I came from DFW (technically one of its suburbs). You're either in the suburbs, or you're living in a sea of hot concrete. Unless you retreat to one of the less-wealthy (read: genuinely middle-class) suburbs, everything from the restaurants to the billboards is steeped in corporate pretension and wealth-signaling. And then you're still, well, in the suburbs.

In my first round of interviews out of college I interviewed with a company in Dallas. It was going well, but towards the end of the day I was frank with my interviewer and told them I simply didn't want to live in DFW. I didn't have another offer yet, but I found one in Austin and moved there.