Ask HN: Does changing locales to fix productivity doldrums work for you?
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=756570
... got me thinking on a somewhat tangential question: Does moving around to change your environment actually help you work? Or is it solving the wrong problem the wrong way?
From a personal state-of-mind angle that the author is pushing, I guess I'm not entirely sold on the fact that a change of scenery will let a hundred flowers of creativity bloom - in a sustainable way - to an extent that confers upon a startup a meaningful economic advantage. The cost differences might, but I'm not so sure about the aesthetic/spiritual quality.
I've moved around a lot in my 23 years. I emigrated from Russia with my parents when I was 6, and moved around the US several times during childhood. Within the last few years spent in Georgia, I've moved several times within the general area I inhabited, including twice within Atlanta. When I was young, I was always eager to move every time it happened; my idealism allowed me to fantasise that was an opportunity for self-reinvention, for casting away whatever I didn't like about the incumbency of my life, for new social possibilities - basically, for leading a more awesome and enjoyable life.
Every single time, I was disappointed once the novelty wore off after a week or two. It seems to me that changes of scenery and ambiance are mostly very superficial. The fundamental, more existential qualities of one's mind and character persist, and certainly, characteristic problems and limitations as well. I am majorly disenchanted with the "grass is greener" syndrome that led me to embrace the novelty of moving, believing that it's going to be significantly transformative. I've told myself one too many times that the reason I procrastinate or feel unmotivated/uninspired or fatigued is because some sort of cultural blight or cosmological ennui is a feature of the environment of my particular locale, and if I just move to this awesome new place way over there, everything's going to be different and I'm going to be a new person. That's never worked for me.
I'm not saying environment isn't economically important. I think it's pretty uncontroversial that some environments are objectively better places to start a technology venture and just do technical work than others, based on the availability of investment capital, infrastructure, communities of likeminded people, the overall educational and cultural level of the general population, etc. I'd be the last to argue.
But I don't think that moving to my own personal resort in a foreign country is going to let me find the Tao, and it's hard for me to imagine how that could be true of anyone else, either. I just haven't seen any evidence that my productivity is going to be exponentially more fruitful if only I just had the right mountains or trees or ocean or cityscape around me. I've had that misconception in the past, and I've watched it crash and burn over and over. Instead, my finding has consistently been that if I really want to work on something, I'll work on it in all but the most inhospitable environment, and if I don't, I can't make myself do it even if I totally tricked out and accessorised my aesthetic.
I've been in "the zone" and written some great code in noisy coffee shops on a small, old, slow laptop, and I've spent entire weeks getting nothing substantial done on my awesome new PC with dual 22" panels, untold gigabytes of RAM and the most ergonomic peripherals, desk and chair.
Bottom line - if I'm really passionate about something, I'll code it on a rooftop in North Dakota while it's snowing. And if I'm really in a funk, no amount of beach, pastoral quiet or enchanting landscape is going to get me out of it. I would think most other people work the same way, even though they may not realise it. I think trying to fix it by changing the environment is a terrible delusion, not altogether different from changing one's interior decor around in pursuit of perfect occupational bliss. Some environments and setups are definitely more conducive to productivity than others for fairly objective reasons, but beyond that, the effect seems negligible.
What about you? Are you an artist that needs a "perfect studio?"