Ask Lemmy

Timezone-wise? Only downsides. Most of our business partners become more difficult to time-coordinate with, since there are fewer business hour overlaps.

Travel to Europe takes a lot longer.

Culturally, the West Coast is far more chill. Business on the East cost is very much still dominated by banking-style office politics: business casual is suits, or at least slacks and button-down shirts, there's a lot of process, everything is serious. West coast is more laid back. I'm speaking in generalities, of course; corporate culture is driven by the corporation, but in general, the West coast has healthier work environments.

There's less cultural interesting stuff on the West coast, but far more natural attractions (parks, activities, skiing, hiking, camping, etc etc). Everything is crammed together on the East coast - from Philadelphia you can visit NYC, Washington DC, Gettysburg, Williamsburg, all within 3 hours or less. You can get to Niagara within 6. From Portland, OR, it takes 4 hrs to get to Seattle, and a full 8-hour day to get anywhere interesting in California.

If you want a more relaxed life with access to vast amounts of incredible nature activities, West coast 100%. If you want to vacation in Europe and visit a huge number of amazing historical sites, East coast.

Tonight I couldn't find any decent fireworks live streams for our midnight. Anyone have any suggestions for next year? Though there's the slimmest chance I'll remember

Sports on the earlier side so you can go to bed at a decent time.

People are pretty chill.

Edit: Some disadvantages are pizza is meh and if remote then you may have to work some odd hours to collaborate with colleagues.

Not necessarily a "time zone" thing, but more of a cultural thing.

From a media perspective, things are less important on the West Coast than the East Coast.

For example:

A storm knocks out power from British Columbia to Northern California. You'll likely never hear about it unless you're local.

If it's slightly colder than normal in New York City? Suddenly National News.

West Coast is best coast! People are generally a lot more chill than east coast. If you're of a particular age, just consider Tupac vs. Biggie. Their personalities sum it up nicely.

Work-wise, business in the US will already be underway when you get to work, and starts dying down after your lunch. If you interact with people on the east coast, mornings are busier and afternoons are much quieter.

West Coast is generally more racially/ethnically diverse, depending on where you're comparing. It's also a lot more liberally aligned. Conservativism hits differently too. There's less evangelical "Jesus is my personality" types and more "get off my property and leave me alone" conservatives. It's how legal weed was passed in CO first; conservatives joined in on the yes vote because what you do in your own home isn't the government's business.

The weather is generally better, IMO. It's drier and sunnier year-round, except for the PNW region. That means less vegetation though. The dense deciduous forests of the south/east have their own appeal, and you just won't get that out west. The land is a lot more open and sparse.

A few things to consider if relocating from east to west:

The seemingly endless open space in the west can have a physical effect. I’ve known east-to-west transplants who were unnerved by what they perceived as a sense of desolation. They felt more at home with dense cities, skyscrapers, a faster pace, urban noise, and an absence of distant horizons.

The west has a lot of dry and brown land. Unlike the wetter east, most people need to use sprinklers or irrigation. Water is a concern in the west.

Generally speaking, east communication is more abrupt and unmistakable. West speak can have layers of innuendo that can feel treacherous to people who are accustomed to blunt language.

Pacific time zone has In-n-Out, Eastern timezone has White Castle.

That's the only significant difference I can think of.

In the streaming world of TV/movies everything is available "sooner". Shows that air at 9pm EST are available at 6pm PST. Shows that are available at midnight are actually available at midnight PST and not 3AM EST.

I'm the opposite, lived most of my life on the West coast and then moved to the East coast. Some time zone related things that I've noticed:

• I love to start work early and end work early, so there was a period of time where I could work 6am to 3pm and still be online later than many of my east coast coworkers. This schedule was ideal for me. Now I have to work until 5 or 6pm every day and I don't like that very much.

• I could get up and trade stocks early in the morning, which is convenient for me because I don't do a lot of stock trading and don't need to stay on top of it throughout the day. Now I get up and think, "I need to make that transaction later today", then 4pm rolls around and I realize I've forgotten to do it yet again.

