4 ms·

I moved to Boston from Germany. I haven't experienced the "lack of consistent healthcare, lack of social safety net and much lower quality of life". Those prob

by rb2k_ 13y ago

I moved to Boston from Germany. I haven't experienced the "lack of consistent healthcare, lack of social safety net and much lower quality of life". Those probably all exist, but they have no real influence on my everyday life. Some of the things that I enjoy over here: - Everything is exciting and I'm learning a lot. Just the act of getting bank accounts, how to buy gas, ... Everything is new. That'll probably wear off. - Everything is convenient. Companies seem to care more about my general being happy than they do in Germany. All of the promotions are a bit annoying, but at the same time, processes seem a bit more streamlined. - Things happen sooner over here. Stripe, the iPhone, Netflix/Hulu, Amazon Prime, ... All of them show up in the US first. At some point they might show up in other countries. This keeps being the epicenter for technology innovation. - I can buy groceries on a Saturday (or on Sunday at 2 am for that matter) - There is a lot more self reliance. I'm not forced to pay into a state retirement fund, I can handle that stuff myself. - There are a LOT of smart people bunched up in a relatively small area. Wherever you go, there is usually somebody with something interesting to say. The social climate is probably worse, apartments on the east-coast (especially Boston) are more expensive and usually not in a good shape, I can't find a proper bathtub, I can't drink a beer in public, lots of other parts of the country are inhabited by people with incompatible views on life and the political system is horrible. All in all, I am not living in "the US", I'm living in a nice little bubble in a very affluent part of the east-coast and I very much enjoy it. I could have probably also moved to Berlin, but for somebody that is more into Science/Engineering, this place seems pretty nice.

tormeh 13y ago
This. Europe, because of lingual and cultural differences, lack the sort of high-density clusters you get in the US. There's no Cambridge, MA or bay area because moving around is such a big deal here. Berlin is the closest we have, but it's not nearly enough. Basically, Europe is too spread out. Americans always talk about the US' low population density, but the population density of NY and LA is incredibly high. It's in the cities that most creative endeavors get done. The flyover states and the countryside is only of interest to cartographers and the people who live there.
- mjn 13y ago
  Could be what I'm looking for and how far I'm willing to drive to get somewhere, but as a subjective feeling, Copenhagen feels like it has a bigger concentration of intellectually stimulating "stuff" happening on a regular basis than either the SF Bay Area or Atlanta did (the two places I lived previously). This is probably not literally true numerically, but in terms of things I hear about, are accessible to me (usually for free), and easy to get to, I run into a lot more, despite being a foreigner who doesn't even speak Danish, which you'd think should be a handicap. There are always interesting talks and meetups happening, from regular events like SpilBar (http://english.dadiu.dk/invitation-spilbar-14-0-surprise http://english.dadiu.dk/invitation-spilbar-14-0-surprise) or Science & Cocktails (http://www.scienceandcocktails.org http://www.scienceandcocktails.org) to active hackerspaces (https://labitat.dk https://labitat.dk and http://www.illutron.dk http://www.illutron.dk), a whole building hosting an indie-game community (http://www.dfi.dk/nyheder/filmupdate/2010/velkommen-til-spilhuset.aspx http://www.dfi.dk/nyheder/filmupdate/2010/velkommen-til-spil...), etc. Events at universities also feel more "open to the public": if I want to hear a bunch of internationally famous visitors talk about biotech or experimental mathematics, I can go to something like http://danstem.ku.dk/events/seminar_series_2014/ http://danstem.ku.dk/events/seminar_series_2014/ or http://www.math.ku.dk/english/research/xm/seminar/ http://www.math.ku.dk/english/research/xm/seminar/ respectively. Whereas apart from a handful of advertised public talks, the large amount of stuff undoubtedly happening at Stanford or UC Berkeley didn't feel like part of "my" neighborhood, something I'd hear about or go to as a non-Stanford, non-Berkeley person (or necessarily even be allowed into). There was certainly interesting stuff in SF as well, but it felt less like it was always happening, and more like I had to seek it out and drive anywhere from San Jose to Oakland to get to it, more like a "trip" to an event (like SuperHappyDevHouse, which is great) than a feeling that stuff is always happening all around me. The videogame-dev scene in particular was very scattered, with a good number of studios generally in the area, but that meant anywhere from Marin County to Santa Cruz, so you didn't really end up at the same events on a regular basis.

by rb2k_ 13y ago

tormeh 13y ago

This. Europe, because of lingual and cultural differences, lack the sort of high-density clusters you get in the US. There's no Cambridge, MA or bay area because moving around is such a big deal here. Berlin is the closest we have, but it's not nearly enough. Basically, Europe is too spread out. Americans always talk about the US' low population density, but the population density of NY and LA is incredibly high. It's in the cities that most creative endeavors get done. The flyover states and the countryside is only of interest to cartographers and the people who live there.

mjn 13y ago
Could be what I'm looking for and how far I'm willing to drive to get somewhere, but as a subjective feeling, Copenhagen feels like it has a bigger concentration of intellectually stimulating "stuff" happening on a regular basis than either the SF Bay Area or Atlanta did (the two places I lived previously). This is probably not literally true numerically, but in terms of things I hear about, are accessible to me (usually for free), and easy to get to, I run into a lot more, despite being a foreigner who doesn't even speak Danish, which you'd think should be a handicap. There are always interesting talks and meetups happening, from regular events like SpilBar (http://english.dadiu.dk/invitation-spilbar-14-0-surprise http://english.dadiu.dk/invitation-spilbar-14-0-surprise) or Science & Cocktails (http://www.scienceandcocktails.org http://www.scienceandcocktails.org) to active hackerspaces (https://labitat.dk https://labitat.dk and http://www.illutron.dk http://www.illutron.dk), a whole building hosting an indie-game community (http://www.dfi.dk/nyheder/filmupdate/2010/velkommen-til-spilhuset.aspx http://www.dfi.dk/nyheder/filmupdate/2010/velkommen-til-spil...), etc. Events at universities also feel more "open to the public": if I want to hear a bunch of internationally famous visitors talk about biotech or experimental mathematics, I can go to something like http://danstem.ku.dk/events/seminar_series_2014/ http://danstem.ku.dk/events/seminar_series_2014/ or http://www.math.ku.dk/english/research/xm/seminar/ http://www.math.ku.dk/english/research/xm/seminar/ respectively. Whereas apart from a handful of advertised public talks, the large amount of stuff undoubtedly happening at Stanford or UC Berkeley didn't feel like part of "my" neighborhood, something I'd hear about or go to as a non-Stanford, non-Berkeley person (or necessarily even be allowed into). There was certainly interesting stuff in SF as well, but it felt less like it was always happening, and more like I had to seek it out and drive anywhere from San Jose to Oakland to get to it, more like a "trip" to an event (like SuperHappyDevHouse, which is great) than a feeling that stuff is always happening all around me. The videogame-dev scene in particular was very scattered, with a good number of studios generally in the area, but that meant anywhere from Marin County to Santa Cruz, so you didn't really end up at the same events on a regular basis.