You need to pay way more than the coasts. There are career benefits to being in a location with other tech companies. Not just finding a new job, but simply go

You need to pay way more than the coasts. There are career benefits to being in a location with other tech companies. Not just finding a new job, but simply going to meetups and coffee shops and meeting people who are in a similar line of work. When you say "people do stick around" I wonder if this is part of the reason. I'd need extra money to make up for the money I'm losing by being far away from the action. Sending me to conferences might make up for this. There are cultural benefits to being in an actual city. Ballet, theater, live music, etc. I'm sure there are wonderful small town artists but a big city will have more cultural activities by virtue of having more people. Extra money and extra vacation time (like 6-7 weeks a year) for a trip to NYC occasionally could convince me. Of course there are cities in the middle of the country, Chicago and Minneapolis for example, in which case disregard this point. There would still be quality of life issues. I like sushi and have never had good sushi in the midwest. I like being able to read a book on pubic transit instead of driving myself to work. I like walkable neighborhoods. I like sailing. I like living in a place where it hardly ever snows, yet I can drive for a bit to a huge mountain and go snowboarding. I'd need a lot of money to give up some of these things, not sure you can even a price on it. I'd suggest trying to hire remote workers.