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As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

nytimes.com

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Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#221

Post by EdwardDiego »

TheAlchemist wrote: post #13

That's interesting ! I'm intending to make a move with my family in near future, and we actually went to visit the northern island for 15 days last month. The country is really beautiful, and there are not a lot of people around, so you can't help but feel blessed by the surrounding nature. The people are great, probably the nicest I've ever seen (as a whole). I've noted some cons though (not blocking for us thankful…

> outside of Wellington and Auckland, I didn't feel like there were any interesting opportunities in IT (that's a subjective and based on a very limited evidence from discussions with local / personal observations)

Christchurch has a fair few also, and it's closer to the "LOTR scenery".

> but eating habits don't seem to follow. Obesity seems to be a huge problem there

Obesity directly correlates to low socio-economic status here.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#222

Post by EdwardDiego »

mistermann wrote: post #93
TheAlchemist wrote: post #13

That's interesting ! I'm intending to make a move with my family in near future, and we actually went to visit the northern island for 15 days last month. The country is really beautiful, and there are not a lot of people around, so you can't help but feel blessed by the surrounding nature. The people are great, probably the nicest I've ever seen (as a whole). I've noted some cons though (not blocking for us thankful…

> housing prices are extremely high. I don't understand that, Same problem Canada has: interest rates below the rate of (real, unadjusted) inflation, and no limitations on foreign ownership of real estate (a major catalyst, at least , for a bubble).

Also - no capital gains tax means that most domestic investment is poured into housing as opposed to something productive like investing in business.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#223

Post by EdwardDiego »

chadgeidel wrote: post #37
TheAlchemist wrote: post #13

That's interesting ! I'm intending to make a move with my family in near future, and we actually went to visit the northern island for 15 days last month. The country is really beautiful, and there are not a lot of people around, so you can't help but feel blessed by the surrounding nature. The people are great, probably the nicest I've ever seen (as a whole). I've noted some cons though (not blocking for us thankful…

The Internet connectivity issue was the big deal-breaker for me. Australian bloggers have been complaining about it since the beginning of the WWW. Apparently there's one provider and they don't care about anything beyond "email and casual browsing". I've heard that Australia and New Zealand share the same ISP and the same policies. This is going to be a huge hinderance for any tech enterprise. I'm glad to see @bspn…

> I've heard that Australia and New Zealand share the same ISP

What? Hell no. The only Australian ISP that tried to set-up here (Telstra) ended up selling out to Vodafone and exiting the market. Our internet is far better than Australia's.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#224

Post by RantyDave »

Apocryphon wrote: post #175
humanrebar wrote: post #3

> For all sorts of reasons, New Zealand suddenly makes sense. The cost of living is less than in San Francisco. Commuting is less wearying. And American politics, “Brexit” and the Islamic State are on the other side of the world. For the most part, this is all true in, say, Tulsa. Especially if you stay off Facebook. You especially don't have to go to New Zealand to find a cheaper, commuter-friendly place to work. No…

When I think of NZ, I imagine South Pacific beaches, lush forests of emu and kiwi and other exotic animals, and the landscape of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. What natural beauty does Tulsa have?

There are no emu here, you're thinking of Australia. And Kiwi are both endangered and nocturnal. We have, really, nothing exotic at all apart from Tui's (that are awesome), Kereru (a huge wood pigeon) and Kea's (that are bastards).

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#225

Post by vacri »

gravypod wrote: post #206
vacri wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's definetly not an isolationist paradise "Isolation" and "Isolationist" are significantly different concepts. One is a physical property, the other is a social construct. > To have isolation you need to have a place with very lax laws where people don't want to bother you. This isn't isolationism either. Switzerland is isolationist, but it has plenty of strict laws (including conscription), for example. What you…

> "Isolation" and "Isolationist" are significantly different concepts. One is a physical property, the other is a social construct. Someone who want's to isolate themselves, in search of "isolation", can be called an "isolationist". > This isn't isolationism either. Switzerland is isolationist, but it has plenty of strict laws (including conscription), for example. What you're describing is a libertarian fantasy coun…

One of the really annoying things about libertarianism is the way it takes words that other people already use, redefine it to mean something else, and then tells those people they're wrong for using the original word.

