4 ms·

I don't live in a big city or an urban area. I live in a small midwestern town, population 10,000. I paid $40,000 for my 4-bedroom house. I don't have a mort

I don't live in a big city or an urban area. I live in a small midwestern town, population 10,000. I paid $40,000 for my 4-bedroom house. I don't have a mortgage. I have TWO gigabit optical Internet connections for which I pay less than $70 per month - since the 1990's! I work remotely only occasionally visiting the fancy places you all speak of, wondering why you put up with what you put up with. I employ several programmers, including very talented folks from Russia and Colombia. I have taught open source full stack development for a few years now, with graduates getting positions at the top silicon valley firms. You'd be amazed how many start-ups have succeeded from towns like this. I only recently put a lock on my house - not because I did not feel safe - more an IoT thing. I have raised 5 kids here. My town has a village square, and yes a Walmart. My town has more than 30 miles of bike/hiking/skiing trails. Parks everywhere. There is a sportsplex less than 1,000 steps from my house with 3 full size basketball courts, indoor pool, outdoor pool, hot tub, 200m indoor track, comprehensive weight/exercise/fitness facilities, etc. Less than 1,000 steps in another direction is a modern library with a great kids section. This is not an unusual town. There are many like it in America. Do they have problems? Sure. They are the places that teenagers used to grow up to move away from. Those kids are coming back now and having families of their own, with "actual births".

nikanj 7y ago
Are there jobs in that town? That seems to make or break a small town.
- stevenjgarner 7y ago
  Yes there are jobs. I have clients in small towns all over the midwest and there are plenty of jobs in all those towns. It is so very hard to find employees willing to work! I think my point though is that given the nature of this HN space, most of the "readers" have the skills to work remotely from anywhere. Make yourself a valuable and treasured resource and employers will want you to work, even if it is over a connection. I think the key metric is not whether jobs are available in a small town, but rather the nature of available Internet access - thanks to the decades old USDA Broadband initiative, many small towns across America have better Internet than larger cities, especially cities monopolized by multiple-system operators (MSO's). Many small towns do not. That is where one needs to be selective.
  - stevenjgarner 7y ago
    One resource to select rural towns where broadband is available is the USDA Telecommunications Program Funded Service Areas map: https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/all-programs/telecommunications-programs/telecom-maps https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/all-programs/telec...
  - nikanj 7y ago
    You can’t build a healthy community on ”clever people work remotely”
- ahje 7y ago
  I've found it quite easy to freelance on the countryside. There are businesses out here, and since most IT people live in cities there's a lack of them out here. Easy jobs, that pay less than a top job somewhere else, but living is so much cheaper that it doesn't matter.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

nikanj 7y ago

Are there jobs in that town? That seems to make or break a small town.

stevenjgarner 7y ago
Yes there are jobs. I have clients in small towns all over the midwest and there are plenty of jobs in all those towns. It is so very hard to find employees willing to work! I think my point though is that given the nature of this HN space, most of the "readers" have the skills to work remotely from anywhere. Make yourself a valuable and treasured resource and employers will want you to work, even if it is over a connection. I think the key metric is not whether jobs are available in a small town, but rather the nature of available Internet access - thanks to the decades old USDA Broadband initiative, many small towns across America have better Internet than larger cities, especially cities monopolized by multiple-system operators (MSO's). Many small towns do not. That is where one needs to be selective.
- stevenjgarner 7y ago
  One resource to select rural towns where broadband is available is the USDA Telecommunications Program Funded Service Areas map: https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/all-programs/telecommunications-programs/telecom-maps https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/all-programs/telec...
- nikanj 7y ago
  You can’t build a healthy community on ”clever people work remotely”
ahje 7y ago
I've found it quite easy to freelance on the countryside. There are businesses out here, and since most IT people live in cities there's a lack of them out here. Easy jobs, that pay less than a top job somewhere else, but living is so much cheaper that it doesn't matter.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]