4 ms·

You have to drive hours north to go skiing though and even then the hills are pretty tiny.

rjsw 10y ago
Nope. It was a while ago so I checked Google maps for an idea of how long it took, 21 min from Novi to Mount Brighton. It is a small hill but was fine for something to do in the evening.
- ghaff 10y ago
  Mount Brighton is really tiny :-) As I recall, when my parents lived near there, You had snowmaking guns on towers at the base that could blow snow onto the "summit." But really the Ann Arbor area isn't bad. I'm always a bit amused by discussions like this one in which so many voices seemingly argue that for reasons of weather, culture, and software engineering concentration, life really isn't worth living outside the Bay area even if you need to spend 4 hours a day commuting while sharing a 500 sq. ft. apartment with 2 roommates. The idea that it's questionable for Google to establish a location in Michigan for automobile research rather than keeping it in the great Silicon Valley is beyond funny.
  - curiouscat321 10y ago
    The groupthink at HN can be very severe at times. SE Michigan (especially Ann Arbor) is a lovely place! Lots of similarities to SV - smart people, culture, great schools. Plus, insanely cheap. The area is going to be a hotbed for tech companies with all the automotive talent around. It's ridiculously cheaper to open up offices in SE Michigan instead of constantly moving engineers elsewhere.
    - ghaff 10y ago
      I don't know how the Bay area will ultimately play out. I do know though that even given current building and whatever changes to policy that may allow for more housing and supporting transportation and other infrastructure in future decades, not everyone in tech can/should/will squeeze onto one small seismically-challenged peninsula. There are physical limits for the short- to mid-term and there's some upper limit to what even wealthy tech companies are going to pay for new CS grads to work in Mountain View or Cupertino.

rjsw 10y ago

Nope. It was a while ago so I checked Google maps for an idea of how long it took, 21 min from Novi to Mount Brighton. It is a small hill but was fine for something to do in the evening.

ghaff 10y ago
Mount Brighton is really tiny :-) As I recall, when my parents lived near there, You had snowmaking guns on towers at the base that could blow snow onto the "summit." But really the Ann Arbor area isn't bad. I'm always a bit amused by discussions like this one in which so many voices seemingly argue that for reasons of weather, culture, and software engineering concentration, life really isn't worth living outside the Bay area even if you need to spend 4 hours a day commuting while sharing a 500 sq. ft. apartment with 2 roommates. The idea that it's questionable for Google to establish a location in Michigan for automobile research rather than keeping it in the great Silicon Valley is beyond funny.
- curiouscat321 10y ago
  The groupthink at HN can be very severe at times. SE Michigan (especially Ann Arbor) is a lovely place! Lots of similarities to SV - smart people, culture, great schools. Plus, insanely cheap. The area is going to be a hotbed for tech companies with all the automotive talent around. It's ridiculously cheaper to open up offices in SE Michigan instead of constantly moving engineers elsewhere.
  - ghaff 10y ago
    I don't know how the Bay area will ultimately play out. I do know though that even given current building and whatever changes to policy that may allow for more housing and supporting transportation and other infrastructure in future decades, not everyone in tech can/should/will squeeze onto one small seismically-challenged peninsula. There are physical limits for the short- to mid-term and there's some upper limit to what even wealthy tech companies are going to pay for new CS grads to work in Mountain View or Cupertino.