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I just moved out of SF and went remote. It’s pretty awesome. Living there was fun but also stressful and inconvenient especially with kids. I didn’t even lose

I just moved out of SF and went remote. It’s pretty awesome. Living there was fun but also stressful and inconvenient especially with kids. I didn’t even lose my “walkability” you can find that in many places if you choose the right neighborhood. In fact kind of improves if you factor in not worrying about getting mugged or accosted by homeless crazies. My large home in one of the top planned communities in the nation costs me just under the shack I rented in the east bay.

mech422 7y ago
20 years into work from home... 10 years of it after leaving the valley. There really is no comparison. Less cost, less stress, and more productive. Bonus is valley companies tend to pay the same salary regardless of the jobs on-site/remote status. Got a house with 2 extra bedrooms - set one up as an office and the other as a 'server room'.
non-entity 7y ago
> I didn’t even lose my “walkability” you can find that in many places if you choose the right neighborhood. Sadly the case for me seems to be that there are very nice walkable areas in these small cities, but everytime I interview for a job it turns out the office in in some way out suburban office park, so I have no way of commuting
- r00fus 7y ago
  The idea is that you work remote not try to find employment in the new locale.
  - analog31 7y ago
    I wonder if there's a way to split the difference, for instance get a job at the new locale, but gradually switch to working from home. This would at least be "less remote" from the employer's standpoint because you could bop into the office for meetings when needed.
    - r00fus 7y ago
      While this sounds attractive, the major benefit (salary/cost-of-living arbitrage) completely goes away. Local employers can't afford to pay you your big-city salary, and the benefit for a big-city employer to keep you remote is retention and a known quantity (assuming you're worth your salt). It's a win-win for the worker and their employer. The article focuses on the supposed loser: the township that loses out on a local job - but the newly relocated remote worker adds to the tax base and pays for groceries, etc.
aantix 7y ago
Same here. My wife and I lived in SF for close to five years. We wanted to have four kids and well, that would have been a nightmare in the city. So we moved back home to family in Lincoln, NE. We now have four kids, live in a great school district and I've continued to consult with startups. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimjones2/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimjones2/ P.S. First year of being completely remote was fantastic. Fifth year? Really lonely..
- microcolonel 7y ago
  > P.S. First year of being completely remote was fantastic. Fifth year? Really lonely.. Yeah, I have taken to trying to find work-ish community outside of work. If you don't meet many people who have shared as much of your experience as employees of your own company, at least you can meet people who have shared similar experiences. It's a bit easier than getting to know complete strangers.
- Tempest1981 7y ago
  Is there some equivalent of a WeWork, where you can socialize with others? How are the coffee shops?
  - Tempest1981 7y ago
    Baffled by the downvotes... why? Are there better social alternatives for the long workdays?
- willidiots 7y ago
  In a similar situation - year 5 of remote, now living in a small town still working for big tech. It does get lonely and you have to manage this yourself. Volunteering with an organization you care about is a great way to combat this. They're locals, you get to know the community you're living in, and you probably share a common interest. Also feels great to give back.
- maerF0x0 7y ago
  Piling on to say +1 of lonely remote work. In my 3rd year remote I ended up renting a desk part time in an incubator just to be around people and get out of the house.
vector_spaces 7y ago
I just did the same thing. Being remote at work allowed me to trade the SF Bay Area for Northern New Mexico a couple years ago, and I can't describe how much happier I am. Life feels so much less precarious, I don't bleed money every time I go outside, and there's less of a crushing feeling of being stuck in the rat race out here. I'm renting a 2 bedroom house with a nice backyard, able to focus on my health, relationships, and interests, and it's totally feasible now for me to go back to school if I want to (granted, this one is probably made easier by the fact that I don't have kids myself). Compare with my life in the Bay, where I rented a tiny, musty smelling room with no closet in a house with a serious mold problem for the exact same price I pay today while barely scraping by. I can't honestly imagine how living in the Bay Area would be with kids -- that seems like that would be incredibly hard. Things I do miss: incredible produce, walkability, excellent public transit, fresh produce, fresh sourdough. But now I have excellent fresh green chiles, beautiful landscapes, slightly more interesting weather, and (IMO) nicer, less-stressed people.
- ianai 7y ago
  Missing fresh produce? You can buy straight from the farmers off their trucks. Santa Fe has farmers markets every Saturday morning. The natural grocers, sprouts, Trader Joe’s, and Whole Foods also have fresh produce. Norther NM just had a bumper year of it’s “wild” fruit trees. Even here where I live. Maybe ask around?
  - uncletaco 7y ago
    the farmer’s market is one of the reasons I want to com le back.
  - vector_spaces 7y ago
    In California it's pretty easy to find like, perfectly pristine greens -- like, zero wilt or bruising or yellowing whatsoever. I'm at WFM and Sprouts nearly every weekend and have yet to find for example cilantro or kale or spring greens that don't have some wilt or yellowing going on. Which makes sense -- the climate out here isn't really amenable to picture perfect greens like California is. But also, I'm probably more critical because I ran buying teams at grocery (brick & mortar and ecommerce) stores for 10 years so I'm always instinctively looking for minor blemishes And yeah, really and truly I'm not being completely fair -- I haven't visited the farmers markets yet, and I've heard that about the trucks. Would love to check them out, hopefully I'll find some time this weekend. The fruit has been pretty great though. I've been really happy with the stone fruit. One weird thing I've noticed is that the California avocados out here are consistently better than they were in California -- like, perfect ripeness, no browning, never disappointed when I get home, which would happen every other time in CA. Maybe there's more QA going on between CA and here, and time to ripen on the trucks
tjr225 7y ago
Went remote. Bought a house back near my family. Mortgage is nearly a quarter the cost of my one bedroom in Seattle. I'll miss Seattle, for sure, but at least now I don't have to hustle so hard. Especially with a kid on the way.

