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The Great Decentralization? Geographic shifts and where tech talent is moving

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171–180 of 195 posts

Re: The Great Decentralization? Geographic shifts and where tech talent is moving

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sunny and oppressively humid and hot.

With massive swings in barometric pressure. Atlanta is great for many things but I hate the weather here.

The weather is how you get all the trees, though. It's impressive to look at other cities' satellite maps and see a concrete jungle, then look at Atlanta and see it (or the suburban ITP parts anyway) looks more like a forest.

Re: The Great Decentralization? Geographic shifts and where tech talent is moving

#172
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The PNW has had an unusually rainy spring/early summer though, I think Seattle is usually a lot drier. The only silver lining might be fewer forest fires. In my case I've been leaning hard into remote work for about 15 years now. Mostly for quality of life/access to nature. I've made real sacrifices to make that happen, but I'm glad to see the rest of the IT world is coming around to embracing us remote devs. It's st…

Seattle weather is... polarizing... even in a more typical year. I personally find it hard to deal with so little sunshine.

I think it's interesting how much people complain about Seattle, because it's one of the only cities with as little sunshine as… most of Europe.

Every city in the UK has less sunshine than Seattle, for instance.

Re: The Great Decentralization? Geographic shifts and where tech talent is moving

#173
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an immigrant I often wonder if America’s economy works so well in spite of or because of its policies. But one thing is clear: Last year I saved more money than I made in my last year in Europe. And that’s while paying rent in downtown SF To give a more surprising comparison - my country’s entire GDP fits into Apple's quarterly profits . The pie is large here.

America’s economy doesn’t work well at all for most people. It only works well for the rich, i.e. those who directly benefit from a higher GDP.

The rich are people who don't need the economy to do well. It's everyone else that relies on it.

"The stock market isn't the economy" goes both ways.

Re: The Great Decentralization? Geographic shifts and where tech talent is moving

#174
post #47
post #4

This year we finally moved to the US after 2 years of Covid-induced delays. We moved to Seattle because it's where my team is based. I'm far from impressed. The housing market is so inaccessible that we had to rent a house about 1 hour commute from the office. I have hardly visited the offices a handful of times since we moved, and every time there is maybe 1 or 2 people there. Also this spring seems to be one of the…

Yes, the housing is, by-and-large, a lot cheaper, but the cities are not super walkable (if that's important to you) and the weather is often the opposite of cold and wet - it's hot and muggy. I don't do well with humidity, so a huge swath of the US is out for me. Plugging this tool again because it ate up an hour of my day last time it was posted: https://www.movemap.io/explore/us

Neat tool! Unfortunately my temperature preferences restrict me to some of the most expensive places in the US!

Re: The Great Decentralization? Geographic shifts and where tech talent is moving

#175
post #117

This is pretty interesting. There are tons of small towns throughout the western US that are nice places in their own way. Will the remote work trend cause people to move there? A few random ones the top of my head: * Baker City, Oregon: near a small ski area, mountains, sunnier and nicer than western Oregon. * Silver City, New Mexico: (very) small college town next to the national forest. Great climate because it's…

Yes. Here in Southwest Montana we have seen a very significant increase in transplantation in the past 2 years. House prices have soared. The freeway looks like 101 now (101 north of Eureka, but heck..)

You must be a transplant yourself. A native Montanan would not say “Eureka” without a qualifier referring to the one in California rather than the one in Montana. Imposter!

Re: The Great Decentralization? Geographic shifts and where tech talent is moving

#176

The top 10 metro areas list is interesting. Philadelphia, San Antonio, Houston, San Diego and Phoenix not on there despite all 5 being in the top 10 MSA and city population, while DC, Portland, Seattle, Atlanta, Boston are on there. I am also shocked that Portland is growing. I went to Portland this year recently, it is the worst city in the country I have been to. 90% of downtown is boarded up, city is deserted, mas…

I really miss the PDX of the old. It was a great place to live. It was such an inviting and friendly city…then all the Californians moved there and proceeded ruin it.

Re: The Great Decentralization? Geographic shifts and where tech talent is moving

#177
I think there is also another shift underway: experienced workers prefer to work as consultants for one or more companies, so:

(a) they not beholden to any specific corporation and its hierarchy (b) they get tax write offs (c) they get to work on projects that excite them (d) they stay current with skills rather than stagnate (d) and other advantages I can’t think of right now :)

And for consultants, being remote is the norm and corps don’t question it much.

Re: The Great Decentralization? Geographic shifts and where tech talent is moving

#178
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say that and and the global propoganda machine is strong. There's many from outside the country who have a picture of what it's like to live here that doesn't align with reality. I think much of it is due to entertainment: movies, TV shows, etc. that give this false impression that everything is rosey all the time. The lower classes are abused here as well and classes do exist but it's probably better being poor…

Immigrants aren’t dumb. The problem is that westerners have no idea what a median persons life in Africa or South America is like

It's not that they're dumb, they're often simply unaware and misinformed. I had several international friends in college who studied in the US and almost all of them returned home. Many came to the US not just for education but intending to stay and do well for themselves. After dealing with the culture and environment here, most realized the places they came from weren't really all that bad and their opportunities there was just as good. Most assumed the US was NYC and LA everywhere.

This is clearly in contrast to people coming from poverty in say Sri Lanka where even the worst here are often doing better in terms of human rights, access to ERs, access to shelters, etc.

Re: The Great Decentralization? Geographic shifts and where tech talent is moving

#179

I think there is also another shift underway: experienced workers prefer to work as consultants for one or more companies, so: (a) they not beholden to any specific corporation and its hierarchy (b) they get tax write offs (c) they get to work on projects that excite them (d) they stay current with skills rather than stagnate (d) and other advantages I can’t think of right now :) And for consultants, being remote is…

Hasn't this always been the case in tech however? Experienced folks either seek more interesting/remunerative work, or they locate the closest sinecure via moving into low-pressure management, or high profit low ops maintenance efforts.

An independent consultant can make bank, but for many legacy companies - the consultant is the only one they can pressure into working hard.

Re: The Great Decentralization? Geographic shifts and where tech talent is moving

#180
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Texas is still overwhelmingly and overly conservative, so that might be a big drag. Kind of, keep in mind ~50% of Texas votes Democrat, Republicans just squeeze wins. Also keep in mind that Texas Democrats are not like national Democrats, and I'd hardly call Austin something like "progressive". It marches to its own tune, which is just fine for Texas.

It doesn't matter how the local government votes as long as the state government is run by people who are actively committed to making LGBTQ+ people's lives hell. The state government is actively criminalizing any kind of gender-affirming treatment for LGBTQ+ youth, and there's nothing the local governments in Dallas or Austin can do about it. If I had kids, I would have already uprooted my family and left the state…

> The state government is actively criminalizing any kind of gender-affirming treatment for LGBTQ+ youth

That's a good thing, considering that "gender-affirming treatment" is a euphemism for sterilizing the child, excising healthy body parts, and leaving them with lifelong health issues.

If they really want to go through all that, they can wait until they're an adult and see if it's still an issue then. A child cannot possibly give meaningful consent to these procedures.

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