Depends.

If you want to make good salary and get shit done fast paced places are the heaven, and slow paced ones extremely irritating.

If your priorities aren’t about career/money you will likely find fast paced places irritating, and people competing in the rat race obnoxious.

No matter the pay, I do not want to work 60+ hours a week for megalomaniacs like the CEOs of big tech companies, while being constantly at risk of being fired.

I like my 40 hour work week, 6 weeks of vacation, and my shops close on Sundays. Doesn’t mean on some weeks you do not work longer hours, but on other weeks you then work less.

Fuck hustle “culture”.

I think it mainly depends on your work situation. Most of my friends back in the US signed contracts for 40 hours a week but some work 60+ hours a week and others work 20 hours a week.

Croatia felt to me like both a fast and slow paced country, especially if you work in tourism. During the high season you work long hours but once the tourists slow down for the year it really turns into a slow paced country. I’d say it’s a slow paced country for the people who don’t work in tourism, e.g government or office jobs.

I don’t think it’s about countries but cities.

Many countries have the fastest and slowest paces in different regions.

I live in Cairo, it’s like the oddest mix of fast-paced / slow paced.

Need a home repair? Maybe the repairman will come, maybe not.

Deadlines? Never heard of ‘em, so if you miss a deadline, no worries there wasn’t one to begin with really it was just a suggestion.

The work extends to your personal life. You’re smoking hookah at a cafe on the street and it’s 11pm? No problem, off the record meeting just to ensure that everything goes well for the next work day.

With all these awfully lenient habits, you’re still expected to get many, many things done on time and most people here complain that they are exhausted from it - because it feels like most factors are out of your control. You have to hustle around the slow-paced culture.

It’s also beautiful. People make time to eat and spend time with each other. People are always laughing and take things lightly. You can make friends anywhere because everyone talks like they know each other. The community-based culture is obvious and makes everything better.

I’d rather have to hustle like this but still have that community feel rather than being in a fast-paced city and spend my free time isolated

Since you asked for our thoughts.

I think importance of this issue is exaggerated.

I migrated to USA and settled in The Bay Area. And while some people believe this to be high paced area, my life here was very laid back.

At the same time some areas that people are calling “more laid” back I see people are struggling and are forced to hassle to survive.

Not to mention, people’s priorities change with years and I find it more practical to adjust your lifestyle locally than to become a migrant simply because your current location is too fast or too slow.

I like when things happen. Although I don’t like noise. In work I prefer being able to move towards my goals with disciplined people. In personal life I prefer the fun of chaotic places, but that can be overwhelming if happens all day every day.

But there can be different combinations of things:

I found it Copenhagen a good combination of the two sides. Things happen there financially and there is progression, while it is a peaceful place where people leave you alone and don’t make noise( =pointless and thoughtless sounds and other stimuli). But people sometimes go too far in their coldness, and they are simply acting badly and dishonestly, instead of neutrality.

On the other hand there is Budapest. Financially things don’t seem to progress much. But there is always something fun to do. It is chaotic enough to make it not enjoyable for financial growth, although life has adrenaline as you don’t know which laws will change in a few weeks, and don’t know which are enforced and which aren’t. People are direct and upfront, which means you can hang out with random people on the street, but also means people are nosy and bother others, which I don’t like.

This depends on what you want from life. I used to be very busy: work + studying + other activities like NGOs, until I graduated and moved abroad. Even in high school, I had an extracurricular almost every single day after classes, and I spent many weekends at school-related activities. At that time, living in a fast-paced city sounded like a dream.

Now at 24 (feels like I’m writing 44 lol), I really enjoy the 9-5, chill working culture and security of a Dutch city (outside the Randstad) that everyone considers boring. A fast-paced place like London or NYC would drain me. The Netherlands is IMO slow-paced because there is no hustle culture, even though institutions are efficient.

