This Is Your Life in the Midwest • Hacker News Board

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#21

Post by Delmania » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 4:57 PM UTC

ArkyBeagle wrote: post #18

Delmania wrote: post #8

Having felt the way the author expresses in this article, I can honestly say the sentiment expressed here has nothing to do with the suburbs, the Midwest, or having a corporate job. It has everything to do with settling and accepting the status quo. I could list a number of things the person here could do, but seriously, this reads like someone who is not happy with his current situation but does not want to put the…

It's easy to get in a rut. It's especially easy when you have a lot of distractions. Kids are a big distraction. One of the magical things about my wife is that she handles a lot of distractions for me. Most women just won't. It's slightly unfair to her, but she's a Professional Mom and extremely good at it. As has been noted in literature, it's all but impossible to price this. The downside is - one stream of income…

> Kids are a big distraction.

I understand the sentiment, but this lines has always bothered me. I try to find ways to incorporate my children into the things I enjoy and want to do...

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#22

Post by maxehnert » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 6:27 PM UTC

atombath wrote: post #11

jrjarrett wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having read the inspiration article, I chuckled at the seemingly satiristic tone. Then I read this one and cried. There's a lot of truth here (I live in WI). >You try out cost of living calculations and they say you'd need to make 250% your current salary on the west coast. Annoyed at the seemingly impossible move, you tell yourself they'll be rioting over water shortages soon anyways. After all, do you even want to…

I didn't feel that the author was really from the Midwest. The inspiration article felt like a self-mockery which is what made it special... but the Burger King stuff was where this really started to sound like the outside looking in. I felt the need to apply some actual midwestern(Detroit, MI) thoughts/barbs. =)

Author here. I'm actually from Milwaukee WI and currently living in KC.

This was taking parts of people's lives I know and have met and throwing on a huge pile of satire.

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#23

Post by maxehnert » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 6:29 PM UTC

AlwaysRock wrote: post #16

I'm confused because the article is written by Max Ehnert who from looking at his linkedin has only been working as a software dev for roughly two years. He's painting the picture of a life he hasnt lived?

It's a satire article not completely reflective of my own life but more of a mix of people I know. (I'm the author)

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#24

Post by ArkyBeagle » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 7:29 PM UTC

Delmania wrote: post #21

ArkyBeagle wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to get in a rut. It's especially easy when you have a lot of distractions. Kids are a big distraction. One of the magical things about my wife is that she handles a lot of distractions for me. Most women just won't. It's slightly unfair to her, but she's a Professional Mom and extremely good at it. As has been noted in literature, it's all but impossible to price this. The downside is - one stream of income…

> Kids are a big distraction. I understand the sentiment, but this lines has always bothered me. I try to find ways to incorporate my children into the things I enjoy and want to do...

I just mean that I was not going to get a lot of calls at work where I have to go get the kids, that sort of thing.

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#25

Post by AlwaysRock » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 9:12 PM UTC

maxehnert wrote: post #23

AlwaysRock wrote: post #16

I'm confused because the article is written by Max Ehnert who from looking at his linkedin has only been working as a software dev for roughly two years. He's painting the picture of a life he hasnt lived?

It's a satire article not completely reflective of my own life but more of a mix of people I know. (I'm the author)

Ah. Thanks for clarification. Sorry I was just confused. I assumed that but it seemed many took it as your story.

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#26

Post by Grishnakh » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 9:53 PM UTC

oldbuzzard wrote: post #3

Wow! My life in the Minneapolis strongly resembles my former life in Seattle. I have walkable/bikeable neighborhods, good local restaraunts and food coops/farmers markets, etc etc The problem isn't the Midwest, it is suburbia. I've know contractrs at MS like in the article. Plenty of folks in Boston or Northern Virginia or RTP are living in the far suburbs and working in unsatisfying jobs they aren't good at... nothi…

>My life in the Minneapolis strongly resembles my former life in Seattle. I have walkable/bikeable neighborhoods

You do? Even when it's -40? I find this very, very hard to believe.

I can bike in the drizzling rain with little trouble. Biking when it's -40 is a no-go, it's a good way to get frostbite and hypothermia.

