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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?

#301

Post by kkfx »

Well, I can't count myself as a community since here I'm almost alone in IT physical community terms, but I'm an ex-urban (from a big city) person who decide to go rural, not much rural, in the sense that I'm still "near enough" to have a certain level of services, good enough connections etc, but still rural in a low-density area (French Alps, ~60Km from Sophia-Antipolis though)...

I do not really live a pastoral life, behind very small scale personal vegetable garden behind the house, but around here there are few agricultural enterprises with some carrots, potatoes, chickpeas, lentils cultivation and (small) herds of cows, sheep, goats, with limited milk, meat and cured meats products. It's still far more a tourist place with a big golf (the highest in the region), crag, canyoning, paragliding, a small aeroclub with gliders and small STOLs etc.

Respect of the big city, downsides:

- less services, even if there are enough they are not as near and 24/7/365 available, it's not an issue in ordinary life but might be in some cases, like something broke and you need a replacement Saturday afternoon and Christmas Eve or you need to go to the nearby hospital, urgent but not as urgent to justify a chopper transfer, or just an unexpected desire to go to a Chinese restaurant/pizzeria/* and there are almost none nearby;

- little variety of neighbors witch means a still "intensive" social life, since people are far more social than the city, with continuous invitations for lunch, dinner, ... but near-zero "cultural social life" in the sense of meet up with people of similar cultural/technical interests, you can just go to the nearest city/agglomeration for that;

- some services (electricity and connectivity) are aerial so outages are a bit more frequent than the substantially zero I've experienced in cities. That's not a real issue if you are equipped (I have a small p.v. with lithium storage and my connection have a good enough 4G/dummy 5G (700MHz) backups, no data/speed/* caps), they are actually burying many lines but so far I've experienced around two/three time/year 1-10' power outage casually one of few hours, half-a-day casual connectivity outage the new buried FTTH should solve that before next winter.

pro:

- far more relaxed life, commuting when needed is of longer range, but faster, without queues, accidents, parking issues, on still good and well entertained roads (winter included);

- vast selection of activities in nature, if you like them like me: going climbing means just going nearby, hiking? Potentially there is even no need for a car!

- available services are less, but of better quality, like when you go to the Drive supermarket you are the first or at maximum the second served, you can even phone "hey, I see an impromptu offering of climbing strawberry plants, can you put 4 aside? I'll be there tomorrow!" etc

- more freedom of movement by any means, even if for many activities you are tied to a car and it's not "rural" enough to own a cheap old STOL or mosquito chopper to goes around (well, at least for 99% of the residents, very few have small choppers to connect them with the shore).

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

#302

Post by softwaredoug »

College towns.

Where I live (Charlottesville VA) has one of the best data science communities compared to other meetups in other major metros. It’s actually easier because things are closer and less spread out, so it’s easier to stay involved. There’s university connections. Also people move here because they historically have been good enough to not need to live in a giant city to have reliable employment.

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

#303

Post by TulliusCicero »

bombcar wrote: post #294
TulliusCicero wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhh no, who was arguing that you can have cities without anyone in rural areas? This just looks like another ridiculous straw man.

> cities are an inevitable migration towards efficiency and that rural life is increasingly an unsustainable welfare state Was what the whole thread started with.

That says nothing about there being nobody in rural areas, just fewer people, and it being an unsustainable welfare state obviously refers to the current subsidies.

So yeah, it was a straw man on your part.

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

#304

Post by TulliusCicero »

tristor wrote: post #291
TulliusCicero wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it. "I just want the government to leave me alone" is a common sentiment across the American political spectrum, sure, but when you drill down to specific issues you suddenly find that people are actually okay with or supportive of the government doing all kinds of stuff. People don't always tell the truth. For an example on one issue I'm very familiar with: zoning. America tends to have hyper strict zoning,…

Zoning isn't a thing in rural areas... pretty much at all. You can effectively do whatever you want on your land as long as you're not breaking state or federal laws. It's weird how you're getting upvoted so heavily for citysplaining rural areas to someone who grew up in one, on a farm. Your profile says you don't even live in the US, but you're originally from the Bay Area... maybe you should listen in this case rat…

You managed to completely miss the point of the zoning example, but I can't say I'm surprised.

> Your profile says you don't even live in the US, but you're originally from the Bay Area... maybe you should listen in this case rather than trying to tell people in a part of the country you've probably never even visited how living their life works.

God, what an awful, narrow minded comment. Do you seriously think that's the only part of the US I've lived in or been to? You're not even trying to have an earnest discussion here.

