Mike Benner: Location, Location, Location

Location, Location, Location

Aug 22 by Michael Benner

Just over three years ago I moved to North Carolina for both professional and personal reasons. The move seemed to make sense. But after awhile I found my self excited for my trips back to California, no not for the great weather, surf or other really great things, but for the fun of being with like minded developers and professionals I had a relationship with. That seemed to be lacking in NC. I found that over the years I got less enthusiastic about code and my self education even got stagnant.

Pan ahead 3 years and I am now in Scottsdale, AZ and within weeks of my move I had met a great group of guys online that,

while not CF developers, are like minded web developers. And I noticed something. My blood was pumping gain. I WANT to code extracurricular projects, I want to help with open source, I am EXCITED again.

I also realized being in an office with others that are dedicated and hard working has spurned me to do more and work harder. This clicked with an article I read a year ago about large cities being more productive (Scientific American Article).

I can feel the influence of Phoenix and the great resource of having access to the professional population. But as I renewed my interest in the web, specifically my love for Twitter, I discovered something else. In the age of the Internet you are in every location at all times.

Through Twitter and other social networking sites I found an online group that has also spurred this renewed vigor. Oddly enough, I discovered the resources I had in my own backyard in Carolina (Dan Wilson, Jim Priest, and Critter to name a few). But I also, start following several users in the UK (Andy Jarrett, Mark Drew and others) and through Twitter have a constant feed of inspiration and great minds to bounce ideas off of.

While this doesn't make up for the local availability of resources like Gangplank and CFLunch in Raleigh, it can certainly help the lone developer in an office or rural area that doesn't have a very active User Group for their field.

So go download TweetDeck (an invaluable Twitter Client) and search the web for active users regardless of location. If you find yourself feeling stagnant, get online and get active.

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Interesting, because I'm thinking of moving to NC. Dayton, OH is where I live now--talk about stagnant! Where in NC? My wife and I are thinking Greensboro.

# Posted By Lance | 8/22/08 10:28 PM

We were in Raleigh. It is a beautiful area. Like I said I (unfortuneately) discovered to late that there are some great guys out there. Jim Priest even started CFlunch to get developers together outside of the regular Triangle CFUG.