Akademgorodok is a part of the Sovetsky District of the city of Novosibirsk, Russia, located 30 km south of the city center. It is the educational and scientific centre of Siberia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akademgorodok
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Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?
311–320 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?
#312Earlier 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).
> it means that after taxes it's around 3.8k/month; a bit low if you ask me 3.8K after taxes anywhere in W-Europe (outside of London) is pretty good salary
London is pricy yes but 3.8k is not a bad salary for London. In fact it is about double the average London salary.
Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?
#313Go to Bangalore, India.
Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?
#314Barcelona - 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…
The culture point was a shocking one for me. I spent a week in Barcelona and you had to spend money to do pretty much anything, and if you've not pre-booked it's likely that you won't be doing what you want to do until at least tomorrow.
Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?
#315Depending on your ability to work remotely, I would make the "case" that you should consider Portugal . Lisbon and Porto are super popular with ["digital nomad"] remote workers who work for international companies so earn in USD but spend [much less] in Euros for a superb lifestyle. There's a reason @paddycosgrave moved Web Summit to Lisbon. It's one of the cheapest cities in Europe and [unlike Barcelona] everyone sp…
> and [unlike Barcelona] everyone speaks English
Do you have any stats proving that? Just asked a portuguese friend living in Barcelona and said that is a quite bold statement.
Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?
#316Akademgorodok is a part of the Sovetsky District of the city of Novosibirsk, Russia, located 30 km south of the city center. It is the educational and scientific centre of Siberia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akademgorodok
Are you living there, or how come you know this?
Tomsk is much smaller than Novosibirsk, walkable almost, famous for its +100 years wooden houses (https://www.tripsavvy.com/tomsk-the-hidden-russia-1502232). Khodorkovsky said it's his favorite Russian city. It has six universities and it's considered "the Boston" of Russia, not far, 250km, from Novosibirk.
There is also a Akademgorodok (translated: "Academic-city"), a city district of Tomsk with both a (nice) residential area and a zone with tech companies that get tax cuts. Some firms there exist for many, +20 years, and work on deep tech, like audio and video codecs: https://www.elecard.com/
There are also newly founded Ethereum/crytpo-companies located there; one I met personally rents a villa full of coders: https://playmarket.io
Also, Tomsk has quite a lot of bars and places to spend time. Although it can be -40°C in winter, it's very dry and you get by easily with good clothes. (-18°C in St. Petersburg feels colder due to the humidity)
The good thing about places like Siberia is that many people who live there are offspring of folk who opposed the Zar or the communists and have a non-conformist attitude. People there try to be as little dependent on Moscow as possible which is often hard to do.
Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
Istanbul (and all of Turkey, obv.) is run by a dictator who tortures detainees, and arbitarilly arrests journalists and human rights workers https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/europe-and-central-asia...
Isn't US do the same shady things? but they justify them so you can live in your own bubble believing that you are better than everyone else?
> the same shady things
In one word, no
Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
How is the income tax situation in Portugal?
Good question. If you work for a local company income tax is "steep". see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Portugal Portugal has followed the "Nordics" model when it comes to taxes; income is taxed higher but services (healthcare, schools, roads and other infrastructure] is much better than in the US [or most of the rest of the world for that matter!]. The much cheaper lifestyle in Portugal more than makes…
> paying yourself/co-founders [Tax Free] dividends.
I'm not a tax expert but I don't think you can do it. Dividends are not tax free. You have to pay 28%(IRS) + ~20% (IRC) so in the end you pay more than a regular freelancer (for salaries below €80K).
edit: except if you are a non-habitual resident..
Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
Berlin is nothing like Silicon Valley. It’s a great city but job offers there are 60-80% lower salaries compared to the US, which makes Berlin being marginally cheaper (but with higher taxes) not really worth it.
Says somebody apparently... living in Berlin? Calling Berlin "marginally" cheaper than the Valley is something I'd be highly sceptical of. Rents aside I've not been to many other places where food, shopping and leisure has been as cheap. Also, OP did not mention he wants to optimise his income?
Calling Berlin "marginally" cheaper than the
Valley is something I'd be highly sceptical of.
Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?
#320Barcelona - 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…
1) Summer is less hot than in California;
2) Looks like you were here only as tourist - locals just avoid touristic restaurants, there's a plenty of good restaurants in Barcelona;
3) Barcelona has a lot of really exceptional architecture examples, not just "old church" buildings like in all other cities of Europe. "Really tight together in the center" - 4.75 meters sidewalk on the each side of the street, it's numbers for Eixample district, center of Barcelona. If all you saw was Gothic district ("old town") - it's just small district of the culture legacy;
4) It depends on skills. Salaries here are good enough by Spanish measures;
5) Pure lie. Really, you want to say you measured air pollution levels? Or you can see transparent gases? Try to check your map next time - maybe you'll see huge source of the fresh air - sea. See some photos of the streets to argue about "extremely dirty".
One criteria is against OP: it's not a cheap city, definitely. Most expensive in Spain, one of the most expensive in Europe.
https://instagram.com/p/BgYt8jwAiAp/ https://instagram.com/p/Bh_gZkcHRvf/ https://instagram.com/p/BgJJQlWA_mJ/