4 ms·

Funny, I also lived in Cambridge for 5 years (mostly the Inman area) and had the exact opposite impression, and in fact, I'm in the process of trying to find a

Funny, I also lived in Cambridge for 5 years (mostly the Inman area) and had the exact opposite impression, and in fact, I'm in the process of trying to find a way to leave DC because I think it's cold in exactly the same way you describe. I pretty frequently find myself wishing I was back in Cambridge.

qq66 15y ago
I've lived ~3 months in many different US cities (DC, Chicago, Seattle, Austin, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Boston) and DC was my least favorite. Everyone there is obsessed with their proximity to the Washington power structure, which is a cold organization full of boring people.
- smhinsey 15y ago
  I'm not the most social person to begin with, so I gave it a lot of time, but I just totally failed to make any non-work friends because of stuff like that. I've been here for ~4 years and am so ready to get out West. Of course, it's never as easy to move that far as you'd want it to be. I remember in Cambridge I could swing downstairs to the neighborhood bar, find a stranger, and strike up a conversation. Maybe it didn't work half as well as I am recalling, but even then, it was better than DC, where it always turns to "where do you work?" And "a startup" has only slightly more cachet than "I'm unemployed." From a professional standpoint moving here has been great, but from a personal point of view, I think it's the biggest I've made.
api 15y ago
That's interesting, and is why I put YMMV. I sometimes wonder if there is some kind of random stochastic effect that's related to where on the social graph you connect initially in a city that determines this outcome. But I really, really tried. So did my friend, who was far more outgoing than me. Neither of us were able to meet very many people in Boston, or ever to feel comfortable there.

4 ms·

Funny, I also lived in Cambridge for 5 years (mostly the Inman area) and had the exact opposite impression, and in fact, I'm in the process of trying to find a

by smhinsey 15y ago

qq66 15y ago
I've lived ~3 months in many different US cities (DC, Chicago, Seattle, Austin, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Boston) and DC was my least favorite. Everyone there is obsessed with their proximity to the Washington power structure, which is a cold organization full of boring people.
- smhinsey 15y ago
  I'm not the most social person to begin with, so I gave it a lot of time, but I just totally failed to make any non-work friends because of stuff like that. I've been here for ~4 years and am so ready to get out West. Of course, it's never as easy to move that far as you'd want it to be. I remember in Cambridge I could swing downstairs to the neighborhood bar, find a stranger, and strike up a conversation. Maybe it didn't work half as well as I am recalling, but even then, it was better than DC, where it always turns to "where do you work?" And "a startup" has only slightly more cachet than "I'm unemployed." From a professional standpoint moving here has been great, but from a personal point of view, I think it's the biggest I've made.
api 15y ago
That's interesting, and is why I put YMMV. I sometimes wonder if there is some kind of random stochastic effect that's related to where on the social graph you connect initially in a city that determines this outcome. But I really, really tried. So did my friend, who was far more outgoing than me. Neither of us were able to meet very many people in Boston, or ever to feel comfortable there.