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Why don't you move abroad?

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Re: Why don't you move abroad?

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From your point of view you were born randomly in a universe in a random country to random parents. Yes. There is a story once you were born. But as far you are concerned you could have been born as anything in any Universe. There would always be a story backing it up.

The problem here is that you're defined by the history of environments you've been in, which provides a reason to stay in them (and a reason why the phenomenon of culture shock exists). I could not randomly have been, to take a random person, Carmen Miranda, because I am not her to any extent, so for me to "be" her, in some alternate reality, wouldn't mean anything.

Who are you?

Re: Why don't you move abroad?

#52

To people who are considering moving abroad you should do it. Don't let nationalism stop you. You were randomly born in your country. Choose your country. Don't let randomness and some emotional baggage control where you want to live. You have a finite live. Make most of it.

>Don't let nationalism stop you. You were randomly born in your country.

No I was not.

Re: Why don't you move abroad?

#53
Currently looking at moving overseas. Live in aus and the place is politically an authoritarian corprotocracy with unaffordable living even on a decent wage. Looking to get out.

We don't need much and are both fairly handy (in all forms of life) so we are considering a run down property in Europe. We could literally buy a dump,do it up and go off grid with solar and still come out ahead for 50% of the price for a avg crappy property in aus. It's absurd. I just want somewhere to live and grow some food. It's near impossible to do in aus without working like a slave and being massively in debt.

Re: Why don't you move abroad?

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem here is that you're defined by the history of environments you've been in, which provides a reason to stay in them (and a reason why the phenomenon of culture shock exists). I could not randomly have been, to take a random person, Carmen Miranda, because I am not her to any extent, so for me to "be" her, in some alternate reality, wouldn't mean anything.

Who are you?

IDK, a strange loop? But a specific one.

Oh wait, you changed what to who, didn't you?

Re: Why don't you move abroad?

#55
post #8

it’s amazing how much of the story mirrors my own. Autodidacticism and tech were also my combination of escaping generational poverty, and I had to be the first person in 2 generations to leave the country at all in order to do it. It hopefully strikes at a hint of irony that I am british. However, unlike the author, I did not have a strong familial connection. I miss my homeland but I have no wish to return, the liv…

I also have a lot of things in common with the person in the article, as a Brazilian living and working in Sweden I can relate a lot to the things he is saying. However I feel the main thing that made me move away from Brazil was not status, income or "success". It was the realization that no matter how "successful" I was my life was still going to suck. Working in IT in Brazil means living in São Paulo and that is l…

I recently got an offer to work in Sao Paulo, 3 days from home, 2 in office. FAANG-like company. Can't seem to make myself accept, the city is almost Gotham nowadays.

I live in the UK now. Incredibly safe city in the countryside. Just can't imagine myself looking over my shoulder all the time, or wanting that. Even though I'd be "well off", by our standards, which frankly are not that high.

Brazil, without being actually rich, is a major decrease in quality of life.

Re: Why don't you move abroad?

#56
post #8

it’s amazing how much of the story mirrors my own. Autodidacticism and tech were also my combination of escaping generational poverty, and I had to be the first person in 2 generations to leave the country at all in order to do it. It hopefully strikes at a hint of irony that I am british. However, unlike the author, I did not have a strong familial connection. I miss my homeland but I have no wish to return, the liv…

I also have a lot of things in common with the person in the article, as a Brazilian living and working in Sweden I can relate a lot to the things he is saying. However I feel the main thing that made me move away from Brazil was not status, income or "success". It was the realization that no matter how "successful" I was my life was still going to suck. Working in IT in Brazil means living in São Paulo and that is l…

> Working in IT in Brazil means living in São Paulo

It absolutely does not. Porto Alegre and Recife are 2 large IT centres where there's plenty of good jobs from large corporations to small startups. Florianópolis also had small but workable one though I don't know how it's evolved in more recent years.

Salaries are certainly better in São Paulo but so is the cost of living, and for many the quality of life can be a lot lower.

Re: Why don't you move abroad?

#58
From personal experience it's not an unusual arc. I've experienced it myself and heard from others, and it goes like this: you first move abroad and let's say you're happy, you enjoy some things that are new to you. But after a while, a couple of years pass, and you start getting the urge to go back, and it gets greater and greater. Disillusioned is too harsh of a word, again personally I don't think anything is essentially wrong in the country I live in now, but maybe you just realize it's not really yours. There's no place like home.

The one exception here is that this person was unhappy at the first stop in San Francisco, but otherwise in other places yes.

Re: Why don't you move abroad?

#59

To people who are considering moving abroad you should do it. Don't let nationalism stop you. You were randomly born in your country. Choose your country. Don't let randomness and some emotional baggage control where you want to live. You have a finite live. Make most of it.

Nationalism is not the thing stopping most people. It's your friends, family and the feeling of belonging. This is culture, not nationalism. I lived in Canada for 10 years before moving back home. I had a great life in Canada, fulfilled things I quite literally never dreamed possible, but I didn't belong. I lived my life between vacations, just waiting for the time that I can go back home and spend time with family.…

Yeah, people who have only spent a year or two abroad so not understand the consequences of staying there permanently.

Estranged friends and family. Aging and dying parents. Feeling like a foreigner in your country of origin (reverse culture shock). Your own children, at the end of the day, belong to a foreign culture rather than your own. Etc.

Re: Why don't you move abroad?

#60
Article resonates with me. I'm Belgian and moved to work in SF in 2016.

I really hated it and it took me a long time to admit this, because it felt like failure.

I moved back 2 years later and the upside is that I now appreciate Belgium, my friends and family here way more. Before I was just focused on moving away to what I thought was a better place.

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