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Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

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Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#191

Post by TulliusCicero »

tristor wrote: post #129
mdasen wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can wind down certain things, but at what point are you winding down stuff that's more on the necessity side of things? The US has a lot of crumbling infrastructure that needs repair and replacement and I don't think people want to be told "sorry, your house is only accessible by off-road vehicle now." We're spending over $20B to increase rural broadband because people in rural areas don't want to be told "sorry,…

> It can be things like roads or safe drinking water. In most rural areas the roads are maintained by the county outside the town, and people maintain their own drinking water using wells. You pay someone to drill you a new well if it runs dry, and you're responsible for maintaining your own pumping system and getting your water regularly tested and treated if necessary. I have no idea what you're on about... rural a…

It's like you're purposely misreading what they wrote. Did you miss this part?

> An important thing to remember is that cities/towns/counties often take out debt for spending that will pay off over time.

They are very obviously talking about 'decline' in general at this point, not exclusively rural areas where most people or everyone gets their water from wells.

Hell, just look at the comment they're replying to:

> It seems peculiar to me that there is no standard process for the winding down of city governance when population dwindles.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#192

Post by justin66 »

DaltonCoffee wrote: post #154
engineer_22 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'd argue you need to think about climate change and whether the US will continue to subsidize rural life. Not to fault you, but you're a seriously urban-centric thinker. Rural productivity is vital to urban concentration. Raw material does not come from the depths of the subway system, nor do the land and seaports magically produce goods. Food, fiber, fuel, etc come from the rural reaches. Flip this on it's head an…

Increasingly, many of these rural primary industries will need on site tech workers as well. Rural Canada is where I'm located at the moment. I tend to agree with GP that cities are an inevitable migration towards efficiency and that rural life is increasingly an unsustainable welfare state.

> tend to agree with GP that cities are an inevitable migration towards efficiency

This is why cities came about in the first place.

> that rural life is increasingly an unsustainable welfare state.

It's not the case that all rural areas are subsidized in the way those in the US often are.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#193

Post by TulliusCicero »

mdasen wrote: post #48

> I've heard that people tend to be very different to those you find in a city In a lot of cases this is true - and it's not just about tech. Rural communities are often more religious, more conservative, lower income, lower educated, and have a lot less access to opportunity. Cities also mean that there's often a critical mass for many interests and minority groups. Are you LGBT? Are you a religious or racial minori…

You're getting a lot of very bad comments in opposition, which is unfortunate.

A lot of people have no trouble being clear-eyed about the downsides for big cities -- expensive, crowded, lots of traffic, can be hyper-competitive, people are ruder or more indifferent, child unfriendly, more hostility to conservatism/religiosity, etc. -- but get offended when someone is equally clear-eyed about rural areas. I'm guessing that's because they interpret it as "punching down".

There may be more or more serious downsides to rural areas, of course; after all, they are gradually losing people to urban areas, people are voting with their feet. It would be bizarre if that were occurring and there weren't more serious downsides to the rural areas.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#194

Post by TulliusCicero »

jbullock35 wrote: post #186
mdasen wrote: post #48

> I've heard that people tend to be very different to those you find in a city In a lot of cases this is true - and it's not just about tech. Rural communities are often more religious, more conservative, lower income, lower educated, and have a lot less access to opportunity. Cities also mean that there's often a critical mass for many interests and minority groups. Are you LGBT? Are you a religious or racial minori…

> It's also hard to know what you mean by "rural" since the distinction between suburban and rural is hard in the US. > Maybe you're looking for a place like Saratoga Springs or Ashville, NC or Burlington, VT or Charlottesville, VA. I can't speak to Asheville, Charlottesville, or Saratoga Springs, but I can say a little about Burlington. Burlington is a city of 45,000 people with a lot of commercial activity for a U.…

I imagine that a lot of people from bigger metro areas, when they talk about going "rural", are imagining living on the outskirts of a city like Asheville or Burlington, or somewhat close by to the city, not full-on "the nearest major grocery store is 50 miles away".

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#195

Post by mandelbrotwurst »

tclancy wrote: post #91
Joey21 wrote: post #11

Why not look to small towns around state universities? Also, in the USA, look for micropolitan towns. Places that aren't tiny, but aren't major metro areas along with those kinds of challenges. Smaller towns can be easier places to afford homes, shorter distances to truly rural places. The people can be - not always though - challenging. May be more conservative politically and culturally. May be resistant to progres…

Yeah, here in Southern NH near Portsmouth/ UNH there’s a strong tech scene but you’re also close to fairly rural areas.

Hi, what sorts of companies are in that area please?

