer having more space anyway. In San Diego and any reasonable commute around it you get a repair project with anything below 500k. Couple the cheaper housing with income tax savings and I see the appeal.

Yea, Austin isn't cheap anymore but it's by no means expensive when compared to the coasts. It used to be something like a factor of two more expensive in SF or NYC, and I don't think it's quite that large a gap. The Austin city center is also so much smaller than many major cities that it can be misleading. Just 1.5 miles from downtown the price of housing starts to drop substantially.

SoCal/Bay Area expats are driving up costs in Austin.

Re: Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities?

#259

Post by toomuchtodo »

felideon wrote: post #237
toomuchtodo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've worked remote for almost three years for a profitable startup. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, but not having a commute is incredibly liberating. I've also found my careeer options to not be limited by being remote. Also, I live in Florida 20 minutes from one of the best beaches in the country. Not as "culturally fulfilling" as say the Mission or Castro districts (have been to SF more times than I can count,…

I'm going to guess you live on the west coast of Florida? As a South Floridian, I'm curious.

Outskirts of Tampa. Join me for a beer sometime, my treat, if you're in the area.

Re: Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities?

#260

Post by Swizec »

taway_1212 wrote: post #163
Swizec wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I moved to SF from Slovenia. The percentage of my income that I save* is smaller, but the absolute number is still bigger. Turns out the glass ceiling for "smart dirty immigrant" jobs is much higher than the ceiling for "remote dude" jobs as well. Add the nice bonus that there's simply more to do in a megalopolis of 6mio people than a city of 300k and it's kind of a no brainer. Unless of course you're okay stagn…

> Add the nice bonus that there's simply more to do in a megalopolis of 6mio people than a city of 300k and it's kind of a no brainer. Can you give an example? I've lived in London before and I don't think I saw a single thing available there (that I was interested in) that wasn't available in much smaller cities. I mean, why do you need thousands of restaurants and nightclubs, when in a small city you still have doz…

"Ok, which of the 3 decent restaurants am i going to today?" Gets really boring after a while. New ones to try open every few years instead of every few weeks.

You look at Yelp or similar and you've been to everything it suggests and decided it's meh. Or your friends have been and aay it's kinda meh.

There's also that argument that Oatmeal mentioned once. In a small city you have Asian restaurants. Maybe Chinese, Japanese, and Asian. In a big city you have Cantonese, Sushi, Japanese Grill, Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Singaporean, South Thai, North Thai, Dim Sum etc etc

Maybe SF is a special case. The city itself is only 800k people, but it's surrounded by 6mio people which makes it feel a lot bigger than it is while retaining a lot of the smaller city feel. It's basically Bay Area's lower to mid Manhattan.

PS: London is massive. 13mio people in the metro area. That's twice the size of the entire Bay Area so yes, law of diminishing returns definitely kicks in at some point.

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