I thought about this a lot when I got tired of living in NYC, and visited and talked to friends in a number of places. If you want smaller and cheaper than Seat

I thought about this a lot when I got tired of living in NYC, and visited and talked to friends in a number of places. If you want smaller and cheaper than Seattle, I'd say Austin, the Twin Cities (where I just moved to, but it's not for everyone), and Portland. On par but not cheaper, Boston and San Diego. Cheaper but larger and with a worse tech scene, Chicago and Philadelphia.