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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?

#201

Post by quantummkv »

Have you considered Pune in India? The area has an excellent tech scene with both established companies and startups. It has excellent universities and the area has a lot of students and institutions. Everyone knows English in here. The area itself is has lots of beautiful places around for trekking and exploring if you are into that sort of thing, especially in the monsoon season.

And it's cheap. Really cheap. For 200$ you can get an excellent apartment in prime locations in the city itself. You daily food expenses won't be anymore than 10$ at the most.

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

#202

Post by collyw »

whitef0x wrote: post #117

From what I've seen, Chile is a relatively safe and intellectually free place to live. They aren't as progressive on LGBTQIA tolerance as say the west coast of the US, but they are slowly getting there. It isn't dirt cheap though. A house in a nice part of Santiago will cost you around 300-500k (USD).

How are developer salaries there? For the quick glance I had one time they seemed really low.

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

#204

Post by telesilla »

tropdrop wrote: post #147

If you would like to remain in United States and do not mind having proper seasons, I would strongly consider Chicago, the last affordable big city in the United States. University of Chicago pulls a robust intellectual community (81 Nobel Laureates), but there is also a deep intellectual history around the arts and music that transcends the work of the university - something that I'm not sure I can say for a place l…

Chicago is a really wonderful city and I can vouch for everything tropdrop says here. I will also add, it's good for cycling (though do take care when not on dedicated lanes) and though the winter will leave you breathless and the summers will leave you panting, the vibrancy of city and everything it has to offer, and the affordability it still has, make up for it. It's one of my favourite cities in the world.

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

#205

Post by pritishc »

murukesh_s wrote: post #75
corbett3000 wrote: post #66

Berlin or Amsterdam would be my picks in Europe. Bangkok or KL for Asia. Austin for the US.

Since you mentioned Asia, consider Kerala, the southern most state in India. India is like Europe - even though there are lots of similarities, most states have its own language, a different culture etc. Kerala is known for it's high literacy and higher standard of living. Plus its beautiful and raw too.

Kerala is great for tourism and spending a vacation, but I don't recall seeing a startup community thriving there - infact I did not see any known tech company there. Also the people there are English speaking, but not always. As far as tech intellectuals, I'm not sure how many there are in Kerala.

>high literacy

where literacy is defined as the ability to write my own name.

One would find a better-developed tech scene in Delhi/NCR and Bengaluru, but those aren't very nice places to live for different reasons. Kerala works only if the OP becomes a digital nomad and works remote.

Then there's also the problem of people going on strike whenever they like - flavour of the month types. When I went on a solo trip, they decided to strike due to the rise in fuel prices. Causes a lot of disruption in day-to-day activities. I'm guessing this is because of the influence of the communist party.

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

#206

Post by oblio »

chrismeller wrote: post #105
masonic wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'm not saying it's Seattle or Portland... should I have said "misty" or "gray and miserable"? The specific amount of sky water wasn't really the point of the question.

The Bay Area is far from "misty" or "gray and miserable". Go live in some places that are truly like that, and then compare. Examples: Scotland, Luxembourg, etc.

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

#207

Post by King-Aaron »

mad_tortoise wrote: post #178
King-Aaron wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Appreciate the perspective. I was visiting people who lived in Jberg for more than a decade or so, I wasn't about to question them.

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

#208

Post by namdnay »

david927 wrote: post #133

Nice, France There's a technical hub in the area and multiple universities, along with a lot of English-speaking expats. The weather is amazing and the food is fantastic. I'm from the SF Bay Area and I live here now. Best decision ever.

Much as I love the 06, I don't think you can say it's somewhere where living costs are low. Tourists and Retirees significantly distort the housing and restaurant markets, to the detriment of those making local wages. That being said, if OP had asked "where can I ski in the morning and swim in the afternoon?", I wouldn't have hesitated :)

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

#209

Post by szopa »

maxkwallace wrote: post #134

I am doing this in Taipei right now. The living costs are low and there is a thriving intellectual community, but there is definitely a language barrier. Most Taiwanese can speak enough English to be friendly and helpful (which they are), but not enough to have intellectual conversations. If you are willing to tolerate the language barrier and put in the time to find the people who can converse intellectually in Engl…

I've been to Taipei, and the language barrier was quite horrible. People speaking English seemed to be the exception, not the norm – I'd never appreciated Google Translate as much as I did in Taiwan. And a lot of things work quite a bit differently than in the West – so a few times I had to be borderline rude to trigger someone enough to attempt to explain stuff to me in English instead of just shooing me away.

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

#210

Post by Broken_Hippo »

odiroot wrote: post #172
flavor8 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Why throw politics into it?

If you live in the country you have citizenship in, with a right to be there, you might be lucky enough not to worry about it. This doesn't spread to all citizens of all countries: African Americans couldn't comfortably just move anywhere in the states in the 1950's, for example.

If you are moving to another country, it becomes even more important. Not only can the politics affect your life greatly (being gay might be illegal, for example, with harsh punishments), but in many places, you won't have a say in said politics. You can rally folks together, but most places won't let you vote.

Even if the laws at the present time fit your lifestyle, the political trends might be geared towards changing this. It really pays to pay attention to such things. Politics and culture are important to pay attention to, especially when moving to another country.

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