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Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities?

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Re: Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities?

#191

Post by PeterisP »

reason_police wrote: post #182
PeterisP wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What difference does it make if someone has been asked or not? The rules apply anyway, consent or consensus is not required. Sovereignty works not only for full democracies, but also for monarchies, dictatorships, and various kinds of representative decisionmaking. But the main point I was trying to make is that if "you were born in England and lived there all your life. Then you fly over to Thailand on a tourist vis…

> What difference does it make if someone has been asked or not? The rules apply anyway, consent or consensus is not required. You're essentially cheering for coercion, but without seeing it. What does it matter if a woman consented to having sex with a guy, if the guy has a rule book where he wrote down that "all women must have sex with me"? > if they don't like their system, they're free to change it Oh right. Jus…

Again, for the scenario you yourself mentioned "you were born in England and lived there all your life. Then you fly over to Thailand on a tourist visa" you either consent to their rules or don't go there. You certainly don't get to coerce them to change their rules to fit your wishes, unless you come with a large number of gunboats and troops.

In general, coercion is unavoidable - either you have no rules and then de facto anybody can (and will!) coerce others to arbitrary things up to their ability; or you have rules and someone/something needs to coerce that these rules are followed. You can't simply have a consensus that everybody will never coerce anybody else, well, not if the society is made of people like us, it might be an option for a nonhuman/posthuman society. So starting from a premise that all coercion must be removed is counterproductive and futile. Where a system with more suffering can be replaced with a system with less suffering (for example, replacing anarchy with strict rule of law) I definitely am cheering for the coercion required to do so.

Re: Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities?

#193

Post by FullMtlAlcoholc »

Lio wrote: post #132
vostok wrote: post #32

I make good money. Why would you expect me to live in the middle of nowhere when I can live in the greatest cities of the world?

I'll give you a reason, although it's a reason that's personal only to me, probably. I love road cycling as a sport. IMHO cycling for pleasure sucks in cities, even ones with great cycling infrastructure. The cycle paths are full of slow commuters calmly pootling their way to work|shops|date|whatever. The roads in cities are full of distracted|incompetent|psychopathic drivers in motor vehicles all wanting to "punish"…

In my experience, I've found the best cycling to be in the LA and SD area....bike aware culture and weather permits you to ride over 300+ days a year. I imagine California in general has great year round cycling

Re: Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities?

#194

Post by k-mcgrady »

henrikschroder wrote: post #145
rubicon33 wrote: post #38

I used to live in SF. It was exciting, but also shitty. I felt connected and alive, which was great, but also drained of resources, which really sucked. Oh, and there were 6 of us, in a 3 bedroom apartment. I had the living room. Yea. I lasted 3 years, until I met my wife, and by then I was ready to move. We did. Now, life in the suburbs, is slow. I feel somewhat disconnected and like I don't really belong to this co…

> Oh, and there were 6 of us, in a 3 bedroom apartment. This is such a weird American phenomenon, the whole roommate thing. What on earth can make adults choose to share their home with a stranger? Why isn't there intense pressure for building many small apartments, rather than building larger apartments that are meant for roommates? Is it connected to the equally weird college dorm roommate system? Why are people ac…

It's common in lots of places outside the US. You have a few choices:

1. Live with parents

Not something most people want to do past a certain age.

2. Live with friends

People seem to be moving abroad more these days leaving you with friends all over the world, but possibly none currently in the city you live in.

3. Live with significant other

Fine until the relationship ends and someone needs to move.

4. Live with strangers

You meet new people, if you don't like them it's easy to just move somewhere else and try again.

The '6 of us in a 3 bed' thing is insane and unrelated to the living with strangers point.

Where are you from that sharing a home with strangers is such a strange concept? Who have you lived with instead? If you were able to afford your own place you're either very lucky or live somewhere very inexpensive because even in smaller cities that's not an option for most people.

Re: Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities?

#196

Post by kayoone »

jordwest wrote: post #77
kayoone wrote: post #30

Probably an outlier, but i really enjoy my commute, because its 20 minutes by bike so I bascially get 40 minutes of workout per day for free as i cycle at a decent pace. I also enjoy working with a team in person, many of which became my friends. If I loose my job here, there are plenty of interesting alternatives to choose from. The city also offers a lot of non-work related things that i would not want to miss at t…

I'm working at home now and really miss my old 20 minute bicycle commute. It's such a great way to start and finish the day, and separate work from life. Now I try to ride every morning, but it's too easy to just stay inside and start work. I'm considering moving to a co-working space full-time just to force myself to get on the bike. In my experience, Commuting by car < Commuting by train < No commute < Commuting by…

In theory i could work remote some days, but the cycling is actually a big driver for me to go to the office even on days where i am only there for half the time because of some appointment for example.

While the individual trip is only about 6km, this way i do 60+km per week which amounts to somewhere around 2500-2800km per year and i usually go pretty fast so that i am quite exhausted after 20 minutes. Last year i watched my eating habits and it was pretty easy to loose 10kg of weight and keep it at that level only due to cycling.

It also is a great time to think in the morning and even better to relief stress after work. The only upside to taking public transport would be being able to read, but in the usually crowded trains with 1 stop where i need to change trains, the uninterrupted reading time would be pretty small anyway.

Re: Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities?

#197

Post by godiskpp »

zabana wrote: post #83
soufron wrote: post #39

Which leads me to learn that the 6 “Alpha Regions” of the world are SF, LA, NYC, Boston, Toronto, London, Paris. Even if it’s not perceived to be at the center of the technological metamorphose, Paris is still being seen as a place where you can get stuff done. It’s also one of the places in the world where you will get the most infrastructure, meaning technological infrastructure but also political, democratic, soci…

Berlin and Barcelona are way better places than Paris. Unless you're into old cities filled with pretiensious people.

Like yourself?

Re: Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities?

#199

Post by sbjustin »

reason_police wrote: post #112
apexalpha wrote: post #82

> it was always a country to keep offshore companies/accounts, so every rich developer in ex-USSR already been there and knew the place, but since 2014 it started to make sense to move physically as well I'm sure that has nothing to do with the fact that since 3 years ago Cyprus (among others) 'sells' EU permanent residency permits to rich foreigners. You can imagin that an EU permanent residency permit, allowing you…

> I'm sure that has nothing to do with the fact that since 3 years ago Cyprus (among others) 'sells' EU permanent residency permits to rich foreigners. You know, the solution to "problems" like that is to abolish visas altogether. A visa is essentially a permission to exist in a certain geographical area. Why exactly do you need one? Yes I know governments won't let you in/out without one, but what sense does it make…

I could take your argument and say I'm moving into your house, I'm moving around freely and I won't harm you but thanks for the free rent. I don't think you'd like me coming into your house and not following your rules and not paying rent.

Re: Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities?

#200

Post by ferbivore »

mfukar wrote: post #117
anovikov wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not a EU permanent residency permit. It is just for Cyprus. Cyprus is not even in Schengen, and this permit doesn't even allow free travel, you still need a visa to go even to Greece. It also gives no right to work or do any kind of business (even in Cyprus), i.e. it is against the goals of these people, it is mostly for retirees. A 2-year residence permit which becomes permanent in 5 years is easy to get in…

Just as an aside, Cyprus is in the process of joining Schengen "soon", along with Romania, Bulgaria, & Croatia.

Romania and Bulgaria have been about to join Schengen any moment now for about a decade, and Cyprus is in a much less stable situation than either of them.
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