The subway is as great as they say. It might give you permanent brain damage though. Until conclusive trustworthy information about that becomes publicly available, it’s probably worth it to wear a cheap P100 mask indoors and to eat outdoors.
The housing can be cheaper depending on the area. It’s worth thinking about.
I never noticed unusually cold weather in DC. Maybe compared to the west coast, sure. It’s the summer heat and humidity that’s the problem; if you get a cheaper place with no A/C, buying a window unit is necessary, and still saves a ton of money.
Jobs. You have to send out a ludicrously large amount of applications at the beginning, but once you’re in, a smart person with the most basic quant skills can get all kinds of bizarre, interesting jobs (e.g. python, R, even a couple college-level statistics classes)
Cars:
Cars give a competitive advantage over other people. The social signalling alone more than pays for it, and the signalling value pales in comparison to the instrumental value. Some people prefer to be the change they want to see, but abstaining from having access to a car is like burning half of your money to help the government slow down inflation.
The subway is as great as they say. It might give you permanent brain damage though. Until conclusive trustworthy information about that becomes publicly available, it’s probably worth it to wear a cheap P100 mask indoors and to eat outdoors.
My assessment of the risk is different. I do have a P100 that I’d wear at the airport, but I don’t think the risk is high enough right now to wear in subways. I do think it’s worth wearing a N95 though if it’s crowded, which I do.
The housing can be cheaper depending on the area. It’s worth thinking about.
Yeah that is true. I actually talked to a real estate agent actually to discuss the areas. It does seem like there are some more affordable areas. It’s just that they probably wouldn’t be the areas I’d want to hang out in as much, and so I’d be spending a good amount of the time on the subways commuting into the more central areas. Which wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, to be clear.
I never noticed unusually cold weather in DC. Maybe compared to the west coast, sure. It’s the summer heat and humidity that’s the problem; if you get a cheaper place with no A/C, buying a window unit is necessary, and still saves a ton of money.
Oh ok. I actually was just assuming that it’d be similar to NY, where I grew up, and it gets cold there. But it also gets hot as well, yeah, heat and humidity are also a problem! Which makes me realize how much I love the moderate weather in Portland.
Jobs. You have to send out a ludicrously large amount of applications at the beginning, but once you’re in, a smart person with the most basic quant skills can get all kinds of bizarre, interesting jobs (e.g. python, R, even a couple college-level statistics classes)
Personally I work remotely as a programmer so my location doesn’t really matter, but that is cool to hear that about DC. I’ve experienced having to send out ludicrously large amounts of applications at times as well. Not fun at all.
Cars give a competitive advantage over other people. The social signalling alone more than pays for it, and the signalling value pales in comparison to the instrumental value. Some people prefer to be the change they want to see, but abstaining from having access to a car is like burning half of your money to help the government slow down inflation.
Hm, that is not matching my intuition. Do you have any examples in mind where having a car would provide that sort of useful social signaling? I’m genuinely curious about this.
As an anecdote, I do remember this one time when I was having trouble finding a job. A recruiter was seeing if I want to pursue this opportunity in Vegas that’d require me to have a car for. I said no, because I don’t have a car. The recruiter (unprompted) said I am making a bad life decision to not have a car and it’ll be very hard for me in my career without one. Fortunately, neither of those things turned out to be true.
The only cases I can think of where cars are an important signal are dating (not having a car signals that you’re poor) and entry level jobs (where the ability to show up to work on time is 90% of the qualifications). I don’t think either of those things apply to you though.
Yeah neither of those things apply to me, but they do make sense. Although re: dating, I have a perhaps unconventional take. I wouldn’t want to be with someone who’d view not having a car as an important signal, and so not having a car would provide me with good signal about someone who’d want to go on a date with me, while also helping me avoid dating someone I wouldn’t want to be with anyway.
Edit: Hm, actually I think I was being too uncharitable here. Not having a car does seem like a strong signal that someone is poor. And it does seem reasonable to not want to date someone who is poor.
In the DC area there are much fewer places without A/C, since it’s pretty critical to human functioning here. I always found it weird how many rental places didn’t offer A/C in the South Bay, given that it was clearly necessary some of the year. People in California are too used to temperate weather or something.
Yeah, more generally I don’t understand places without AC either when it does get uncomfortably hot for a month or two a year. When I was in Culver City outside of LA I didn’t have AC and needed to get a portable unit in the summer. Iirc my apartment was something like 75 degrees at night, which makes it difficult for me to sleep. And probably for many others too. I recall research showing that something in the mid to high 60s is optimal sleeping temperature. And during the day it can be hot, so I’d have to go to the mall or something to get access to AC, which is inconvenient when you just want to relax at home. A window unit is only a couple hundred bucks, so the price seems more than low enough to justify it.
I was thinking of apartments, specifically the cheapest apartments in expensive areas where you sacrifice lots of minor things to reduce market price e.g. no garbage chute, small size, and also A/C (in my case, they would turn the building from A/C to heating early in the fall and wait until june to turn it back on in order to save money, which is easily solved with a cheap window unit)
It was presumptive of me to assume that was the only category of housing that OP was researching.
Cars give a competitive advantage over other people. The social signalling alone more than pays for it, and the signalling value pales in comparison to the instrumental value. Some people prefer to be the change they want to see, but abstaining from having access to a car is like burning half of your money to help the government slow down inflation.
