Ask HN: log on, drop out? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: log on, drop out?

46 pointscageface80 comments

Like a lot of HN hackers, I've been living and working in a big metropolitan area for a while (S.F. in my case). This certainly has its upsides, but also some serious downsides. It's expensive so being unemployed for even a short time can be risky. It's also crowded and noisy and distracting.

So, I've been considering selling everything, quitting the 9-5 and moving somewhere cheap, where I can live for $1,500 a month or less total. I've got savings to tide me over for a couple of years and I think this might give me the time and quiet I'd need to do some more serious hacking on my own projects and also to just disengage from all the urban energy for a while. I think I could do enough freelance work to at least break even and probably do better and I could charge less than people that need to pay S.F. or New York rents.

There are a lot of places in the West, for instance, where you can rent a big apartment or even a house for ~ $500 a month and live next to some really beautiful national parks, forests etc.

Anybody else had similar thoughts? Are there pitfalls I'm overlooking? Anybody else had dreams of a hacker Walden Pond?

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Funnily enough, I'm in maybe the opposite boat as you.

I currently live in a quiet suburb of OKC, maybe 20 minutes drive from downtown. Rent is cheap, around $0.75/SF/month. Bandwidth isn't terrible, but it's not like SF or NYC.

I'm a freelancer. If I wanted to, I could probably cover all my "necessary" expenses working one or two days a week. Instead, I work 6 days a week, and save almost all my money. I want to move to SF or NYC once I have some serious savings.

To be honest, I just don't like the culture here. Although I've grown up here and have friends, gf, etc. here, "professionally" I feel alone. I'm one of only very few tech-minded entrepreneurs. I hack alone. It's not uncommon for me to go 48 hours without leaving my apartment.

I was in SF on business last week and it struck me at just how easy it was to get contacts and network in a place where there are other hackers. There's no awkward "So, what do you do for a living?" conversations where you have to start at "what is a web application". Even for a hacker, I am really, really independently-minded. That said, it would be great to have a partner on a couple of things. But I won't find one here.

tl;dr If it's a short-term thing and you're tight on cash--go for it! But you'll get lonely after awhile.

As someone who moved from Indiana to NYC, I applaud you. You don't realize how many opportunities you're missing until you move to a big city.

The fact that a week ago, I decided to randomly google 'tech meetups' and find one that was meeting the next morning with 20+ high quality entrepreneurs was ridiculous.

"To be honest, I just don't like the culture here. Although I've grown up here and have friends, gf, etc. here, "professionally" I feel alone. I'm one of only very few tech-minded entrepreneurs. I hack alone. It's not uncommon for me to go 48 hours without leaving my apartment."

It sounds like you need to put in more effort to find other hackers in your area. Scour Twitter and search for user groups in your area, or start your own! In the OKC area you're bound to find some if you look hard enough. Remember, most hackers take the passive quiet-path (like you) and may not leave their apartment.

There's plenty here in the Midwest, you just have to look a bit harder for it.

What about moving to China? (I'm serious.)

I moved to China a few weeks ago and was amazed how this place is an ideal place for startups/freelancers. First, the cost of living is extremely low AND you get a similar (if not better) quality of life than what you can get in the US. I live in Shenzhen, a very young city with a booming economy and the world's capital of electronics manufacturing. The population density here is much higher than even the largest US cities, which means: a lot of 24/7 restaurants, night clubs full everyday of the week / hour of the night, convenience stores around every corner, cheap taxis (3$US can get you far), etc. There are very few foreigners but it can be a nice thing at the same time because when you see a fellow westerner, you are tempted to socialize very quickly and most of them have interesting stories to tell. Ah, I was about to forget: Chinese girls love westerners.

China is also ideal for startups. The economy here is growing very fast and the domestic market is huge. The software industry here seems to be lagging behind the US by a couple years. This means that people knowledgeable about the western market have a significant edge because they are able to foresee the trends that are likely to take place in China. That's why there are so many Chinese clones of popular western websites.

