Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

631–640 of 1001 posts

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#631

Post by nik736 »

adamcharnock wrote: post #425
nelsonic wrote: post #229

Depending on your ability to work remotely, I would make the "case" that you should consider Portugal . Lisbon and Porto are super popular with ["digital nomad"] remote workers who work for international companies so earn in USD but spend [much less] in Euros for a superb lifestyle. There's a reason @paddycosgrave moved Web Summit to Lisbon. It's one of the cheapest cities in Europe and [unlike Barcelona] everyone sp…

Glad to see this as the first comment I read. Im currently sat in Portugal on 4ha of land I have brought over near Fundão. It is more out of the way, but still has excellent access to cities. Plus it is absolutely beautiful. I’m a freelance software developer and can happily work out here even on a plot of land which has no power/net connection. The 3G/4G is great, and everything easily runs of a single solar panel.…

Where's the blog post? :-)

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#632

Post by jayalpha »

nelsonic wrote: post #229

Depending on your ability to work remotely, I would make the "case" that you should consider Portugal . Lisbon and Porto are super popular with ["digital nomad"] remote workers who work for international companies so earn in USD but spend [much less] in Euros for a superb lifestyle. There's a reason @paddycosgrave moved Web Summit to Lisbon. It's one of the cheapest cities in Europe and [unlike Barcelona] everyone sp…

I wanted to buy an apartment in Lisbon (I speak Portuguese). Forget it. You don't get anything decent below 500k (speak Golden Visa Program). Big chunk of change for a comparably poor country.

"visa issues"? Portgual is Schengen. You need a residence visa if you want to live there. Possibly but far from trivial. On the other hand, if you want to buy real estate anyway and can cough up 500k you can go the golden visa route.

You may be too late for Lisbon. Also, Overtourism becomes a problem.

Braga sounds interesting. Had not time to go there. Wanted to check out rafting. Also, summers may be milder.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#633

Post by fuzzy2 »

ulfw wrote: post #620
donjoe wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to add my bit here: - Public smoking in public indoor places is completely banned in Bavaria, including pubs, restaurants and bars. - No one will forbid you to buy your own dryer in case you're not happy with hanging your clothes on clotheslines. We do have a dedicated clotheslines room in our building thus I never needed a dryer myself (and my clothes are getting dry within 2 days even in the winter) - ACs are…

Drivers Licenses in Germany haven't been unlimited ("for life time") for a while now. https://www.adac.de/infotestrat/adac-im-einsatz/motorwelt/be... "Driving licence validity in Germany. Driving licences are valid for 15 years. Licences issued before 2013, lose their validity at the latest on 19 January 2033."

Yes, but that’s just the document. You’d apply for a new card and that’s it. No tests or anything required, just an up-to-date photo.

„Nach Ablauf der Gültigkeit des Scheins kann er einfach neu beantragt werden.“

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#634

Post by namdnay »

yakshaving_jgt wrote: post #502
namdnay wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is applicable to Europe, but in a different way: Scandinavia and Switzerland are expensive, but salaries are equally high. Compare that to the French Riviera for example, where house prices are nearly as high as Stockholm, but salaries are much lower. That's the problem with sunshine: it attracts a lot of wealthy retirees and tourists, who distort the local market.

Ha! No they aren't! I lived in Sweden for seven years, and this is so far from the truth it's hilarious. Relative quality of life is garbage in Sweden for a tech worker. Your life will be not that much better than if you work in Carlings selling plaid shirts to hard-rock hipsters. My Swedish friends have decent jobs and still live unglamorous, frugal lives. As soon as I left Sweden, my quality of life completely tran…

I think it's all relative... I have two colleagues who moved from our offices on the Riviera to our offices in Stockholm, and they gained about 15% take-home salary each, with cheaper rents and public transport. I really don't think anyone's life in Sweden is garbage, as long as you can stand the winters

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#635

Post by OkiiEli »

Hi all

A couple of days ago I developed a tool http://designpixel.co to generate unique images.

You can use these to post on your Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

The images are royalty free, so you can use them for private + commercial purposes.

So instead of stealing images from other people, generate your own unique ones;

Social media websites appreciate it when we upload unique content, and devalue duplicate content.

