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Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

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Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#11

Post by welder »

If you're single, just cut your expenses and stay in the Bay Area. Get rid of your car, get roommates, stop eating out. It's much easier to cut your spending than move, and you will definitely be giving up opportunity and intellectual community no matter where in the world you move compared to SF.

Also, Berlin fits your criteria.

If you just want somewhere cheap try Thailand. Many coworking spaces, but harder to find a startup community. The language barrier won't be a problem because of tourism and the polite culture.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#13

Post by tzhenghao »

I’d recommend Ann Arbor if you don’t mind the midwestern winters. [0] UMich is there, and you’ll find people in academia working on very interesting problems. Very friendly locals too.

[0] https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/most-educated-cities-i...

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#14

Post by j_moulin32 »

nabaraj wrote: post #9
baxtr wrote: post #4

If you really consider moving abroad, then Berlin might be a good option. It has a decent American expat community, it's relatively “cheap” and culturally rich.

I was talking to someone about tech culture in Germany earlier. How easy is it to get a tech job out there?

Very easy, but Berlin is booming so rents are going up and vacant apartments have lots of competition. Zalando has 245 open tech positions: https://jobs.zalando.com/en/?search=technology

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#15

Post by sitepodmatt »

tmlee wrote: post #7

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is an option to consider. Strategically located in growing Southeast Asia and well connected. Most folks in the city speaks English in the city, so you wont have issues getting around. There is a growing tech community here as well with a some notable startups/companies. Cost of living wise, magnitude lower than neighboring Singapore, as such a good consideration

Plenty of co-working and reasonable hotels around Cyberjaya, good food, fast internet, it is a bit boring though for SE Asia.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#18

Post by xodast »

nabaraj wrote: post #9
baxtr wrote: post #4

If you really consider moving abroad, then Berlin might be a good option. It has a decent American expat community, it's relatively “cheap” and culturally rich.

I was talking to someone about tech culture in Germany earlier. How easy is it to get a tech job out there?

When I looked into it there were a couple of issues:

Visas they will be different for wach person but for most people but if you're not under 30 and not from a western country it is a hassle

Jobs : a lot of jobs require German and the ones that don't you'd face more fierce competition which drives down the wages considerably.

Wages: on average is lower by 20-30 percent than Toronto, 50-60 percent than sf again taking these numbers out of my ass but you get the gist. Higher end more senior jobs pay even less.

Benefits and holidays: significantly better than NA you get like 30 holidays in Bavaria last time I checked

Overall if you don't have a big friend group/ family it's worth the move in my opinion the lifestyle is much more sustainable.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#20

Post by anon7429 »

It depends on where one is at in life. I would move to such a place to retire, but not just starting out.

Prague is relatively cheap.

Also, some of the college towns in the US if they're not nestled within major metros.

Tokyo, SF, NYC, London, Moscow, etc. are where the action is at: for people whom can compete and afford a lifestyle unsustainable for anyone else.

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