I could go on and on... Get in touch with me if you'd like to ask some questions.

EDIT: Some pictures from my apartment http://www.flickr.com/photos/50425387@N06/

I'm in a very similar situation. Moved from Silicon Valley to Beijing and haven't looked back. I can only reaffirm what olalonde says - and if you're worried about the GFW, a VPN is a simple workaround.

I'd also point out that China's not just great for techies who want to start a business. If you're interested in a non-wired business, there is a low minimum wage and lots of capital seeking investment here. Plus, earning in RMB means you'll get richer over time vis-a-vis your American counterparts simply due to the yuan's appreciation.

What is your immigration status? How difficult was the process? How long did it take?

It's pretty straightforward: you buy a 3 months, 6 months or 1 year visa - no questions asked. The 1 year visa costs about 700$ but I believe you can get it much cheaper if you get it from the US. It took a few hours and I bought it at the border of Hong Kong (no visa needed to go to Hong Kong for less than 3 months).

If you are going to move somewhere cheap, while you are working on your software all by yourself, consider safe and stable countries in Latin America, like Costa Rica.

I don't know if I would want to risk the Chinese government blocking some vital net service I need for my business. My own site for example is blocked in China.

The Great Firewall sucks but I use a VPN anyways. My connection is still very fast (for instance, I reached over 1000 kb/s on a torrent yesterday). That being said, although I don't morally agree with the firewall, it has contributed to the success of many popular Chinese websites (notably Facebook/Twitter clones).

"I could charge less than people that need to pay S.F. or New York rents."

Charging less is attractive for commodities. When you are buying toothpaste or cola, there is not that much difference from one brand to the next, so having the lower price can help make the sale.

For tech work, the difference in skill among programmers can be an order of magnitude. Also, there is some information asymmetry--it is hard to know which programmers are good. So your rate is one indicator that people use to evaluate your skill level. If you are a highly skilled programmer but charge low, you may be sending a signal that you are a novice programmer.

Furthermore, if you charge too low you may attract clients from hell. These are clients that don't know much about programming and think that it's easier than it is (which is why they are looking for below market rates).

So don't charge less in order to attract clients. Rather, demonstrate (show specific evidence of) your superior skill and then charge a competitive market rate.

Also note that it might be harder to find clients if you move away from a large urban area.

I'm trying to do the same thing eventually.

However, have you lived in a semi rural area before? It's not necessarily Walden Pond. Half of my childhood was spent growing up in a semi rural area and most people who live there are into snowmobiles, hockey and going to church. You most likely need a car. The quaint rural villages that you really want to live in can be as expensive as living in a city. "Real" rural america is usually more like a truck stop than it is a french farming village. I'd be interested to hear where you are considering. Personally, I would like to move to Maine or Vermont, but also enjoy the city... it just gets exhausting.

I second starkfist's note of caution. How about finding a job in a semi-rural place (if you don't care which one, there are options - eg. check out astronomical facilities which tend to be in relatively isolated areas) and trying it out for a year? That way you avoid the loose-loose scenario of deciding you don't like it and burning through your savings to find that out. If you do like it, you can always quit later.

Grass is always greener at the other side of the fence; I'm in the opposite situation of having worked for years in a semi-rural area and thinking about getting back in a city.

Like the OP said, there are upsides and downsides to everywhere. I think if you want to try this, you want to set some milestones for the various scenarios, like at what point to bail out if you don't like it, at what level of savings should you start looking for work again, and so on.

Yeah that's a very good point. I've wondered about this. For example, the Southern Utah desert is my favorite place in the world and there are some very inexpensive towns to live in down there but the culture is very conservative.

Main or Vermont are definitely possibilities. The winter sounds horrific but I was in Vermont in the fall a while ago and it was totally stunning. From what I understand Vermont and Maine both lean much more to the left politically so it would probably be less of a culture shock.

