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Ask HN: Where are other tech scenes outside Bay Area

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Re: Ask HN: Where are other tech scenes outside Bay Area

#93
Cost of living is not much better but I'm personally partial to Boston and you can get houses in the surrounding bedroom communities for not too bad. If you don't mind going North of Boston, southern New Hampshire has a lot to offer but the tech scene is still pretty small.

Re: Ask HN: Where are other tech scenes outside Bay Area

#94

Well, nowhere you could get the SV rates. Yet, nowhere you'd be struggling on a quarter a million. There is tech beyond SV. My current company is distributed between a second tier city in Croatia and a semi-rural town in NZ. We are in the end-of-life tech, and are taking the Advisor track at Startup School. Times when you had no tech other than ol' skool corporate IT beyond SV, London, and a few other spots are gone.…

Does your company employ any US citizens in Croatia? I understand that the taxes would not be able to be deducted from one's US taxes - so basically one would pay double taxes.

Re: Ask HN: Where are other tech scenes outside Bay Area

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You manage the barrier by learning the language. Sorry if it sounds harsh, but I've noticed something with English Speaking folks, they don't want to learn another language. They want people to speak English to them.

It's going to be rough working in English all day, then trying to learn German in the evening, especially if most people interested in talking to you are those who want to practice their English. It's tough to find people willing to talk with an adult like they're a toddler. So, I don't think the question is as flippant as you made it out to be. Someone might have some real advice about how to manage the juggling act…

That's the trap of working in industry lingua franca of which is your mother tongue. Otherwise public libraries in Germany are very well equipped and have wide selection of audio content - language curses, audiobooks, some might find it more helpful than just grammar handbooks.

Re: Ask HN: Where are other tech scenes outside Bay Area

#96
post #94

Well, nowhere you could get the SV rates. Yet, nowhere you'd be struggling on a quarter a million. There is tech beyond SV. My current company is distributed between a second tier city in Croatia and a semi-rural town in NZ. We are in the end-of-life tech, and are taking the Advisor track at Startup School. Times when you had no tech other than ol' skool corporate IT beyond SV, London, and a few other spots are gone.…

Does your company employ any US citizens in Croatia? I understand that the taxes would not be able to be deducted from one's US taxes - so basically one would pay double taxes.

We do hire some freelancers / contractors / advisors. So far they are in Croatia, Serbia, UK, Malta, France, Cyprus, Israel.

Not sure on taxation for the US citizens, sorry.

Re: Ask HN: Where are other tech scenes outside Bay Area

#98
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_bank

Thanks! I’d never heard that term before. I had originally tried getting an account in a Sparkasse branch, but it was much more difficult than N26. No doubt there are other online only banks, but I cannot comment on their quality without using them.

I had Deutsche Bank and N26 when living in Berlin (in addition to my personal accounts) and strongly recommend N26. Super easy online setup, Black card has some good benefits, and clean mobile and web experiences.

Re: Ask HN: Where are other tech scenes outside Bay Area

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about bureaucracy processes and getting up and running with internet, gas, bank, etc? Doubt that call centers have English speaking guys or forms in other languages

It may be cumbersome, but it's one of the things you do once. Colleagues can help you with translations. Many internet, phone and other companies employ young people for support tasks who can speak english most of the time, so it shouldn't be a big issue. Especially if you go to offline stores in Berlin to fill out the forms.

I had the opposite experience that I would get constantly hung up on by government offices and even places like Doctors when I lived there and couldn't speak German but still worth the tradeoff and definitely easy enough to get a friendly colleague to help you with translations
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