Even if you change the hash value of an image, they can still detect it as stolen/duplicated content

Give it a trial and share your feedback

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#636

Post by yakshaving_jgt »

JosephRedfern wrote: post #525
yakshaving_jgt wrote: post #508

As far as Europe is concerned, you'd be mad to choose anything West or North. As for the guy saying Porto is one of the cheapest cities in Europe… WHAT?! It's €15 for a 'Francesinha', and this food is garbage anyway. There are much nicer places to go in Portugal where the prices and quality aren't ruined by tourism.

It's €15 for a 'Francesinha', and this food is garbage anyway. If you consider it garbage, don't buy it. You absolutely do not have to pay €15 for a Francesinha in Porto, and there's a huge array of other options. Of course if you go to the most touristy places you'll end up paying touristy prices, but if you really think that this is the case throughout the entire city then you can't have looked around much.

Relative to so many European destinations, I don't think there are a huge array of options in Porto. It's mostly a student and tourist city, so that's who are catered to. Food is poor, and nightlife is poor.

There are higher quality places like The Yeatman, but this is not somewhere the average tech worker can eat regularly.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#637

Post by bsvalley »

crispyambulance wrote: post #618

So you haven't traveled too often, but are considering relocating yourself to somewhere you've never been? There's nothing wrong with that. However, I would recommend that before you attempt to settle down or start using the word "relocate" you do a bit of serious traveling. One could say that there's a place in the world for every person. One could also say that people adapt to wherever they are. Both are partially…

+1 True

Though, traveling while on "vacation" and moving to a place are 2 different things. You could get a very positive vibe when you visit a new place several times because "entertainment" is roughly 80% of your goal. But from experience, things usually don't turn out that well when you settle and dig a little more by doing "boring" stuff. Things that travelers don't have to think about. But it goes back to your second point: "people adapt to wherever they are".

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#638

Post by jayalpha »

nik736 wrote: post #625
niccolop wrote: post #561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spain offers you a mixture of international cities, and technology hubs. There will never be another "Silicon Valley", but as an alternative where you can find stimulating and rewarding work, I'd argue it's better than Portugal.

> I'd argue it's better than Portugal. Why is it better?

I prefer Portuguese people since I speak Portuguese and Portuguese are much more welcoming and friendly. This could change with overtourism which also makes Lisbon comparably expensive. Spain is more diverse and still has cheap big cities. Cheaper than Lisbon.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#639

Post by HelgeSeetzen »

randomsearch wrote: post #615
HelgeSeetzen wrote: post #610

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Montreal is a great choice indeed. I am originally from Europe (Germany, short time in Holland) and have built tech companies on the West Coast (Vancouver, SF). After a decade on the West Coast, I moved to Montreal in 2010. Really enjoyable city with a great mix of high quality of life, culture and massive diversity (which in my opinion - even more so that universities - is the cause of the "intellectual" environment…

What's "deep tech"?

As the previous reply kindly indicates, I am talking about more fundamental technology development. Basically the R of R&D and not just development. For example, our portfolio includes companies like Stratuscent which is using tech from NASA to develop an "electronic nose" using machine learning, Aerial which extracts people's position/activities by analysing wifi signals, Airy3D which is developing a novel image sensor that can capture 2D/3D/lightfield all in one package, etc..

We work with 50+ universities across the globe on the fundamental research and then incorporate the results in new tech companies like those above. Great fun :)

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#640

Post by rjsw »

sergioj97 wrote: post #499
nelsonic wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stats would be nice, I agree. I have searched but haven't found anything concrete ... the best data available is: https://www.ef.edu.pt/epi/regions/europe/portugal in lieu of stats, I'll give you the logic [facts] instead: English as a Second Language (lessons) begins in the 5th grade in Portugal. It's compulsory for all people and generally high quality. see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Portugal Stude…

Isn't English compulsory almost everywhere throughout the EU? I live in Madrid and it definitely is here in Spain. It's true, however, that the fact that every TV show is completely dubbed makes it harder for us to develop our speaking (our listening doesn't seem to be so affected for some reason). When you finish college you're only supposed to have a B2 English level. I don't know about it, but I wouldn't be surpri…

Some description of language proficiency standards here [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_R...

Post reply on HN