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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?

#171

Post by mad_tortoise »

nsomaru wrote: post #132
ronaldl93 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The northern parts of Durban (Umhlanga / Ballito) is also nice. Good fibre infrastructure, relatively safe. Well developed. Tropical Climate. Very English.

I'm actually a Durbanite living in Westville but I can't recommend Durban having lived in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Mumbai and Berlin. Spend too much time in Durban and I end up feeling like I'm intellectually frustrated. A lot of it might have to do with my race group and the fact that it is a minority nationally with a high concentration in KZN. You probably know what I'm saying ;) There's implicit racism in Durban…

Get Slack and check out ZA Tech slack: https://zatech.github.io/

A really great community, also the look for the #tech-for-good channel which is in conjunction with Codebridge SA is a really great resource.

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

#172

Post by odiroot »

flavor8 wrote: post #65
msadowski wrote: post #22

If you feel adventurous you can consider moving to Poland. I would recommend Krakow. Most young people will speak English, there are couple of top Universities there (PK and AGH for technical schools, UJ for humanities, medicine and some tech too and UE for economics). The tech scene seems to be constantly growing, with lots of international companies having their offices there. As a senior dev in Poland you can earn…

You'd have to be quite apolitical to consider a move to Poland right now.

Why throw politics into it?

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

#173

Post by toddkazakov »

larodi wrote: post #69

Check Bulgaria's Sofia capital - is top notch. Lots of concerts, events, bars, meetups, conferences, sports facilities. Is still growing lot in terms of IT, hundreds of job postings, major companies such as VMWare, HPs, Codix, SAP all have big offices here - check Linkedin. senior positions after taxes pay 1000-2000EU. Rents are 400-600EU for a very decent central place 80m^2 + furniture. 4 mountains around the city,…

You can find senior positions up to 5000-6000EU. That's the good part. Unfortunately, I wouldn't call it a city with a good intellectual atmosphere. I suspect it's one of the worst places if ranked by this factor - it's full with sketchy people in sketchy "businesses", corruption and low level of education.

Disclosure: I'm Bulgarian who used to live in UK and France, and now considering emigrating again due to the reasons stated above.

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

#174

Post by justin66 »

fipple wrote: post #68

The answer here is places that are COLD. For any type of city, the one in a colder place is cheaper. Minneapolis might be a good choice, or Chicago if you want a bigger atmosphere. You’ll have to put in elbow grease to create an intellectual milieu but it is there.

> For any type of city, the one in a colder place is cheaper.

Did you leave NYC and Boston just completely out of your calculations?

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

#175

Post by mikkelam »

bandy008 wrote: post #153

Philippines - It's the best place to be. Just imagine coding in front of a breath taking view. Everything is cheap. No BS. Plus the beautiful nature and everybody speaks english. Here's a quick testament about the Philippines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-tKE812-ZY

Does the above hold if you're female?

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

#176

Post by VaedaStrike »

While prices have long been rising here in Utah, they are still a pitance relative to SV/SF you could set up near the University of Utah (or BYU if you’re okay with the oft times awkward happy valley vibe) for what should be very reasonable for a Software Engineer salary.

There’s a solid tech nexus forming whose geographic center is becoming a town between Salt Lake City and Provo called Lehi. Tons of co-working spaces. It’s one of only 4 states in the nation where computer software developer is the most common job https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/02/05/382664837/map-... it, at the very least, has a sizeable workforce that depend on their ability to sling code to make a living.

I’ve heard a lot of heresay, from people who’d know, about how much Northern Utah is resembling the appearance of SV from some decades back during its ascent.

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

#177

Post by codethief »

itsthejb wrote: post #139
bogdanu wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw some jobs in Berlin that payed around 70K Eur. Assuming it's before taxes, it means that after taxes it's around 3.8k/month; a bit low if you ask me. I know pay is not the only factor, but heck, I make half in my home country, but the living costs are far lower (and I don't even pay rent).

Are you comparing that salary to US salaries? Because the still relatively low cost of living in Berlin makes that anything but low

Besides, the salary already includes social security and health insurance.

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

#178

Post by mad_tortoise »

King-Aaron wrote: post #154
whitef0x wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How bad is the crime? I've talked to a few who've lived there but they always tell me the crime forced them to move out. Do hijackings at robots still happen often?

> How bad is the crime? From experience (several yrs ago), you keep a gun in your lap when you drive the car. All the time.

From personal experience of being a South African, I have never ever heard of anything like this, unless you're in Joburg and paranoid about every second of your life.

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

#179

Post by function_seven »

alt_f4 wrote: post #161
siquick wrote: post #90

Barcelona - one of the best all-around cities in the world (climate/culture/architecture/world proximity/quality of living/beach/mountains) and a growing tech scene. Very easy to pick up development work here for a local company, you won't be required to know Spanish/Catalan for a job. The only downsides are that the pay is relatively low (€43k average for SE) and it can be quite difficult to find a place to live wit…

Barcelona is not one of the best all-around cities for sure. 1) climate -- not moderate, only good if you enjoy extremely hot summers 2) culture -- obscured by the tourism industry in the city. Pretty much all restaurants try to rip you off, public parks charge entry for certain areas, everything culture-related is aimed and priced for tourists. 3) architecture -- nice, but not really exceptional. buildings really ti…

How would you compare it to Madrid?
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