Internet was expensive at first, but I could expense it so I didn't care. Now that Starlink is on the way, it really won't matter anymore.
The key is to work at a company that is REMOTE FIRST. If the remote team is in the minority, then you'll always be left out of the important discussions and decisions, and, ultimately, promotions.
Yes, it's a bit of a pain getting out to other places. But I'm perfectly happy to spend 90% of my time in nature, so I consider it an acceptable trade to have extra hassle 10% of the time.
PS: Think twice about an RV. I tried that route, and it's a big hassle having to move around all the time (because of California's tenancy laws, for example), it's a pain to find a place to park the thing, propane isn't always conveniently available, repairs are a pain, black/grey water is a pain, and a lot of places just aren't RV friendly. Also, RV parks just generally suck and have TERRIBLE wifi. If you DO go this route, get a 5th wheel so that you get the extra headroom, easier turns (IMPORTANT), and can drive the pickup to the store. You DON'T want to drive a 30ft coach around town!
Also, get an RV with one popout (more is just asking for shit to break), the kitchen in the back (otherwise it's always in the way), and NO island (it just gets in the way).
Also, don't go lower than a half-ton for your pulling vehicle. You'll thank me on the hills.
A lot of the big decisions happen between meetings in the corridors.
Working at a satellite location, despite being onsite, is also considered harmful to your career.
It is the fact that the people who make decisions are not physically near enough for everything that happens between the bits of work. Those are the things that have historically mattered far more in career growth.
There's just so much nature, and it's so varied in it's majesty. You can quickly drive to plenty of remote outdoor areas from NYC; most of New York is basically a huge forest. But you can't drive to see the Grand Canyon without making a big time commitment, much less places on other continents.
Unfortunately, even big RVs have their share of problems, and there is no community to be found on the road. I don't have any good answers, and I don't relish the thought of returning to a large city, but I'm not sure that moving away from them would be the panacea that many people seem to imagine it would be.
What is it about Montana?
Actually I would. In fact NYC has a great history of groups flooding into each other. Before I dive more into that though...there seems to be an airplane overhead?
Source: Am Midwestern, lived in NYC once upon a time
Btw, also a Midwesterner. Recently left NYC. Finally took the advice of the locals.
> wrote Apple Writer alone in a small cottage he built himself atop a hill in the woods of Oregon ..
What has me wanting to move away is the insane politics in salem, caused by too many people in Portland outnumbering the rest of the state.
I figured most people in the rural parts were still relying on satelite internet like they were when I lived there. Maybe cable internet in some of the developed suburbs.
For instance molalla, stayton, scio all have fiber networks.
What are the secrets to building connections out here?
My advice is to look for meetups, look in your neighborhood for ways to volunteer, get on Reddit and Facebook, and don't be shy about asking people to hang out.
I used to live outside NYC, and finding work there is indeed difficult, depending on your specialty. If you already work in "fintech", you're set: there's tons of jobs there doing that. If you don't have any experience in finance, then it's not so easy, and there really isn't much programming work there outside of finance and full-stack web stuff.
I live in the DC area now, and have also had a terrible time making connections. I'm planning to leave within a year because of this. I'm not going to NYC though; the job situation there is terrible for my specialty, as I learned before.
>What are the secrets to building connections out here?
I'm not sure about NYC, but here in DC I think it has to do with going to a lot of rooftop bars and drinking a lot of alcohol. If you're not into that scene, you won't do well here. I suspect NYC is similar.
There's also every kind of social community imaginable here. You can attend tech meetups if that's your thing. Take a drawing class, find a D&D group, volunteer at a community garden, host orgies. Sky's the limit.
I worked remotely at Blackbird (https://blackbird.us/) and you could totally do this as a software engineer. It's great. Your can live in a cool place and the only thing you really need is a high speed internet connection.
If/when we get there it will also imply abstracting away the physical interaction between people. This might have unwanted social implications, read people losing many important social skills.
You don't get a call saying "hi xxxx we need a guitarist for seals new album can you be at Abbey Road this afternoon" if your living in a cabin in Montana.
Btw I used to work with a polymath developer who had a Phd in music and also had been a side musician on top 40 hits.
The article (strangely) doesn't say this directly, but it alludes to it ("I met so many wonderful kindreds...", etc).
That's a fantasy unless you consider 3mbps DSL to be 'high speed'.
And that's not even remote, that's often the highest speed available not even an hour outside of many major US cities out west.
For mobile dev it seems fine most of the time.
But even for the less technically apt, consider other common tasks that require speedy broadband. Something like restoring a 100GB iCloud backup to a new iPhone on a 3mbps connection would take over 3 days, assuming the connection (or your patience) could hold that long.
And you certainly won't be streaming your favorite shows in 4k.
> So why do I hate to admit this?
> Because I love how the internet has made it possible for anyone to get successful, anywhere. I love the idea of living in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nature, yet being connected to the world.
> But still, when I look at the facts, it’s impossible to deny. Living in the big city, and being where everything is happening, will help your career the most. Being anywhere else won’t hurt you, but it won’t help.
Though I'm in NYC right now, I plan to leave eventually. Ideally I think I'd want a remote cabin in Montana with a high speed internet connection. Wake up, go for a 2 hour hike, code a few hours, watch the sunset, read, sleep. Sounds like some sort of paradise.
Realistically though I'll probably end up somewhere closer to civilization.
But it's a shame remote work isn't quite at that level to completely make physical location irrelevant. Maybe someday.