What Message Is Indy Sending??

7 Comments

Comment by Bryan Furuness on June 21, 2008 at 7:31am

Where to eat.

Comment by Nwokedi C. Idika on June 21, 2008 at 11:21am

Isn't Indy one of the fattest cities in America?

Comment by Douglas Karr on June 21, 2008 at 2:34pm

I moved to Indy about 6 years ago from Denver and I agree with you. Denver was a high-tech city, but the conversations were about health and exercise. I never lived anywhere like it - and found myself out hiking on weekends with my kids.

Indianapolis is a working town, in my opinion. Everyone I know here works hard - and vacations sometimes seem like interruptions. I suppose that's got advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that industry here seems to be all about getting results. Even our tech sector here isn't about the 'next big thing' but more about 'getting results'.

I think it's a testament to why we seem to be weathering the economic storm locally. I still see a huge demand for good talent here locally with plenty of opportunity.

Comment by Nicki Laycoax on June 21, 2008 at 4:35pm

Doug,

I didn't read the entire article that Nwokedi provided, however, I think that it is interesting the difference between Americans and Europeans...

Each time that I've been to Mexico, there have been several Europeans vacationing, or in their terms, on holiday, at the same time that I've been there... Funny, yet depressingly enough, they vacation/holiday for at least 2 weeks at a time, whereas I was vacationing for max 5 days!!! I totally agree with you that not only is Indianapolis a working town, but yet the entire U. S. of A. works too damn much!!!! (including myself, but I make my work enjoyable work-I've been often known to work from the pool catching some rays... )

I wish that we could figure out some way to make a transition from our current lifestyles to those of Europeans.

I'm currently reading a book called Eat, Pray, Love. It takes me forever to read a book because I'm slightly ADD when it comes to sitting down for extended periods of time doing anything.. but the book is about a woman that has been married for several years to a man that she doesn't want to be with, feels pressure of having kids, yet doesn't want to have kids, and has a career that provides her with much financial security... She recognizes after nights and nights of tears and unhappiness that she truly is unhappy and needs to find herself and her passions to live a free and fulfilled life.

She divorces her husband and basically every aspect of her life to travel and to open her mind to eating without feeling guilt, accepting Christ, learning languages, and learning how to shake all feelings of guilt that come with unhappiness.

If everyone could commit themselves to cleansing all elements that make them unhappy, wouldn't we be a much happier, successful, supportive, and carefree country?

Comment by Nwokedi C. Idika on June 21, 2008 at 8:24pm

Interesting.

I thought that the mentality of "work" was just a Purdue thing. We could be at the bars or in the grocery store; if I were to ask a colleague "How are you doing?" 10 times out of 10, something about their research is going to come out of their mouth. "My advisor is kicking my tail," or "research is going well." And when I overhear other conversations, they are generally talking about something that has to do with some type of work that they need to do.

I started my blog "The Art of Living Life" with some friends because we were all Computer Scientists who enjoyed talking about things that had nothing to do with Computer Science. The conversations usually revolved around "how one should live one's life." I just really enjoyed trying to tackle some of life's nagging existential questions with my colleagues.

Comment by Aaron M. Renn on June 22, 2008 at 10:54am

In my experience, Indy is far less work obsessed than places like New York, Silicon Valley, or Massachusetts, to pick the three places mentioned in the original essay. If you asked about its reputation nationally, or asked outsiders who've moved to town their view, I think it would be consistent with this.

Comment by Nwokedi C. Idika on June 22, 2008 at 5:26pm

Aaron,

So what are the other conversations that people are having in Indy other than work?

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