I initially never thought I’d move to the south. When applying to colleges, I deliberately crossed off all southern schools, as I didn’t think there were any opportunities here. When I started at Ender as an intern and they asked me to relocate to Austin, I declined. “What’s in Austin?” I thought. I was wrong.
Austin is an intelligent city. It’s accelerated growth since the pandemic has not discounted its quality of life, and it has learned from the mistakes made by San Francisco as a largely “tech” city. Austin residents are also supportive of the city’s efforts to grow and adapt to the changes posed by the expansion. And yet, it’s attractive to both large tech (Oracle runs a massive campus in South Shore, not to mention the spaces that Google/Meta/Atlassian/Tesla occupied closer to downtown) and startups (SXSW is here getting national attention, and some of the coolest new technologies have settled here — Pipedream’s underground delivery pipes, Wander who finds some of the most beautiful work retreat spaces, ICON 3D printing houses, and Maven’s online learning system… and Cruise testing self-driving taxis here as a second city after SF.
Austin is a diverse city. The city has its interests — from the bars and parties in Rainey district, to people taking peaceful morning hikes along Colorado River; from the 440,000 fans coming in for the Grand Prix, to people cheering on for Austin FC (a young MLS club) over the same weekend; from professionals flying in from everywhere in the world for SXSW in spring, to the Austin City Limits music festival in fall turning Austin into the live music capital of the world… there’s always something happening here. But these events are never slamming themselves in your face. Overwhelmed? Drive up to Mt. Bonnell and take a walk, where you’ll be away from all the noise despite being only 20 minutes out.
Born and raised in Shanghai, I have high standards for cities, and Austin has satisfied most of it. It’s clean (ahem SF), mostly well-maintained (ahem SF), mostly safe (ahem SF), and not overwhelming. Oh, and not everyone you meet here is either a tech bro or a VC.
Texas policy is (red flags: abortion, firearms, environmental 🥲)… so YMMV. But if you do move to Austin, please participate in every election! Results are generally super close both at the state level (R-54.8%, D-43.9%) and local level (Watson-50.39%-less liberal, Israel-49.61%). It’s a benefit: your voice always counts, and may the best policies win, regardless of political affiliations.
Oh, and traveling is easy. Being in the middle of the country, you’re not too far away from any destination.
What's Up with Austin? - David Perell