[thieving_magpie]

Yeah, I'm not all that concerned with making friends with people that are hostile about my profession. That's so petty.

>partly because the countless new techbros with no respect for Seattle culture who spend 11hrs/day at work and don't have time to develop a personality romping around town give it a real bad reputation

What does that even mean? I hear this all the time and I honestly have no idea how to "respect Seattle Culture". I'm nice to people and I enjoy everything Seattle has to offer. If you want a pat on the back for living in Seattle longer, sorry. I don't care.

I'd also point out that this hasn't been my experience at all. Everyone here has been very nice, welcoming, and helpful. I feel like Seattle natives really sell themselves short. It has been a great experience.

[JPKab]

As someone who has lived in a few cities filled with counter-culture types, they can be incredibly insular, superficial, and tribal. Ironically, they end up being a different looking, but similar acting version of the wealthy elite they claim to hate.

It seems like everyone in these places is just trying to re-invent a "cooler than thou" image, looking down on others who don't prize their typically temporary life-style choices. The gleeful embrace of self-imposed bohemian poverty, and the hatred of anyone who wants material possessions, is particularly annoying. As someone who grew up in poverty, I really hate getting lectured on how meaningless money is by a dread-locked trust fund kid who is waxing poetic about how great of an experience it is to "live simply." They don't seem to get the fact that for some of us, a "tiny house" is exactly what we fucking grew up in, except it wasn't considered cool, and was stuck next to a bunch of other tiny houses called trailers in a community called a trailer park.

The point is that the people in Seattle that act like assholes to you almost certainly fall into this category of idiot.

[hosh]

Well, sure, posturing is posturing, whatever posture you adopt.

That's not been my experience of Seattle though. But then again, I'm pretty unconventional myself.

There is a point to "living simply". That's not necessarily counter-culture. Some folks eschew materialism as a self-image thing. But some folks have already been on the extremes of material wealth, have already found that it wasn't what it was cracked up to be, and choosing to live simply comes from wisdom and experience.

I hope you're able to find out for yourself whether the material possessions actually makes you happy -- and that you do find happiness, whatever form that takes for you.

[icanhackit]

> counter-culture types, they can be incredibly insular, superficial, and tribal

This applies to all types of people, rich, poor, conservative, progressive and the stuff in between. On a meta-scale it would be the way a country might react to immigrants, and like a self-similar fractal the sentiment works at smaller and smaller scales like seaboard, North/South, state, county, town etc. I guess the underlying mentality is, hey we made this area for people like us, not people like you. Now you're ruining it by changing what it is...

Using the counter-culture area as an example, if large numbers of people move to an edgy place shaped by artists, musicians, bums, gender/sexual aberrations and people who generally reject what other areas have to offer, and they don't want to be part of the existing social fabric then they're treated in a way analogous to how an immune system would antagonize a foreign body. It could just as easily be old money getting shitty with new money flooding their uppity neighborhood with unacceptable values or garish sensibilities.

IOW: people generally don't like change. Especially if it's not in their favor or to their taste.

> looking down on others who don't prize their typically temporary life-style choices

It's easy to judge groups of people with generalizations - they're doing the same to you. The funny thing is most people would get along fine if they put that kind of mentality away and just spoke to each other with a common respect.

[itsybitsycoder]

I grew up in a trailer park too, and look forward to the day I can afford to go back to a life that simple.

[devindotcom]

I'm glad you're having a good time, but people in central Seattle are sensitive to the fact that the neighborhood that has been a cradle for so much culture is being made into the party district for nearby corporate villages - Amazon being the biggest offender. I have plenty of friends who've worked there (though many leave because it's so horrible) and plenty of friends in tech. It's not the profession, it's the people - they're easy to spot in real life. We don't want your approval - we're the ones who don't care. We want to know you're on the same side of the culture battle we've been losing for the last 5 or 10 years.

[thieving_magpie]

Well I'm new to the city and I'd feel like it would be plainly disingenuous of me to pretend I know what's going on. I'm here to support my family, learn, and experience this incredible area. I'm aware of the arguments in the culture battle and I am, of course, against gentrification and the loss of cultural identity. I will vote accordingly to try and fight that. However, I have a similar attitude as you (and the 'we' you're referring to) - I don't want or need your approval.

And it bears repeating, I haven't experienced any of this at all. I have only encountered nice people.

[devindotcom]

Yes indeed, and sorry if my comment sounded confrontational. I only meant that the "doesn't need approval" is an integral part of the Seattle mindset.

[thieving_magpie]

I didn't take it as a confrontation. I know exactly what you mean and I admire that quality.

[wfo]

When you move to a new place, that place has a culture. If you want locals to like or accept you, you should try to at the very least understand if not adopt part of that culture. It works the same everywhere. In a small town it's much more pressing and obvious -- watch how fast you get ostracized when you dump on their culture; in a big city you can kind of get away with doing your own thing and ignoring most of the people/culture/tradition if you want.

People in Seattle have worked very hard for years to build a community and a culture that they enjoy and on the whole represents them and is different from any other city in the country. That hard work is one of the biggest reasons people consider Seattle such a great place to live. Dumping a million rich young people who are there to work themselves to death at amazon for a year before they jump ship and work at a real company somewhere else into the middle of it isn't particularly good for that community or culture.

If you don't know what respecting the culture of a place means then I don't really know what to tell you. If you "hear it all the time" that means people are saying it all the time and it means something; I'd try to understand what they mean rather than being hostile to the idea.

[thieving_magpie]

I meant "read it all the time", as I only see this on the internet.

Fairly sure I'm fitting in just fine. As I said, I don't have a bad word to say about anyone I've met. Apparently asking you what "respect the culture" means gets me a negative response where you berate for me not already know what it means and telling me I should "try to understand".

So asking you directly isn't good enough. I think I'll just pass, I'm doing fine and Seattle has been nothing but kind. But good luck with your approach, I'm sure making someone feel bad for moving to a new place works on someone.