With this latest installment in my series of posts about Appsterdam, I’d like to talk a bit about the weather, and let that lead us into a bit of conversation about Dutch culture and life in the world’s most livable city. I know a lot of you are eager to hear concrete details around things like immigration. We’ll talk more about that next time. Remember: you get three months without a visa. Come for the summer and we’ll have plenty of time to talk when you want to stay.
You may have heard that the weather in Amsterdam is terrible, especially if you’ve been speaking to the Dutch. Having spent quite a bit of time here, I can assure you the climate here is quite nice—this from a guy who grew up in Honolulu. The winter, like the cost of living, is inline with Seattle, but the rest of the year is actually nicer. Plus you have the Europe bonus: if the clouds get you down, you can take a train to nicer weather.
The source of this contradiction lies in Dutch culture. Bitching about the weather is just how one starts a conversation here. It’s always too hot, too cold, too wet, or too windy. The weather is always nicer somewhere else. The prices here aren’t as good as they used to be, and the food here is nothing compared to Paris, and the people, don’t even get me started.
This is what I term the Dutch modesty. The Netherlands has a cultural modesty that rivals Japan. This is important to recognize, because it’s easy for Americans especially to run into this. For example, when you’re speaking at a conference here, you don’t talk about accomplishments. In the States, it’s typical to spend the first five minutes of your talk explaining who you are and what qualifies you to be on stage. In American culture, this is humble, as it doesn’t assume people know who you are, and polite, as you’ve divulged something about yourself.
In the Netherlands, the opposite is true. An American who gets up on stage and starts with a five-minute summary of their résumé comes across as a braggart. Who is this arrogant SOB who feels the need to stand up here and tell us who he is and why we should listen to him? The nerve! I’ve been at conferences where very humble speakers have come off as complete assholes because of this cultural difference.
So when you speak to the Dutch about their homeland, about their culture, their language, and especially their weather, they will spin you great yarns of their inferiority. Still, there are hints of pride at the past glories of the Golden Age. You pick it up around the edges of a conversation. If you really want to force it out, start expounding on the virtues of Germany.
The real tension between the Netherlands and Germany is akin to the tension between the United States and Canada. They have stereotypes of the other as tourists, and sporting matches bring it out more than anything. The one difference is, again, on the edges. When you talk to the Dutch about the subject of Germany, no specific person mind you, but as a concept, you will sometimes hear a hint of bitterness trailing off in something like, “which doesn’t change the fact that they starved us.”
The last battles of World War 2 were fought in the Netherlands. The failure of the Allied offensive “Market Garden” left the Nazi-occupied country in a half liberated state. The efforts of the Dutch resistance, and obvious joy in the hearts of the liberated, agitated the Germans, and they punished harshly those still within their grasp. German-inflicted privation killed 18,000 Dutch citizens over the last winter of the waning war.
To Americans, the last great war is an abstract idea, the subject of documentaries and video games. To Europeans, it’s recent history. May 5th is celebrated in the Netherlands as Liberation Day, preceded the night before by a national ceremony remembering the dead. The entire country observes a two-minute silence at 8 p.m., with bars and restaurants everywhere sometimes bringing in projection equipment to show the broadcast of the ceremony from the national monument in the middle of downtown Amsterdam.
This all happens less than a week after Queen’s Day, which is the Dutch equivalent of Presidents’ Day, except that the party is more like New Year’s Eve, with everyone in the country taking to the streets the night before for 24-hours of revelry. Sales tax is suspended for the day, leading to free markets springing up on every inch of available pavement.
In the days leading up to Queen’s Day, people call dibs on their piece of the pie by drawing a border in tape, usually accompanied by the word BEZET, meaning “reserved,” or more accurately, “occupied.” This is such a cultural phenomenon that Heineken, the Budweiser of Holland, riffs on it in its advertisements.
What I love about Queen’s Day is not that it’s the world’s largest birthday party, but the birthday wish that it fulfills. The point of Queen’s Day is togetherness. It is the one day of the year when we set aside our differences and literally take to the streets to meet our neighbors, embrace our differences, and party our asses off with strangers—all while dressed in bright orange.
