> I would love to, but I come from a place where intellectual pursuits are not valued, so I would lose out on that front if I moved back.
I used to think along similar lines. But I haven't found moving out of the city to be subtractive of my 'intellectual life'. If anything, it has been complementary - due to being grounded in mainstream experience again that I lost touch with in the city.
That said, I've very consciously kept those former social connections alive (I'm an hour away), as I still need semi-regular social interaction with people much smarter than me.
> being grounded in mainstream experience again that I lost touch with in the city
I just spent a couple weeks visiting a friend in a (fairly affluent) rural mountain town, and felt this overwhelmingly. Most discussion amongst rural people seems to focus on things that directly affect them and that they can in turn affect. Community projects, social events, improving their schools, local gossip, etc.
In contrast, my city friends spend a lot of time on "bigger" subjects: wars, geopolitical and economic trends, our predictions on technological development... also, a lot of conversation about people's travel plans and that sort of thing. Rich city people always seem to be traveling out of the city, or planning their next travel.
It's not that the rural people are ignorant of the world, rather, I think it's a conscious choice to focus on things in their sphere of influence. It was a really nice reminder for me. If I ask a city friend "how have you been doing?" I'm likely to hear something like "oh, I've just been so stressed about this election" or "I've been worrying about AI taking my job". A rural friend might say something about digging their neighbor's house out after the latest snowstorm, or start talking about the new ski trail that their community just built.
It depends on how you lived in the city and how much video calling you do outside of work. If you're an hour away, it doesn't make sense to meet a friend in the city for coffee for 30 minutes and then drive home, but if that's not how you interacted with people in the city, then living in the suburbs or rural areas isn't going to change how you interact with them.
I used to think along similar lines. But I haven't found moving out of the city to be subtractive of my 'intellectual life'. If anything, it has been complementary - due to being grounded in mainstream experience again that I lost touch with in the city.
That said, I've very consciously kept those former social connections alive (I'm an hour away), as I still need semi-regular social interaction with people much smarter than me.