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In Defense of the Midwest

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Re: In Defense of the Midwest

#71

Post by justin66 »

msoad wrote: post #32

For an immigrant Midwest is though. In Bay Area, there are tons of groups of people from countries you've never heard of them. And funny is, all those people are working in technology so in their time together they have a lot of shared interests to talk about. One other side effect of having more diverse demographics is people are less bios against ethnicity. Because people are exposed to a lot of people from other e…

The city the author was talking about, Cleveland, is a city with a 51% black population. A suburb I live next to in the area has a Jewish population comparable to an Israeli city (over 90%). I'm pretty sure we've got the largest Slovenian population outside of Slovenia. I just got a graduate degree from a college in Cleveland and roughly 80% of my fellow CS students were ethnically Indian, with the rest a pretty random mix from around the world. I guess I could go on.

In contrast, I honestly never felt like the urban techie parts of the Bay Area were hugely diverse when I lived there. Lots of really interesting people but there are much more interesting places to live as far as non-tech stuff goes.

Re: In Defense of the Midwest

#72

Post by re_todd »

kdefranco wrote: post #15

As a native Clevelander I can fully back this piece. I came back to Cleveland upon graduating college in May and have not regretted my decision one bit. While the resources are nowhere as easy to come by as in the Valley there still is a great startup community that's been building over the past few years. The cheap cost of living, beautiful seasons and plethora of things to do year-round have me recruiting college f…

I'm tempted to move to a cheaper city inland, but I've heard horror stories of people trying to get to work when it snows. Is it extremely difficult to get to work in the winter?

Re: In Defense of the Midwest

#73

Post by brownbat »

bglazer wrote: post #9

I live in Memphis TN and I've found that comments on HN towards the middle of the US are skewed negative. Perhaps I have a bias for remembering negative comments. Nonetheless, I find this attitude perplexing from the HN crowd. I understand the value of physical proximity to lots of other like minded, smart people. However, I would have thought that the tech crowd would be the first to decry the inefficiencies of havi…

Yeah, spend a year in Phuket after browsing NomadList, you're culturally adventurous and a hero of frugality. Spend a year in a red state, everyone assumes you're making some terrible miscalculation.

Re: In Defense of the Midwest

#74

Post by ChainsawSurgery »

joelrunyon wrote: post #43
tlarkworthy wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha, scathing. But yeah, if a guy has not lived round the world before deciding Ohio is the best place to live, then it's not a very convincing argument.

> If a guy has not lived round the world before deciding Ohio is the best place to live, then it's not a very convincing argument. I would venture to guess that you haven't been to Ohio. I'm not claiming that it's an epicenter of amazingness, but I can count at least one person that's decided that's the case (Dave Chappelle).

I'd say that's heavily biased by the fact that Chappelle spent lots of time growing up in Ohio (and specifically Yellow Springs).

Lots of people have seemingly irrationally strong attachments to their hometowns - not quite the same as randomly stumbling upon OKC and deciding it's what you've wanted all along, you know?

And Chappelle's probably not the greatest example, since he very famously got fed up with his celebrity status and wanted to retreat from the world a little. Surprised you didn't go to Lebron instead.

Re: In Defense of the Midwest

#75

Post by analog31 »

msutherl wrote: post #24

(1) Cleveland gets all the Broadway shows once they go off Broadway, but at about half the cost, (2) We have great music here, including the world-renowned Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, and tons of bands come through, (3) We have some great sports teams (hi, OSU) and a ton of great sports fans (hi, Browns fans), (4) We have great food at very affordable prices Yes, exactly. As someone who lives in New York, this is the v…

I've thought a lot about this myself, as a musician and lover of art and music. I live in a mid-sized Midwestern town, where even Chicago would be a step up culturally. But I've thought about what it would be like for me to live in "Chicago" with a spouse and family. It would probably mean living in a suburb, spending a great deal of time in a car, and having neither the time nor the energy to go into the city for a concert or museum very often.

And the suburbs are yet another 2 orders of magnitude below my little town.

I've probably attended the Chicago Symphony more times than the average person who refers to their home as "Chicago." As for my town, if I want to play music or attend the Symphony with my kids, we're 10 minutes away.

And while it's true that great artists and musicians move to the metropolitan centers, they also move back out, in droves, because only a tiny fraction can survive the scene, much less prosper. I play in a band with some of them.

This is all without denying the obvious cultural role of the great cities. Thank you for bebop. ;-)

Re: In Defense of the Midwest

#76

Post by Bahamut »

I loved my time in the midwest, but I don't miss the winters - they were brutal, and it would often take until May or June until spring weather would come.

I uniquely have friends around the world and spread out all over the US - location doesn't matter as much to me, since I could hang out with everyone I want. As a single man though, the Bay area makes a lot of sense for me as a result, since the pay still outpaces the cost of living for me. Being tired of wintry weather was also a huge factor in me migrating out west.

There is a chance I might migrate south to the Austin area in the future, or back east to the NY or DC area eventually - I do miss the strong ties I have to the east coast from having lived there for most of my life, but Austin sounds attractive as a tech hub and due to more sane housing costs.

Re: In Defense of the Midwest

#77

Post by driverdan »

rdtsc wrote: post #13
bglazer wrote: post #9

I live in Memphis TN and I've found that comments on HN towards the middle of the US are skewed negative. Perhaps I have a bias for remembering negative comments. Nonetheless, I find this attitude perplexing from the HN crowd. I understand the value of physical proximity to lots of other like minded, smart people. However, I would have thought that the tech crowd would be the first to decry the inefficiencies of havi…

> Every large city (>1M people) will almost certainly have communities of people who share your culture or at least tolerate and support it. That is not enough. There need to be companies willing to hire. Those companies spring around where there is more talent so they don't have to relocate everyone. Where is more talent? Around more companies. It is a feedback loop. Network effect is probably the correct phrase her…

As bglazer said, we have this magical thing called the internet that lets tech people work from anywhere in the world. No need to have a local office.

Re: In Defense of the Midwest

#80

Post by jcchin41 »

rdtsc wrote: post #13
bglazer wrote: post #9

I live in Memphis TN and I've found that comments on HN towards the middle of the US are skewed negative. Perhaps I have a bias for remembering negative comments. Nonetheless, I find this attitude perplexing from the HN crowd. I understand the value of physical proximity to lots of other like minded, smart people. However, I would have thought that the tech crowd would be the first to decry the inefficiencies of havi…

> Every large city (>1M people) will almost certainly have communities of people who share your culture or at least tolerate and support it. That is not enough. There need to be companies willing to hire. Those companies spring around where there is more talent so they don't have to relocate everyone. Where is more talent? Around more companies. It is a feedback loop. Network effect is probably the correct phrase her…

1 MILLION people aren't enough to see network effects?? Is 3M [1] closer to the magic number? I moved from Boston(4M) to Cleveland(1.7M) and although the lifestyle is different, there is still way more opportunities, culture, entertainment, etc..., than anyone could absorb in a single lifetime in either place.

I visit my friends in SF every year and although they make more than double my salary, they can't even come close to matching my apartment situation. There is an infinite number of things to do in any city, and I can already afford things (like a house, or an acre of land even!) that aren't even fathomable to them. I won't stay in Cleveland forever, simply because I'd like to experience other cities, but I can't say SF is even in my top three. SF is a great place, but I'd like to find one of the still relatively "undiscovered" great places that isn't completely saturated.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_urban_are...

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