I kinda like the New England exurbs. I went to high school in Central Massachusetts - that area is gorgeous (bucolic farms, forests, fall foliage small country roads), and yet it's still only 45 minutes away from Boston/Cambridge if you want to go to events in the city. There're a lot of towns like that in the Boston area - once you get outside of the 128 belt, the population drops off dramatically, and yet you're still fairly close to the city.

Only problem is property values - the prettier low-density towns that happen to be close to the city (Weston, Lexington, Carlisle, Concord, Bedford) now have houses that are going for $1M+. If you're willing to live an hour or so outside of the city, though, you can still get some really affordable stuff in Groton, Pepperell, Bolton, Acton, Littleton, etc.

I'm kinda wondering if there's anything similar in other metropolitan areas. The Bay Area is pretty much a lost cause: if you want forests, there's Portola or Woodside (for like $5M a house), Marin (ditto) or the Berkeley hills (tritto), while if you want something halfway affordable like Dublin or Pleasanton, it's suburban strip malls all around.

Portland, OR maybe? I know there's an urban growth boundary, but are there any pretty wooded neighborhoods in the Portland area? At least property values there haven't skyrocketed, last I heard.

Let me give you four words of advice here: Stay away from winter. At least do that. Really.

...unless you like winter. I moved to New England a few years ago, and we have three excellent seasons here: summer, fall, and winter. There is no spring, at least by any reasonable definition of spring by anybody who has lived anywhere where there is spring. But "sea and ski" is what it's about here, and, it turns out, I'm ok with that.

There is usually about 1-2 weeks of nice spring weather in May/June. I like spring in New England more than spring anywhere else, because you know that if you blink, it'll be gone. So it's time to have classes outside and enjoy the nice weather and go for a bikeride or something.

Here in California, it's spring all year round, and so we sit at our computers and ignore it most of the time.

because you know that if you blink, it'll be gone

Indeed, it goes away if the sun goes behind a cloud. Even better when you have kids, and have to make sure the baseball field is dry and safe for them. You'll be shoveling mud into wheelbarrows, transporting it to a mound of dirt, and coming back with wheelbarrows-full of dry dirt. Heavy work. More rain. So you do it again. You. Well, and the mosquitoes.

I agree that there are glorious days in the spring here, but in my view they don't a season make. But all-around it's still a fabulous place to live for the climate.

Indeed. Same in Northern Europe. South guys won't ever feel that wonderful warm spring touch after cold winter

But he wants to live within a budget. If he goes to a place where he's guaranteed a beating during winter, his budget will be blown if heating prices greatly increase. A human being can survive hot, humid days without AC. But sub-zero cold without heat? His computers would probably not function, he'd be too miserable to work, and he'd have cold -- if not frozen -- water. I've lived in places during winter when the boiler has broken in an apartment building. I'd rather go without AC in summer than without heat in winter.

When we moved here the house we moved into didn't have a working heating unit. We stayed warm with a wood-burning stove and a tree from our property. We had well over five feet of snow that winter. It was cold.

The computers worked fine. A computer can tolerate cold better than heat.

Portland, Maine, is pretty amazing. I lived about 45 minutes north of Portland for a couple of years, and it was too isolated for my tastes, but Portland is a nice mix of cosmopolitan and inexpensive.

I'm going to pitch for my adopted home town here: come to Grass Valley! We have a solid technological history (and, I think, future), an energetic Economic Resource Council that's trying to attract new talent, and some really beautiful spaces. Traffic flows easily, locals spend their weekends at one of several nearby rivers in the Summer, we're not far from Tahoe, etc. etc.

I visit the Bay Area often for friends and business, and I don't mind it there, much, but I'm always happy to get home again -- despite being a wanderer from 18 to 27 or so. I wholeheartedly recommend living in a beautiful natural environment.

It's not super super cheap here, but close enough: my girlfriend and I live in a great modest home with a shop and small yard, and awesome neighbors, for $795/month.

We do get snow, though.

EDIT: And if you're interested, I'd be happy to take a day out to show you around and introduce you to people.

