Stephen treats it as "a two way door" — usually reversible, so trust your intuition early (you can sense your trajectory in a city within a few months). His strongest practical advice: throw parties and create things yourself rather than waiting to be invited in.
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Stephen moved to Vietnam in his early 20s after deferring a McKinsey start date to its farthest option, giving him a 4-5 month window to do something new; he came to learn Vietnamese (he already spoke Chinese) and "just loved it." His advice to someone considering the same: it's "a two way door," usually reversible, so just go. "You should trust your intuition early on" — having moved to five or six cities, four outside the US, he found that within about four months you can sense whether a place is an easy or hard fit. And the practical one: "one thing you should consider is throwing parties." He rarely gets invited to parties but throws a lot of them — "if you are the one proactively creating something, especially when you're new, be the one to create stuff, don't wait for other people to invite you in."