relocation

Despite All Your Rage You Can Leave The Cage

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Are you a lab rat?

Chances are good that if you're in America, in these troubled times, your state is probably engaged in some kind of experiment.  It might be the changes in Florida () or Wisconsin's cuts (and the weird statements on the National Guard), or California's cut-and-confront budget.  You're probably seeing a lot of very experimental things.

I've ranted on this before – we're seeing a lot of social and financial experiments in the Great Recession.  Some of these are legitimate, a great deal seem to be ideology over practicality.  The thing is they're being done.

After talking to friends in different states, I've come to two conclusions about this:

  1. If you aren't paying attention to your state and local budget you're missing a lot, and could be blindsided by some very nasty surprises.
  2. You should have a backup plan in case whatever experiments going on in your state/city/location fail miserably.  Or in short, where would you move if all the geniuses making budget decisions screw it up.

Be careful.  Apply all those geeky relocation tips we've discussed here over the years.  Right now it's a pretty unsure time, and that ideal city or state you live in now could end up being the site of a failed experiment.

This applies even to me.  I love California and Silicon Valley, but I like to have a backup plan or too.  I just don't want to USE them.

– Steven Savage

* Bonus question – what's the inspiration for the post title?

Look At The Many Opportunities Of Relocation

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OK, you've done it.  You're relocating.  You found that right place, that right job (or right opportunity).  You're going to get that career of yours going!

Don't forget, once you relocate, that there's plenty of other things you'll want to do to catch up on your life.  Relocation is an opportunity not just for that new job, but often we're moving to areas that cover a lot of our others needs much better than where we were. 

Consider:

  • A chance to improve your connections.  There are new meetups, new conventions,  new events, new networking opportunities, new holiday celebrations.  Take the time to find out what to do and how to get involved.
  • A chance to improve your health.  If you're going from an area with less than stellar health care to a place with better, or to one of the high-tech megaregions, take advantage of it.  Better doctors, better medications, newer technologies, and more options can all contribute to your health.
  • A chance to improve your education.  More training?  Better schools and colleges?  Check out the opportunities to get better educated in your new location.
  • A chance to go a bit greener.  Is there better public transportation where you're moving?  Can you make a bit less impact on the environment?  Maybe you can even get involved locally to improve things.
  • A chance to save money.  Now you may be moving to a place where things are more costly, despite higher pay, but I've found that its too easy to ignore the chances to save money from a move.  Better public transport can help you ditch one of your cars, locally grown food may be cheaper, more opportunities for exercise can cut your doctor's bills, and more.

So when you relocate for that dream job, don't just look at that.  Look at all the other ways the relocation can improve your life.

– Steven Savage

Geekery, Trends, and Megaregions

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I live in nerd central.  I'm in Silicon Valley.  I can WALK to the headquarters of important companies.  I've found myself in random conversations with famous people in gaming.  I have casual conversations with people about multi-million dollar deals.  Local news here is international news on an economic and cultural scale.

This is one of those areas that I've been talking about a lot lately – the Megaregion.  Those big economic/social/technical/industry clusters that seem to be the future of economic development.

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