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

Post by iends » Tue, Oct 09, 2018, 3:18 AM UTC

akhilcacharya wrote: post #823

cbames89 wrote: post #708

I'd highly recommend the triangle area in North Carolina. In Raleigh, there are a large number of tech companies, RHE, Cisco, IBM, Unreal Engine, just to name a few. It has the second highest % of computer science PhDs, and it's home to NC State, Duke University, and UNC. It's also a cultural hotspot for Blues creativity. Many of the best contemporary blues artists are located here in the triangle. The cost of living…

I grew up in Raleigh (born, elementary school through NC State) there and recently moved north to start my first job...IMO, the jobs with competitive compensations just don't exist in Raleigh at the new grad level. Almost all of the top students that I know of move to Seattle, NYC, SF etc after graduating. Housing is also surprisingly expensive in the nicer parts of town given the necessity for a car. With that said,…

Post by Fomite » Tue, Oct 09, 2018, 3:30 AM UTC

Post by wglb » Tue, Oct 09, 2018, 3:57 AM UTC

SwellJoe wrote: post #938

wglb wrote: post #890

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Despite what 'tptacek and others might say about winters, I don't find them bad at all. There have, in fact, been one or two that are outright frauds, with 72 degrees on Christmas Day. And the lowest temperature is only -29F. (Full disclosure--I grew up in Montana on the prairie, with more wind than Chicago, so my perspective might be unusual.)

I grew up in the south. -29F sounds like hell on earth. I get seasonal depression, there's no way I'd put myself through a winter like that to save a little money on rent. Though, again, there are major southern cities with lower cost of living than Chicago, so it's like not even saving money, despite the possibility of living without a car. Since I work from home, my car/commute costs are negligible, and I drive a 1…

Post by dang » Tue, Oct 09, 2018, 4:10 AM UTC

isostatic wrote: post #274

rolleiflex wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is awesome. I live in SF, and have a base in Istanbul, which is from what I heard, similar to Lisbon in many aspects — but I would be hesitant to recommend it without at least a willingness to learn Turkish. There are some digital nomads here in HN based in Istanbul, though. Nevertheless - my point was, you’re living my dream and I’ll definitely give a visit when my life allows for a Portugal trip. Never been ye…

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...

Post by JBlue42 » Tue, Oct 09, 2018, 4:13 AM UTC

kccqzy wrote: post #835

mindcrime wrote: post #809

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agreed. The Triangle hits a good "sweet spot" in terms of cost of living, business/career opportunity, culture, food, entertainment, etc. And we're conveniently located about 2-3 hours from beaches (depending on which beach you want to hit), or about 3.5-5 hours from mountains (depending, again, on exactly where you want to go). One thing I really like about this area is that for a moderately sized urban area…

> And we're conveniently located about 2-3 hours from beaches (depending on which beach you want to hit), or about 3.5-5 hours from mountains (depending, again, on exactly where you want to go). This sentence really makes me rethink how much time some people routinely spend on the road. I live in Santa Monica where's it's minutes away from beaches and about half an hour away from mountains. If I just want to go there…