[josefresco]

Hey I live in a small (former) fishing town! Except it's winter, 30 degrees and I'm inside staring at my computer screens and might as well be anywhere in the world.

Yes I can stop work, and "go surfing" (in the right season), I can even stop working and visit the local town pier and see those quaint "fisherman" struggling to make a living -because let's be honest, not everyone can be a tech-ninja startup founder.

If I wanted I could even crank the heat in my car, squint and make believe that it's actually a warm exotic beach in Europe but hey, at some point I gotta go back to the office, fire up that computer and get back to hacking.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter where you are. If you need to "break out of the box" and travel a bit, go for it. But simply moving operations to somewhere foreign will not be the deciding factor in your success.

[lelele]

> At the end of the day it doesn't matter where you are.

I think that it matters, instead. Unless you are one of those people who are oblivious to their surroundings.

You are not going to code 24/7. And when you will have done your share of coding for the day, or even if you would just like to take a break, then being in a nice place will help you to recharge yourself.

[maaku]

Some people consider small fishing villages to be nice places.

[lelele]

And I didn't mean otherwise. "Nice place" meant "whatever feels nice to you".

[onion2k]

If all you're doing is hacking code then moving somewhere that lowers your burnrate as much as possible does seem like a good idea.

[organsnyder]

Only after you've tried to account for all of the intangibles, though. The right location can give you many benefits—workforce, networking opportunities, media access—that aren't available everywhere. Some of that can be done virtually, but in-person meetings still are much more memorable for many people.

Also, if all your company is doing is "hacking code", then I doubt your company will be around for very long.

All that being said, I do agree with the sentiment, and I think that the benefits of high-cost locales are probably not worth the increased cost of living. I definitely appreciate my Midwest mortgage payment.

[handzhiev]

"Some of that can be done virtually, but in-person meetings still are much more memorable for many people."

But some don't ever do in-person meetings. There are many small companies who do business 100% online, don't need investors, local staff or anything like that. For this type of companies staying in the big city makes no sense.

(Disclaimer: I live in the woods in a small mountain town)

[pbhjpbhj]

If like me you're confused how 30 deg C is cold ... then note 30 deg F is ~ -1 deg C.

For me, in the UK, being able to go and sit outside for half-an-hour makes a lot of difference to my mood and thence my ability to focus and get stuff done. There's only really a couple of months in the year that's possible. Mind you I love snow too, and a fresh bright snowy day is a great break as well. Instead we seem to have at least 6 months of dreariness and dreich.

[rtpg]

it doesn't matter until it lets you cut your payroll in half and gives you 12 months more runway with your funding.