4 ms·

Ask HN: Most Hacker Culture in the Northwest

6 points by theschwa 18y ago

I currently live in the Midwest, and the entrepreneurial and hacker culture is practically non existent out here. I'm looking to move to possibly either Portland or Seattle, but I wanted some input on where would be a good area, maybe with some near by universities. I know all about Microsoft and Amazon etc. in those areas, but what about the culture? Your thoughts?

callmeed 18y ago
I am a couple hours east of Portland, but I don't think you can go wrong with either. You'll definitely find a larger number of hackers, startups, and larger tech cos in Seattle. I've been to both plenty and both seem to have a good culture. If I had to pick one, it would probably be Seattle.
bootload 18y ago
"... I currently live in the Midwest, and the entrepreneurial and hacker culture is practically non existent out here ..." Midwest of where? "Hacker culture in the northwest" - northwest of where? To me north west is the Kimberleys ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley_region_of_Western_Australia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley_region_of_Western_Aus... inhabited for 40,000 years but hardly a hacker hotspot. But you raise a good point. In "Founders at Work", Evan Williams faced the same problem moving from Nebraska, west to Cal. (Ch8, p111) ~ http://www.scribd.com/doc/7753680/Founders-at-Work-Stories-of-Startups http://www.scribd.com/doc/7753680/Founders-at-Work-Stories-o... The move meant he worked at O'Reilly which turned out passed a word on to some people who Williams raised money from. Connections. So your geography problem is not yours alone. I live at the "artichoke end of the Startup world" and what bought this home to me was a visit by the creator of Majordomo (his first Perl program), Brent Chapman ~ http://www.greatcircle.com/gca/staff/brent.html http://www.greatcircle.com/gca/staff/brent.html at a local Perl Monger meeting while he was doing his MBA in Melbourne. The key point Chapman made about the difference b/w Silicon Valley and other Hacker hotspots was the ability to get things done, faster. Want a high speed connection? Next day, done. Need some legal work on IP? There is a higher concentration of people specialised and able to do the job. Proximity to connections translates to speed. "... but what about the culture? ..." Read this article ~ http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html and see what signals Portland and Seattle send off.
- theschwa 18y ago
  Thank you for the quick reply. I'm from Lawrence Kansas. It's the home of the Django web framework, but that doesn't really show. I go to the University here, but no one in engineering here has much ambition. By Northwest, I mean Oregon and Washington area. I think I'll be a million times better off if I'm at least in a large city, and I'm leaning towards Seattle. Thanks for the article and the advice
  - bootload 18y ago
    "... I'm from Lawrence Kansas. It's the home of the Django web framework, but that doesn't really show. I go to the University here, but no one in engineering here has much ambition ..." I often wonder if open-source products developed for the web, are they immune to geography. Companies are another thing. You need a certain amount of infrastructure to get things to work and take-off: employees, finance etc. So you are asking the right questions.
nailer 18y ago
Portland was home to the last Ubuntu conference, and there's quite a few other meets there.
aaronbrethorst 18y ago
Seattle. I just passed my five year anniversary of moving here from the Midwest (Minneapolis, to be specific), and still love it. It's warmer, and has great beer and coffee.
sown 18y ago
I once looked into Oregon and was despondent to see that there is not much work there.

6 points by theschwa 18y ago

callmeed 18y ago

I am a couple hours east of Portland, but I don't think you can go wrong with either. You'll definitely find a larger number of hackers, startups, and larger tech cos in Seattle. I've been to both plenty and both seem to have a good culture. If I had to pick one, it would probably be Seattle.

bootload 18y ago

"... I currently live in the Midwest, and the entrepreneurial and hacker culture is practically non existent out here ..." Midwest of where? "Hacker culture in the northwest" - northwest of where? To me north west is the Kimberleys ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley_region_of_Western_Australia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley_region_of_Western_Aus... inhabited for 40,000 years but hardly a hacker hotspot. But you raise a good point. In "Founders at Work", Evan Williams faced the same problem moving from Nebraska, west to Cal. (Ch8, p111) ~ http://www.scribd.com/doc/7753680/Founders-at-Work-Stories-of-Startups http://www.scribd.com/doc/7753680/Founders-at-Work-Stories-o... The move meant he worked at O'Reilly which turned out passed a word on to some people who Williams raised money from. Connections. So your geography problem is not yours alone. I live at the "artichoke end of the Startup world" and what bought this home to me was a visit by the creator of Majordomo (his first Perl program), Brent Chapman ~ http://www.greatcircle.com/gca/staff/brent.html http://www.greatcircle.com/gca/staff/brent.html at a local Perl Monger meeting while he was doing his MBA in Melbourne. The key point Chapman made about the difference b/w Silicon Valley and other Hacker hotspots was the ability to get things done, faster. Want a high speed connection? Next day, done. Need some legal work on IP? There is a higher concentration of people specialised and able to do the job. Proximity to connections translates to speed. "... but what about the culture? ..." Read this article ~ http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html and see what signals Portland and Seattle send off.

theschwa 18y ago
Thank you for the quick reply. I'm from Lawrence Kansas. It's the home of the Django web framework, but that doesn't really show. I go to the University here, but no one in engineering here has much ambition. By Northwest, I mean Oregon and Washington area. I think I'll be a million times better off if I'm at least in a large city, and I'm leaning towards Seattle. Thanks for the article and the advice
- bootload 18y ago
  "... I'm from Lawrence Kansas. It's the home of the Django web framework, but that doesn't really show. I go to the University here, but no one in engineering here has much ambition ..." I often wonder if open-source products developed for the web, are they immune to geography. Companies are another thing. You need a certain amount of infrastructure to get things to work and take-off: employees, finance etc. So you are asking the right questions.

nailer 18y ago

Portland was home to the last Ubuntu conference, and there's quite a few other meets there.

aaronbrethorst 18y ago

Seattle. I just passed my five year anniversary of moving here from the Midwest (Minneapolis, to be specific), and still love it. It's warmer, and has great beer and coffee.

sown 18y ago

I once looked into Oregon and was despondent to see that there is not much work there.