4 ms·

I was one of those people. I moved to NYC in May. In a lot of adult sports leagues I'm meeting a surprisingly high number of developers who moved from the Bay A

I was one of those people. I moved to NYC in May. In a lot of adult sports leagues I'm meeting a surprisingly high number of developers who moved from the Bay Area to NYC. All for similar reasons. Its way more fun to spend your 20s in NY than it is in SF. Within my social circle, many more are planning on moving from SF to NY. This might be anecdata, but Google and Amazon might have recruiting data about candidates' location preferences.

akhilcacharya 8y ago
“Fun” must be a bizarre elite perspective I’ve never understood either. The same stuff is available in Seattle as it is in NYC or Boston, just with an order of magnitude more people. Whenever I ask people about this they just talk about nightlife or something that I can’t relate to at all. I don’t know, maybe it’s because I didn’t hobnob with the well connected in college or “have fun” in college either.
- withhighprod 8y ago
  NYC has much much more girls and boys, I know tons of male developer from west coast moving to NYC just to find their partner. And the anecdote is they mostly find one within weeks
- pratik661 8y ago
  Seattle is a tech monoculture. Chances are, all your friends will be working in Tech. By comparison, NYC is much more diverse professionally. If you have esoteric hobbies, orders of magnitude matter.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- sincerely 8y ago
  What makes you think its elitist?
  - akhilcacharya 8y ago
    In my experience, only the elites (the HYPSM+ types) are able to have "fun" like this because they didn't have anything to prove. When I was in undergrad I worked and studied (and got the same or less than they did for it in the end).
- woolvalley 8y ago
  Dating is another big reason. SF & Seattle is gender imbalanced in a bad way for hetrosexual men in their 20s and 30s, NYC is the opposite.
- zjaffee 8y ago
  As someone who grew up in NYC, has lived in LA, SF and now Seattle. Seattle absolutely does not have the same sorts of things NYC has. The mega cities have far more going on in terms of diversity of options on any given night than smaller ones do. Additionally, there are far more ethnic groups represented in these mega regions as well. The Pacific Northwest absolutely has it's perks, but it's not nearly as thrilling as NYC or LA.
- Larrikin 8y ago
  In a large American city like Boston, Seattle, or even Chicago, I have access to a nice night life, good food, and plenty of nice museums. They're all great cities. When you consider them regionally. In an internationally large city like NYC or Tokyo, I have all the access to local places that compete on the city and regional level, but with way more choices in that regard. But on top of that I have places that are competing internationally, as well as a large selection of the best other cities have to offer since there are so many people that move there from other places. Its hard to get a sense for how amazingly convenient and awesome that is if you visit for a weekend or a week and haven't actually lived in a place like that. Just going with food, maybe if you're ticking off a box that Seattle has a good ramen place you like somewhere in the city and NYC has one place you found that is as good. But theres a good chance there will be multiple places as good or better scattered all over the city in NYC vs the couple good places you like in Seattle. Is there a new food trend somewhere else in the world? Its going to land pretty soon in Tokyo and if its more than just a flash trend you'll have a number of places competing that will be as good or even better soon enough. When I'm in Tokyo so long as I do a cursory look at the reviews, I know I'm going to get something good without having to go out my way, since the rents tend to put mediocre places out of business pretty fast unless they have a special circumstance surrounding them. If I am making a special trip for a restaurant in NYC, there's a really good chance I am getting something that can be considered some of the best in the world.

akhilcacharya 8y ago

“Fun” must be a bizarre elite perspective I’ve never understood either. The same stuff is available in Seattle as it is in NYC or Boston, just with an order of magnitude more people. Whenever I ask people about this they just talk about nightlife or something that I can’t relate to at all. I don’t know, maybe it’s because I didn’t hobnob with the well connected in college or “have fun” in college either.

withhighprod 8y ago
NYC has much much more girls and boys, I know tons of male developer from west coast moving to NYC just to find their partner. And the anecdote is they mostly find one within weeks
pratik661 8y ago
Seattle is a tech monoculture. Chances are, all your friends will be working in Tech. By comparison, NYC is much more diverse professionally. If you have esoteric hobbies, orders of magnitude matter.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
sincerely 8y ago
What makes you think its elitist?
- akhilcacharya 8y ago
  In my experience, only the elites (the HYPSM+ types) are able to have "fun" like this because they didn't have anything to prove. When I was in undergrad I worked and studied (and got the same or less than they did for it in the end).
woolvalley 8y ago
Dating is another big reason. SF & Seattle is gender imbalanced in a bad way for hetrosexual men in their 20s and 30s, NYC is the opposite.
zjaffee 8y ago
As someone who grew up in NYC, has lived in LA, SF and now Seattle. Seattle absolutely does not have the same sorts of things NYC has. The mega cities have far more going on in terms of diversity of options on any given night than smaller ones do. Additionally, there are far more ethnic groups represented in these mega regions as well. The Pacific Northwest absolutely has it's perks, but it's not nearly as thrilling as NYC or LA.
Larrikin 8y ago
In a large American city like Boston, Seattle, or even Chicago, I have access to a nice night life, good food, and plenty of nice museums. They're all great cities. When you consider them regionally. In an internationally large city like NYC or Tokyo, I have all the access to local places that compete on the city and regional level, but with way more choices in that regard. But on top of that I have places that are competing internationally, as well as a large selection of the best other cities have to offer since there are so many people that move there from other places. Its hard to get a sense for how amazingly convenient and awesome that is if you visit for a weekend or a week and haven't actually lived in a place like that. Just going with food, maybe if you're ticking off a box that Seattle has a good ramen place you like somewhere in the city and NYC has one place you found that is as good. But theres a good chance there will be multiple places as good or better scattered all over the city in NYC vs the couple good places you like in Seattle. Is there a new food trend somewhere else in the world? Its going to land pretty soon in Tokyo and if its more than just a flash trend you'll have a number of places competing that will be as good or even better soon enough. When I'm in Tokyo so long as I do a cursory look at the reviews, I know I'm going to get something good without having to go out my way, since the rents tend to put mediocre places out of business pretty fast unless they have a special circumstance surrounding them. If I am making a special trip for a restaurant in NYC, there's a really good chance I am getting something that can be considered some of the best in the world.