Utrecht
Today I spent the day in Utrecht visiting with my family the place where my father and I grew up. I hadn’t returned to The Netherlands in over a decade and my memories where starting to get blurry. It was certainly very emotional, although I think that neither my father nor I would ever consider returning to live to Utrecht.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the town, it is a medium-sized city with romantic canals that is very enjoyable during the summer and even though the rain can be depressing during the rest of the year I am convinced that it is possible to have a complete, happy life there. However, I cannot picture myself living there, as life seems to move much slower than in larger metropolitan areas.
One could argue that with the Internet (and I was able to get excellent download speeds in Utrecht) it is no longer necessary to live close to large cities in order to get many of the benefits that people normally associate with places like New York, Paris or London. I am not convinced. There is much more to live in a large city than being able to easily buy the latest and greatest. Small cities tend to favor status quo while largest cities spur competition and innovation. This doesn’t mean that innovation is less likely to appear in smaller cities or rural areas, it is just less likely because it is less necessary and there are less opportunities to share ideas with other interested parties. That is why I feel that I would feel quite lonely if I had to return to my home town. I could be wrong, though as Utrecht is only about twenty miles away from Amsterdam. Could it be that this old city combines the benefits of a small town and a large metro-pole? Possible, but it didn’t seem that way to me.
I think that small towns located close to major population centers have a bright future. Knowledge workers usually no longer need to go to the office every day and that could mean a major change in the way people choose where to live. After decades of observing people move to large urban areas, we could be close to witness a major behavioral shift. Last year, after attending WWDC I went to Carmel and Monterey with my wife. I think that I (as well as many others) could easily picture myself living there, enjoying the benefits of a small town and the relative proximity to San Jose and San Francisco. What is the difference with Utrecht? Well, for a technologist Amsterdam doesn’t compare to the Bay Area and the weather is much better in Carmel than in Utrecht.