A lot of folks I know (myself included) are moving or want to move to more rural towns (from ~4 Mio. to around 10k popluations).<p>Anyone here did the same? Do you miss MeetUps, conferences or many like-minded people? If so, how do you make up for it?
I did the opposite. I went from owning a house a few hundred feet from a river in an area with one bar of cell service to working remotely and living downtown in San Diego. The only things that living in the boonies had going for it were the fresh air and friendly neighbors - my current situation is better in literally every other metric. I have gigabit fiber and the ability to get basically anything delivered. I'm within walking distance of concerts, ball games, and restaurants. I can go to social events and bars without having to deal with townie drama from burnouts that my Dad fired for being drunk on the job a decade ago. I don't have to do yardwork and spend thousands of dollars keeping up a house just to appease potential buyers that watch too much HGTV. I don't have to dodge drunk drivers going down the wrong side of the road at noon on a Saturday (as often, at least). I can walk to the airport to catch a flight instead of driving two hours in traffic and paying for parking.<p>In short, I have access to a much greater percentage of things that I enjoy on a consistent basis and net fewer chronic sources of unhappiness. It's fantastic.<p>People from where I used to live trip over themselves to mention the cost of living increase which is definitely a thing (as far as housing is concerned) but as with many things in this life you definitely get what you pay for. Your mileage may vary; if you're single and have hobbies then the whole city vs. country debate is a no-brainer. If you have a family then the preference would probably shift to more rural living for reasons obvious.
I live in a town of 3000 in Colorado in the mountains. There’s about 15,000 total within 100 or so miles.<p>Overall, meeting people that are like minded doesn’t really exist. If I start talking about tech or start ups people start crossing their eyes after a few seconds. Most people like to drink do drugs and hunt and fish. Or, they are pretty religious. You do not have the options to go to cultural events like you would in the city or if you do you will see the same people over and over. The food is absolutely awful and overpriced. It’s also a real pain to travel - time and increased cost.<p>The only way to stay sane living here is to leave for months at a time. And the only reason it’s nice to come back is because of the outdoor activities like skiing mountain biking river rafting hunting etc.<p>Also, and this is very important, because many people are not worldly or do not think or do activities outside their small boxes, it is very very unlikely you will find companionship romantically.<p>So overall, if you are used to cities and enjoy the company of those who are educated, I would not at all recommend moving to rural area. Where I am we have one of the highest suicide rates per capita in the US.
I live outside a rural town in Sweden, maybe 10k inhabitants. But its about 20min drive to a larger town with about 100k inhabitants.<p>I love it. I have a big house for the price of a three bedroom apartment. Its very calm and no worries of the rising criminality that is soaring my country due to high immigration. I have a fucking pool and a sauna. 1gbit/s fiber connection like anywhere in Sweden.<p>I can still bike to the small cozy town and go to local bars and drink beer etc. I wouldn't want to go to the large town anyway since it's too many hostiles there.<p>I can take walks when I work remotely with my dogs, I can run in the forest. I can breathe good air quality and grow my own stuff in my large garden.<p>To answer your questions, no I don't miss the city life. Not the slightest. If anything I loathe it more and more for every year that passes. I didn't go to meetups or similar events that often anyway and I talk to more people now than when I lived in Stockholm. People in larger cities don't really speak to one another. I kind of hate modernity though even if I grew up in the capital. I think there are lots of issues with the modern city life so it's not for me. I have a hard time understanding why people want to live there. If I really want to go to an event, it's not like I can't travel for the occasion.
Not all rural areas are equal.<p>I live on a farm close to Ithaca, NY which doesn't have the hottest tech job market but it has a major university, a startup accelerator (which hosts meetups), and quite a few smaller tech employers.<p>I also am close enough to New York City that I can hop on a bus early in the morning, attend some business meetings, catch a bus home and sleep in my own bed. Going to conferences or meetups in the city is a bit of a hassle but it's perfectly possible to do from time to time.