It’s time we had an adult conversation about Appsterdam.
There are a few topics, certain liberties if you will, that people enjoy in the Netherlands, the mention of which tends to attract criticism. Having taken to heart some feedback, and having thought about it quite a bit, I think further explanation is in order.
Let’s talk about three things that are tolerated in the Netherlands that are often anathema in other places: marijuana, prostitution, and homosexuality.
Let’s take it from the top. Amsterdam and San Francisco are the two world capitals of pot. Each plays host to weed and its culture, surrounded by a tolerant state. I think this is an important success factor for both cities, and for two reasons.
First, a lot of people smoke weed. In general, and as opposed to alcohol, it helps people put aside their differences and get along—or at least chill the heck out. This is especially true in our industry. In northern California, weed is like aspirin, good for any number of ailments, from anxiety to angina. I’ve heard engineers refer to it as brain coolant, a social lubricant preferable to alcohol, and a vital part of the development cycle.
Second, marijuana is relatively harmless. The science is in, and it shows us that THC is a naturally occurring chemical that is self-regulating and nearly impossible to overdose on. This is something we co-evolved with, which grows everywhere, and which wasn’t any kind of big deal until the last century. It’s stupid to waste time on weed when alcohol is both legal and worse—especially in places with real scourges, like meth.
If you’re not down with the chronic, you’ll be pleased to know that weed is a lot less ubiquitous in Amsterdam than in San Francisco. Because it’s freely available, most natives grow out of it, and consider smoking pot something for teenagers to do before graduating to drinking alcohol. Even during the Cannabis Cup, you’d have to be in a coffee shop to notice. You smell weed on the street here once in a while, but far less often than you do in San Francisco.
Then there’s legal prostitution, which is awesome. That last sentence gets me in trouble, because people think I’m saying prostitution is awesome, which is not at all what I am saying. Prostitution is an unfortunate reality in an imperfect world, but having seen it on both sides of the law, I have to tell you that legal prostitution is way, way better.
In the Netherlands, prostitutes pay the same taxes for the same rights and protections as any worker. They have health care, sick pay, and a pension plan. You can move out of prostitution into another industry and have a career, the same as anybody else. Resources saved by not fighting victimless crime are diverted into fighting real crime, like human trafficking.
I feel the same way about soliciting prostitutes as you probably do: you don’t want to pay for sex, because once you’ve paid for sex, you’re a person who has paid for sex. That being said, who am I to feel high and mighty? I’ve had to do work I wasn’t particularly thrilled about, and busting hump throwing bags for a living is no less selling your body. It makes me happy to see a system that works according to logical principles with the expected decrease in human misery, and the red light district here exemplifies that.
What all this means to you is that there is no bad part of town in Amsterdam, no sketchy few blocks where people go to score dope and find hookers. The red light district is, if anything, safer than the rest of Amsterdam, without any of the grossness typically seen in other cities. For adult couples, it can actually be a nice time, and it keeps all that sort of thing in one small place. Your children aren’t going to run into prostitutes anywhere else in the city.
The Netherlands is a testament to what happens when you stop trying to legislate morality. Rather than everything going to hell, the quality of life in general improves, and crime goes down. While the Netherlands is closing prisons for lack of crime, the United States imprisons more people than any other nation. Now tell me who’s wrong about legal prostitution.
On no point does this ring truer than homosexuality. While Americans have their legal right to be together dangled in front of them and batted around like a congressional cat toy, the Netherlands legalized same-sex civil unions a decade ago. Unlike in the United States and much of the world, nobody around here really cares who you love. Your business is your business. As long as you’re not hurting anybody else, you’re free to live your life.
This is the Dutch tolerance that has been the key to Amsterdam’s growing prosperity over the past several centuries. It is what makes this such a nice place, where people from different backgrounds can come together and learn from each other, share food, and laugh at each other’s differences with a spirit of good humor and togetherness.
Tolerance is a two-way street. Being tolerated is easy. Being tolerant can be a challenge. None of us are as color-blind or as free from prejudice and we’d like to believe. Being part of a tolerant society means not only giving up your biases, but also giving up on being offended.
