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Comment by phaedrus | Hacker News Reader

I share your frustration. Although I do live in the USA, not all regions of the USA are equally prosperous. Though patriotism leads people here to shut their eyes to it, the economy in the state I live in has more in common with third world countries than first world. Yet my wife refuses to move to any other state, so I'm forced to watch countless opportunities to advance my career slide by because they don't allow you to work remotely, while I plod along in a job much less technically interesting than what I'm capable of. It's not a case of fewer engineers competing for jobs at a smaller number of technology companies, it's a case of fewer engineers and exactly zero technology companies. It doesn't matter if there are also fewer skilled/educated workers to compete against, it's still division by zero.

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More like division into zero right? If it was by zero, then there'd be no engineers and an undefined supply of jobs.

But more to the point, there are lots of ways to be technically engaged. Elance, guru.com, hireacoder kind of places need technical people and they don't care where you are.

The startup phase into a life style like that (this), can be long and arduous, but also something you can do in your spare time. Point is, if you want to be in a rural area and still have your fingers in technical stuff, there are avenues to that -- the internet.

That's the beauty of the internet. You can do almost anything technical from anywhere, like the main post to this thread... Lots of people, myself included, do. When I talk to my clients/customers, they're always like, "Where are you now?" It's awesome.

Arg. It's not division by zero, it's zero work divided by a finite number of workers. Nor is it an undefined supply of jobs-- should you need the quantity "workers per unit work", then, finally, you'd have an undefined quantity.

I was calculating number of engineering job applicants divided by the number of places to work. That is, supposing there were 100 people and 10 companies, or 20 people and 2 companies, that's still the same ratio of 10 engineers employed per company as you think smaller. But when you scale down far enough, you reach a point where there are zero companies in the sector, yet there are still non-zero number of people wishing to have that kind of job if they could. So you're dividing a nonzero number of people across zero opportunities, and the result is undefined.

In theory, I could do almost anything technical from anywhere, and that's what gives me hope. But society doesn't always change as fast as technology could enable it to - I have yet to find a company actually willing to let me work completely remotely, even though programming or circuit design work could be done that way.

But that's why I am involved in a startup as a side job, and I hope one day we'll be able to employ 100% of our workforce 100% remotely, because there are many capable people living in backwater places. That's the interesting thing about dividing by zero - introducing an undefined result breaks the rules of the system.

WV ?

Get involved in open-source, it is the best way to be apart of things you wouldn't otherwise have access to as the requirements are simple: 1) show up (virtually), 2) be polite. You seem to have the inclination to be the second. id like to encourage you to do the first.

1. Please show me a state with a per capta gdp that approaches one from the third world.

2. Your wife may be forcing you to stay in state to be with her. Either celebrate your marriage and don't bitch about how it's bringing you down or move on.

It's not a dichotomy; you could equally tell his wife to "celebrate their marriage and not bitch" about moving to somewhere with more opportunities. You should not think about someone's happiness, that does not also think about your own.

I think you making a totally fair point about the symmetry of the situation. However, I think his attitude (and by symmetry probably hers too) is an unhealthy one. He can always think, "were it not for her attitude I, errr we, could be more successful". This is quite a negative thought to hold in your head with someone that you should have an amicable rapport with.

>You should not think about someone's happiness, that does not also think about your own.

I guess you can live by that, but I certainly don't like the dynamics of this towards the limit. If somebody is hurting I don't mind trying to say something. Suffering isn't cool.

Are you married? There is much more to marriage then love. It is a legally binding contract and there are serious consequences for breaking it. Not to mention the social and emotional consequences. There are usually children involved.

If that is your line of reasoning for staying married, it's an unhealthy situation, probably not good for the kids, etc.

People in such situations should focus on communication and progress, possibly with the help of a therapist. Or end the marriage. But plodding along blaming your spouse for your terrible lot in life is no way to raise a family (or save some money).

I've been married 10 years. It's up and down, but in the end, it's what you make of it.

Point taken, but sometimes people just like to bitch about things. It doesn't always mean much. There is always a struggle between selfishness and selflessness. Sometimes marriage is a zero sum game.

GDP is a really bad measure in this case. First of all, the cost of even living, even 3rd-word-level living, is substantially higher here. Additionally, a lot of those 3rd world economies are composed largely of "non-market operations" (subsistence farming, for example) that don't get counted in GDP since they're not a cash transaction.

Also, though the state overall may not be that low, there may be parts of the state that are pretty bad. Rural parts of West Virginia come to mind.

An aside: The area with the 2nd-worst standard of living in the Western Hemisphere is in the US. It's the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. It doesn't quite apply to this conversation since it's an Indian reservation, but it is a good reminder of just how badly we screwed over the natives.

Hey guys, I'm the one he was criticizing, and I'm voting him back up off 0 on this comment.

1. That may have been hyperbole. A better way to phrase it would be "A state where the tech sector seems to have as little presence as a country with no tech sector at all."

2. My wife and I talked after this. She said she understands the sacrifice I'm making to stay here. I said I I understand that she wants to live near her family.

so his choice is to either celebrate his marriage, or celibate it? I'll take celebrate for 900, Alex.

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