An 'isolationist' is someone who wants their country to withdraw from the world politically. It's not someone who wants to live 'off the grid'. It's not someone who is frightened by a 30% marginal tax bracket. It's not another term for 'libertarian'. Someone who wants to live off by themselves with little interaction with others is called a hermit, not an isolationist.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#226

Post by EdwardDiego »

ravenstine wrote: post #102
TheAlchemist wrote: post #13

That's interesting ! I'm intending to make a move with my family in near future, and we actually went to visit the northern island for 15 days last month. The country is really beautiful, and there are not a lot of people around, so you can't help but feel blessed by the surrounding nature. The people are great, probably the nicest I've ever seen (as a whole). I've noted some cons though (not blocking for us thankful…

That sums up my experience pretty accurately. Granted, I lived there almost 10 years ago, so I don't have an accurate picture of what it's like now. I also find it interesting that you say that obesity is a problem there, because I never got that sense during my time in Wellington. The quality of food is incredible, like you say, but people take in a lot of sugar and alcohol. I could see diabetes being a problem, but…

> The disadvantage to NZ healthcare, and dental care, is that their practices are sometimes really backwards. Especially with the latter. Dentists are far more likely to just yank out a tooth than try to save one.

Thanks for overgeneralising my entire country :/ Dentists typically only pull teeth if you can't afford the fix - that is the one downside to our medical system, medicine is subsidised, dentistry is not, and offering dental insurance as part of an employment contract is very unusual here.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#227

Post by lostlogin »

gravypod wrote: post #213
lostlogin wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind how low a 30% tax rate is. It's low relative to the OECD and, depending on your politics, needs to go up or have some higher brackets for the wealthier.

> Keep in mind how low a 30% tax rate is Well if it's so low I wouldn't mind sending you my paypal. You can always send me some supplimental money if you don't think the government is taking enough from you. We can think of it as wealth redistribution to a poor college student. > It's low relative to the OECD If I'm focused on isolating myself from everyone why would I care about what other OECD members are doing? >…

Some of us down here are plenty happy to pay for our share and would vote to increase what's taken to improve services. We don't need more immigration, we need infrastructure and need to pay for it. Taxes help pay for university here (and I wish it covered more of the cost) so if you were studying here, your partly covered. Why do you think we're isolationist? No part of NZ foreign policy is intended to be like that.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#229

Post by EdwardDiego »

TheAlchemist wrote: post #52
bspn wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too am considering a move to NZ for family reasons, and visited Auckland last month. It truly is a spectacular city framed by an amazing harbor, but it's not without some faults. My thoughts on the cons you raise based on conversations I had with a few locals: > housing prices are extremely high. I don't understand that, there is plenty of space everywhere (maybe except Wellington) and somehow they manage to not us…

We didn't looked at Christchurch - we assumed that as most people live in the northern island, we will probably end up here, so we preferred to spend full time there. For food, it seems like for the food problem it's also caused by the lack of 'culinary education' as we may call it in France. Children are eating bad food very early and those habits stick for life. We too have kids, and it looks like an amazing place…

> We didn't looked at Christchurch

South Island is best island buddy ;)

> For food, it seems like for the food problem it's also caused by the lack of 'culinary education' as we may call it in France.

Obesity directly correlates to poverty here.

> One thing bothering me a bit is the lack of history / culture, at least as I know it. This is again very biased by my education, but in Europe, you have castles, small villages with rich history literally everywhere

Yep, we're a young nation, I routinely drink in pubs in Munich that are older than my country - but New Zealand's history is older than NZ, Maori have been here since the 1100s at least. Also, our natural history is very compelling .

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#230

Post by RantyDave »

TheAlchemist wrote: post #13

That's interesting ! I'm intending to make a move with my family in near future, and we actually went to visit the northern island for 15 days last month. The country is really beautiful, and there are not a lot of people around, so you can't help but feel blessed by the surrounding nature. The people are great, probably the nicest I've ever seen (as a whole). I've noted some cons though (not blocking for us thankful…

Our Internet is great. We're mostly fibre now and the cheapest plans are 20 up and 100 down.
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