You have to learn to let things go. If somebody does something that rubs you the wrong way, that seems odd, or that annoys you, swallow your feelings, work that grimace into a smile, and laugh.
Since my first post about the Appsterdam movement, there has been a lot of discussion. I take this as a very good sign. People are interested! Here are answers to the questions I’ve been asked most often:
Where can I get updates?
I will talk about Appsterdam here on my blog, as well as on Twitter, where I’m @bmf. For official Appsterdam updates, you should follow @appsterdamrs.
What’s your angle?
Whenever you ask people to care about something, they inevitably want to know what’s in it for you. Specifically, I’ve seen people ask whether I’m being paid by the government to evangelize the city of Amsterdam. I can assure you that no such arrangement exists, though if the city wants to pay me, I’ll gladly take the money.
The truth is I love Amsterdam. After traveling the world, visiting different locations, and really thinking about what makes a place great, I’ve come to the inevitable conclusion that Amsterdam is the most livable city in the world right now. The only thing that would make it better is if my industry was centered here.
I don’t miss Silicon Valley, I miss the people there. I miss being able to go next door to get help with a random problem. I miss overhearing people talking in excited tones about some new thing they’re working on. I want to build a paradise for developers, because I am a developer, and I want to live in that paradise.
In a more abstract sense, I seek what we all seek, those who give their lives to changing the world. I seek the immortality that comes from contributing in some meaningful way to building the future. I seek to be remembered by a city for changing the face of that city, by a country for changing the course of that country, and by a people for bettering the lives of those people.
What are phases 2 and 3?
I didn’t do a very good job of delineating all the phases, so here goes:
Phase 1 is the pioneer phase, one small group setting up the infrastructure, documenting the requirements, and planting the flag, so to speak.
Phase 2 is the founder phase, inviting over the people who will bring the current community to critical mass.
Phase 3 is the employee phase, when the people from phase 2 start hiring people from the throng that follows.
What are the living conditions?
Once the wonder of this place wears off and you start seriously thinking about moving here, the first question that comes up is one of money. Can you afford to live here? What are salaries like? How much is rent? Is it hard to find an apartment?
Room and board are at the median rate for the western world, which means they are more like Seattle than San Francisco. A one bedroom place in the city center will run you €1000-1500 a month. I’ve not had a lot of trouble finding an apartment. Food here is really good and really cheap. You can bike everywhere so you don’t need a car, and health care and insurance are much cheaper than in the States.
All of this adds up to needing half the salary you do living in California for a much higher quality of life. This is great for entrepreneurs, because salary is a real cost, and if you want people you can see face to face, that cost is tied to your location. Europe is full of talented people who aren’t well served by the hiring practices or corporate cultures of local employers, who are more than happy to work for a sane salary.
What about our families?
Amsterdam is a great place for families. The best way to prove that to them is to bring them over for a visit. They will fall in love as you will, and as I have. Even if you are only here for a year, it will be a grand adventure your family will talk about for generations. As we get more information about pets, schools, and other specifics, we’ll post them here.
Many of us have married very talented people whose diverse skill sets will be prized among the community. We will have enough people that an entire meta-economy will be formed around our needs. While we can tap the local and expat communities for those jobs, it will also create opportunities for our life partners.
It doesn’t matter if you’re male or female, gay or straight, a technophile or a technophobe, Amsterdam as a city, and Appsterdam as a community, has a place for you. Both are, and have always been, strengthened by diversity, by tolerance, and by opportunity for all who are willing to contribute.
Can Appsterdam scale?
One easy problem to foresee is a wave of new people coming in and smothering the original idea of Appsterdam under a pile of venture funding and douche baggery. Our best defense from this undesirable future is our culture. We have already seen this with the waves of developers attracted to the platform by iOS. Our community has survived and thrived by spreading its memes.
Another metaphor is that of a small company that starts hungry but grows fat, losing itself along the way. How do we have Appsterdam scale like Apple, and not like Google? The solution to that is simple: scale like Apple. Apple operates as a tight conglomerate of startups united behind a common face. Appsterdam is the exact same thing, without the corporate curtain.