The most frustrating part for me was the locals encountered in a rural setting are often low income.<p>There can be significant hostility and jealousy once they learn you're an overpaid techie city slicker. When socializing I've found there's an ongoing source of friction whenever it comes to conversations involving employment opportunities or money/expenses.<p>It gets old when stuff like mentioning some employment options with the neighbor you occasionally have beers with, is met with them just bitching about never having had such opportunities. That evolves into something like folks viewing you as rich, privileged, and living the easy life where six-figure jobs fall from the sky. Plus you'll surely receive a good bit of blame for any increasing area prices/gentrification.<p>But it also got old to hear nothing but talk of funding rounds, term sheets, vesting schedules, peppered with whatever tech buzzword salad of the month, whenever I frequented cafes in the SF bay area. It should be noted though that practically anyone I interacted with there would have been able to speak casually about which FAANG is the least evil employer without risk of animosity, even the barristas.<p>Another thing to consider when rural is because of the low population size/density, it doesn't take very many offended locals to become effectively isolated. And in my experience rural locals aren't exactly the most sophisticated or nuanced when it comes to understanding one another.<p>YMMV
I’m not in your targeted demographic on who you want to answer this question, but I thought my perspective as a non-rural remote worker might be worth thinking about:<p>I’m not here in the city to meet up with likeminded people and go to conferences. I’m here as a matter of off-work personal lifestyle.<p>Living in a rural or suburban community usually means living in a place without walkability. It means being doomed to long car rides to perform simple daily errands. Our family’s single car sits in the garage all week while we walk and use transit to get around. It’s healthier and happier.<p>Living in a rural area means worse access to education and healthcare. In the city I have massive amounts school choice for my kids, both public and private.<p>In addition, there’s more diversity of thought and backgrounds to expose my children to within a city rather than a being an isolated monoculture.<p>I think a lot of people assumed cities would get worse after the pandemic, but I only see them getting better. The rush hour crush of office commuters is much more manageable now, and the trend in American city areas continues to head toward more livability and residential development over 9-5 Office oriented development.<p>Yes, I am remote, so I can live anywhere. I don’t have to suffer in a tiny condo, I could take my tech industry salary and own a rural mansion instead. I’m just not sure what I tangibly get out of that besides extra space to store a bunch of excess consumer goods.
I am about move myself to just 15 min outside SF after always living like 1-2 hours from a major metropolitan area. I'm 31, so I definitely feel a lot of FOMO because I spent my 20s living in stagnant places.<p>While the places I lived were nice, they were super boring and I felt so complacent. Not many people had any aspirations, it was so hard to find people to talk ideas with or hack on stuff. Colleagues were cool, but weren't really that into doing anything extra.<p>I'm looking forward to living in the bay area, especially so close to SF. From my few visits there thus far all I see are tons of office spaces with familiar company names, every cafe is busy with people on their laptops and some are coding, loads of meetups. I hope I can "launch" my career again being over here.<p>Every day once I close my work laptop, I do some me things and then get back on my personal laptop later to learn something new and build out some weird app idea. A few days ago I was curious about XMPP and comparing it to other protocols like Matrix, and managed to set up and deploy ejabberd, and then connected to it from a flutter app. For me it was a fun experience, figuring out the configuration options, setting up my debian box and nginx configs.. I wish I had a friend or few with whom I could just talk tech and stuff that interests me, and in turn be there for them.<p>That is my goal - find some good friends and either build something together or work at an early small startup.<p>If you're in SF and want to be friends, hit me up! My email is in my profile.
I live in a small collection of homes along an interstate in a national forest. Modern culture (tech and non-tech) is racing ahead of me. Every year I fall further behind. I don't even know what it is that I don't know. Even popular language is leaving me behind. I need to be part of a community, but it's not practical. I feel a little like Van Gogh in Arles wanting to establish a community of like-minded people, but it's not going to happen. One just has to push on anyway.
I moved from San Jose, CA (lived there for 30 years purely for work) to the outskirts of a relatively small town of approx 40K people in an adjacent state not quite 2 years ago (and retired not quite 1 year ago). I couldn't be happier. The non-housing cost of living is somewhat lower, with housing being <i>much</i> less expensive. Although I haven't been commuting since before I left SJ, when I do need to drive around, traffic is almost always moderate or light; not rage-triggering gridlock like it was back in SJ and elsewhere in the SFBA. In the town core we have all the same types of big-box stores that SJ has: Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart superstore, Target, 3 major supermarkets and plenty more, with online shopping delivery to our door just like in SJ. Internet service hasn't been <i>great</i>, but according to a chat with a Cox Comm scout driving around 1 month ago, they'll be laying fiber to our neighborhood by the end of 2022 (which would be huge). One drawback, which I'm uncertain is unique to this locality: finding reliable, competent contractors to perform home repairs and improvements is a nightmare.<p>Being an (extreme?) introvert with family responsibilities, I never had significant engagement with Meetups or conferences, or a particular need for like-minded people: I'm not much of a joiner.
I moved to Vermont from NYC. I really miss meetups and meeting like-minded people. So far, I've been attending virtual meetups and gone to a conference in Boston.<p>Things to consider:
- Cellphone service can be very carrier-dependent and will likely have large known dead spots.
- Internet can be surprisingly good with many areas investing in fiber
- Restaurant choice is greatly reduced, especially foreign cuisines.
- Stores close early.
- Deliveries take longer. Overnight shipping from NYC is actually 2-day shipping.
- Cost of living may not be cheaper. Remember that you'll need a car and will be driving it more often.
- If you're buying a house, you'll find that there's probably a decent amount of unexpected expenses. You'll likely be buying a fair amount of tools, including a lawnmower or potentially a tractor.