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

#305

Post by TulliusCicero »

bradlys wrote: post #269
usrn wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in a rural area and moved back now that we're remote. The only time I've met a meth head was when a friend of a friend came back from college and you could tell he was doing meth (based on descriptions of what meth does to you from the internet anyway.) You have to be picky, the area has to have an old culture that's still intact and hasn't been through some serious economic problems. If you go to eg West V…

> You have to be picky, the area has to have an old culture that's still intact and hasn't been through some serious economic problems. No shit? Really? You gotta find a rural town that hasn't been through incredible economic hardship the last 50 years? Fuck me, that's wild! I never would've thought.

Yeah it's a bizarre comment. "Rural areas don't have as many drug problems if they don't have the economic issues most rural areas have." I mean sure, but most rural areas have been doing not so well economically.

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

#306

Post by hunterb123 »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #247
hunterb123 wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go ahead and source the data and we'll discuss it.

That rural areas are more conservative, less educated, poorer, and more religious on average , etc. is well known. I can provide the data if this is an earnest request, but I'm guessing you're already aware of these things, so I'm not sure what you're getting at here. If someone is arguing against a generally well understood fact -- like, saying that North Korea is richer than the US -- it's on them to support it. Th…

> aren't interested in discussing the actual data.

> I can provide the data if this is an earnest request

It is, please do so we can discuss the actual data as you've said.

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

#308

Post by pigscantfly »

hunterb123 wrote: post #306
TulliusCicero wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That rural areas are more conservative, less educated, poorer, and more religious on average , etc. is well known. I can provide the data if this is an earnest request, but I'm guessing you're already aware of these things, so I'm not sure what you're getting at here. If someone is arguing against a generally well understood fact -- like, saying that North Korea is richer than the US -- it's on them to support it. Th…

> aren't interested in discussing the actual data. > I can provide the data if this is an earnest request It is, please do so we can discuss the actual data as you've said.

I live in a rural area and grew up working a beef ranch in the Poconos, and all of these claims (less educated, lower income, more conservative, more religious) sound obviously true to me, but I looked up the data out of curiosity.

Here is the USDA Economic Research Service on rural vs. urban educational attainment and median income; rural areas indeed are less educated and lower income[1]. This Pew Research study shows that rural areas are more conservative than urban areas across a wide range of political issues[2]. Data on religion was slightly harder to find, but this Gallup poll shows rural areas in the US are more religious than urban areas[3]. If any of these results are surprising, I'd guess that you may not have much experience of urban areas as a comparison. To be clear, I still prefer living in a rural area, but I recognize that there are pros, cons, and individual differences.

1. https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/emp...

2. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/05/22/urban-s...

3. https://news.gallup.com/poll/7960/age-religiosity-rural-amer...

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

#309

Post by Clubber »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #182
Clubber wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any figures on this? I know during the Reagan administration the federal government heavily cut subsidization of rural areas, helping to accelerate their decline.

It's hard to find data on this is general. I've seen a couple maps before of counties within states, and their state-level spending/revenue, but finding the same for counties when it comes to federal revenue...never seen anything like that. edit: I mean a map similar to this - https://streets.mn/2015/01/14/map-of-the-day-state-highway-t... Though it should really be a percentage-based map using population size, rathe…

Yes, it would be helpful to have a breakdown on what the spending was on. I would assume most of it is infrastructure like roads and whatnot, which people living in the expensive counties also benefit from (shipping goods, ease of travel, etc).

It was funny, when Trump remarked about "shithole countries," he obviously hasn't seen rural America in a long time. As a country, we've allowed it to deteriorate quite a bit.

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

#310

Post by Clubber »

bombcar wrote: post #221
hunterb123 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess my point was you don't need to drive to a "medium city" for groceries. Unless you're in sparser areas like Wyoming, Nevada, West Texas, etc. you're always 30 minutes or so from the nearest town no matter where you live. If you're looking for 4-40 acres, you're not wanting land out in backcountry, you're wanting land outside a town.

I really wonder about some people, and exactly where they’re finding these areas. I suspect it’s mainly people near the high desert in the West where you can go 90 miles between gas stations. I would consider where I am to be the edge of rural and even if I go deeper into it there are still grocery stores and hospitals. An overlay for Google maps showing the 30 minute boundaries would be nice.

Rural hospitals have been shut down quite a bit in the last 20 or so years.

https://sidecarhealth.com/blog/181-rural-hospitals-have-clos...

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