Go West, Young (?) Man

Empire, CO

Originally uploaded by sogrady.

Warning, long post

Over the course of our conversation here, you’ve heard me talk me talk more than a few times about location independence and the opportunities of working where you want to, rather than have to (recently here and an older piece here). Well, I’m about to put that to the test: I’m moving to Alaska. I’m going to be the first Alaskan analyst (that I know of). Anchorage, here I come!

Ok, ok, that’s just April Fool’s. I’m not really moving to Alaska, although that’d be pretty cool. Not as cool as moving to Cayman Brac, but cool.

But April Fool’s aside, I do have some big news, and it does involve moving. Rather than Alaska, however, I’m headed out to Denver, CO. Yes, Denver, the tech hub 😉 As you may put together by now, the mortgage help I asked for was not merely to satisfy my curiosity, and my trip a few weeks ago out to Denver likewise had an ulterior motive. Or if you were really attentive, you might have picked up from my blogroll that I’ve added Craigslist RSS feeds for Denver furniture and office space, although if you watched my blogroll that closely I’d be slightly worried that you weren’t getting out enough.

At any rate, I’m pleased to announce that I’m now under contract for a ‘loftiminium’ in Denver’s Lower Downtown district (home of Coors Field along with countless restaurants and bars). Coastal Maine to Denver’s quite a departure (and will be one hell of a drive), but I’m really looking forward to it. Most of you are probably quite confused by now, and since I haven’t done a Q&A yet this week, I might as well get one in.

Q: Why move?
A: Tons of reasons, among them:
1. I’ve never lived for longer than a year more than a 5 hour drive from Fenway Park
2. Wherever I ended up, Fenway Park is not much more than a 5 hour flight
3. I’ve worn out my welcome with my Denver friends by sleeping on their couches for 3 or 4 weeks per year
4. Because I can
5. I haven’t lived in a city in a few years, and thought it’d be nice again
6. Having successfully brought the Red Sox a World Championship, my presence here in the east is no longer required

Q: Ok, but that’s a general answer. More specifically, why Denver?
A: Well, when I decided to move I considered a couple of scenarios: move back to Boston or NYC where I’ve lived before, or head west to either Denver or San Francisco (have friends in both places). The metrics I use for evaluation are (predictably) very simple. Proximity of friends and/or family, economics (housing costs, etc), and professional concerns (airport access, timezone difference, etc). Knowing that I wanted to purchase something rather than rent, NYC and San Fran got whacked straight off (open source analysis pays well, but not that well ;), and Boston followed closely thereafter. Denver was a nice compromise of family/friends, relatively low real estate costs, and has an absolutely outstanding airport. Plus I just love Colorado.

Q: That all makes sense, but I thought you loved Maine?
A: I did, and I do. In the few years I’ve been here, I’ve really come to regard Maine as my home state, despite the fact that I wasn’t raised here. The pace of life, the New England culture, the Atlantic all won me over after being here for only a week or two. I’m not leaving because there’s anything wrong with Maine; quite the contrary – it’s a great place to be. Yes, even in the winter. No, my thinking was that I’d take the opportunity while I’m still (relatively) young and unattached to break the grip of New England for at least a few years, then see what happens. But rest assured I’ll be back east early and often. Because my family has a place here in ME, I expect to be spending a lot of time back east – weeks at a shot – both for personal and professional reasons. I’m also delighted to be continuing the professional relationship I have with Joe Kumiszcza’s excellent Maine technical association, MESDA.

So basically I’ll split time as best I can, and look forward to killing time in my hammock by the water this summer. Pretty soon I’ll have one of those stuffy author bios, “Mr. O’Grady divides his time between Denver, CO and Bath, ME…”

Q: How will this affect RedMonk?
A: With any luck, it won’t. Oh, the additional two hour time difference will make scheduling a bit more challenging (please, no 8 AM ET calls folks), but I’ll do what I can to accomodate that. Email, phone (as long as you use the toll free), blog, etc – all of that stays the same. Travel – even to the east coast – may actually be easier, as it’s far simpler to fly out of Denver than Portland, ME. JetBlue’s got my back there. And for you guys on the west coast, watch out – I’m now just a shuttle flight away. If anything, I think it’ll offer some new opportunities, as most of you are more likely to pass through Denver than Bath, ME so it’ll make meetups much easier. For clients, media members, or anyone else for that matter, that has questions about how the transition will work, just drop me a line.

Q: How many Red Sox games will you miss?
A: In person? A bunch, probably. I’m lucky enough that despite the ridiculous scarcity of Sox tickets (they’ve been sold out for a few hundred games in a row), I usually managed to get in at least 5 and occasionally more like 10 or 12 games. Now, it’ll be a bit more challenging. But through the magic of DirecTV (my potential home is wired for it), I won’t miss have to miss a game.

Q: When is all this going to happen?
A: If everything proceeds according to plan – which it rarely does – I’ll be closing on April 22nd. Once that happens, the plan is to rope a buddy from college who’ll be out here for our lacrosse alumni game into roadtripping all my stuff with me across country the first week of May. Will try and capture pics along the way to share.

Q: You’re seriously going to do the move yourself and drive it?
A: After pricing out the alternative, yes. Yes I am.

Q: That’s crazy. But anyway, what should I do if I have further questions?
A: As always, you can comment here. Otherwise, phone, IM or email. Happy to chat about it.

Q: You’re sure this isn’t an April Fool’s thing?
A: Nope. Alaska was, Colorado is not.