- Many places are experiencing shortages for contractors of all kinds. Expect to have to call around and potentially wait a while for professional fixes. I know contractors that are currently booked for the next 3 years
- I do know all my neighbors, which I couldn't say for any of the apartments
I moved from the bay area to a small suburb in Southern Arizona. I'm in my 40s and prefer owning an affordable home over meetups proximity. I've found like minded, politically centrist, people here as well.
While I don't work in a rural location, I have coworkers who live 10 miles away from the office (edit: and these are already rural locations) and I often hear their problems. The two major ones being:<p>- Internet is absolute shit. They don't have wires that get to them, so all their solutions have a ton of latency (and often there is only one company). Apparently the Starlink thing is being a huge help, but still latency is an issue. It is very annoying when it comes to meetings. These guys got exceptions to go to the office during the whole pandemic due to this issue specifically.<p>- Airplane routing. When you live near a major airport or even in a "hub city" traveling is always easier. When you live in a rural location you may need a 2 hour drive to the airport, a first flight to take you to a hub airport, then a second flight to take you to your destination. Traveling is highly inconvenient. It's almost impossible to to some city and back in the same day.
Not really but if I hadn't done my two decades of living and working in the middle of a large metro, I might feel like I missed out on something, even if I didn't know what that something was. Remote work wasn't really a thing when I became working age but if it had been and I'd stayed in the small town all my life, I'm not sure I would be happy like I am now living in an even smaller town than the one I grew up in. Once I'm done with work for the day, I like having options that mostly have nothing to do with work. Living next to a public wilderness I can walk into everyday after work if I wish is far more valuable to me than any tech meetup.
I live in a rural village and yes, I feel like I'm missing out, but it's totally worth it. But I live in a pretty luxurious house, big, with a pool and chickens. I also live with my family.<p>It all depends on what you want in life.<p>I'm in my 20s and I love to live here, it's really quite, relaxing and if I ever want to go to the city (small city, mind you), it's just 15 mins away by car. If I want to go to a bigger city, it's around 2 to 3 hours away, which I tend to do once a month or every two months to visit my team.<p>A few things to note is that I have to have a car here, there's no metro and the bus system is pretty lacking.
I'm remotely in 10k rural town and there are two things that I'm worried about<p>- better networking cuz you know your coworkers better and maybe conferences when onsite<p>- women do move from here to bigger cities due to... jobs? edu? I guess
I lived for a while in a 12-15k small town, having spent most of my life in much bigger metro areas. As a single, 20-something, who spends a lot of time alone, and loves nature, it was fine, for a while. But the fact that I had very few connections there, very few like-minded people, gets to you in time.<p>If you're in a similar situation I think you'll do a lot better in a bigger city, even though you may not think you need those things for the time being. Eventually you will.
I look out my windows at grass, flowers and a variety of 20-150 year old trees.<p>It is so restful & distraction free, with the benefit many favorite escapes nearby.<p>I live in a tiny university town, outside my surrounding trees. So there is a lot to do socially, outdoors activities (camping, horse riding, …), and lots of fun bright people around.<p>I love it enough that I putting down roots.
No, because I connect with people online and I haven’t lived in a metro area for nearly 30 years.<p>So, I have no real clue what I’m missing. Coding meetups at pubs? I miss conferences but I can drive a couple hours to the metro if I wanted to attend badly enough.
Ive tried both. I hate a big city but also hate a small town. I've found a good middle ground of a town of 50k or so gets you good food and things to do but also you're still in, or close to nature.
I’m not in what is considered a “rural” area but it might as well be.<p>I do feel FOMO sometimes but I also think I idealize a lot of what I’m missing out on. I saw no real improvement moving closer or further to people. I think its all about reaching out and making connections. I imagine that’s easier in a tech hub… but online has made it incredibly easy, imo.<p>The one thing that does seem to suck is that events have gone “online” which… just isn’t exciting to me. Other than that, I’m pretty introverted and love having space/land.
I did the opposite, grew up rural, moved to the city. I highly recommend the suburbs/exurbs near a major metro. You need enough land you don't have to hear your neighbors after dark, but close enough to the city you can get an Uber to the airport. I'd love to have some rural land and a house, but I wouldn't live their year-round and give up gigabit Internet and decent restaurants.
I live in a rural part of DK. I have a large house and gigabit fiber.
For work I drive 20 min to the city or 45 min to my current customer. Once in a while. Mostly I work remote.<p>I do sometimes miss living in the city, but then I remember that I tend to shy away from people and like the quiet of the small town that I live in. Also I don't miss the pollution and noise.
Your life starts dissolving, less interactions and less events. Impacts on mental health cannot be just because of this, but if your partner gets a coincidental midlife crisis, you might find parallels while reading about prairie madness.<p>Edit: 10k inhabitants is not badly rural, might be a good balance.
>Anyone here did the same? Do you miss MeetUps, conferences or many like-minded people? If so, how do you make up for it?<p>Things are different than they were in the Bay. I've adapted. I meet many like-minded folks. My interests have expanded. As they say, "When in Rome.."