I had something a little smaller in mind but Grass Valley looks pretty nice. I should visit that part of CA sometime.

One of the things I like best about this area -- and stop me if I start to get annoying -- is that it's just about as small or big as you want.

There are plenty of places 10 or 15 minutes from town that are really isolated: little dirt roads in and out, and neighbors that you might meet but never actually see. You can pick your climate too; beautiful, chilly Tahoe forest a short drive up highway 20, or rolling grassy hills without snow in "south County". (Both of those have a lot of trouble getting broadband though.)

If you feel like you need a more social night out, Auburn is 30 minutes away, Roseville is an hour, and Sac'to is just a bit beyond that. If you get to missing the Bay Area, it's just 2.5 hours away.

Or, if you want to really get away from everyone for a bit, just drive up highway 20 to the Grouse Ridge area, or highway 49 to Downieville (another beautiful small town) or Sierra City, with some gorgeous 8,000 foot crags and lakes.

So yeah, come check it out!

I think that you will have less success than you think you will trying to underbid projects because of your lower cost structure. For work that is truly local (some law practices work this way), there may be an established regional price point that may indeed be lower than the wider market. But you aren't going to get lucky trying to sell iPhone dev or Django projects on the cheap; people don't buy projects that way.

The most important rule of freelancing/consulting/selling-to-companies: your customers aren't paying with their own money. There are plenty of things that are more important to them than an abstract dollar number.

That's an interesting observation. I have no experience in the current freelance dev market so this is definitely useful information. I guess I could at least take advantage of a cheap location in that I could live off the revenue from handful of smaller personal projects (apps, facebook games, etc), but this is definitely the big unknown in this plan.

You don't actually need to freelance. A lot of big companies these days will let you work remotely. Especially if you've got a niche set of skills that they need.

I'm surprised the possibility of moving to the third world doesn't come up more often here. For the price of rent in SF (say 1000$ pr month) you could eat out (and eat well) everyday, party with westerners for next to nothing and hire a programmer to help you out with your work in countries like Malaysia or the Philippines. Links to blogs, posts, twitterfeeds etc. of people who have done this would, btw, be appreciated.

Yeah I've considered this too actually. I was kicking around the idea of relocating to Vietnam for a while this way. I wonder how much more difficult working remotely from that far away would be. I imagine there are programmers already living in places like that that would be happy to get contracts at first-world salaries, so hopefully being a native speaker and understanding first-world cultural conventions would be enough to justify asking first-world salaries.

Professionally I think you can leverage your knowledge and first world status better if you move to a place with people who speak better english (the Philippines/India/Malaysia) and with a larger outsourcing industry (the Philippines/India/Malaysia). Unless you by native speaker mean native Vietnamese speaker, that could be an awesome advantage -- wages are for workers in the outsourcing industry is, among other things, determined by english speaking ability. When it comes to getting first world salaries where you do contracting work is probably often irrelevant -- and could also be hard to tell (depending on need for communication making time differences or unstable internet connections problematic etc.). I have been wondering about the possibility of being a sort of salesman/manager/quality controller for contracting work with Filipinos doing the grunt work. (The Philippines and Malaysia does not tax foreign sourced income, wich could go a long way to offset a decrease in pre tax income.)

The problem is that moving to e.g. the Phillipines will give you a Filipino income. If you make your money in the US and then spend some there, you can be quite "wealthy", but if you start a company there your returns will scale down with your costs.

Wha? We are talking about internet freelancing here, aren't we?

Oh, yes, so we are. My mistake.

As an alternative to moving to a low-cost rural location, have you considered moving to a lower-cost, creative cultural city? I'm thinking specifically of Montreal, QC.

There is an incredible creative scene in the city covering, music, the arts and an amazingly supportive technology community. There are also a couple of very active seed-stage funds (though nothing compared with Silicon Valley and not much of an angel network, I'm afraid)

The best part is that cost of living in Montreal is among the lowest in North America, yet you still have access to amazing infrastructure, stunningly beautiful architecture, and beautiful friendly ladies - seriously.

