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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?

#951

Post by JBlue42 »

stratosmacker wrote: post #869
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…

Damn it! I was looking for ideas... I've lived in the Triangle for 15 years now, I would recommend you come after we have a light rail.

lol I've been seeing signs for the light rail since I was a kid (in my thirties now). Are they making any headway or is that still a bit of a joke?

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

#952

Post by panda888888 »

Not super cheap nor super intellectual, but consider somewhere in the Netherlands. The social safety net is excellent so there's not a ton of stress in the population as a whole. I recommend Delft, but the country is small enough that you could practically live anywhere.

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

#953

Post by tuxxy »

mindcrime wrote: post #821
Technetium wrote: post #816

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think you're going to have a good time living in the Carolinas, then I genuinely hope that you don't plan on being black or gay outside of a major city. There is a ton of bigotry and racism still present there, and the politicians in charge are happy to see it continue.

As a native North Carolinian who grew up in a rural part of the state, I can confirm that there is a substantial difference between the rural parts of the state, and places like the Triangle region, in this regard. There definitely are still racists, bigots, homophobes, etc. and they are more common when you get out into the country areas. That said, it's not the case that every 3rd person you meet is a KKK member, r…

Can confirm.

Born and raised in rural North Carolina. The racism and bigotry and religious zealotry is very prevalent there. Durham, Raleigh, and Charlotte are all nice cities. However, you should really stick to those areas if you're not wanting to deal with any trouble.

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

#954

Post by akhilcacharya »

iends wrote: post #941
akhilcacharya wrote: post #823

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

This is not true at all in my experience. What compensation number do you think is fair for new CS grads? 10 years ago new CS grads were getting 60k/yr and moving up quickly. Now that I often hire for the area, it's closer to 70k in my experience. Yes, you can move to SFO and make 90k, or more? But you have to adjust drastically for cost of living. Perhaps you get better RSUs and free lunch? Once you get more senior…

90k is considered very low today overall. The average new grad gets like ~150ish, give or take 20. If you get a big signing bonus like they do at Facebook it goes up to 225k+ TC for the first year. My friend graduating this year just signed an offer for ~210k first year at a trading company.

It’s definutely worth it to chase the money out of undergrad IMHO.

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

#955

Post by hypercluster »

Kovah wrote: post #168

There are some smaller German cities like Göttingen which have - in my opinion - a high intellectual atmosphere because they are so called university-cities: lot's of students and academics in a rather small city. And, in comparison with big cities like Berlin or Munich, the rents are much cheaper: from what I know you pay 2/3 to half of the price for the same amount of space. Example: a flat with 55-60 qm is about 6…

As much as I liked studying there, it's not a good place to actually work as a software engineer (locally that is).

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

#957

Post by masonic »

xapata wrote: post #162
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.

Are you saying the Bay Area is synonymous with San Jose?

Rainfall is similar around the Bay Area, with the North Bay getting generally more rain than the South Bay, but everywhere in the Bay area is below average rainfall for non-desert areas.

Also, only SF proper could be considered particularly "cool".

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

#958

Post by fractalwrench »

Bath, UK is a pretty great place to live (and cheap by Bay Area standards). Stunning architecture, right next to the countryside, and the city regularly makes it into the list of top safest/best places to live in the world.

There's a decent tech scene in both Bath/Bristol, and London is only 90 minutes away by train. Fire me a message if you have any questions.

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

#959

Post by dharma1 »

adamcharnock wrote: post #425
nelsonic wrote: post #229

Depending 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…

Glad to see this as the first comment I read. Im currently sat in Portugal on 4ha of land I have brought over near Fundão. It is more out of the way, but still has excellent access to cities. Plus it is absolutely beautiful. I’m a freelance software developer and can happily work out here even on a plot of land which has no power/net connection. The 3G/4G is great, and everything easily runs of a single solar panel.…

Where do you live if there is no house?

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

#960

Post by YorkshireSeason »

tptacek wrote: post #799
YorkshireSeason wrote: post #472

81 Nobel Laureates This is misleading, because it falsely counts winners of the "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences Prize in Economic Sciences" as a Nobel price. Alfred Nobel did not donate a price for economics. The Sveriges Riksbank (= bank of the swedish empire) created this price (against the explicit wishes of the Nobel foundation [1]) in order to 'cash' in on the reputation of Nobel price. This is…

I don't think the University of Chicago, which is one of the most exclusive and renowned schools in the country, is really trying to mislead anyone. Harvard, Yale, and Stanford brag about their Econ Nobels as well.

Whataboutism?

Since the shady nature of the Economics prices is widely known, and brand management is a core imperative for modern high-fee universities, Harvard, Yale, and Stanford are just as guilty. The problem of false-Nobels is widely known and discussed among economists and physicists.

I find it surprising that there is so much resistance to the (widely discussed [1]) false advertising involved in the mislabelling the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences Prize in Economic Sciences. I've brought up this subject many times on HN, and always get negative reactions (but never a coherent defense of the practise of mislabeling Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences Prize). In contrast, when I bring this subject up in face-to-face communication, my interlocutors always agree.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Memorial_Prize_in_Econom...

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