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I've lived in Burlington, VT for the last two years, having moved from a large city. The brain drain is real. I am leaving the state soon because I simply cann
by eezurr 8y ago
I've lived in Burlington, VT for the last two years, having moved from a large city.
The brain drain is real. I am leaving the state soon because I simply cannot relate to people and culture up here. (Note, this is for people who are < 35. There are a lot more >35 year olds up here with families who I never met). There's an inverse bell curve of age distribution.
I've discovered slightly above average intelligent people up here think they are much smarter than they are, due to the people/coworkers they are surrounded by. I've only met three highly intelligent people in my two years here. Two of them are also leaving within a year.
It's a shame, because Burlington is easily the most beautiful city I have lived in. Bike trails boarder the lake and outdoor recreation are all within an hour's drive.
The produce up here is the best I've had (like wow, can't go back good). The restaurant cuisines up here are diverse and plentiful (although the quality is lacking for some reason). Everything is so green up here. The weather is usually great.
It's a place to retire and maybe raise family, if you can handle the snow. Otherwise, if you're a younger adult with drive and ambition, you will not enjoy your stay.
- ErikAugust 8y agoI moved 5-6 years ago and admit it's easy for your ambition to be outsized there. I moved to Boston and realized I wasn't all that ambitious after all. I wanted to move back to VT for the outdoors - however, I moved to the Mountain West and realized it has much more outdoors and much more of a tech economy, so I never moved back. Bonus: While we have all the winter mountain sports here at their highest levels, there's also 300 days of sunshine and much higher average winter temperatures where I now live! Good luck breaking single digit temps (F) in the worst winter months in Northern VT.
- camdenlock 8y agoJust curious, what do you mean by “intelligent” here? What kinds of people is Vermont losing exactly?
- eezurr 8y agoWithout writing a novel and acknowledging the difficulty it is to measure intelligence... People who: /what VT is missing is: - Can process what one is saying in real time and propose alternative view points or point out flaws in one's logic in seconds. - Are capable of thinking outside of the box. Some puzzle pieces will never be found because they need to be created first. - Have drive and ambition to do things other than watch TV/go to the beach/get high or drink after work. - Interest in furthering their education/knowledge/life goals. Complacency is very common. - People who are unafraid of their viewpoints being challenged/analyzed; unafraid to rationalize their beliefs. - Self awareness/presence. In saying all of this, I do not look down on people for their life choices. They just live a simpler life than I can be comfortable with.
- tothepixel 8y agoWow, I can very much relate to this. I moved to VT 5 years ago, and I just haven't been able to put my finger on why there's a disparity between my social life here vs. my former city. Many people simply talk much slower, drone on, and are not socially aware of when a conversation becomes one-sided. I'm used to fast talking, quick-witted New Jersey style conversations. At work I'm often engulfed with these 5 minute lectures about random garbage that I don't particularly care for.
- wool_gather 8y ago> average intelligent people up here think they are much smarter than they are, due to the people/coworkers Does this mean you have a local job, or working remotely/commuting?