I am actually looking to trade places with you and am planning to leave this wonderful city to go check out San Francisco for a bit (I have my reasons), but I cannot recommend Montreal enough. Oh, and I'll be back!

How easy is it for programmer from the U.S. to move to Montreal? Are there a fair amount of companies in the startup scene able and willing to support a visa?

Don't forget the drivers ;)

I live in a rural college town--Pullman, WA.

Monthly living expenses for me can top off around $1000/mo comfortably. I have a car but don't pay for the insurance (though I do pay for repairs, gas, etc.) so $1500 is definitely doable. Rent for a single person can be had for $300-$400 with some looking, and not necessarily in bad conditions. $500 will get you plenty of space. You will likely need the car, though the town bus system is very good (supposedly one of the best small-town public transit systems in the country). It's a college town so you have a younger population than some rural communities--it's not quite "truck stop", in other words, but having a large student population has its own problems. There are quiet parts of town, where families and grad students tend to live, but the "student ghettos" have loud parties, crappy apartments, and predatory lending practices aplenty.

The next town over, Moscow, ID, is about 8 miles east. It's also a college town, plus it has a nicer downtown (complete with hippie food co-op). Haven't lived there, though.

If you like variable weather, where the temperature goes from -10 to 110 over the course of the year and you see wind, rain, snow, hail, and sunshine in the course of about the same week, you'll like the area. Speaking of seasons, summers are a lot nicer and quieter than the school year, at least in Pullman.

Not sure I'd recommend living here to anyone, to be honest, but if you want to feel isolated from the real world for awhile it'll do the job.

this general idea is good.

there are a lot of rural colleges where living is cheap and parks are close. i went to school at clemson, and the situation is quite similar.

plus, if you're working on a project and want to hire people, there are lots of students who would jump at the chance.

Hey, we just did exactly this!

My wife, my 2yo and I moved last month away from Paris/France to a rural location in S/W of France (1h away from Bordeaux the city).

We gathered savings before doing this, and we're doing remote consulting and working on new ideas to generate income.

We're living "low-profile" money-wise, and we're pretty happy with it.

A lot more time to give to ourselves and our kid, too :)

Personally, I think that's a great thing to do, especially when your line of work uses a computer. Even if you're not working, you can still build your skills (hacking on open source, iPhone apps, web pages, whatever) while living almost anywhere. Enjoy life, avoid the stress, it's always worth it.

The main risks I can see are that it may be harder to connect with people in your industry, and you may find few jobs willing to let you work remotely (this tends to be available only to very experienced people, e.g. CTO can live in the mountains if he wants, and the company says OK). Then again, if you're trying to avoid 9-5, not even having a job for a few months is still good stress relief.

I've been trying to get an idea of how hard it would be to make a living entirely through remote contract work. I see a lot of job postings along these lines but I have no idea how well they pay or how competitive the contracts are. I've been salaried for 10 years now so I have no first-hand experience.

On the flip side though, I'm beginning to see the opportunity costs of a 9-5. It's hard to find the energy to spend another 3 hours hacking on my own ideas after working in front of a computer all day and the company I work for puts a lot of roadblocks in front of open-sourcing any of my work so I'm increasingly cut off from the open-source community and all the job networking that comes with it.

My ideal would be to find a way to spend no more than 6 months of the year working to pay the bills and to have the other 6 months free to work on my own ideas. I'd happily trade a lot of material comforts for the freedom and time to follow my own muse.

Just keep in mind that the transition will consume some time, energy, and $$ -- and don't underestimate that you'll be trading friends as well as surroundings.

Anywhere in central California (the central valley to be more specific) is cheap to live compared to SF. For example Madera, Fresno, or even Clovis you can rent a decent looking 3 bedroom house with yard for about $1000/month. However, these cities are mostly agricultural and do lack the "techy" feeling you'll find in bigger cities like SF or even LA. The summers are quite humid and hot, but it's nice that it only takes about 1.5 hours to drive up to Yosemite National Park.

