Agreed. I have to fly into Atlanta from the West Coast 3-4 times a year and it is also my least favorite major American city. There are nice places there (Top Golf, Bourbon Bar, tons of good restaurants)... But there are nice places everywhere and they certainly don't make up for Atlanta's other shortcomings. I can't articulate all the reasons for my distaste, but it just looks dirty and depressing. The traffic is ho…
Dirty? What parts of Atlanta? One of my favorite things about Atlanta is how green it is. After living on the west coast for awhile it felt amazing to come back and actually see something green.
Not from the US so don't care either way but IME Atlanta was fine, SF has more human poo than any western city.
As a counterpoint: My family is in Atlanta (well, just outside of it), and it's probably my least favorite major American city. The traffic is out of control (and has possibly the rudest drivers in the whole country), McMansions and suburban sprawl are a way of life (my brother-in-law has an hour long commute to his near-downtown office, and keeps an office in his house so he doesn't have to drive down every day), an…
As someone who's lived in Atlanta for 8 years there's a massive difference in mindset and culture between the city (often referred to as ITP/Inside-the-Perimeter, referencing the ring of I-285 circling the city) and the various suburbs surrounding it. There's no way I'd live OTP by choice, especially with a non-flex, non-remote gig. Imho, Marietta/Cobb County (NW of Atlanta) and Alpharetta/North Fulton (N of Atlanta)…
The more I think about it, the more I think it's less about Atlanta being more racist...there's just more opportunity for white people to be shitty and racist because they interact people of color much more often than in most of the other major cities I've lived in. So, I probably should soften my accusation of racism. I still see it, and it is still uncomfortable, but I also have to acknowledge that Atlanta seems to have proven itself to be a great place for black folks to build careers, build businesses, etc. So, race relations may be tense in Atlanta, but it is probably not because the people are inherently more shitty than people everywhere else. And, I also have to acknowledge that some of my favorite cities that are not overtly racist are seemingly racist on a systemic level in ways that I as a white person don't see very clearly; Austin, for example, has a rapidly shrinking black population. That's probably a useful measure of racism, as well.
> and has possibly the rudest drivers in the whole country) There are 2 truths I've found, having lived outside Chicago, Manhattan, Atlanta (in 3 different areas), Orlando, Tampa, and Los Angeles: 1. Wherever you are, people think the drivers there are worse than other places. 2. Wherever you are, people think the weather changes more frequently there than other places. I have NEVER lived, and rarely visited places (…
>I have NEVER lived, and rarely visited places (including Europe), where someone hasn't used the "if you don't like the weather, wait an hour" joke, non-ironically. That can't possibly have been a common occurrence in LA... Our weather changes about half a dozen times a year.
As someone who's lived in Atlanta for 8 years there's a massive difference in mindset and culture between the city (often referred to as ITP/Inside-the-Perimeter, referencing the ring of I-285 circling the city) and the various suburbs surrounding it. There's no way I'd live OTP by choice, especially with a non-flex, non-remote gig. Imho, Marietta/Cobb County (NW of Atlanta) and Alpharetta/North Fulton (N of Atlanta)…
The more I think about it, the more I think it's less about Atlanta being more racist...there's just more opportunity for white people to be shitty and racist because they interact people of color much more often than in most of the other major cities I've lived in. So, I probably should soften my accusation of racism. I still see it, and it is still uncomfortable, but I also have to acknowledge that Atlanta seems to…
Atlanta's on the front lines, and that's a great thing. It's complicated and reveals how bad things are, but it's also the only way things improve.
It's the same for Washington DC as well. You can easily drive 20 miles southwest and get stuck behind a tractor while driving past corn fields. It's pretty similar for every city I've been to (including Atlanta). Drive an hour away and it's a completely different place.
Haha you could still be within a mile of DC after driving 20 minutes. It takes a little longer to find a corn field.
> after driving 20 minutes
After driving 20 miles, not 20 minutes... Maybe ~20 minutes if it's 3:00AM on a Monday going west on I-66.
Dirty? What parts of Atlanta? One of my favorite things about Atlanta is how green it is. After living on the west coast for awhile it felt amazing to come back and actually see something green.
ATL is green, has lots of trees, it's beautiful, but the trash on the side of the roads is ridiculous (I'm talking 285, 400, 75, 85) and seems to be getting worse. It's especially bad around the airport; so much for first impressions. If you go outside of ATL (or even inside) the situation improves a lot.
Well yeah, in and around the airport is a pretty horrible area but that seems like an odd way of judging a city. As for the highways I can't really say it is any worse than any other city I have been to.
The problem is that Atlanta's built environment is literally the textbook example of tastelessness and inefficiency. "City" is a loose term for a centerless amalgamation of car-centric sprawl.
As learned from relatives living there, Altanta's long-term water situation kinda frightens me. Their aquifer (aka Lake Lanier) can't sustain the anticipated population, and it looks like fights are brewing with downstream parties like Florida, who also have legal share of that water.
Even if you signed up for the mailing list in the first place? It's only spam if you never signed up for it in the first instance. If you sign up and then want to leave the list because the emails aren't relevant any more or too regular then that's just bad email marketing, not spam.
I have never signed up for a mailing list[1], e.g. gone to a "sign up for my newsletter" page and clicked "I would like to subscribe to your newsletter". I've been signed up for them implicitly after making a purchase, etc., but I consider this spam and flag it as such. [1] OSS mailing lists don't count.
Fair enough, that is spam in that case. Your initial comment didn't specify that you have never signed up for a mailing list (except for open source software, which is a mailing list) which I think puts you in the minority of people.
Even if you signed up for the mailing list in the first place? It's only spam if you never signed up for it in the first instance. If you sign up and then want to leave the list because the emails aren't relevant any more or too regular then that's just bad email marketing, not spam.
As with OP, I generally mark as spam when someone signs me up for an email list post purchase, without asking.
Depends on what you mean by 'making it' as a startup - is it the revenue growth? burn rate? profit growth? Number of users? Number of employees? A SF office? How well funded you are? It's hard to grow a business without going the conventional SV route and getting VC funding. Unless you have a revolutionary product, the bigger competition will likely stomp over you unless you have resources to grow your team and produ…
> Unless you have a revolutionary product, the bigger competition will likely stomp over you unless you have resources to grow your team and product and marketing. Or if you are comfortable with a small market share but a profitable one. Case in point, me. I started FreeRADIUS in 1999. Started making money in 2007. Incorporated in 2008. I now have multiple offices, multiple employees, and good growth. No investment.…
Speaking of building a business on inbound sales leads, i'd love to chat with you about some potential work. My email is in my profile, let me know if there's a better way to contact you than through the freeradius website.