Do you have to be an Apple developer?
The memes developed by Apple developers are bigger than Apple. Our coopertive business model, our reverence for good design, our moving from software engineering to product engineering—these should be the norm for any platform. It’s not a question of what your app runs on, it’s a question of where your app comes from. The best thing we can do is to welcome anyone making apps who gets it, and to offer help and guidance to all who come wanting to learn to make great things.
Why not Detroit? Or Berlin?
One of the best counter-proposals I’ve gotten against Appsterdam is the idea of moving everyone to Detroit and creating a renaissance there. While I’m sure Detroit would appreciate the boost, it doesn’t solve the immigration issue for Europeans, and more to the point, I’m not sure we can sell people on moving there. The same problem goes for, say, Germany. Deserved or not, Amsterdam has caché, an international reputation, and centuries of hype that, in my experience, it largely lives up to.
Lest we leave the good people of Detroit in the lurch, my hope is that Appsterdam will serve as a rising tide to all ships. It should be a precedent that serves as an inspiration to, and beacon of hope for, cities and developers all over the world. We will also be of direct benefit from people returning home, and the inevitable stream of Appsterdammers trying new places, as missionaries or tourists, as well as former Appsterdammers looking for the next next big thing.
I heard bad things about: the weather, real estate, …
When I talk to people about moving to Amsterdam, I get two general classes of responses. First, there are the people who have been to Amsterdam, and are universally and immediately enthused. Then, there are the people who have only heard about Amsterdam, whose responses frequently feature this or that bad review they had heard about Amsterdam.
I don’t know what it is about Amsterdam. Its reputation is as a haven for freedom and commerce, a capitalist paradise smack in the middle of Europe. Yet people hold on to these chestnuts to satisfy their inevitable reflex that there must be a catch.
Part of it is what I term the Dutch Modesty. Dutch people love to tell you how the Netherlands are not as nice as you think. I think this is partially genuine modesty, partially being spoiled by living here, and at least partially the desire to stem the tide of immigrants to a place of such idyllic repute.
For the uninitiated, hearing about Amsterdam is like being in the Matrix and being told about Zion. The implications about your own living conditions alone will throw some people into instant denial. Our minds, thus injured, grab any passing salve.
The cure is simple: come to Amsterdam. See the place for yourself. Talk to the people who live here, the people who have moved here, and discover for yourself how good life is here. Join the other group, the people who have found their Amsterdam. Join the people who know.
What about yo fat-ass mama?
My mama? Yo mama so fat the Deltaworks keep her number on file in case of emergencies. Yo mama so fat her last name is Polder. Yo mama so fat her belly button has its own windmmill. I said yo mama so fat her asscheeks are the highest point in the Netherlands.
I’m trying to be a cultural ambassador here. Won’t you help?
If you want to make movies, go to Hollywood.
If you want to make musicals, go to Broadway.
If you want to make apps, go to Appsterdam.
The state of our industry right now is one of free-floating companies and individuals, most of whom fall into one of two camps:
American developers in and around California who would like to escape the current political climate of the United States—at least for a little while.
European developers who would love to apply their talents across the Atlantic in Silicon Valley, but for the immigration policies of the United States.
I love California, I really do. My family has been there for six generations, but the peninsula of land connecting San Francisco and San Jose that we call the Valley has more than a few problems. Not the least of which is the fact that California is tremendously expensive.
San Francisco in particular has a pervasive piss smell, a constant reminder of the massive homeless population who stand as a stark and constant reminder of a system gone horribly awry. The over-abundance of venture capital has also perverted the climate there, drawing us further and further from the garage-level innovation of years past.
What has made the Valley successful is not funding, but engineers. Anyone who visits northern California, perhaps for WWDC, comes away feeling tremendously inspired from being surrounded by people who do the same thing they do—people with the same mindset, the same attitude, the same values. If only we could turn off the news!
Simultaneously nurtured and stifled in this environment is our movement: the movement of artisanship in software, the movement of apps, hand-crafted not with the intention of making a successful exit, but of making a quality product.
