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Comment by Joey21 | Hacker News Reader

Why not look to small towns around state universities? Also, in the USA, look for micropolitan towns. Places that aren't tiny, but aren't major metro areas along with those kinds of challenges. Smaller towns can be easier places to afford homes, shorter distances to truly rural places. The people can be - not always though - challenging. May be more conservative politically and culturally. May be resistant to progressive ideas and efforts. Wife and I live in a smaller university town and love it here. It is a small community of similarly minded people who like the town and like technology and/or share similar progressive ideas. Fortunately we can hop in a car and be in a big city in an hour or so and enjoy big city entertainment and shopping. That said, our town punches well above its weight with plenty of shopping and entertainment opportunities.

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Seconded - I live in a university town in the Midwest (usa). Several big tech companies have offices in town. The university itself employs a lot of tech folks, and spawns startups. There are also a few smaller/medium tech firms that are local. On a normal day, you're never more than 15 minutes drive from farm fields, and quite a few tech workers live out in the country and drive into town occasionally or daily for work.

It's nice, there's enough tech folks to maintain several maker spaces and co-working spots, and the students are a steady stream of enthusiastic youngsters to keep things feeling fresh. Added benefit that I've discovered talking to people in bigger cities: there's enough going on here that I often want to do several things in a day, and since much of it happens in the same 2 mile radius, you don't have to factor travel time into planning. (For example, I can go to a python meetup that ends at 7 and get to the theatre to see a 715 show with friends on the other side of town - a lot of places make that into an either-or proposition).

I grew up in a college town (3 small colleges, in an area with 40k people) and now live in a university town (30k people, state university).

You get the benefits of rural life, but your neighbors are more likely to be open minded and progressive, and you tend to get more culture, better schools and the restaurants are generally better.

Yeah, here in Southern NH near Portsmouth/ UNH there’s a strong tech scene but you’re also close to fairly rural areas.

Hi, what sorts of companies are in that area please?

What sorts? How do you mean?

I should have asked a slightly different question - I was just looking for any information you could share around what the tech scene is like there, i.e. what kinds of things are people working on, what specific companies, anything that be worth checking out if you're new there, etc.

Man, I am not sure how to answer that. It's close enough to Boston that pretty much any type of tech you're interested probably has a presence within an hour's drive. My email is just my handle at gmail so feel free to ping me to see if/ how I could answer better.

Any examples of micropolitan towns?

Decorah or Grinnell Iowa, or Northfield Minnesota.

Decorah and Grinnell are college towns, idk about Northfield.

College town - St Olaf and Carleton. Nice place.

Go Northfield!!! A wonderful little town with great school(s)!

I grew up in an area like this and it was pretty great!

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