The biggest downside is a lack of employment options. When the company had a huge layoff I started looking around for other jobs in the area and realized there weren't any.

I ended up taking a great job 1000 miles away in a major city. That's when I realized another downside to smaller markets - it's really hard to sell a house and house values don't change. Even though we bought a foreclosed house in 2007, the value in 2014 was unchanged. After looking at what we had spend on improvements and upkeep we would've been far better off renting a house and putting more money into savings.

Regarding job movement, MT actually has a number of high tech companies per city, but it's a much smaller handful. Using Helena as an example (valley population ~80k), we have: Northrup Grumman, the State Agencies, SoFi, TSI&T, Boeing, Tempest (they work on KOA.com), Blue Cross Blue Shield, etc. Layoffs are not as usual here as we have a significant talent shortage. For instance I believe SoFi has ~200 devs in Helena when they would like 400 devs -- hiring being the biggest barrier.

Throw in decent internet and companies which hire remotely, and you're in good shape.

That said, Bozeman is currently experiencing a housing bubble that doesn't seem to want to break (we attribute it to the older Californians who are trying to avoid taxes on the houses they sold there). Nothing like SF, but 2x-3x the rest of Montana.

Briefly, I had to deploy what is now a pretty standard WISP setup but back then almost nobody was doing that so I had to learn everything from scratch. I'm an EE by birth so it wasn't that hard, and I've worked in the networking/network application development sphere most of my career so that part wasn't too hard either. Being your own ISP is basically just a problem solved only by the application of a subtle combination of time and money.

We exited the ISP market a couple of years ago though since it had turned into a deep money pit with the rise of Netflix. Today the network is still in place but only serves my home, fed by a traditional residential copper coax connection to our office building in town.

I would very much like to see real solutions to some of the problems the US is experiencing wrt concentration of "good" jobs in a few places and them going utterly to hell because of it. I keep kicking around ideas and starting various small websites that often go nowhere. But, I think the internet is a potential means to start giving pushback against this trend and start creating a healthier fabric than we have currently.

I am not trying to dump a project in your lap. I really appreciated your comment. It makes me want to do something with the info.

Before my life was derailed, I was studying to become an urban planner, but was really more interested in regional planning. I have a sincere interest in trying to find real solutions that are lightweight and use existing resources. I am also a recent California escapee.

If you are interested in seeing something more done with this info at some point, please drop me a line. I don't know where to go with it at this point in time, but having a contact on the ground that could feed me info to help jump start something might be useful.

Thank you for making the comment and answering questions here.

You mentioned you are bad at this, just a little unsolicited help - I am not the guy you responded to but even initially got my back up reading that. I was thinking jeez this guy puts his hand out to help, agrees to meet one other local dev, comments how he knows half of them and basically gets accused of laziness / slacktivism!

It’s clear you didn’t mean that now, tone from text is really hard to judge and people default to assuming the worst, even subconsciously so perhaps leading with your clarification in the second post or somtheing lkke it may increase your conversion to conversation rate!

Sorry if this insults you, it is not meant to.

Also, I’m putting words into the mouth of the OP of this sub thread too which are more than likely wrong.

I have run multiple websites for years, but I can't figure out how to develop them more effectively. I had a Fortune 500 job. I have a Certificate in GIS. Etc. But, I can't get anyone to take me seriously. It makes me want to spit nails.

Which is probably the wrong way to say all of that too. I appreciate you chiming in here, but what can I do? Knowing what not to do isn't enough.

When someone doesn't feel the same passion that I do about a particular issue or topic, I can get frustrated, too. I have to consciously remind myself that people prioritize things differently. I'd love to be able to infect people with the same level of commitment I feel, but there's no sure-fire way of doing that in my experience. Edit to add: I do think there are ways to become more effective (e.g., Dale Carnegie's methods), and they take practice. I know that's little consolation when things don't seem to be going your way.

This is a long way of saying I think this is only an example of mismatched levels of interest in action, no fault on any side.

As an aside, I really appreciate your self-reflection!

But, it does not matter what I do, I cannot get serious traction with anything I do, much less turn it into serious money.

I was homeless for nearly 6 years until very recently. I got accused of "panhandling the internet" (Not on HN -- only metafilter would stoop so low) and my constant requests for help in developing an online income were largely ignored. And It does not matter how I ask, how I work on that. It seems to only get very marginally better, extremely slowly. At the rate I am going, I will be 100 years old before I have a middle class lifestyle again.

And I'm broke as hell today and I need more income. This is a serious problem for me. I've been patient. I've worked hard. I've done everything I know how to do. It is never enough.

What is the goddamn secret handshake for being let into the proverbial old boys club so I can be allowed to earn more than a pittance?

/totally ineffectual rant that will either be completely ignored, downvoted to hell or pissed on for some reason, no doubt. But I am at wit's end. So have at it. It won't make my broke ass life any worse.

One concrete thing I'm doing that helps me is find someone to meet with on a regular basis to talk about progress on things we individually find important, things we want to work on. We use this to hold each other accountable for progress in these areas and to bounce ideas off each other. I know there are groups out there where people support each other in their entrepreneurial endeavors (I think I've heard these referred to as "Masterminds" groups); that's not what I'm doing, but the common thread is people (or just two people, in my case) getting together to get feedback and support on their personal goals.

I know how frustrating it can be when you feel stuck. (There are stronger words, but I'm purposefully not using them). I hope things get better for you and that you can find a way to feel that you're making progress.

Hillmap.com | Hamilton, MT

(I work for the first remotely and founded the second so the presence isn't big but we're here!).

Its actually a few years old and I was thinking of trying to make it more of a money maker at one point but other interests have proven more profitable so I'm not sure I'll ever really push for it to become a true business.

I and many of my friends do get a ton of pleasure out of trips planed with it which is its own reward.

Might be hard to really monetize anyways, its really nice that you keep it available for people to use. If you don't plan on making more money from it, you could always open source it, and let others contribute too for fun.

https://complexly.com/

I have been back in Missoula since 2001, and worked a number of different tech jobs here from local government to remote to public companies and startups.

The tech scene has grown a ton here over the last 15 years. There are good opportunities. The biggest hurdle I've seen is being able to find good work for your SO.

Generally Montanas seem to have a "you mind my business and I'll mind mine" attitude. So while there is a large right wing component they seem to be mobilized more by gun rights and logging/mining jobs then being anti gay/trans.

Our rural county did stop taking federal money for the women's health clinic as a tea party grand stand which is unfortunate.

Gallatin GOP Women official says she 'would have shot' reporter Gianforte assaulted

http://helenair.com/news/politics/state/gallatin-gop-women-o...

Counter-counterpoint: Visit Missoula when they are naked biking.

I hope you enjoy crowded national parks and a high cost of living.

Be careful what you wish for. Denver used to be what you've described. Now it's just California's ski lodge.