This is a big motivation for me as well. I live in Salt Lake City and all winter long I can ski at dawn before every day of work, and all summer long I can climb 11k' mountains 20 minutes from my house - benefits I'd be hard-pressed to recreate anywhere else. Moving to NY, SF, etc would be miserable for me as well (I've lived in NY). There are plenty of reasons remote workers prefer to be remote, not just the obvious ones! (Family, grew up there, etc).
The rest of my team is scattered across Europe, so the time difference can make an impact, but once everyone trusts one another I don't notice it making a big difference.
really any "outdoorsy" city -- Denver, Salt Lake, Seattle, Juneau, Flagstaff, Jackson Hole, Bend, Asheville -- is going to be hard to replace. Even with another city from the list. Seattle's mountains aren't really the same as Salt Lake City's mountains, which aren't really the same as Denver's mountains (I have lived in or near all 3 cities.)
And of course if you're working remotely, you can live in a much smaller town that can't be replicated in any way. There's no way to replace "I live in my grandpa's hometown" (Milo, MO -- not a place I want to live, but if I did, there would be no replacing it.)
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This is a big motivation for me as well. I live in Salt Lake City and all winter long I can ski at dawn before every day of work, and all summer long I can climb 11k' mountains 20 minutes from my house - benefits I'd be hard-pressed to recreate anywhere else. Moving to NY, SF, etc would be miserable for me as well (I've lived in NY). There are plenty of reasons remote workers prefer to be remote, not just the obvious ones! (Family, grew up there, etc).
The rest of my team is scattered across Europe, so the time difference can make an impact, but once everyone trusts one another I don't notice it making a big difference.
As for hard-to-recreate benefits, Seattle could be another option (multiple ski resorts around, couple of >= 11k mountains nearby).
really any "outdoorsy" city -- Denver, Salt Lake, Seattle, Juneau, Flagstaff, Jackson Hole, Bend, Asheville -- is going to be hard to replace. Even with another city from the list. Seattle's mountains aren't really the same as Salt Lake City's mountains, which aren't really the same as Denver's mountains (I have lived in or near all 3 cities.)
And of course if you're working remotely, you can live in a much smaller town that can't be replicated in any way. There's no way to replace "I live in my grandpa's hometown" (Milo, MO -- not a place I want to live, but if I did, there would be no replacing it.)