4 ms·

I'm a 25 year old living in a smallish midwestern city. PG's "you get discouraged when no one around you cares about the same things you do" is something that

I'm a 25 year old living in a smallish midwestern city. PG's "you get discouraged when no one around you cares about the same things you do" is something that really resonates with my experience here. Anyone want to play fortune teller and suggest places I should visit/consider moving? Some important personality points: - builder/hacker - eager learner - I'll step up for tasks right away - I deeply care about making people feel loved/included and finding people who care about me - likes public transportation

argonaut 13y ago
All of those points, except public transportation, are in favor of SF, IMO. And if housing is too expensive you can live in Berkeley or Oakland, near a BART station which is a good enough option to get you to SF. Assuming you get a job. SF has a strong hacker culture, tons of meetups and talks going on every week (education), and SV in general has a strong pay it forward culture.
_delirium 13y ago
If you can get a visa, Scandinavia. :) (Offer not valid for people who like sun between November and March.)
analog31 13y ago
Maybe we live in the same city! But... >>> no one around you cares about the same things you do is what I like. The diversity. I can get completely lost in a tech problem that I'm working on, and when I go out and talk to a neighbor, or chat with parents at soccer practice, the topic might be astronomy, biology, politics, or agriculture.
ycmike 13y ago
You need to get out! I'm in the Midwest too and am planning my escape route.
etjossem 13y ago
I moved to SF from Des Moines and it's definitely working out well. There is a strong builder/maker culture in the tech community here. Make sure to surround yourself with the right people - just like anywhere else - but everything else should fall into place. Good luck!
marrone12 13y ago
As a born and raised Ohioan, I am loving the East Coast. 8 years in DC and now in NYC. I've only ever visited the West Coast, but there's a grit to the rust belt and the east coast that just doesn't exist out west, and I can't live without it. Life just seems too... smooth out West.
lsc 13y ago
First? I've got a Midwesterner working for me. At least for him? it doesn't seem to be hurting his work. My opinion is that while it's super nice, socially, to be around people who are into what you are into in person, it doesn't make that much difference when it comes to getting actual work done. Now, sales? raising money? all that bullshit where you have to interact with business people? face-time matters a lot. But for purely technical work, hell, I'll be working in the same house as someone and I'll communicate via IM, because it's less disruptive. On the other hand, he's working for me - If you want to make money? you have to find a competent business person, or at least a business person with money, and most of those guys want to look you in the eye. Not all, but most. That's the thing; I get a lot of offers to merge, to invest, and to do other business-type things because I'm here and active in the community. I'm not even that active. But you know what? I haven't made a dime off of any of those. (and some of those have cost me enough to buy a central-valley condo) - As for the parts of my business that actually make me money? I could do those from just about anywhere. Of course, that probably says more about my skillset than anything else; I've had serious offers from people with serious money (well, serious money by my standards) My own experience? moving to silicon valley was more than worth it. But, I've lived in silicon valley, I've lived very near berkeley and I've lived in the central valley. I haven't spent serious time other places. Avoid the central valley. It's not cheap enough to put up with the culture and weather, in my opinion. Yeah, housing is expensive. but the thing about housing? well, the increase is a percentage of the cost of housing, so if you are okay with modest digs? 2x what you would pay for modest digs in the central valley (probably 4x what you'd pay in the midwest) still not very much money compared to what you are getting paid, and I'm okay with modest digs. (Of course, if you like really nice digs... that percentage increase really hits you.) One big downside to the south bay is that our public transit is absolute shit. You might consider the Berkeley area for that. VTA doesn't look that bad on paper? But it is nearly completely useless. BART, on the other hand, is pretty good by west-coast standards.
- leoc 13y ago
  > My opinion is that while it's super nice, socially, to be around people who are into what you are into in person, it doesn't make that much difference when it comes to getting actual work done. Now, sales? raising money? all that bullshit where you have to interact with business people? face-time matters a lot. But for purely technical work, hell, I'll be working in the same house as someone and I'll communicate via IM, because it's less disruptive. As far as I know, the case for being on the ground with your fellow enthusiasts and competitors in California was best made in 1985, by Arnold Schwarzenegger: "The kind of people who train alongside you in a gym makes a difference. If you are surrounded by people who are serious and train with a lot of intensity, it's easier for you to do the same thing. But it can be pretty hard to really blast your muscles while the people around you are just going through the motions. That is why good bodybuilders tend to congregate in certain gyms. By having the example of other serious bodybuilders constantly in front of you, you will train that much harder. That is what made Joe Gold's original gym in Venice, California such a great place—a small gym with just enough equipment, but where you would constantly be rubbing shoulders with the great bodybuilders against whom I had the privilege of competing-like Franco Columbu, Ed Corney, Dave Draper, Robby Robinson, Frank Zane, Sergio Oliva, and Ken Waller. Nowadays, it's rare to find that many champions in the same place, but if you aren't sharing the gym floor with great bodybuilders like Flex Wheeler, Shawn Ray, Nasser El Sonbaty, or Dorian Yates, it can be very motivating if there are pictures or posters of these individuals on the walls or championship trophies displayed. In 1980, training at World Gym for my final Mr. Olympia competition, I showed up at the gym at seven o'clock one morning to work out and stepped out on the sundeck for a moment. Suddenly the sun came through the clouds. It was so beautiful I lost all my motivation to train. I thought maybe I would go to the beach instead. I came up with every excuse in the book-the most persuasive being that I had trained hard the day before with the powerful German bodybuilder Jusup Wilkosz, so I could lay back today—but then I heard weights being clanged together inside the gym and I saw Wilkosz working his abs, Ken Waller doing shoulders, veins standing out all over his upper body, Franco Columbu blasting away, benching more than 400 pounts, Samir Bannout punishing his biceps with heavy Curls. Everywhere I looked there was some kind of hard, sweaty training going on, and I knew that I couldn't afford not to train if I was going to compete against these champions. Their example sucked me in, and now I was looking forward to working, anticipating the pleasure of pitting my muscles against heavy iron. By the end of that session I had the best pump I could imagine, and an almost wasted morning had turned into one of the best workouts of my life. If I hadn't been there at World Gym, with those other bodybuilders to inspire and motivate me, I doubt that day would have ended up being so productive. Even today, when I'm training for other reason, such as getting into top shape for a movie role, or just trying to stay in shape, I absorb energy from people working out around me. That's why I still like to go to gyms where bodybuilders are training for competition. Even today, after all this time, it still inspires me." /The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding/, by Arnold and Bill Dobbins, p. 87 in the 1999 edition. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0684857219/ http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0684857219/

