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chaosmage comments on Open thread, Nov. 09 - Nov. 15, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Short version: If telecommuting was an option, would you live in a big city? Why? Why not?
I don't know whether I am overestimating the impact of city population on my daily life. What change can I expect from moving from a city with a population of 200K to one with 2M(and between that and one of 20M)? (or, on the contrary, to one with 20K) I always wanted to move to {regional large city}, but I can't name anything that my current locale lacks, that I would really like it to have. (I know that we don't have toastmasters here, but that's not an active current desire of mine. Some specific goods ren't sold in the shops, but those need to be so specific, that eBay becomes the standard venue for acquiring them anyways.) Jobs don't matter for me specifically, as I can work from anywhere.
I think I've seen more people with colorful hair there, and traffic seemed like it could easily turn into a nightmare. (which is less of an issue, if I intend to use the underground. I don't have a car either way)
Looking into the demographics, the average age is higher, number of children low, with a significant trend of people over 20 to migrate there. I couldn't determine the make up of the migrants from a glance, but I suppose with the help of an actuarian table, I could calculate the difference between expected number of people of that age, versus actual.
I don't know whether absolute number of people with similar interests to mine, or their relative density matters more.
I am wary that I may 'want to be where it's at', or where I assume it's at, shouldering the financial costs, and not getting any of the expected benefits. (I assume job opportunities are the usual attractors)
I'm out in a small town pretty much every week, and I'm always happy to go back to the city.
Mostly it's the people. Everybody smart enough to do a knowledge worker job has left. Everybody creative enough to make art has left. Everybody who understands the value of excellent education for their kids has left. Everybody young and beautiful enough to get into the dating scene has left. Everybody who wants an exciting life has left. The people who remain are still nice (everybody everywhere is nice, really) and often admirably hard-working, but they're slow and seem to live inside fairly tight horizons. I like to be among people I can learn from, and I find those in the city.
I also like life in the city because I like to travel, mine has an airport and excellent public transport, and I really like not owning a car. To live an hour away from the nearest big city would mean that everything in the world would be an hour further away.
So I might reconsider when I can call up a self-driving electric taxi to take me places at any time, or when VR takes off in earnest and I spend much of my time in there. But by that time, I imagine life in the city will have become even more interesting, and life in the country will have fallen even further behind.