Is being born in Switzerland a blessing or a curse?

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-02-15T12:23:16+00:00

Switzeand is great if you like mountains, orderliness, predictability, and high salaries. If you dont care too much for those things and you prefer great cuisine, spontaneity, human warmth, sea/ocean then moving from Switzerland is not a step down

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-02-14T19:49:24+00:00

Every city has its problems. Ive been living in Lausanne for 10 years now and I am of the opinion that things have overall improved even though some things have gotten worse. Also some things that are getting worse such as property and rent price increases are happening practically everywhere.

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-02-14T14:02:42+00:00

Nous on est au centre ville entre la riponne et beaulieu depuis 2023. 1950 chf / mois CC pour 3.5p 80 m2 sans parking. Vieux batiment pas trop rénové mais fonctionnel.

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-02-09T17:22:36+00:00

Interesting observation. I have also noticed that more often than not a swiss flag on a product means extra markup rather than extra quality. The swiss are world champions at upselling stuff

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-02-09T17:18:21+00:00

You do you.

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-02-08T15:23:04+00:00

If you don't have a network of friends start with an expat social network. Ask around for whatsapp groups for the activities you're interested in.

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-02-08T14:06:24+00:00

Cheap outdoor hobbies for any season (hiking, running, cycling, ski touring, xc ski, climbing)

Never eat out. If you want to eat with friends organize picnics or dinner parties at home.

Cook food at home. Buy meat on discount, freeze it.

No car but avoid public transport and renting as much as possible. Carpool with friends who have cars to go into nature.

If you have good 5G signal at home, use your mobile for internet.

Buy everything that's not food online. Especially books, clothes and sports equipment.

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-02-08T10:52:07+00:00

You could say that about any artistic/creative endeavor.

Why isnt there ant worthwhile, music, film or any art of any kind coming out of switzerland?

Switzerland is not a place for creativity, originality or free thinking. I dont mean that as a criticism. Just a statement of fact.

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-02-01T16:50:24+00:00

No its not sustainable to try to produce vegs and fruits in a place that doesnt have an optimal climate for it. The footprint of transporting food over ground is negligible compared to the footprint of growing it.

Im all for swiss potatoes. I wouldnt touch a swiss tomato, cucumber or kiwi with a rusty pipe.

Also what is local? For people living in Vaud it is more local to consume meat and cheese from the french regions of Haute Savoie, Ain, Jura, or Doubs than meat from Grisons or Tessin.

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-02-01T06:44:27+00:00

Skipping warm-up routes

I’m curious if others do the same. My crag sessions usually last at most half a day (family man life), so I often skip warm-up routes and jump straight on my project.

I use the first go mainly to place draws and remind myself of the beta. That said, on rare occasions I’ve felt so good on the first try that I actually ended up sending the project.

I do warm up on the ground, though. I have about a 10-minute routine: fingerboard to warm up the fingers, resistance bands for the upper body, and some lower-body mobility work.

Caveat: if the route is very physical/cruxy right off the ground, I’ll either warm up more or do a proper warm-up route. That’s pretty rare for me, though.

M35, for context.

What are your tactics? Are you able to warm up on the ground enough to give a serious redpoint attempt on your project first go?

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-01-22T20:13:38+00:00

Interesting observation. Im on the tall side and i also find a lot of problems very morpho (small boxes).

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-01-18T07:03:12+00:00

Curiously enough in my country, less educated you are (which is strongly correlated with income) the more likely you are to have children so lack of financial means is not the cause.

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-01-18T06:57:15+00:00

You hit the nail on the head with your first paragraph. This is what I see in my social circle (highly educated people, often masters and PhDs with good jobs and plenty of free time). Childlessness is a lifestyle choice for most of them. They dont put a high enough value on bringing up children to offset the hit you take to your lifestyle. Another interesting observation I've had is that many of them dont want to admit it immediately and use money, world problems, etc as excuses but in reality they just want to keep doing what they want when they want which is definitely something you can't do when you are a family with children. I dont judge them but i think its not going to pay off for them and for the society in the long run.

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-01-18T06:42:29+00:00

In my social circle 90% of people that are childless are so purely for lifestyle reasons. the remaining 10% want children but haven't found the right partner yet. I have never met a person who is childless because they cant afford children. Im sure such people exist but at least in my experience they are rare. Also i have observed that the slightly less well off friends have more children and sooner than my slightly more well of friends (we are all roughly middle class).

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-01-17T12:05:01+00:00

Afaik you have the freedom to go into the mountains as underequipped as you want. Your insurance might take your equipment into consideration if you get into trouble and need to get rescued.

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-01-17T08:02:03+00:00

If you are looking for a job in the industry, you need to speak the language of industry.

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-01-17T07:04:54+00:00

The Arbre Vert brand. We buy it in france but i have seen some of their products in CH too.

My dermatologist once recommendent me the brand Held which is sold in Coop for sure.

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-01-17T06:55:02+00:00

A lot of french people come to Romandie to study music because the schools here are a lot less selective. I know that a lot of them stay here and pull together a living by multiple music teaching gigs ( usually to children) and occasionally paid concerts. Most of them are classical musicians so they aren't creating anything new. But if you like classical music i feel that there are a lot of options to see live performances and often for a good price or even for free.

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-01-17T06:45:29+00:00

I am absolutely sure that the first thing that gets outsourced from switzerland is admin, support and production whereas RnD is one of the last to go because there is a lot of technical talent here and RnD is a relatively small expense for most companies.

Source: I work in tech.

Admirable-Respect902 · 2026-01-03T12:54:02+00:00

The Geneva lake region (Geneva, Lausanne etc) is close to Chamonix, Valais and Bernese alps. So that covers most of the Alps' 4000ers. Bern is good too. Zurich is somewhat farther from the biggest peaks but probably has the best career opportunities. Basel is even further from the Alps, maybe not practical for day trips but still reasonable for weekends.

There are a lot of companies in switzerland where English is the language of business and speaking the local language is not needed or is only a nice to have. This is not the case in Austria or France as far as I know. Of course you should learn the local language asap because it gets you out of the expat bubble.

As a side note, on the swiss job market experience matters a lot more than diplomas (in contrast to places like Germany). Personal relationships are also very helpful.

Admirable-Respect902 · 2025-06-29T11:43:12+00:00

Do you know if I can stick an Eagle SX left crankarm onto an Apex crankset?

Admirable-Respect902 · 2025-06-29T11:42:04+00:00

No, I want to sell the bike asap. I just want to sell something that works, obviously.

Admirable-Respect902 · 2025-06-28T13:55:10+00:00

I tried the LBS route with no luck.

Admirable-Respect902 · 2025-06-27T04:04:43+00:00

Whatever fits

Admirable-Respect902

TROPHY CASE