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Seattle is my favorite place in the entire world. People always complain about the "freeze" but I call bullshit. Seattle is the perfect place for people who en

Seattle is my favorite place in the entire world. People always complain about the "freeze" but I call bullshit. Seattle is the perfect place for people who enjoy a small social circle (Larry David style - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG_M73MoxJE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG_M73MoxJE) The one thing I always tell outsiders when they ask about finding friends when they move here is to pick an interest and go from there. For example, I love hiking/climbing. I joined a climbing gym and found a few great friends with that in common. People here aren't outwardly friendly to strangers, but find a commonality and go from there, it's super effective.

Haywain 13y ago
> People always complain about the "freeze" but I call bullshit. I have been living in Seattle just over a year now. Maybe I've yet to get the full experience, but I have to say that after being warned about "the freeze" I've found nearly every person I've met here to be incredibly calm, warm, friendly and inviting. To compare, I previously lived in NYC and DC-Metro area... both of which I found to be riddled with many more rude and unwelcoming people. In NYC about the nicest thing you'll ever see someone do is give up their spot on the train. Other than that, you'll be snarled at for nearly anything else.
eevilspock 13y ago
> People always complain about the "freeze" but I call bullshit. First, some humor: http://lifeexplained.thecomicseries.com/comics/62/ http://lifeexplained.thecomicseries.com/comics/62/ Now, some serious (as it was while I lived there, but funny now that I've escaped), all from Seattle newspapers: But the dichotomy most fundamental to our collective civic character is this: Polite but distant. Have a nice day. Somewhere else. [1] Your city is a lovely one, and people here are nice enough when you come into contact with them in such circumstances as a retail transaction or participation in a mutually held-interest group. However, there is an unmistakable coolness exuded by many inhabitants of this city toward people they don't know; it exceeds what I would consider "normal." [2] Seattle public radio: while people here are “open” to new ideas, we’re just near the bottom of the states for being extroverted. Sociologist Jodi O’Brien at Seattle University added that this group relies heavily on digital devices to communicate which means they are losing the ability to simply hang out and talk. “If you email something I don’t like, I can scream at the computer, but I don’t have to interact with you. The more we can do that, the less inclined we are to engage in the messy social world.” [3] Seattle Freeze: Can we blame it on the Norwegians? ...and there is even a meet-up group working to defeat it, the Seattle Anti-Freeze. [4] Turns out that while Seattle has lots of romantic settings and events – the people themselves aren’t thought to be very romantic.[5] In a poll on that same Seattle newspaper blog, 80% of the readers say that the Seattle Freeze is very real and/or awesome. A slideshow of ways of dealing with the freeze agrees more or less with your advice to pick an interest and go from there. [1] http://seattletimes.com/pacificnw/2005/0213/cover.html http://seattletimes.com/pacificnw/2005/0213/cover.html [2] http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/northwestvoices/2009/01/22/the_seattle_freeze.html http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/northwestvoices/2009/0... [3] http://www.kpluwonders.org/content/why-seattle-freeze-so-hard-melt http://www.kpluwonders.org/content/why-seattle-freeze-so-har... [4] http://blogs.seattletimes.com/fyi-guy/2012/12/04/seattle-freeze-can-we-blame-it-on-the-norwegians/ http://blogs.seattletimes.com/fyi-guy/2012/12/04/seattle-fre... [5] http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2013/02/12/‘seattle-freeze’-chills-our-story-on-romantic-seattle http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2013/02/12/‘seattle-fre...
taopao 13y ago
"the perfect place for people who enjoy a small social circle" I think this is absolutely spot on. I'm pretty surprised about this line criticism from this forum. Nerds (or "hackers" in this case) are a generally introverted crowd, no? It's not a good city if you're a brogrammer who wants to party like a rock star every night. That's totally fine by me. :)

Haywain 13y ago

> People always complain about the "freeze" but I call bullshit. I have been living in Seattle just over a year now. Maybe I've yet to get the full experience, but I have to say that after being warned about "the freeze" I've found nearly every person I've met here to be incredibly calm, warm, friendly and inviting. To compare, I previously lived in NYC and DC-Metro area... both of which I found to be riddled with many more rude and unwelcoming people. In NYC about the nicest thing you'll ever see someone do is give up their spot on the train. Other than that, you'll be snarled at for nearly anything else.

eevilspock 13y ago

> People always complain about the "freeze" but I call bullshit. First, some humor: http://lifeexplained.thecomicseries.com/comics/62/ http://lifeexplained.thecomicseries.com/comics/62/ Now, some serious (as it was while I lived there, but funny now that I've escaped), all from Seattle newspapers: But the dichotomy most fundamental to our collective civic character is this: Polite but distant. Have a nice day. Somewhere else. [1] Your city is a lovely one, and people here are nice enough when you come into contact with them in such circumstances as a retail transaction or participation in a mutually held-interest group. However, there is an unmistakable coolness exuded by many inhabitants of this city toward people they don't know; it exceeds what I would consider "normal." [2] Seattle public radio: while people here are “open” to new ideas, we’re just near the bottom of the states for being extroverted. Sociologist Jodi O’Brien at Seattle University added that this group relies heavily on digital devices to communicate which means they are losing the ability to simply hang out and talk. “If you email something I don’t like, I can scream at the computer, but I don’t have to interact with you. The more we can do that, the less inclined we are to engage in the messy social world.” [3] Seattle Freeze: Can we blame it on the Norwegians? ...and there is even a meet-up group working to defeat it, the Seattle Anti-Freeze. [4] Turns out that while Seattle has lots of romantic settings and events – the people themselves aren’t thought to be very romantic.[5] In a poll on that same Seattle newspaper blog, 80% of the readers say that the Seattle Freeze is very real and/or awesome. A slideshow of ways of dealing with the freeze agrees more or less with your advice to pick an interest and go from there. [1] http://seattletimes.com/pacificnw/2005/0213/cover.html http://seattletimes.com/pacificnw/2005/0213/cover.html [2] http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/northwestvoices/2009/01/22/the_seattle_freeze.html http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/northwestvoices/2009/0... [3] http://www.kpluwonders.org/content/why-seattle-freeze-so-hard-melt http://www.kpluwonders.org/content/why-seattle-freeze-so-har... [4] http://blogs.seattletimes.com/fyi-guy/2012/12/04/seattle-freeze-can-we-blame-it-on-the-norwegians/ http://blogs.seattletimes.com/fyi-guy/2012/12/04/seattle-fre... [5] http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2013/02/12/‘seattle-freeze’-chills-our-story-on-romantic-seattle http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2013/02/12/‘seattle-fre...

taopao 13y ago

"the perfect place for people who enjoy a small social circle" I think this is absolutely spot on. I'm pretty surprised about this line criticism from this forum. Nerds (or "hackers" in this case) are a generally introverted crowd, no? It's not a good city if you're a brogrammer who wants to party like a rock star every night. That's totally fine by me. :)