• Not a time zone thing, but I've been to Hawaii once and would love to go back. When I was in California, it was a 5-6 hour flight, now its more like 12 hours. I'm not willing to make that trip. I do have the option to go to the Caribbean or Europe instead, which is nice though (if I ever get around to it).

• I don't watch sports, but I always thought of the Super Bowl being an afternoon game. Then I moved East and realized people were staying up past midnight to watch the game (and party) and then trying to go to work or school Monday morning. No impact for me, but for my lifestyle, afternoon games would be preferable.

• I used to do a lot of online gaming with people from all over the US and Europe. Lots of my friends would stay up very late or even all night gaming. I could keep up with them when it meant staying up until 10-12pm (my time). Staying up until 2 or 3am would not work for me. I don't play online games anymore, but that would be a challenge for me now.

If you’re just wondering about time zones — not many advantages: the stock market is already moving at 6am and closes in the early afternoon. If you have east coast family, they’ll text you when you’re asleep in the morning. Then, when you have time to text them at night, they’ll be asleep. Big events like presidential debates and addresses start when you’re just leaving work or commuting, so you tend to miss out on them.

One major disadvantage if you work remotely for an east coast company is that you have to start work 3 hours earlier than everyone else. The advantage I guess is that you get off with a couple hours left in the business day, so you can run errands after work.

This is an east coast vs west coast thing more than timezone pacific, but the ocean on the east coast is way warmer thanks to the Gulf Stream. I’ve been surfing in SoCal in the middle of summer and the water was freezing vs surfing in NY in May and it was tolerable (still cold tho).

Not timezones related, but i found California to be a work hard/play hard culture. You're 100% on 8 - 5 and then all off, but still very active. Lots of people would go surfing or biking before work. Fruit stands and good fresh food and wine options made for frequent gatherings and much less 'chill alone at home' time. Nice free nature activities so almost every weekend= beach or mountains. That was pre-covid, in our 20's, and with young kids, so that was part of the activity too.

Work culture is earlier to accommodate east coast offices. Weather is WAY better due to lack of humidity. And if you are in the PNW, a noticable lack of bugs. I once heard someone say if the west cost was discovered first, no one would live on the east coast. Worth a visit to see if it is right for you.

Sunday night football would be done about 9:30pm

Oh god, the stock market. Trying to trade open at 6:30am as a night owl is the worst.

If you live in the Pacific time zone, there are no advantages or disadvantages to living in the Eastern time zone.

Americans are bad at geography but shit are people from the east Coast some of the worst. They have "center of the universe syndrome" and have no idea about the rest of the country. I was looking to relocate to the East Coast about 10 years ago and had 3 interviews with different companies in NY, DC and PHL where the company failed to call me at the correct time, sometimes multiple instances, as they couldn't understand the time difference.

Doesn't everyone fucking learn about the 4 continental time zones in school? Why is it confusing?

People here keep saying folks are more chill on the West Coast, but I've lived in NYC for two years and around California for 8 (mostly the bay area), and this hasn't been my experience at all. If anything, I've noticed the opposite of the stereotype. The California folks tend to be very un-"chill" when I deviate from some social norm by accident, while New Yorkers are generally pretty accepting. I also find when I ask folks out west to be direct because I really need that they way my mind works, they still often don't, but New Yorkers will. I'm not sure what others mean when they say the West Coast is more chill since it was so much harder for me to get by there-- maybe they're talking about something else.

You don’t need to stay up until 3am if something is launching at midnight.

Most of the Formula 1 races fall on a Sunday starting between 7-9am, perfect to finish watching the race and to get on with your day.

Feel free to crosspost to !AskUSA@discuss.online

PST is a big place with a lot of variation. I have lived in CA & WA and found that in both things are way more chill than out east. However the biggest disadvantage of this is when you try to hire tradespeople to fix things at your home. Both states I’ve had lots of bad experiences with people who couldn’t give a shit. I know this can happen anywhere but I’m talking about a larger tend I’ve observed after living both places. Out west I’ve really struggled with finding someone to do a good job fixing anything at my home so I ended up learning to do a lot more stuff than I wanted just to get it done halfway decently.

The Pacific is pretty big to have one time zone.