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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?

#71

Post by jackgolding »

deecewan wrote: post #49
nathan_f77 wrote: post #31

Hello from a cafe in Chiang Mai. > Chiang Mai is very nice, but doesn’t have the Met, or steampunk masquerade parties or 50 foodie restaurants within a 15-minute walk. That's true, I do miss museums, theater, and live music from my favorite bands. But there's some really fun events (Songkran is coming soon), you can find some good music, and there's a lot of really good restaurants. If I had a lot more money, I would…

Melbourne? Really? Is that a thing now? Maybe I need to head south for the winter.

Melbourne like all Australian capital cities has congestion problems and very expensive housing. I've found myself wishing I was in the startup scene in Sydney instead (seems more mature and serious.)

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

#72

Post by recursio »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #14
hasenj wrote: post #3

In my personal experience remote work does not work so well. At least I haven't been able to make it work for me. For the second point, well I think expensive cities are expensive because people want to be there. If you can choose to live anywhere, why not go to the best place, specially when you can afford it?

I've worked remote for almost three years for a profitable startup. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, but not having a commute is incredibly liberating. I've also found my careeer options to not be limited by being remote. Also, I live in Florida 20 minutes from one of the best beaches in the country. Not as "culturally fulfilling" as say the Mission or Castro districts (have been to SF more times than I can count,…

Same boat as you, my friend. I actually just moved from Austin to the treasure coast for the exact same reasons (remote, beach, backyard pool on the cheap).

It might not be the cultural apex by tech hub standards, but being a big fish in a small pond is mighty rewarding. Not to mention, bringing that "tech hub" experience to an area like ours is attractive to all sorts of employers, regional and remote.

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

#73

Post by SandB0x »

> there’s nothing about software development that requires meatspace interactions

This is a big claim that is not true in my experience. Dealing with highly ambiguous situations, talking people out of bad ideas and learning through collaboration works much better in person.

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

#74

Post by 3131s »

npratini wrote: post #20

I'm not a developer, but after doing (remote) independent consulting for a year, here are my $0.02 -Human interactions: as mentioned, we are social animals and (mostly) enjoy being around others. You might not think this applies to you, but try staring at a computer and not speaking to anyone for a day. It can get old. -Similarly, being in the expensive cities means you also get to be around smart people like yoursel…

So poor cities are all filled with dumb people? At least we're not overflowing with massive pretension. I'll stay here and leave SF for the rest of you geniuses.

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

#75

Post by askafriend »

AYBABTME wrote: post #19

There are successful unicorns that are distributed, remote companies today. That people haven't caught on it amuses me. It should be old news by now that remote companies are possible, that it works and doesn't impede success.

Ok but I don't want to live in a suburb or out in the middle of nowhere. I want to live in a major city. I chose this lifestyle for myself and so have many many others. Yes it's expensive but I make a lot of money. Money that I wouldn't make if I lived elsewhere. So like someone else mentioned above, the economics work out at my stage of my life. If I have kids, the economics might change and make me consider something different. But I don't plan on having kids for a long time so that's not something I have to consider at all.

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

#76

Post by beatpanda »

egocodedinsol wrote: post #51

Opinionated take about costs and benefits that doesn't make strong statements about whether remote work or onsite is better: For context: I moved from NYC to Philadelphia, to finish my thesis and be with my wife who works at the world's best children's hospital. I have lived in Portland, Chicago, and spent extensive time in Toronto. I haven't spent much time in SF. The change in cost of living is dramatic, and the qu…

I don't understand how Philadelphia gets away with being such a wonderful city. It's an incredible anomoly.

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

#77

Post by jordwest »

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 bike

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

#78

Post by quinndupont »

This phenomenon has been fairly well studied in the academic literature, and you can sum it up to a variety of factors including productivity from co-location (Skype just won't cut it in some circumstances!), capitals flows (VC funding is only located in certain places), and other fuzzy things like quality of life and access to similar people. The emergence of "technopoles" led Richard Florida to call the globe not "flat" but "spiky." Consider also the case study of complex geographies and languages (not English!) in Brazil: http://codingplaces.net [full disclosure: Takhteyev was on my PHD committee]

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

#79

Post by mathw »

Because I can't work anywhere. It may be theoretically possible but business in the UK is pretty traditional in a lot of ways and just won't consider anything else.

Fortunately I live in the East Midlands, where there's a developer talent shortage, and I'm pretty good at my job, so whenever I want to change something seems to come up.

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

#80

Post by twblalock »

I know someone who was a remote worker from the early 1990s until a year or two ago. He was working from home in the Bay Area for a while, and moved somewhere else to get a lower cost of living.

Well, he pulled that off for a long time, but eventually he got laid off and couldn't find remote work. It's actually harder to find remote work now than it used to be.

So, he settled for a local job with a lower salary than he was used to, because the alternative was moving at least 100 miles away.

The bottom line is that living in an area with a high concentration of tech companies gives you a much better chance of finding work (both on-premise and remote) when your current job is no longer viable. If you work remotely, you need to be aware of the risks.

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