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#196

Post by TulliusCicero »

refurb wrote: post #165
mdasen wrote: post #48

> I've heard that people tend to be very different to those you find in a city In a lot of cases this is true - and it's not just about tech. Rural communities are often more religious, more conservative, lower income, lower educated, and have a lot less access to opportunity. Cities also mean that there's often a critical mass for many interests and minority groups. Are you LGBT? Are you a religious or racial minori…

This reads like the opinion of someone who only knows about rural communities based on what they read on social media. Is it satire? I especially love the "white" part when the less urban SouthWest has the highest black population in the US, yet a city like SF pushed most of its black population out decades ago. Definitely appreciate the lecture on "diversity".

You may be surprised to learn that there are more races/ethnicities than "white" and "black".

It's true that SF has lost a lot of black people, but the proportion of white people is lower in 2020 than it was in 2010, which is lower than it was in 2000, etc. This is because of the Hispanic and Asian populations, plus mixed-race people.

> I especially love the "white" part when the less urban SouthWest has the highest black population in the US

I don't doubt that you can find rural areas that are mostly black, but what do you mean by "less urban Southwest"?

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#197

Post by wincy »

I work as a software engineer for Veterans United Home Loans, their headquarters is in Columbia, Missouri. One of my coworkers lives 20 minutes from work and has a stable and owns horses. It was rated one of the best places to work for this year by Fortune Magazine and honestly as a developer I feel pretty spoiled. I’ll be straight, salaries aren’t going to match what you’ll get working remotely for a job on the coast, but it’s more than enough to live the pastoral lifestyle you seem to be looking for.

Also it’s a college town so there’s night life and fun to be had, they’re inclusive and while they don’t have things like IKEA Kansas City and St. Louis are two hours away if you really want to scratch that bourgeoisie itch.

I work for them but don’t represent them, but saw your post and thought I’d make you aware of our growing team! I think there’s a few hundred engineers right now.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#198

Post by TulliusCicero »

justin66 wrote: post #180
engineer_22 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'd argue you need to think about climate change and whether the US will continue to subsidize rural life. Not to fault you, but you're a seriously urban-centric thinker. Rural productivity is vital to urban concentration. Raw material does not come from the depths of the subway system, nor do the land and seaports magically produce goods. Food, fiber, fuel, etc come from the rural reaches. Flip this on it's head an…

> Rural productivity is vital to urban concentration. Raw material does not come from the depths of the subway system, nor do the land and seaports magically produce goods. Food, fiber, fuel, etc come from the rural reaches. We pay a premium to buy food from the rural US in the form of common import tariffs that stifle or eliminate competition at the expense of the consumer and to the benefit of agricultural interest…

Exactly.

It's bizarre how often you see people arguing as if a lack of rural or farm subsidies would suddenly mean food disappearing.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#199

Post by vampiretooth1 »

The name is escaping me right now, but I believe there are startups in AZ that are building "artificial communes" - ie a rural kind of community, no cars, everything within walking distance, inhabitants are tech people working remotely. I think their business model is eventually going to be charging some kind of tax on everything that occurs within the community.

I'd try to Google something reminiscent of "AZ artificial community" - I tried Googling that, but couldn't find it. Kind of frustrated that I can't remember the name now!

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#200

Post by TulliusCicero »

sojournerc wrote: post #173
DaltonCoffee wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Increasingly, many of these rural primary industries will need on site tech workers as well. Rural Canada is where I'm located at the moment. I tend to agree with GP that cities are an inevitable migration towards efficiency and that rural life is increasingly an unsustainable welfare state.

How can you say unsustainable when rural communities are where food comes from ? Mass famine is unsustainable...

I wouldn't call them "unsustainable" because even though I disagree with the subsidies I think they're pretty easy to sustain.

But your reasoning makes no sense. You don't need subsidies to have food. Here's a study on farm subsidies that found that removing them would increase prices only slightly for most goods: https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.agri-pulse.com%2Fa...

> The impact of premium subsidies – which work as discounts on the amount that farmers pay for crop insurance - varies widely depending on the crop and the policy. The price of corn, which is primarily used for livestock feed, would rise by nearly 5 percent if the subsidy were withdrawn, which would hurt livestock operations as well as foreign customers and ethanol producers.

> Lusk says that removing subsidies would lead to at least small price increases for all foods, with the largest increase, of 1 percent, for eggs. Meat prices would be about 0.55 percent higher. Fruit and vegetable growers also benefit from the insurance, so prices for those crops would rise by 0.67 percent, Lusk found. The price of dairy products would be 0.14 percent higher.

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