mech422 7y ago

20 years into work from home... 10 years of it after leaving the valley. There really is no comparison. Less cost, less stress, and more productive. Bonus is valley companies tend to pay the same salary regardless of the jobs on-site/remote status. Got a house with 2 extra bedrooms - set one up as an office and the other as a 'server room'.

non-entity 7y ago

> I didn’t even lose my “walkability” you can find that in many places if you choose the right neighborhood. Sadly the case for me seems to be that there are very nice walkable areas in these small cities, but everytime I interview for a job it turns out the office in in some way out suburban office park, so I have no way of commuting

r00fus 7y ago
The idea is that you work remote not try to find employment in the new locale.
- analog31 7y ago
  I wonder if there's a way to split the difference, for instance get a job at the new locale, but gradually switch to working from home. This would at least be "less remote" from the employer's standpoint because you could bop into the office for meetings when needed.
  - r00fus 7y ago
    While this sounds attractive, the major benefit (salary/cost-of-living arbitrage) completely goes away. Local employers can't afford to pay you your big-city salary, and the benefit for a big-city employer to keep you remote is retention and a known quantity (assuming you're worth your salt). It's a win-win for the worker and their employer. The article focuses on the supposed loser: the township that loses out on a local job - but the newly relocated remote worker adds to the tax base and pays for groceries, etc.

aantix 7y ago

Same here. My wife and I lived in SF for close to five years. We wanted to have four kids and well, that would have been a nightmare in the city. So we moved back home to family in Lincoln, NE. We now have four kids, live in a great school district and I've continued to consult with startups. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimjones2/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimjones2/ P.S. First year of being completely remote was fantastic. Fifth year? Really lonely..

microcolonel 7y ago
> P.S. First year of being completely remote was fantastic. Fifth year? Really lonely.. Yeah, I have taken to trying to find work-ish community outside of work. If you don't meet many people who have shared as much of your experience as employees of your own company, at least you can meet people who have shared similar experiences. It's a bit easier than getting to know complete strangers.
Tempest1981 7y ago
Is there some equivalent of a WeWork, where you can socialize with others? How are the coffee shops?
- Tempest1981 7y ago
  Baffled by the downvotes... why? Are there better social alternatives for the long workdays?
willidiots 7y ago
In a similar situation - year 5 of remote, now living in a small town still working for big tech. It does get lonely and you have to manage this yourself. Volunteering with an organization you care about is a great way to combat this. They're locals, you get to know the community you're living in, and you probably share a common interest. Also feels great to give back.
maerF0x0 7y ago
Piling on to say +1 of lonely remote work. In my 3rd year remote I ended up renting a desk part time in an incubator just to be around people and get out of the house.

vector_spaces 7y ago

I just did the same thing. Being remote at work allowed me to trade the SF Bay Area for Northern New Mexico a couple years ago, and I can't describe how much happier I am. Life feels so much less precarious, I don't bleed money every time I go outside, and there's less of a crushing feeling of being stuck in the rat race out here. I'm renting a 2 bedroom house with a nice backyard, able to focus on my health, relationships, and interests, and it's totally feasible now for me to go back to school if I want to (granted, this one is probably made easier by the fact that I don't have kids myself). Compare with my life in the Bay, where I rented a tiny, musty smelling room with no closet in a house with a serious mold problem for the exact same price I pay today while barely scraping by. I can't honestly imagine how living in the Bay Area would be with kids -- that seems like that would be incredibly hard. Things I do miss: incredible produce, walkability, excellent public transit, fresh produce, fresh sourdough. But now I have excellent fresh green chiles, beautiful landscapes, slightly more interesting weather, and (IMO) nicer, less-stressed people.

ianai 7y ago
Missing fresh produce? You can buy straight from the farmers off their trucks. Santa Fe has farmers markets every Saturday morning. The natural grocers, sprouts, Trader Joe’s, and Whole Foods also have fresh produce. Norther NM just had a bumper year of it’s “wild” fruit trees. Even here where I live. Maybe ask around?
- uncletaco 7y ago
  the farmer’s market is one of the reasons I want to com le back.
- vector_spaces 7y ago
  In California it's pretty easy to find like, perfectly pristine greens -- like, zero wilt or bruising or yellowing whatsoever. I'm at WFM and Sprouts nearly every weekend and have yet to find for example cilantro or kale or spring greens that don't have some wilt or yellowing going on. Which makes sense -- the climate out here isn't really amenable to picture perfect greens like California is. But also, I'm probably more critical because I ran buying teams at grocery (brick & mortar and ecommerce) stores for 10 years so I'm always instinctively looking for minor blemishes And yeah, really and truly I'm not being completely fair -- I haven't visited the farmers markets yet, and I've heard that about the trucks. Would love to check them out, hopefully I'll find some time this weekend. The fruit has been pretty great though. I've been really happy with the stone fruit. One weird thing I've noticed is that the California avocados out here are consistently better than they were in California -- like, perfect ripeness, no browning, never disappointed when I get home, which would happen every other time in CA. Maybe there's more QA going on between CA and here, and time to ripen on the trucks

tjr225 7y ago

Went remote. Bought a house back near my family. Mortgage is nearly a quarter the cost of my one bedroom in Seattle. I'll miss Seattle, for sure, but at least now I don't have to hustle so hard. Especially with a kid on the way.