[probably_a_gpt]

What do you eat though?

It sounds like the diverse mix of cultures one finds in cities may not be something that adds value for you, but it certainly does for me.

Also, one of the reasons people enjoy cities is because of the proximity to stuff. Living in a city I can walk to everything from the grocery store and a plethora of restaurants, to the local theatre.

Living in a city those things are often at most a 15 minute walk.

Living somewhere deeply suburban or rural, you often have to drive more than 15 minutes to reach a single one of those things.

Sure you have tinder, but just doing the math based on population density one can see that cities have an advantage if you like a diverse dating pool.

Yes living in a city costs more, but it’s because there is more demand. That demand is sustained by real world individuals deciding cities have value for them.

[betwixthewires]

I cook mostly. I eat pretty good.

I come from a diverse background with a diverse friend group in a very large city. By diverse, I mean at least a dozen nationalities and largely immigrants from every continent. I'm no stranger to it, and it does hold value to me. But it's overrated, it's not worth being packed into an apartment building like a sardine and getting stuck in traffic going anywhere that isn't the corner store.

That said, where I live isn't exactly a monoculture. There are Indians, Vietnamese, Chinese, Philippino, Norwegians, Germans, Mexican and assorted other central american people, Cubans, and of course your usual white and black american people. All in a town with a 4 digit population.

The places I can get to in a 5 mile car ride where I live might not be places to buy stuff, but I can have a lot of fun out here. There's water, woods, lots of little food shacks and taco trucks and a couple of grocery stores, a few bars (I've grown out of bars mostly). It's low stress to get around, and when you get where you're going there's usually some people that aren't jaded by the smell of the masses and are eager to be friendly.

I wouldn't say the dating game is easier in cities. You've got just as much competition as options, and people in cities are more judgmental and unforgiving. And also, in my opinion, out here the quality of the people is just better in general.

I think largely the majority of people in cities are there because they're stuck there. Very few people anywhere moved there because they wanted to, most people are just born where they live, and in cities there's just more people in a smaller space. I don't think it's indicative of an advantage, and I think largely the desire to live there is driven by ideas like life outside of one is a waste, there's nothing to do, country bumpkins are bad neighbors, etc. Most of the selling points of densely populated environments are overstated, if they're true at all anymore IMO.

[CharlesW]

> …people in cities are more judgmental and unforgiving.

As someone whose life took the opposite path — born and raised in rural Iowa, having since lived in both big cities and suburbs — I'm astounded by generalizations like the above, "the quality of the people is just better", etc. The lesson seems to be "you're going to [love|hate] the [big city|rural] experience based on the personal experiences you have in each.