I mostly disagree with the social signalling framing, but granting the frame it still seems to me that foregoing a car would improve your social standing (if you’re the sort of person running in social circles where people broadly disapprove of cars and care about the environment). This is much like how vegetarianism/veganism is a stronger social signal than donating to charities fighting factory farming; the personal sacrifice speaks of personal virtue, which then confers social standing regardless of any consequentialist altruistic benefits.
I agree that it depends on the environment, and that with some people it will work differently than others. I’m accustomed to a more conservative job-seeking culture in DC.
DC:
The subway is as great as they say. It might give you permanent brain damage though. Until conclusive trustworthy information about that becomes publicly available, it’s probably worth it to wear a cheap P100 mask indoors and to eat outdoors.
The housing can be cheaper depending on the area. It’s worth thinking about.
I never noticed unusually cold weather in DC. Maybe compared to the west coast, sure. It’s the summer heat and humidity that’s the problem; if you get a cheaper place with no A/C, buying a window unit is necessary, and still saves a ton of money.
Jobs. You have to send out a ludicrously large amount of applications at the beginning, but once you’re in, a smart person with the most basic quant skills can get all kinds of bizarre, interesting jobs (e.g. python, R, even a couple college-level statistics classes)
Cars:
Cars give a competitive advantage over other people. The social signalling alone more than pays for it, and the signalling value pales in comparison to the instrumental value. Some people prefer to be the change they want to see, but abstaining from having access to a car is like burning half of your money to help the government slow down inflation.
My assessment of the risk is different. I do have a P100 that I’d wear at the airport, but I don’t think the risk is high enough right now to wear in subways. I do think it’s worth wearing a N95 though if it’s crowded, which I do.
Yeah that is true. I actually talked to a real estate agent actually to discuss the areas. It does seem like there are some more affordable areas. It’s just that they probably wouldn’t be the areas I’d want to hang out in as much, and so I’d be spending a good amount of the time on the subways commuting into the more central areas. Which wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, to be clear.
Oh ok. I actually was just assuming that it’d be similar to NY, where I grew up, and it gets cold there. But it also gets hot as well, yeah, heat and humidity are also a problem! Which makes me realize how much I love the moderate weather in Portland.
Personally I work remotely as a programmer so my location doesn’t really matter, but that is cool to hear that about DC. I’ve experienced having to send out ludicrously large amounts of applications at times as well. Not fun at all.
Hm, that is not matching my intuition. Do you have any examples in mind where having a car would provide that sort of useful social signaling? I’m genuinely curious about this.
As an anecdote, I do remember this one time when I was having trouble finding a job. A recruiter was seeing if I want to pursue this opportunity in Vegas that’d require me to have a car for. I said no, because I don’t have a car. The recruiter (unprompted) said I am making a bad life decision to not have a car and it’ll be very hard for me in my career without one. Fortunately, neither of those things turned out to be true.
The only cases I can think of where cars are an important signal are dating (not having a car signals that you’re poor) and entry level jobs (where the ability to show up to work on time is 90% of the qualifications). I don’t think either of those things apply to you though.
Yeah neither of those things apply to me, but they do make sense. Although re: dating, I have a perhaps unconventional take. I wouldn’t want to be with someone who’d view not having a car as an important signal, and so not having a car would provide me with good signal about someone who’d want to go on a date with me, while also helping me avoid dating someone I wouldn’t want to be with anyway.
Edit: Hm, actually I think I was being too uncharitable here. Not having a car does seem like a strong signal that someone is poor. And it does seem reasonable to not want to date someone who is poor.
In the DC area there are much fewer places without A/C, since it’s pretty critical to human functioning here. I always found it weird how many rental places didn’t offer A/C in the South Bay, given that it was clearly necessary some of the year. People in California are too used to temperate weather or something.
Yeah, more generally I don’t understand places without AC either when it does get uncomfortably hot for a month or two a year. When I was in Culver City outside of LA I didn’t have AC and needed to get a portable unit in the summer. Iirc my apartment was something like 75 degrees at night, which makes it difficult for me to sleep. And probably for many others too. I recall research showing that something in the mid to high 60s is optimal sleeping temperature. And during the day it can be hot, so I’d have to go to the mall or something to get access to AC, which is inconvenient when you just want to relax at home. A window unit is only a couple hundred bucks, so the price seems more than low enough to justify it.
I was thinking of apartments, specifically the cheapest apartments in expensive areas where you sacrifice lots of minor things to reduce market price e.g. no garbage chute, small size, and also A/C (in my case, they would turn the building from A/C to heating early in the fall and wait until june to turn it back on in order to save money, which is easily solved with a cheap window unit)
It was presumptive of me to assume that was the only category of housing that OP was researching.
I mostly disagree with the social signalling framing, but granting the frame it still seems to me that foregoing a car would improve your social standing (if you’re the sort of person running in social circles where people broadly disapprove of cars and care about the environment). This is much like how vegetarianism/veganism is a stronger social signal than donating to charities fighting factory farming; the personal sacrifice speaks of personal virtue, which then confers social standing regardless of any consequentialist altruistic benefits.
I agree that it depends on the environment, and that with some people it will work differently than others. I’m accustomed to a more conservative job-seeking culture in DC.