Why do developers who could work anywhere flock to the most expensive cities? • Hacker News Board

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

#301

Post by magic_beans » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 3:56 PM UTC

rmc wrote: post #253

Anderkent wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is such a weird American phenomenon, the whole roommate thing I think you're just sheltered; in every country in Europe that I lived in or had friends live in (Poland, UK, Portugal), students and young professionals flatshare. Or live with their parents, but it comes out to the same thing. If you're not already independently rich, you can't afford a single bedroom flat on your own. The simple fact is that a tw…

Yes, but when Americans (e.g. college students) talk about "roommates" they mean they share a bedroom ! Literal room mates

That's not true. Roommate almost always means two people sharing one apartment with their own bedrooms. Dorm-mate, on the other hand, specifically means two college students sharing a dorm room with two beds.

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

#302

Post by magic_beans » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 3:59 PM UTC

pm90 wrote: post #296

conductr wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. Similar thing in all Texas metros. Although expats in Austin are certainly of the CA tech majority. I feel like all of TX is turning into CA.

Well, they do have many things in common: * Warm weather year round * Lots of great universities * Large hispanic population (and immigrants in general) * 2 largest states in the contiguous US The most glaring difference is probably the conservative politics. But that's mostly the rural areas. And the hispanic population may actually help change that. Note: not implying that all hispanic people automatically vote dem…

Hispanic people might vote Democrat, but they are largely religiously, socially, and politically conservative.

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

#303

Post by fader » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 4:02 PM UTC

seibelj wrote: post #239

russdpale wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, there isn't 'hoods' or ghettos in Boston, at least none that I recognize. Plenty of places deep in the south that are much more dangerous.

Yes the entire city of Boston is perfectly safe, we have no murders here /s

Because you mentioned murder specifically

Murder rate per 100k: Boston - 6 Chicago - 20 Atlanta - 20 Washington, DC - 24 Detroit - 44

Boston is a very safe US city.

http://www.areavibes.com/compare-results/?place1=Boston%2C%2...

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

#304

Post by hkmurakami » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 4:04 PM UTC

fader wrote: post #271

apatters wrote: post #169

Speaking as a proponent of remote work, I think the reason is that remote workers are less productive in a _non-remote enabled culture._ And by default most companies are not remote enabled. They don't even understand what that means. This is totally reasonable, as we still have very few examples of large, successful teams that are fully remote. Many of the ones we do have aren't actually companies, Linux kernel deve…

Definitely. Companies can either "allow remote work" or be "remote first". I've worked at both types. The ones who are "allow remote work" are entirely office-focused and view remote workers with suspicion. A remote worker is very unlikely to get promoted, be able to take on interesting projects or large responsibilities. And they'll be out of the loop as far as what is going on in the company. (Even at a large compa…

Yes it's more about expectstikns and standards of communication rather than "getting the work done" that gets in the way.

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

#305

Post by fader » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 4:05 PM UTC

swyx wrote: post #288

fader wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely. Companies can either "allow remote work" or be "remote first". I've worked at both types. The ones who are "allow remote work" are entirely office-focused and view remote workers with suspicion. A remote worker is very unlikely to get promoted, be able to take on interesting projects or large responsibilities. And they'll be out of the loop as far as what is going on in the company. (Even at a large compa…

where do you find these "remote first" companies? sites like weworkremotely.com? (am just starting out)

It's been luck for me, honestly. The way I found my current position was by looking for who was sponsoring meetups in cities around the world in a field I was interested in. From there I found a blog post by one of the founders explaining their "remote first" mentality, and I knew I had struck gold.

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

#306

Post by Glyptodon » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 4:06 PM UTC

As someone living in working in a medium size city and non-tech-enclave I can tell you that there's very little non-remote SW/web dev work here. There are people who need someone to manage Wordpress or Drupal sites for SMBs, realtors, dentists, and similar. There are also a smattering of java/.Net nightmare jobs in companies that are non-tech-centric or defense related. There are exceptions, but you might come across one every six months, end even the exceptions tend to have downsides. So I think the "could work anywhere" thing isn't true. Rather, I think it you probably need the connections from a tech-enclave to swing high-paying remote work or find situations that give you the freedom to relocate.

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

#307

Post by ryandrake » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 4:06 PM UTC

Swizec wrote: post #260

taway_1212 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Add the nice bonus that there's simply more to do in a megalopolis of 6mio people than a city of 300k and it's kind of a no brainer. Can you give an example? I've lived in London before and I don't think I saw a single thing available there (that I was interested in) that wasn't available in much smaller cities. I mean, why do you need thousands of restaurants and nightclubs, when in a small city you still have doz…

"Ok, which of the 3 decent restaurants am i going to today?" Gets really boring after a while. New ones to try open every few years instead of every few weeks. You look at Yelp or similar and you've been to everything it suggests and decided it's meh. Or your friends have been and aay it's kinda meh. There's also that argument that Oatmeal mentioned once. In a small city you have Asian restaurants. Maybe Chinese, Jap…

I don't get this whole hang-up about restaurants. To me, "the number/type of restaurants in the area" is something I don't even consider when deciding if I want to live somewhere. Admittedly I'm not a restaurant guy. I pretty much never go to them. To me, they're just an expensive way to eat food. And they are a pain in that you need to do so much just to "enjoy" the experience. Get dressed up, drive or walk to the place, wait in line, get seated and wait again, place your order and wait again, finally you get to eat, trying not to think about how much of your life you just wasted, then when you're finally done enduring all that, drop $100 that you could have used to buy groceries for a week.

Same goes for nightclubs, museums, movie theaters, "culture". This is really why people want to live somewhere???

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

#308

Post by orasis » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 4:08 PM UTC

The answer is simple: most people don't live intentionally.

I regularly meet miserable people in SF that could elevate their happiness by changing their life situation. But they don't, because the default path is easier.

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

#309

Post by bingomad123 » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 4:09 PM UTC

I think American Tech industry's failure to invest in various American and foreign cities is what is going to eventually make a Detroit of Silicon Valley. I am not sure why Facebook or Google do not have full fledged development centers in San Antonio or Phoenix or Singapore. Facebook still does not have a development center in India.

Sooner or later the Trump driven protectionism will be make other countries like India reciprocate in similar fashion where American tech companies will be denied access to say Indian market.

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

#310

Post by vostok » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 4:09 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #300

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 make good money. Why should I have to live in a cramped city when I can live in a 3000 sq.ft house on 10 acres of land and send my kid to an elementary school that doesn't need metal detectors and armed security guards?"

Oh, I have no question as to why others don't live in the city. I was explaining why I do live in the city.

For completeness, the elementary school that I went to and that my kids will go to does not have or need metal detectors. I believe the security guard is armed. Are security guards outside the city completely unarmed? I have no point of reference for this.