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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?

#51

Post by tartoran »

mychael wrote: post #48
tartoran wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brooklyn is expensive

I disagree. You can live like a king in many parts of Brooklyn for cheap compared to the Bay Area.

Brooklyn is cool for the culture but it's expensive , you live cramped,in old buildings and crappy conditions, the transportation is a mess(L train shutdown, etc). If you pay the money you could live in a nice area of Brooklyn, but the point here was about cheap/afordable for everybody,as in other intellectuals can afford and not live from paycheck to paycheck

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

#53

Post by 59nadir »

ivanech wrote: post #35

I have a software engineer friend who moved to Budapest, and she swears by it. It's a beautiful city with several universities, and it's incredibly affordable.

Hungary consistently ranks as having the lowest percentage of English speaking people in Europe. It's perhaps one of the few countries where this would actually still be an issue in Europe.

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

#55

Post by masonic »

chrismeller wrote: post #46

In order to give any kind of really meaningful feedback I'd have to ask a couple of other questions: 1) Define "cheap". You're in the Bay Area, which is by every definition the opposite of "cheap", but substituting that with something like Seattle or Austin or Brooklyn doesn't sound like it's accomplishing what you're looking for to me, even though it's absolutely cheaper. You said you want to focus on your own intel…

  Living in the Bay Area means you're used to cool and rainy
Rainy? Rain averages 13-14 inches a year in San Jose.

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

#56

Post by mk89 »

inciampati wrote: post #25
nicklovescode wrote: post #2

It depends what you mean by cheap but you can live in Somerville next to Cambridge MA for a fraction of SF rent and be in perhaps the best intellectual environment in the world. https://boston.craigslist.org/search/aap?bedrooms=1&maxAsk=1... Looks like it’s pretty easy to find a sub-$1000/mo bedroom

Sub 1k/mo bedroom...! Times do change, and fast. I lived there for seven years. I travel very extensively throughout the world for (research) work and Somerville offers by far the best social environment for hacker and intellectual types that I've ever found. I would be happy to return. If the OP is into anarchism, art, and culture I would recommend Napoli. An apartment in the best location imaginable would never be…

The OP asked for a place where he/she can speak English as well, and unfortunately this is not really the case.

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

#58

Post by mdeg »

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

KL is also polluted and very dirty. I couldn't recommend it to someone used to clean air and clean streets.

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

#59

Post by mdeg »

dtkav wrote: post #34

I just moved to Hobart, Australia from SF. It's quite affordable. I pay A$400 /mo rent in a share house, and walk 20 mins to a downtown co-working space every day (also A$400 /mo). Lifestyle is pretty incredible. It's small, but still a state capital city, so there's plenty going on. Hobart is also the home port for the Australian and French Antarctic programs, so a lot of smart folks come through. Plus it was a tria…

I'm in Melbourne right now but I'd love to move over the strait to Hobart. Do you have a remote job? The only thing stopping me is not being able to find work there - of the many things Hobart has, a thriving high tech industry is not one of them.

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

#60

Post by tixocloud »

sitepodmatt wrote: post #15
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.

I visit family in KL and am interested in tech hotspots. However, the city seems quite normal - is Cyberjaya where most of the action is?
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