YYZ

I’ve spent the last few days thinking about which city I see myself being based out of long term. While I understand I’m not in the ideal place in life to be answering a question like this because I haven’t spent a lot of time exploring a verity of cities, I feel like I have an inkling of an idea about the framework I want to be using to evaluate the idea.

They have been quite a few intriguing pieces written about this topic (the most prominent one being Cities & Ambition) but the crux of most of them boil down to ‘find the city which is most in-line with what you’re trying to optimize for in life’ and while that’s amazing, I think the key factor I want to balance it against is the quality of life in those places.

For example, I have spent a bit of time in San Fransisco and while I’m immensely in love with the culture of building in city, the quality of life there is a huge deterrent to moving there. However, I think, realistically, there’s a high chance I find myself living there not too far out.

However, right now, Toronto feels like the right place to be. While the tech ecosystem here is little to none and capital here is conservatively dispensed, Toronto is city-enough to not feel like I’m in the middle of nowhere while distancing itself from the things I usually hate about cities. Compared to other major cities, Toronto is safe, less poverty-ridden, clean, accessible (has a pretty good public transport system). I acknowledge that I may be biased due to me not having ever properly having lived in one of the other cities and because Toronto has been home for a few years after being born here.

Toronto in some senses is very similar to London, it feels like the primary a services driven city, everyone’s into finance and trying to sell others services.

Honestly, my decision to be in Toronto is more dictated by circumstances than conscious decision but I’m interested to see where that takes me down the line.