Funnily enough, I'm in maybe the opposite boat as you.
I currently live in a quiet suburb of OKC, maybe 20 minutes drive from downtown. Rent is cheap, around $0.75/SF/month. Bandwidth isn't terrible, but it's not like SF or NYC.
I'm a freelancer. If I wanted to, I could probably cover all my "necessary" expenses working one or two days a week. Instead, I work 6 days a week, and save almost all my money. I want to move to SF or NYC once I have some serious savings.
To be honest, I just don't like the culture here. Although I've grown up here and have friends, gf, etc. here, "professionally" I feel alone. I'm one of only very few tech-minded entrepreneurs. I hack alone. It's not uncommon for me to go 48 hours without leaving my apartment.
I was in SF on business last week and it struck me at just how easy it was to get contacts and network in a place where there are other hackers. There's no awkward "So, what do you do for a living?" conversations where you have to start at "what is a web application". Even for a hacker, I am really, really independently-minded. That said, it would be great to have a partner on a couple of things. But I won't find one here.
tl;dr If it's a short-term thing and you're tight on cash--go for it! But you'll get lonely after awhile.
As someone who moved from Indiana to NYC, I applaud you. You don't realize how many opportunities you're missing until you move to a big city.
The fact that a week ago, I decided to randomly google 'tech meetups' and find one that was meeting the next morning with 20+ high quality entrepreneurs was ridiculous.
"To be honest, I just don't like the culture here. Although I've grown up here and have friends, gf, etc. here, "professionally" I feel alone. I'm one of only very few tech-minded entrepreneurs. I hack alone. It's not uncommon for me to go 48 hours without leaving my apartment."
It sounds like you need to put in more effort to find other hackers in your area. Scour Twitter and search for user groups in your area, or start your own! In the OKC area you're bound to find some if you look hard enough. Remember, most hackers take the passive quiet-path (like you) and may not leave their apartment.
There's plenty here in the Midwest, you just have to look a bit harder for it.
I currently live in a quiet suburb of OKC, maybe 20 minutes drive from downtown. Rent is cheap, around $0.75/SF/month. Bandwidth isn't terrible, but it's not like SF or NYC.
I'm a freelancer. If I wanted to, I could probably cover all my "necessary" expenses working one or two days a week. Instead, I work 6 days a week, and save almost all my money. I want to move to SF or NYC once I have some serious savings.
To be honest, I just don't like the culture here. Although I've grown up here and have friends, gf, etc. here, "professionally" I feel alone. I'm one of only very few tech-minded entrepreneurs. I hack alone. It's not uncommon for me to go 48 hours without leaving my apartment.
I was in SF on business last week and it struck me at just how easy it was to get contacts and network in a place where there are other hackers. There's no awkward "So, what do you do for a living?" conversations where you have to start at "what is a web application". Even for a hacker, I am really, really independently-minded. That said, it would be great to have a partner on a couple of things. But I won't find one here.
tl;dr If it's a short-term thing and you're tight on cash--go for it! But you'll get lonely after awhile.