Montpellier, France. Moved here from Chicago, and can't believe I missed doing so many, many years ago. Amazing weather, extremely friendly people, fantastic public transportation (local, regional, country-wide (e.g. TGV), and all across Europe), *and* unparalleled delicious food and inexpensive great wine.
Ask HN: What's your ideal city in a 100% remote world?
151–160 of 221 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's your ideal city in a 100% remote world?
#152This kind of “what city is the best?” question isn’t very useful. There is a kind of efficient market phenomenon which causes all cities within a country to be nearly equivalent to the median person once you take into account cost of living, crowds, traffic, etc - if one place is clearly better than others, people will move there until it’s not. The key is to estimate your particular comparative advantage with respect to each city - do you want music, walkability, safety, climate, ambitious people, etc? Figure out what you value more and less than other people value, and then move to the place that aligns with those preferences.
Re: Ask HN: What's your ideal city in a 100% remote world?
#153A village in nature less than an hour travel from a city with an airport. Done that for 2 decades in different countries (pt,es,hk,nl) and it is perfect (also: cheap). I like cities for a day or 2 and then I cannot imagine why anyone wants to be in one; I had that since I was a kid (my parents say I asked when I was 7 why people would want to live in NYC when we went on holiday there).
Re: Ask HN: What's your ideal city in a 100% remote world?
#154Serious consideration : Much of the discussion is conditional on remote being the norm in the future, no? What if very few companies support remote 3-5 years from now?
The cat's out of the bag, ain't no one putting it back in.
Well, hopefully. A lot of cats are getting put back already here. And what will happen when the big next financial crisis hits? It is a sellers market now, but that will turn around; wondering what companies are going to do then.
Re: Ask HN: What's your ideal city in a 100% remote world?
#155Same place where I am - Bangalore. Weather is the best - warm but not hot, cool but not cold. No extremes. People from every state of India. So great food. Culturally very diverse and really a melting pot. Good sports/fitness scene and culture. Safe. Locals are mostly fine with outsiders. In fact that’s the economy here other than IT. English (more) and Hindi (less) are the connecting tongues. Local language is not f…
I live in Bangalore but I disagree. Bangalore is not such a good place to live in.
Reasons being:
1) Dirty. Yeah, Most places in Bengaluru are very dirty. No effective dirt management system. Also, people throw trash on roads, on empty sites, on footpaths, and everywhere making it very dirty.
2) Roads and Traffic.
First of all, let me tell that Road Infrastructure is not at all good. Also, People don't seem to value life of others. People many times don't follow traffic rules. Thanks to Lack of infrastructure, Crossing the road is also so difficult here and there are chances People will run over you(people seem to be hurry).
3) Water
Water Quality is Bad. It's also causing baldness in many people.
4) Corruption
Many people with power seems to be corrupt. You get to deal with them if you live here.
Contd...
Re: Ask HN: What's your ideal city in a 100% remote world?
#156I’ll put on in for NYC. Just love it here. Big beautiful sky line Fair amount of greenspace including parks, rivers, forests, and beaches Even more greenspace easily accessible with a bike or car or by train Bus trips to Vermont for snowboarding all winter (not as great as West coast, but still decent) Antenna gets me TV for free! Tons and tons and tons of cultures and restaurants and plays and movies and clubs and m…
As someone who spent most of his life at or below 32° latitude, but has visited cities in the north a few times, I find NYC too gray and depressing.
The light is very different there, the water is gray instead of blue-green, the bricks are brown instead of red, and in general it's a bit grim and colorless. Even the sky is desaturated.
Stuff like light maybe subtle, but over time it wears on you and affects your mood.
Re: Ask HN: What's your ideal city in a 100% remote world?
#157Same place where I am - Bangalore. Weather is the best - warm but not hot, cool but not cold. No extremes. People from every state of India. So great food. Culturally very diverse and really a melting pot. Good sports/fitness scene and culture. Safe. Locals are mostly fine with outsiders. In fact that’s the economy here other than IT. English (more) and Hindi (less) are the connecting tongues. Local language is not f…
Which areas in Bangalore are good from this perspective? (Cleanliness, environment, less populated, good infra)?
Re: Ask HN: What's your ideal city in a 100% remote world?
#158Same place where I am - Bangalore. Weather is the best - warm but not hot, cool but not cold. No extremes. People from every state of India. So great food. Culturally very diverse and really a melting pot. Good sports/fitness scene and culture. Safe. Locals are mostly fine with outsiders. In fact that’s the economy here other than IT. English (more) and Hindi (less) are the connecting tongues. Local language is not f…
I live in Bangalore but I disagree. Bangalore is not such a good place to live in. Reasons being: 1) Dirty. Yeah, Most places in Bengaluru are very dirty. No effective dirt management system. Also, people throw trash on roads, on empty sites, on footpaths, and everywhere making it very dirty. 2) Roads and Traffic. First of all, let me tell that Road Infrastructure is not at all good. Also, People don't seem to value…
5) Dating Scene
People are mostly conservative here. Although Dating Scene exists, it's very very less(nil to most people). You will be disappointed.
6) Commutation
Huge amount of Vehicles, many not following rules, many hurrying to overtake, to get inserted into the road, lot of honking, and time-eating traffic congestion. It's not at all a good experience and will suck energy outta you.
7) Power cuts
Power cut is very rare but it exists.
8) Food Food is good, you get variety of them.
9) Internet Cellular Data is very cheap but also relatively slow. Fiber network seems to be available.
10) Education Education Quality is not much good for price they ask.
Feel free to ask anything about life in Bangalore.
Re: Ask HN: What's your ideal city in a 100% remote world?
#159I'm happy where I live now. Bangi, Malaysia. Great food, and it's cheap enough to eat at a restaurant every day. Everything from the humble fried rice to wagyu steak. It's next to Putrajaya which has some amazing parks, whether it's skate parks or just picnic spots. Weather is great. Lots of beautiful people. About half an hour's drive from a cinema or major mall, but that's not too bad.
Of all the places in the world, I certainly did not expect Bangi to show up on this list! How does Bangi compare to living in, say, KL or PJ?
Much better. I've turned down jobs in KL/PJ because it's not worth moving there. KL actually ranks very low in terms of quality of life, imo. Too angry, too much traffic, not enough parks, far too expensive for no reason. People buy homes in KL because it's close to offices, and people make offices in KL because it's close to other offices. Infrastructure in KL is very bad; roads and public transport don't suffice. The reason that so many companies like HappyFresh and Pop Meals are HQed in KL is because buying groceries is such a pain point.
Bangi is a middle upper class area, similar to Bangsar in quality of life and cost. Much less alcohol but more suburban. It's a university town, so there are smart and beautiful people, many of whom decide to become a fashion designer instead of an engineer, hence the booming young businesses around here.
A lot of events happen in Cyberjaya too. Cyberjaya is a bit out of the way for KL folks, but half an hour from Bangi.
A second choice would be Kuala Terengganu. A major enough city but not too crowded. Parks, great fresh food, nice people, and really nice islands. All the benefits of city and beach life at half the cost of KL.
Re: Ask HN: What's your ideal city in a 100% remote world?
#160Does anyone like Seattle?