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If I had to choose one, it'd be Stockholm (or perhaps any Swedish city with water access). A couple years back I did take a two-week trip there consisting of o

If I had to choose one, it'd be Stockholm (or perhaps any Swedish city with water access). A couple years back I did take a two-week trip there consisting of one week sightseeing, one week remotely working for a West Coast agency. My work hours were around 4pm to 1am-2am Stockholm time, which was just on the edge of comfortable. My reasoning is as follows: 1) Fast internet everywhere I went, even the countryside 2) Great tea and coffee -- excellent cafe culture, too 3) Had a chance to meet some of the most kind, intelligent engineers I've ever known while there (and some now working here in the States, too); would love to collaborate and be motivated by working with them again 4) It felt very safe at all times of day (compared to where I live now, at least) 5) Active sailing culture, as I've recently become interested in that sport/hobby 6) Really fun bike culture, especially groups like at Bagarmossens cykelkök 7) Didn't seem like owning a car is necessary, even to travel outside the city/intercity 8) Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I enjoy how vices like alcohol and rich foods are more expensive there, so I went easy on them and felt healthier Finally, nothing to back this up on, just a "feeling": the vibe is simply more chill, less dysfunctional than here in the States. Felt like many sectors of the citizenry, government, and business community had agreed upon a framework for a basic and decent standard of lifestyle. Certainly Swedes could chime in and tell me some hard truths that I missed while there (I've only stayed in Sweden for a month, cumulatively). Things that would be hard are, definitely, finding housing that doesn't break the bank (Stockholm is majorly backed up, with rentals expensive). Also, my wife and I mastering a new language now, in our forties could be a challenge. I did start taking classes for it, for fun, before the pandemic. If Sweden were off the table, my other remote choice would be Kagoshima, Japan. Nothing like living next to a volcano!

alophawen 5y ago
Countryside Sweden is where it's at! In my area of southernmost Sweden countryside we have 99,8% fiber connectivity. You pay about 2000 dollar no matter what to get fiber ditched and connected to your cabin unless it's already connected. Also it is: - way warmer than Stockholm - way cheaper - way less douchebag people - 2 hours to Denmark (3 to Germany) SOURCE: lived in Stockholm for 20 years doing software dev. Moved away. I never worked inside of US so I cannot relate to your back story fully.
- zcam 5y ago
  I have been living not too far from Lund for 7 years and it's a mixed bag here. Sure in Lund it's full of expats, people are friendly and generally almost everybody speaks English. But 15km away in the country side it's quite different, here 35% voted for the far right in recent elections. You are clearly not "one of them", you consistently get the cold replies, shit quotes and let's say having a social life for us is not happening where we live (were we work it's much better). Then yes, we own some land, I can walk 5min to a forest, we have wild animals passing through our garden, we have fiber coming to our living room. But I wouldn't boast about the weather :) That said many things are great: administration, school for small children, parental leave, housing is still quite cheap. And some are just odd, like the healthcare system (lots of gatekeeping, slow, so so quality). At this point we want to leave Sweden, it's not making it for us. I am swiss, lived there for most of my life but I also lived in France (south and Lyon) and in the UK. I also work remote for a swiss company (have been working remote for the past 15 years).
dcminter 5y ago
An erstwhile Londoner here who now lives in Stockholm. Technically I'm Swedish having been granted citizenship this year - another plus, it's relatively easy to get residence and citizenship is mostly a matter of waiting. I've been here for a few years and would agree with most of your points. I absolutely love it. Boat trips into the archipelago in the summer months are the icing on the cake of an amazing place to live. As for the language thing - you can (and lots do) live here without learning Swedish. There are also various intensive courses (e.g. at Folkuniversitetet) that will get you up to a dull-conversational level quite quickly. As an ex-Londoner, the house prices seem very reasonable - we've just moved into a 3 bedroom apartment in the suburbs with a view of the lake and adjacent to a nature reserve. In London the same money might have bought us a pokey 1 or 2 bedroom flat. London had more arts and so on, and I miss the English language theatre stuff, but in general it's just an amazing place to live. Now, you must excuse me, we're off to see Candide at Kunliga Operan :P
- mayormcmatt 5y ago
  Good points, thank you. Language is something I would relish learning in the actual setting of Sweden. Having learned Japanese for three years in Japan, it was (and remains) a difficult thing to master and I suspect conversational Swedish would be simpler to pick up, at least. My short time spent in Sweden, the people I met were very happy just to hear my few halting phrases of their language, as are my Swedish friends here, in California. That's always encouraging. About housing (and prices of things overall), yeah, I suppose things are reasonable relative to our respective hometowns. My impression was that local salaries were also lower, though. My recollection from a couple years ago was that front-end devs (my current employment, 6-ish YoE) were making around SEK 400k-500k/year, which is a good deal less than my current salary. Perhaps my view of tech salaries is highly skewed due to my location, though. Also, this conversation does revolve around remote work, so maybe a moot point.

