I've been living off my (grad school stipend!) savings for almost 2 years in Asia. I do AI research, independently. Here's the rent for one bedroom in a "decent student" shared flat:
- Montreal: 300$; dorms 250$
- University town, Germany: 250$, 180$ for the dorms
- University town, Turkey: 120$
- India, monastery guest house: 60$
- China, Kunming (mid-sized city): 80$
I've found that the cost of living is pretty much proportional to the rent. Internet costs are negligible, unless you live in a very remote place.
There's a lot to write about the experience, but in short: best decision of my life. Two years without any responsibility whatsoever, free to hack or just go biking any time of day. With the advent of the Internet, a new lifestyle for doing research and development (aka, sow the seeds of the next Google) has opened outside the constraints of academia and industry. Few people seem to be taking advantage of it.
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I've been living off my (grad school stipend!) savings for almost 2 years in Asia. I do AI research, independently. Here's the rent for one bedroom in a "decent student" shared flat:
- Montreal: 300$; dorms 250$
- University town, Germany: 250$, 180$ for the dorms
- University town, Turkey: 120$
- India, monastery guest house: 60$
- China, Kunming (mid-sized city): 80$
I've found that the cost of living is pretty much proportional to the rent. Internet costs are negligible, unless you live in a very remote place.
There's a lot to write about the experience, but in short: best decision of my life. Two years without any responsibility whatsoever, free to hack or just go biking any time of day. With the advent of the Internet, a new lifestyle for doing research and development (aka, sow the seeds of the next Google) has opened outside the constraints of academia and industry. Few people seem to be taking advantage of it.