Clovis, CA has a population of about 100k. Recently it has been trying to bring the technology atmosphere, for example a couple of days of go we had 59daysofcode conference (http://59daysofcode.com/). Quite exciting!

I as well like central California, but I would be wary of the central valley unless you can deal with heat well. I live on the coast, which I love, but it is no where near as cheap as the valley, it at least has weather I can survive in. The other issue is that most large/modern cities are four to five hours away.

I have two recommendations for places to look into if you plan on only working for yourself, and not looking for work (unless it is remote contract work).

1. Oaxaca, Mexico - I lived there for a year while working on a startup and loved every minute. It's really cheap (my wife and I spent about $1100 a month in total, and had a great lifestyle). It's a beautiful city, with lots to do, and is close to some great hiking and only about 5 hours from gorgeous beaches. It's also very safe these days. The drawback is being completely isolated from the tech community.

2. Missoula, Montana - This is a great little college town about 3 hours away from where I grew up. I stayed a couple of nights there in 2008 and was blown away by how much it had changed in the time I had been gone. It's super cheap, gorgeous (great hiking, skiing, biking is all around you), the people are genuinely friendly and laid back, and there are great micro-breweries and pubs everywhere. Again, the drawback is being isolated from the tech community.

I hope you find what you're looking for.

I live on <800 a month in Pittsburgh, soon to be <700. It's actually becoming a pretty big tech city, all the major companies (Microsoft, Google, etc) have stuff going on here, and there's a lot of opportunities to make connections to help with whatever project you've got going. It's right near some great parks, and the city itself is packed with trees and grass...

I hear good things about Pittsburgh but for some reason I picture it as a cold, dangerous, post-industrial city. Is this just CA bias?

It is cold in the winter, but it's also hot in the spring/summer.

It is post industrial in the sense that the economy has moved on from industrial type stuff like steel manufacturing -- the economy is very tech/service oriented, with lots of computer/tech/robotics startups and so on, as well as a large health care sector (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center runs their own health insurance which covers a significant portion of the entire state of PA). It was one of the cities least hit by the housing crisis and the economic backlash from that.

As for dangerous -- there are some bad areas, like in every city, but for the most part it's very safe. Safer than any big city in CA for sure.

It is cold. It's not any more dangerous than anywhere else; it does have neighborhoods that aren't great, but they aren't like the worst parts of LA.

It's not horribly post-industrial anymore, although there is a significant contingent of mildly hickish people left over.

I'm moving from SF to Pittsburgh in about a month. What's the best way to get info on local meetups/resources/etc? I'm hoping to meet up with some like minded people and maybe even find a co-founder when I move out there.

I love the idea of working from anywhere, spending time at a mountain cabin with just a cell connection. Fresh air and silence.

Start a Hacker Cabin. Seriously.

I live about an hour north of San Francisco in Sonoma county. It's quiet, beautiful and in Sebastopol, there are only 7,700 people. You could find a place on craigslist for not a decent price... you're 10 miles from the beach and 20 minutes from several parks and beautiful areas. It's at least worth a look.

Sebastopol is pretty awesome, And it has a decent tech scene thanks to O'Reilly Media being based there.

One pitfall: why charge less? There's really no reason, and it tends to bite you back. Just charge the same.

On the other hand, why would anyone want to hire someone who works out in the boondocks? You wouldn't be able ot meet with them in person very easily.

Unless all your potential clients live in the same city, you have this same problem, don't you? Or do some people only work for Bay Area-based clients or whatnot?

No but they might be really good and deliver top work.

I hear Boulder, CO is nice. It certainly ticks a number of your checkboxes: rural, cheap, and next to a lot of beautiful parks and forests. I've never been, but it's on my short list.

Boulder is nice. I live by Horsetooth Reservoir up north in Fort Collins and love it. It's cheap and I'm surrounded by Horsetooth Mountain, Lory State Park, and Roosevelt National Forest/Rocky Mountain National Park.