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#27

Post by jgunaratne » Fri, Aug 19, 2016, 12:13 AM UTC

atombath wrote: post #2

> ...you dream about what your life would have been like if you left the Midwest after college and moved to Silicon Valley or Seattle. You think about how much money they make out there. Then you remember that money doesn’t buy happiness and you’re content with settling down and having a family... You try out cost of living calculations and they say you'd need to make 250% your current salary on the west coast. Annoy…

The author wrote this tongue-in-cheek, but he has a point about the appeal of a low cost of living, family-oriented lifestyle in fly over country. I'm from the Midwest and this sounds like several of my friends' lives. I made a different choice than they did. After college I moved to Seattle, Silicon Valley and then New York, working at several big name tech firms. I made decent money and kept my costs as low as a could within reason. Silicon Valley and engineering culture is a lot of hype. After 15 years of working in tech and living in high cost places, I occasionally toy with the idea of cashing out and moving back home into a big, reasonably priced house, starting a family, and living off my small fortune. I suppose you always crave what you don't have.

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#28

Post by maxehnert » Fri, Aug 19, 2016, 1:12 AM UTC

AlwaysRock wrote: post #25

maxehnert wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a satire article not completely reflective of my own life but more of a mix of people I know. (I'm the author)

Ah. Thanks for clarification. Sorry I was just confused. I assumed that but it seemed many took it as your story.

No problem. I added a footer in the article stating it's satire.

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#29

Post by QuarterReptile » Fri, Aug 19, 2016, 3:05 AM UTC

ArkyBeagle wrote: post #14

QuarterReptile wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To take this a step further, you don't even have to be in a substantial city to get the walkable atmosphere. Granted you'll suffer a smaller variety of restaurants, but there are towns of just 10k or 20k that manage to get things right, and some of them are really cool places. It's really all about suburbia. It's isolating, expensive, and unproductive. The places that come to grips with this fact soon (or already) wi…

Suburbia is all about cost per square foot. It's not going anywhere. It'll just be apartments rather than single family detatched. At least in the US, we're not exactly constrained by land availability. And as you may notice, the sustainability of NYC and SF style property prices isn't guaranteed.

The constraint isn't the amount of raw land, but rather the necessity of productive density if we are to afford the level of public services that most of us are accustomed to.

I have nothing against people living in sparsely populated areas, but the people living there now are mostly not seeing true costs of their lifestyles. If they weren't so heavily subsidized, they would probably have a lot more wells, septic tanks, and gravel roads; the school buses would not run to their houses; and they would have slower emergency response times and less police presence.

Faced with those painful realities, I expect more people would choose dense living. That's not to say they'd have to. Me personally, I just hate driving and love eating, in both cases too much to commute by car.

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#30

Post by ArkyBeagle » Fri, Aug 19, 2016, 5:58 AM UTC

QuarterReptile wrote: post #29

ArkyBeagle wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suburbia is all about cost per square foot. It's not going anywhere. It'll just be apartments rather than single family detatched. At least in the US, we're not exactly constrained by land availability. And as you may notice, the sustainability of NYC and SF style property prices isn't guaranteed.

The constraint isn't the amount of raw land, but rather the necessity of productive density if we are to afford the level of public services that most of us are accustomed to. I have nothing against people living in sparsely populated areas, but the people living there now are mostly not seeing true costs of their lifestyles. If they weren't so heavily subsidized, they would probably have a lot more wells, septic tan…

So eat while you drive, man :) ( I too hate driving, but live suburban and have been extremely lucky in being able to keep commute times to a minimum - like on the order of five minutes ).

Productive density is constrained by things like how accounting works, how we can't get out of our own way, by other things that are like public choice economics. At each job I've had, I've seen people walk away from millions of dollars, either in increased sales or reduced cost because somebody just didn't understand it ( or rather, did understand it all too well ).

I couldn't agree more - people who live farther out should expect less services unless they're prepared to pay what they actually cost. In cases like California, the Pubic Choice Theory stories about water are ... interesting enough that it's a central plot element from a movie from the 1970s - "Chinatown".

I've lived on well water and septic.

This being said, I don't think real estate development public debt is even on the radar as a threat to anything. They can always raise rates...