People choose where to live for a huge variety of reasons. I moved to Dublin because I wanted to live in Europe and it was the easiest place to get a job and a visa at the start of my career. It also was vastly more bike friendly than the place I came from. I rode my bike and walked everywhere and had no car for several years. I loved (and still love) that work culture is less-poisonous and everyone who works full time gets a month off a year.

Then, after having a kid, I got a 100% remote job. There were a lot of things I liked about Dublin, but it turns out I like paying basically nothing to buy a house an easy bike ride from a train station where I can restore degraded grazing land in to native broadleaf forest even more. Had there been reasonable options in Dublin (2 bed flat we could afford in a completely car-free area near secular schools), or if I had already been naturalised as an EU citizen, we would've looked at something else.

Meanwhile, the 1 year move to San Diego was because I wanted to try starting a company with a San Diegan. Also, California is vastly superior for funding. The decision to give up and leave California came after the very operators of this site rejected interviewed us and said no. Oh well.

Also, I didn't say everyone should move to a beautiful city, I shared my experiences and what I hope are useful tips for anyone else interested in the same. I don't even live in a beautiful city anymore, I live in the countryside, because it's cheap as hell, beautiful, and gives me more freedom to do what I want with my life. But I miss walkable, and cycleable, cities. In a few years we might move again, though we'll see how the gulf stream is looking at that point.

Until this year, this was true all over. Now, it's radically different. Homes go to all-cash buyers paying over list price. Scarce rentals get hundreds of applicants each.