argonaut 13y ago

All of those points, except public transportation, are in favor of SF, IMO. And if housing is too expensive you can live in Berkeley or Oakland, near a BART station which is a good enough option to get you to SF. Assuming you get a job. SF has a strong hacker culture, tons of meetups and talks going on every week (education), and SV in general has a strong pay it forward culture.

_delirium 13y ago

If you can get a visa, Scandinavia. :) (Offer not valid for people who like sun between November and March.)

analog31 13y ago

Maybe we live in the same city! But... >>> no one around you cares about the same things you do is what I like. The diversity. I can get completely lost in a tech problem that I'm working on, and when I go out and talk to a neighbor, or chat with parents at soccer practice, the topic might be astronomy, biology, politics, or agriculture.

ycmike 13y ago

You need to get out! I'm in the Midwest too and am planning my escape route.

etjossem 13y ago

I moved to SF from Des Moines and it's definitely working out well. There is a strong builder/maker culture in the tech community here. Make sure to surround yourself with the right people - just like anywhere else - but everything else should fall into place. Good luck!

marrone12 13y ago

As a born and raised Ohioan, I am loving the East Coast. 8 years in DC and now in NYC. I've only ever visited the West Coast, but there's a grit to the rust belt and the east coast that just doesn't exist out west, and I can't live without it. Life just seems too... smooth out West.