After living incredibly high paced life, I became one of those people who is obsessed with low paced life and work indeed. In the end I came to realise that I enjoy living in a place where I get to set the pace of my life and work regardless of whether it is considered high/low paced compared to some other place or people.

I think both strictly low/high paced work and life situations are quite dysfunctional for almost the same reasons; obsession with “culture”, rigid thinking, lack of curiosity for alternatives, lack of imagination and trying to gain (or not loose) something at all costs.

So for me the right place is the one that gives everyone a dial to adjust speed both for their life and work.

So where I live I have access to both digital and manual options to handle my official business. Not because country is stuck in transition, but there are different options available for different needs across population. I can work extra hours if I commit to a goal to get promoted or I can coast and focus on other things while other people get a chance to hit the gas pedal. Life feels like an improvised waltz with strangers, and I like it this way.

PS: I refrained from giving names to places, as I am convinced it doesn’t matter. Find the place that gives you all things I mentioned.

You are talking about fast vs slow paced in different countries. How about that switch within the same country. For a local? Lol.

Really up to you as a person. I came from a very fast paced environment, comfortable with the competition and intensity to the extent I thought it was normal. Moved to Taipei and I’m now finding myself unreasonably annoyed at every small inconvenience. People get stressed in a very fast paced and orderly environment, I get stressed without the speed and order.

The escalators are moving so slowly, the cashier at the store chatting with the customer in front of me, people strolling on the sidewalk, the traffic lights seeming to take forever. Leeway for deadlines, people turning up 5-10 minutes late for appointments, people chatting for half an hour before the meeting begins, no moderator and agendas for meetings, we wait for people. It’s not slow, it’s being reasonable and flexible, they say.

Tokyo and Seoul are on another level. I’ve never felt so anxious while trying to figure out which side of the train I should be taking, or guilty about taking up a spot on the train during peak hours.

Though I do enjoy being able to wake up late and not have to listen to passive aggressive comments about my poor discipline. I can even make small talk now without being remarked as lazy. Still can’t decide what I actually like.

I’m in the Philippines and here they call it “Island Time” or Filipino time. That basically means that no one is on time 🤣 make an appt at the doctor for 2:30? Everyone else’s appt is at 2:30 too and doctor doesn’t show up until 3:15 😏 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7KzTfwl5WaA&t=13s

I’m American but have previously lived in France and now in the UK. Industry is tech/consulting.

The US (particularly the Silicon Valley where I worked) is extremely fast paced. It’s an unforgiving place that requires constant hustle, showmanship and ‘up and to the right’ mentality. The glass ceiling is so high in SV tech companies but VC firms have become increasingly stringent in funding rounds which puts pressure on KPIs and deliverables. It’s incredibly exciting and I often felt I was helping to create the ‘thing of the future’ but the pace of work was ultimately too demanding for me. I regularly worked 60 hour weeks, the company paid for breakfast, lunch and dinner because that was expected and it was all consuming. Pay was amazing though.

France was almost the complete opposite. A 35 hour week was standard and colleagues adhered to this stringently. We had 33 days PTO + 11 national holidays each year. Companies essentially shut down for most of August as everyone went to the seaside. 2 hour lunch breaks was common and we almost always had wine. Parents would often go pick up their kids from school during lunch break and cook for them before coming back. That said, as an American, it felt like everyone was coasting and that no one cared about entrepreneurship or innovation. Going above and beyond / pushing the limits was seen as a bad thing and I felt decreasingly motivated about work due to the ‘it is what it is’ mentality.

The UK (particularly London) feels like it has one foot in North American culture and one foot in European culture. I still get a ton of PTO (30 days + 10 bank holidays) and the work day is a standard 40 hours on average. The tech scene feels exciting for Europe, but nowhere near the same levels entrepreneurship or innovation as California. It feels like a healthy mix of work and play, people are motivated when in the office, but they actually turn off when outside the office. If only the pay was better it’d be the perfect working conditions for a driven person.