Every industry finds itself in this state after its initial explosion. The next step is for things to cool and contract into something sustainable and interesting. What is needed is a center of gravity for things to coalesce around. What if we could take the best part of the Valley—everyone together at the same table—and move it to a better environment?
I have traveled the world looking for the most livable city on earth, a place with the ideal balance of quality and price, history and vibrance, culture and innovation. That place is Amsterdam.
It’s the community, stupid.
The success of Apple’s platforms has been in no small part due to its unique developer community. Our community is unique not just in technology, but in business. This isn’t just my opinion—our community is studied by sociologists, at Cornell and the University of Amsterdam just that I know of. We are not just people united by common interest, we are the next evolution of capitalism.
What sets us apart is cooperation, instead of competition. Two developers might be working on the same problem, but it’s not the same app, or they’d merge. They each have their own vision, and punters will be attracted to one or the other based on the strength of that vision. If one developer happens to have better table view performance, they will share that code with their colleague, because table view performance is not our business.
We cooperate, because we are friends. If one of us does something to piss the other off, we don’t call out the lawyers, we call up our friend, and talk it over like people. We don’t just attend conferences, we get together at conferences, go out together, and have a good enough time together to generate blackmail material sufficient to nip litigation in the bud.
If you’ve been to a conference, you’ve probably thought, as I have, how nice it would be if everyday life could be like that—being surrounded by peers, able to get help solving a hard problem, then get accolades for doing so. There is a gestalt to sitting face to face with a group you just don’t get over the wire. With Appsterdam, our community is not just a nice idea, but a nice place.
Building the infrastructure
Appsterdam is envisioned as a tripartite effort between local App Makers, together with the government of Amsterdam, who want nothing more than to make the city the center of technology in Europe, and the University of Amsterdam, wherein we’ll build a developer-led software engineering program like they have at Stanford.
Local organizations are providing facilities for working Appsterdammers, as well as a meeting space where we’ll hold workshops, courses, and a lunchtime lecture series where Appsterdammers can share what they’re working on, reveal their solution to a hard problem, or just come to listen, learn, and network. Speakers will receive training and feedback to prepare them to speak at conferences and lecture at universities.
People look at WWDC selling out in record time and ask themselves how we can solve that problem without making the conference any bigger. With so much of the industry’s experienced speaking talent centered in Appsterdam, it becomes the perfect venue for a second big conference. Whether it’s called WWDC, NSConference, or something else entirely, it will be an annual App World’s Fair.
Another large part of the infrastructure comes from the community itself. Every true Appsterdammer has an air mattress and an extra bike ready for visitors and migrants alike. Each newcomer adds to our capacity to receive new people.
Delivering a message
When a community settles down, the world takes notice. Consider great migrations of old: the Bohemians, the ’49ers, the Mormons, or German scientists in the ’30s. The birth of Appsterdam will both be recorded in history books, and send immediate ripples around the world.
Our clout will not only give us political leverage and a voice for our ideals, it will give us the ability to stand on each other’s shoulders and look Apple in the eye for the first time.
How do we make it happen?
The plan is a continuum with three phases. The first phase, happening now, is for the pioneer expat to make the first move, document the process, and start building the infrastructure. I am that pioneer, and that is exactly what I am doing until WWDC.
The next step is for people to start coming over. The first wave will be people who already have an established company and product line who could be doing what they do from anywhere. As more people come, we gain experience and expand our capacity to deal with complications like families and pets.
Once we get a couple dozen new people mixing with the dozens already here, we’ll reach a critical mass. As people from around the world hear about what’s happening and start planning their moves, the rise of Appsterdam will become self-sustaining.
How do I get started?
Visit Appsterdam. Make it a working vacation. Americans can visit for three months without a visa. Pack up the family for a summer vacation in Europe. Absorb yourself in the thriving community. Take in a lunchtime lecture. Take advantage of working space during the day, then take a romantic stroll along the canals at night. Delight in the melting pot of local cuisine, or ride your bikes to the central library and satisfy your hunger on a patio affording the city’s best view.
Even if nobody moved here, just having everyone in our industry come to one place for part of their year adds up to a net community strong enough to attract people, launch new ideas, and fuel sustainable growth.