alophawen 5y ago

Countryside Sweden is where it's at! In my area of southernmost Sweden countryside we have 99,8% fiber connectivity. You pay about 2000 dollar no matter what to get fiber ditched and connected to your cabin unless it's already connected. Also it is: - way warmer than Stockholm - way cheaper - way less douchebag people - 2 hours to Denmark (3 to Germany) SOURCE: lived in Stockholm for 20 years doing software dev. Moved away. I never worked inside of US so I cannot relate to your back story fully.

zcam 5y ago
I have been living not too far from Lund for 7 years and it's a mixed bag here. Sure in Lund it's full of expats, people are friendly and generally almost everybody speaks English. But 15km away in the country side it's quite different, here 35% voted for the far right in recent elections. You are clearly not "one of them", you consistently get the cold replies, shit quotes and let's say having a social life for us is not happening where we live (were we work it's much better). Then yes, we own some land, I can walk 5min to a forest, we have wild animals passing through our garden, we have fiber coming to our living room. But I wouldn't boast about the weather :) That said many things are great: administration, school for small children, parental leave, housing is still quite cheap. And some are just odd, like the healthcare system (lots of gatekeeping, slow, so so quality). At this point we want to leave Sweden, it's not making it for us. I am swiss, lived there for most of my life but I also lived in France (south and Lyon) and in the UK. I also work remote for a swiss company (have been working remote for the past 15 years).

dcminter 5y ago

An erstwhile Londoner here who now lives in Stockholm. Technically I'm Swedish having been granted citizenship this year - another plus, it's relatively easy to get residence and citizenship is mostly a matter of waiting. I've been here for a few years and would agree with most of your points. I absolutely love it. Boat trips into the archipelago in the summer months are the icing on the cake of an amazing place to live. As for the language thing - you can (and lots do) live here without learning Swedish. There are also various intensive courses (e.g. at Folkuniversitetet) that will get you up to a dull-conversational level quite quickly. As an ex-Londoner, the house prices seem very reasonable - we've just moved into a 3 bedroom apartment in the suburbs with a view of the lake and adjacent to a nature reserve. In London the same money might have bought us a pokey 1 or 2 bedroom flat. London had more arts and so on, and I miss the English language theatre stuff, but in general it's just an amazing place to live. Now, you must excuse me, we're off to see Candide at Kunliga Operan :P

mayormcmatt 5y ago
Good points, thank you. Language is something I would relish learning in the actual setting of Sweden. Having learned Japanese for three years in Japan, it was (and remains) a difficult thing to master and I suspect conversational Swedish would be simpler to pick up, at least. My short time spent in Sweden, the people I met were very happy just to hear my few halting phrases of their language, as are my Swedish friends here, in California. That's always encouraging. About housing (and prices of things overall), yeah, I suppose things are reasonable relative to our respective hometowns. My impression was that local salaries were also lower, though. My recollection from a couple years ago was that front-end devs (my current employment, 6-ish YoE) were making around SEK 400k-500k/year, which is a good deal less than my current salary. Perhaps my view of tech salaries is highly skewed due to my location, though. Also, this conversation does revolve around remote work, so maybe a moot point.