lsc 13y ago

First? I've got a Midwesterner working for me. At least for him? it doesn't seem to be hurting his work. My opinion is that while it's super nice, socially, to be around people who are into what you are into in person, it doesn't make that much difference when it comes to getting actual work done. Now, sales? raising money? all that bullshit where you have to interact with business people? face-time matters a lot. But for purely technical work, hell, I'll be working in the same house as someone and I'll communicate via IM, because it's less disruptive. On the other hand, he's working for me - If you want to make money? you have to find a competent business person, or at least a business person with money, and most of those guys want to look you in the eye. Not all, but most. That's the thing; I get a lot of offers to merge, to invest, and to do other business-type things because I'm here and active in the community. I'm not even that active. But you know what? I haven't made a dime off of any of those. (and some of those have cost me enough to buy a central-valley condo) - As for the parts of my business that actually make me money? I could do those from just about anywhere. Of course, that probably says more about my skillset than anything else; I've had serious offers from people with serious money (well, serious money by my standards) My own experience? moving to silicon valley was more than worth it. But, I've lived in silicon valley, I've lived very near berkeley and I've lived in the central valley. I haven't spent serious time other places. Avoid the central valley. It's not cheap enough to put up with the culture and weather, in my opinion. Yeah, housing is expensive. but the thing about housing? well, the increase is a percentage of the cost of housing, so if you are okay with modest digs? 2x what you would pay for modest digs in the central valley (probably 4x what you'd pay in the midwest) still not very much money compared to what you are getting paid, and I'm okay with modest digs. (Of course, if you like really nice digs... that percentage increase really hits you.) One big downside to the south bay is that our public transit is absolute shit. You might consider the Berkeley area for that. VTA doesn't look that bad on paper? But it is nearly completely useless. BART, on the other hand, is pretty good by west-coast standards.

leoc 13y ago
> My opinion is that while it's super nice, socially, to be around people who are into what you are into in person, it doesn't make that much difference when it comes to getting actual work done. Now, sales? raising money? all that bullshit where you have to interact with business people? face-time matters a lot. But for purely technical work, hell, I'll be working in the same house as someone and I'll communicate via IM, because it's less disruptive. As far as I know, the case for being on the ground with your fellow enthusiasts and competitors in California was best made in 1985, by Arnold Schwarzenegger: "The kind of people who train alongside you in a gym makes a difference. If you are surrounded by people who are serious and train with a lot of intensity, it's easier for you to do the same thing. But it can be pretty hard to really blast your muscles while the people around you are just going through the motions. That is why good bodybuilders tend to congregate in certain gyms. By having the example of other serious bodybuilders constantly in front of you, you will train that much harder. That is what made Joe Gold's original gym in Venice, California such a great place—a small gym with just enough equipment, but where you would constantly be rubbing shoulders with the great bodybuilders against whom I had the privilege of competing-like Franco Columbu, Ed Corney, Dave Draper, Robby Robinson, Frank Zane, Sergio Oliva, and Ken Waller. Nowadays, it's rare to find that many champions in the same place, but if you aren't sharing the gym floor with great bodybuilders like Flex Wheeler, Shawn Ray, Nasser El Sonbaty, or Dorian Yates, it can be very motivating if there are pictures or posters of these individuals on the walls or championship trophies displayed. In 1980, training at World Gym for my final Mr. Olympia competition, I showed up at the gym at seven o'clock one morning to work out and stepped out on the sundeck for a moment. Suddenly the sun came through the clouds. It was so beautiful I lost all my motivation to train. I thought maybe I would go to the beach instead. I came up with every excuse in the book-the most persuasive being that I had trained hard the day before with the powerful German bodybuilder Jusup Wilkosz, so I could lay back today—but then I heard weights being clanged together inside the gym and I saw Wilkosz working his abs, Ken Waller doing shoulders, veins standing out all over his upper body, Franco Columbu blasting away, benching more than 400 pounts, Samir Bannout punishing his biceps with heavy Curls. Everywhere I looked there was some kind of hard, sweaty training going on, and I knew that I couldn't afford not to train if I was going to compete against these champions. Their example sucked me in, and now I was looking forward to working, anticipating the pleasure of pitting my muscles against heavy iron. By the end of that session I had the best pump I could imagine, and an almost wasted morning had turned into one of the best workouts of my life. If I hadn't been there at World Gym, with those other bodybuilders to inspire and motivate me, I doubt that day would have ended up being so productive. Even today, when I'm training for other reason, such as getting into top shape for a movie role, or just trying to stay in shape, I absorb energy from people working out around me. That's why I still like to go to gyms where bodybuilders are training for competition. Even today, after all this time, it still inspires me." /The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding/, by Arnold and Bill Dobbins, p. 87 in the 1999 edition. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0684857219/ http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0684857219/