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Drew Crawford went viral on X explaining why he chose Florianópolis in Brazil instead of New York or Dubai, a post with over 11,000 likes that highlights the street barbecue with iced guaraná as a symbol of a quality of life that international metropolises cannot offer.
An American entrepreneur who could live in any metropolis in the world chose Florianópolis and went viral explaining his reasons in a post that captivated the Brazilian internet. Drew Crawford, who connects American capital with Brazilian industry and has over 10,000 followers on X, answered Brazilian Renata Barreto’s question about which country he would choose to live in and made it clear from the first lines: “I could live anywhere in the world. I chose Brazil. I live in Florianópolis.” The post surpassed 11,000 likes, accumulated over 500 replies, and was reposted 857 times, and the street barbecue, which he says surpasses Manhattan restaurants, went viral as a symbol of the post that captivated the Brazilian internet.
Crawford’s text was not an impulsive statement. The entrepreneur reveals that he has spent the last 12 years going back and forth between the United States and Brazil, and that each time he returned to the US, the countdown to return began at the airport, a gradual build-up that transformed visits into a permanent decision to settle in Florianópolis. For those who follow the growth of the Santa Catarina capital as a destination for digital nomads and foreign entrepreneurs, Crawford’s account is further evidence that Florianópolis offers a combination of factors that technically more developed cities cannot replicate.
What Crawford says about the quality of life in Florianópolis
The most widely shared part of the post compares simple daily experiences with expensive consumption patterns in major international centers. Crawford states that “the street barbecue at 6 PM with an iced guaraná has more quality of life than any $200 restaurant in Manhattan,” a phrase that captured the essence of the argument: the value of the experience is not in the price paid, but in the authenticity of the moment and the genuine pleasure it provides. For Brazilians who often undervalue aspects of their own daily lives, hearing a foreigner who knows the best restaurants in New York prefer a street barbecue acts as a mirror that reveals qualities invisible due to their familiarity.
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The informality of daily life in Florianópolis is another point Crawford enthusiastically highlights. “Here I leave home in flip-flops, have coffee at the corner bakery, and walk back along the sea,” describes the entrepreneur, a routine that in metropolises like New York or Dubai would be impractical due to both the distance between residence and beach and the culture of formality that governs public interactions in these centers. In Florianópolis, the proximity between urban life and nature allows activities like walking along the waterfront, surfing before work, or dining with a sea view to be part of daily life instead of weekend plans that require travel and planning.
The difference between living to work and working to live, according to Crawford
One of the most direct comparisons the entrepreneur makes between Florianópolis and the United States involves the relationship with work. “In the United States, people live to work. Here, people work to live. And no one apologizes for it,” summarizes Crawford, a diagnosis that any Brazilian who has experienced American corporate culture immediately recognizes. The difference is not about productivity or professional competence, but about the place work occupies in the hierarchy of priorities: in the US, it is the center around which life is organized; in Florianópolis, it is one part of a life that includes the beach, friends, family, and guilt-free free time.
Crawford also highlights sociability as a differential that Florianópolis offers. “Here I have dinner with friends at 10 PM on a Tuesday and no one looks at their watch. Here, strangers in the elevator strike up real conversations, not just ‘how are you’ with an automatic response,” he reports, pointing to a quality of human relationships that has been lost or never existed in more individualistic cultures. For those who live in Florianópolis, having late dinner with friends on a weekday is absolutely normal; for those who live in New York, it’s a luxury that requires sacrificing hours of sleep in an environment where productivity is measured by how much one sacrifices.
The role of nature in the choice to live in Florianópolis
Proximity to the natural environment is a central argument in Crawford’s account. “Here, nature isn’t a park you visit on the weekend. It’s your life. Beach, mountain, trail, waterfall… all within 20 minutes,” states the businessman, a description that matches the geographical reality of Florianópolis, a city where over 40 beaches, hills covered by Atlantic Forest, and trails with waterfalls are distributed across an island that can be crossed by car in less than an hour. In New York, Central Park is a green refuge amidst concrete; in Florianópolis, concrete appears as the exception amidst the green and blue.
For Crawford, this daily contact with nature is not a complement to life; it is a structural part of it. The businessman doesn’t describe occasional tourist outings, but a routine where beach, sea, and mountain are present in common commutes, and this integration is possible because Florianópolis preserves a human scale that metropolises have lost: distances are short, the pace allows for breaks, and the environment invites outdoor activities instead of pushing people into air-conditioned offices. The city isn’t perfect, and Crawford acknowledges this, but the relationship between urban space and nature it offers is the kind of advantage that cannot be bought with a dollar salary.
What Crawford recognizes as a problem in Brazil even while living in Florianópolis
The account is not a naive idealization. “Brazil has its problems. I know. I live them every day,” admits Crawford, an acknowledgment that lends credibility to the rest of the text because it demonstrates that the choice for Florianópolis was made with an awareness of the difficulties, not out of ignorance of them. Safety, bureaucracy, the rising cost of living on the island, and infrastructure that doesn’t always keep up with demand are issues that any resident of Florianópolis knows, and which are not solved by street barbecues or beach strolls, but which a resident foreigner experiences with the added perspective of someone who can directly compare with what other countries offer.
Crawford’s conclusion, however, is that the problems do not erase what he considers essential. “No problem erases the fact that people here know how to live. They know how to laugh. They know how to welcome. They know how to turn any moment into a good moment,” he states, concluding with the sentence that summarizes the entire publication: “This cannot be bought. It cannot be exported. It cannot be replicated. That’s why I’m here.” The final phrase is what turned the personal post into viral content, because it verbalizes something that residents of Florianópolis and Brazil feel but rarely articulate: the quality of life that exists in human relationships and in simple moments has no monetary equivalent, and those who recognize it choose to stay.
And you, do you agree with the gringo? Does Florianópolis really have this quality of life he describes? Leave your opinion in the comments.
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