Comfort Zone Amsterdam

It’s that time of the year again, when I’m left pondering my choices and the way forward – this seems to have become a bit of a tradition in the past 3 years. Things always change, the ones taken for granted not always ending up being so after all.

Amsterdam has a few things going for me – the green startup I’ve been helping out here and there (random advice on issues that come up while building a website), ping pong tables at Den Haag office gig (pipelining educational data and Yet Another CMS) , Casa with friends and travels up in Bos en Lommer, beginnings of friendships and connections I haven’t had the initiative to build up yet. But are those enough to keep me here, considering the very likely possiblity of yet another flat-hunt in a terribly overcrowded city and forced commitment of X months to high-unless-ure-lucky-rent.

But then, where else? Helsinki has the flat I should make a decision on, but as socio-professional landscape is most likely more of the same old, I’d rather not. London has a friend and possibilities towards what I might want to be / do, but 11 (?) million is just a bit too big and the costs staggering. Berlin is cheap and beautiful, but who do I know there to get started with things I really want to do – and I’d rather practice languages other than German.

Or.. just take whatever I have and get going, anywhere and nowhere in particular – lifestyle of a location-independent professional. But it’s getting to a point where I’d really rather stay enough to be able to say I’ve lived there, and work on things I care about, rather than just hop around endlessly from couch to couch, community to community.

Past choices having been dictated more by wanting to travel, and meeting like-minded people outside the bounds of a small country,  I’m now more on a lookout to align my past experiences and skills in a professionally meaningful way, wherever that may be. So for the odd chance of receiving a response to this shout-out into the void:
I’m all ears for pointers towards socially conscious projects where experience with online/offline communities and software skills (& degree to show for those) are needed.

The very first steps are clear however: it’s up north, cottages, camping, family and friends soon enough – with enough time to think things through being forced to be OFFLINE (oh the horror ) somewhere there in the wilderness.