The flipside is that there probably aren't enough of you to fulfill the needs of companies that need a specialized technical or creative workforce. I was recen

The flipside is that there probably aren't enough of you to fulfill the needs of companies that need a specialized technical or creative workforce. I was recently talking with a former software company founder who started his company in Boise, Idaho in the late-90s. The first few years, their product was a success and they doubled or more in size every year. Then, they started to plateau even though demand was still through the roof. They couldn't keep up with demand, because they ran out of developers who lived in or were willing to move to Boise. In the words of the founder, "Every qualified developer within 100 miles of us got a job-offer, until there weren't any left." The obvious solution would have been for them to move to Seattle or San Francisco. But all the founders were from Boise, and were committed to keeping the company in their home town. At the end, they were paying qualified developers Silicon Valley wages, in addition to signing bonuses equivalent to a year's salary just to get them to move to Boise. As you can imagine, that severely hampered their ability to compete. Finally, they sold to Microsoft. The founders assumed that the cache of Microsoft's name would be enough to draw developers, but Microsoft had the same problem. After a few years, Microsoft moved the whole operation back to Redmond. All that to say, you (and I coincidentally) are in the minority. Most creative and technical professionals want to live in nice, big cities. The great thing for those of us that don't fit that mold, is that it's easier than ever to work remotely.