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Comment by shermantanktop | Hacker News Reader

Aka “Seattle Nice.”

People move to a place, are eager to get connected, but the people there are already connected…except for all the other lonely newbies. It’s a boom-town phenomenon, I think.

And if you are a long-time resident, it’s a little rich having large numbers of people come clog up your town while doing clueless newbie things and then gripe about how they don’t feel welcome.

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I've lived in Seattle for 25 years, have been hearing about "Seattle Nice" and "The Seattle Freeze" that whole time. By which they mean that people are friendly and polite on a surface level, but cold and distant when you try to get closer. I think it's a myth, or at any rate I have never experienced it as a trend (individuals, sure). People here are as nice as anywhere else I've been. I think maybe it's confirmation bias: people hear about it, then see it everywhere, like stereotypes about rude New Yorkers, or snooty Parisians.

It would be strange if whole a region, with such a huge population of transplants, all shared the same personality. They don't make you sign a contract to be rude when you move here!

“Seattle freeze” is like “Seattle drivers”. The chances are pretty high that the dumdum who is double-parked in a bus lane while cars honk at them is actually not from Seattle.

I've never been to Seattle but this description is erfectly apt for Toronto.

Though in other cities you can make friends much more easily, especially on the East Coast...

Because immigration is not as strong.

(note, sounds racist, but not what I meant. What I meant is that when there's a lot of people coming, it's mechanically harder for people to enter pre-existing social groups, thus the impression that people are not welcoming)

Newbies who just moved in are much more likely to leave as well. Why invest the time?

For newbies often it's their first time as an expat or immigrant but for the natives usually they've been through these waves of immigrants multiple times already.

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