Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

iasc-culture.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 350 posts

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#51

Post by Veelox »

domparise wrote: post #8
jerf wrote: post #5

Speaking as a Midwesterener, it was a valiant attempt to examine the Midwest without descending into contempt and cliches, but alas, it ultimately failed, and failed hard . Partial credit given for making it for a few paragraphs before descending into the usual trite analysis.

Speaking also as a Midwesterner, I would disagree. I was born and raised in Michigan, and have not really left much other than to couch hop and envy the lives of my friends who've moved out to the coast. I feel that the contempt the author descends into is self-inflicted, and may representative of the culture and authors midwestern upbringing. From what I've observed, midwesterners are brutally humble, almost to a fa…

The part the I think was closest to the truth is that the Midwest does not have a strong collective culture like the East, South, West, or Southwest. They are much more likely to identify as part of their state or city more than the Midwest as a whole.

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#52

Post by TheAdamAndChe »

sandworm101 wrote: post #22
le-mark wrote: post #16

I found this piece to be interesting, but rather odd too. For example from the middle; I took the first option. As a child, I accepted without thinking that my small town, a city of 9,383 people, contained within it every possible human type; if I could not fit in here, I would not fit in anywhere. (“Fitting in” I defined as being occupied on Friday nights and, sooner or later, kissing a girl.) Every week that passed…

>>> ... and eked lives somehow. I honestly don't know how. Drugs? Or some other invisible economy? I had the same impression of late-90s Vancouver. No real growth outside of real estate, but lots of people with piles of cash and a huge population who never seemed to work but still made rent each month. In BC pot brought in, by some estimates, more money than forestry and mining combined. Now it's purely real estate.

It's probably a combination. Truckers often live in small towns because it's cheap and has a culture they like. Multigenerational rural families often have plenty of farmland and a large positive net worth. There's still some manufacturing jobs in many of these areas, though most places are still continuing to decay due to outsourcing and globalization.

edit: I'm shocked I'm getting downvoted for this. For those unaware, globalization and outsourcing has undeniably had a massive, negative impact on the midwest: http://chicagopolicyreview.org/2012/04/09/the-global-midwest...

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#53

Post by merolish »

I moved to Minneapolis last month after working as a software developer in NYC for twelve years. It still feels like I'm on vacation in comparison, with all this space and a reasonable cost of living. My main concern is career development with the thinner tech scene out here (Chicago didn't seem bad when I looked, although I'd prefer somewhere smaller).

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#54

Post by TheAdamAndChe »

dsschnau wrote: post #19

born and raised in michigan, lived all over the state. I hope i die here. This nerd doesn't know shit

> This nerd doesn't know shit

While you probably have a point, this isn't a very professional or productive way of expressing your opinion.

edit: To those downvoting me, can you please explain why? Is "This nerd doesn't know shit" really the kind of dialog that we want to promote on this site?

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#55

Post by sp332 »

le-mark wrote: post #16

I found this piece to be interesting, but rather odd too. For example from the middle; I took the first option. As a child, I accepted without thinking that my small town, a city of 9,383 people, contained within it every possible human type; if I could not fit in here, I would not fit in anywhere. (“Fitting in” I defined as being occupied on Friday nights and, sooner or later, kissing a girl.) Every week that passed…

This sounds like the general lament of an intelligent, intellectually curious person growing up than anything specific to the midwest.

But in a larger city you'd encounter more kinds of people and feel less weird. You'd also be more likely to meet people who are actually relatable.

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#56

Post by fotbr »

adam wrote: post #28
mark_l_watson wrote: post #3

Nice read! My wife and I just moved to Urbana/Champaign Illinois 4 months ago for my new job, and the Midwest really is different (from Arizona and California where we lived before). People are really nice, food is great, very inexpensive place to live, and there is real natural beauty here if you look for it. Anyways, we are delighted with this area.

Congrats on the move. I grew up in Champaign. I wanted to get out of there by the time I was 18, but now I get back at least once a year and have a new appreciation for the place. Go to Papa Dels pizza if you haven't been. Get the deep dish. It will change your life.

I've been preaching the goodness that is Papa Dels since I was out there for a conference and programming competition at UIUC in the very early 2000s. Happy to see I'm not the only one.

Just be aware, a slice of the deep dish is pretty much a meal by itself.

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#57

Post by strictnein »

rayiner wrote: post #7

> In a 2015 essay for Slate, “The Rust-Belt Theory of Low-Cost High Culture,” reporter Alec McGillis marveled at the cheapness—and, it seems, the mere presence—of good orchestra and museum tickets in interior cities: One fact of history that’s often overlooked is that patronage has left an incredible legacy in places like Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, etc. For example, one of the finest collections of…

One of the reasons Philadelphia has such a great collection of art is that they sort of stole a bunch of it. Great documentary on it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_the_Steal_(2009_fil...

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#58

Post by ryanx435 »

merolish wrote: post #53

I moved to Minneapolis last month after working as a software developer in NYC for twelve years. It still feels like I'm on vacation in comparison, with all this space and a reasonable cost of living. My main concern is career development with the thinner tech scene out here (Chicago didn't seem bad when I looked, although I'd prefer somewhere smaller).

the tech scene isn't very broad, but there is a lot of depth in the medical device scene. Also, surprisingly, a lot of developer jobs with some of the bigger banks and the insurance companies.

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#59

Post by monksy »

mikestew wrote: post #43
throwaway15814 wrote: post #10

Just moved out of the midwest.. I was originally from the East coast and moved back. I'll just say this, being a minority, I was shocked at how much contempt people had towards middle-easterners and black people. On numerous occasions people have said they've been "dirtying up the neighborhoods which is why they moved to another burb... they need to take better care of their lawns, etc". Out of all the companies that…

Out of all the companies that I've worked in the midwest, I've ever had a co-worker that was a black software engineer. The only black software engineer I’ve worked with (as in, on my team and writes code) since moving was the guy I hired. And I live in Seattle and I’ve worked at Microsoft. It’s a big shock moving from Indiana, where I’d had several black coworkers over the years. So I’ll see your Midwestern Rednecks…

> That Midwest Has Internet.

I'm pretty sure Hacker News has a rule about lying.

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#60

Post by strictnein »

ryanx435 wrote: post #58
merolish wrote: post #53

I moved to Minneapolis last month after working as a software developer in NYC for twelve years. It still feels like I'm on vacation in comparison, with all this space and a reasonable cost of living. My main concern is career development with the thinner tech scene out here (Chicago didn't seem bad when I looked, although I'd prefer somewhere smaller).

the tech scene isn't very broad, but there is a lot of depth in the medical device scene. Also, surprisingly, a lot of developer jobs with some of the bigger banks and the insurance companies.

Yeah, US Bank, Wells Fargo, American Express, and Ameriprise have significant presences here.

Also lots of tech jobs at Target and Best Buy, and firms like UnitedHealth Group, General Mills, and Cargill.

Post reply on HN