I'll also go with parts of Colorado and northern New Mexico, as far as being rural and beautiful, but not conservative. Boulder has the advantage of being close to Denver.

Yes, but I'd have to sell this huge house first :-(

I have lived in places at the extremes of size. From NYC to where I am now: a small farm in Minnesota. It's easy to live on $1.5k in a nice part of Minneapolis. Even with a mortgage and car payment my monthly burn wasn't much more than that when I lived there.

I absolutely love it out here and never want to live in a city again. But have you ever lived outside a city or suburb before? There are drawbacks that aren't immediately obvious: no or very few good restaurants if there are any at all; everything is spaced farther apart; if you have an emergency help may not be close at hand; trivial things like making sure your car has enough gas become important when there isn't a gas station on every other block.

There is a campaign running now in the Duluth area called "Offshore to the North Shore" or something like that which plays up that the North shore of Lake Superior (most beautiful area of the state, BTW) has a low cost of living and well trained people and can be cost-competitive with offshoring. Maybe they can offer some relocation literature?

Not to be a booster for my state, but Duluth, MN is the gateway to enormous tracts of unspoiled wilderness and has plenty of affordable rental housing, culture, an international seaport and a few colleges. Might be worth a look.

I currently live in Minnesota and am hoping to get better plugged into the tech scene? Do you know of any specific groups or places where I can find entrepreneurs?

Check out TECHdotMN. They have a Google calendar that is full of events. RubyMN, MinneBar, MinneDemo and CodeCamp are all good events.

Thanks!

Dallas and Austin are decent choices. If you want something a little smaller and less urban, there are plenty of towns of various sizes in East Texas.

If you're looking for something really out of the way, West Texas is a really good choice. For instance, Alpine, Texas is right next to Big Bend National Park. If you want something a bit more arid, try Fort Davis.

Consider New Orleans. It's a bikeable, walkable city where one can get by for very little. Not the biggest tech city in the US but loads of culture and if you're considering moving to the wilderness that's probably not a big deal for you. As long as you don't mind heat or living near minorities you'll be fine.

I'm sure New Orleans is fascinating but I'm leaning towards something way less busy and urban. For whatever reason being close to nature limbers up my thinking and inspires my creative side.

If you go too far out in the sticks, you lose the benefits you get from interacting with other entrepreneurs in person. Try some 2nd-tier tech cities like Austin or Denver. More affordable, but you still have access to local people.

There are plenty of opportunities in small towns with < 100, 000 people. These towns usually have one moderately funded community college at best. This means you have this perfect imbalance of skilled professionals and untapped small town business startups in order to conquer the landscape quite painlessly.

If things go sour in my part of the world I will definitely find some small but rapidly growing desert town to monopolize. Hope this didn't come off too cynical but it's really not that bad of an idea.

$1500 a month or less is possible even in NY or SF. I'm doing it with a small shared apartment in Manhattan. (Roughly. If I ate out less I could push it down well below.)

I'm going to suggest Washington state. There is no income tax, the sales tax is reasonable, and you may find the rain helps you stay focused on coding. I would suggest somewhere around Bellingham, WA - you would be 90 mins north of Seattle and 90 mins south of Vancouver, BC.

Just wanted to add this, so you have another option:

Do-It-Yourself Downsize: How To Build A Tiny House http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1281092...

I'm Russian and have immigrated to Canada along with the parents 8 years ago. Woudl love to hear how viable Moscow is as far as tech entrepreneurs go.

Moscow is one of the most expensive cities in the world. It's in the state of semi-permanent traffic jam, so you'll have to live close to subway. Corruption level is high.

Texas is awesome. Cheap living, fast internet, sxsw, and plenty of places to explore.

please make a blog post once you figure this out AND make it work

Move to Philadelphia.

Or Berlin.

Vienna's pretty great on a budget, too - that's where I live. But Berlin is cheaper and more "happening" (though Vienna is in every way nicer itself).

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