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Cities and Ambition (2008)

paulgraham.com

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Re: Cities and Ambition (2008)

#51

Post by kevstev »

zombieprocesses wrote: post #41
kevstev wrote: post #12

I mostly agree, though the whole Cambridge bit was a bit overdone IMHO. NYC seems to be slowly changing though, finance and money seem to be losing prestige a bit in favor of tech. Ten years ago there was "a" NY Tech Meetup. Now there are many dozens if not hundreds, it certainly feels you could attend one every day. I feel I walk around and see a lot more people these days whom I say to myself "they are definitely i…

NYC always had a strong tech environment. > finance and money seem to be losing prestige a bit in favor of tech. Money will never lose its prestige in NYC. Tech is now where the money is going so I guess the prestige will naturally increase. > I feel I walk around and see a lot more people these days whom I say to myself "they are definitely in tech" whereas 10 years ago or so that would rarely happen. What? I worked…

Did you work in tech, or at a bank, or some other firm where tech was subservient to the business? I am not saying tech was never there- I worked in the 2000s in NYC as well- but now go around the flatiron area, you see all these people in jeans and a digital ocean (or whatever) t-shirt and glasses, and they just scream "I just left my startup's office." It was harder to pick them out when they were forced to wear a button down tucked into slacks.

It was definitely more prestigious to say you worked at GS vs Google 10 years ago, I am not so sure that's the case anymore. Everyone's experience is different I guess.

Re: Cities and Ambition (2008)

#52

Post by dionidium »

philipkglass wrote: post #39
dionidium wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This also applies to the oft-cited Good Will Hunting line about getting a great education for the price of some overdue books at the library. Yep, definitely, sure, you're right: you could definitely learn everything you would in college on your own. But you won't.

There are autodidacts who can go a long way with a big library (or nowadays: sci-hub, b-ok, MOOCs) and their own self-directed study. But if you haven't started on that path before finishing high school, it seems extremely risky to assume that you can start doing it instead of attending a university. Further, if you're already self-motivated and learning on your own, you're probably going to have a lot of (intellectu…

Obviously, everything you said is true. Manifestly, there also exist professional athletes. My advice to teenagers remains: you're not going to be one of them.

Re: Cities and Ambition (2008)

#53

Post by closeparen »

kevstev wrote: post #28
fowkswe wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a 16 year New Yorker, I'm sitting in the Fulton Market right now, considering a move to Chicago and wondering exactly this. Is "a less intense NYC" a bad thing?

Oh no I didn't mean to imply that in a negative way at all. Its like NY, but way cheaper. My friend bought a nice 2BR condo in a building with a doorman and a pool and balcony on the 30th something floor for 300k. A different friend of mine is spending every other week there for work (we both moved to the same company HQ'ed there), considered buying a crashpad 800 sqft 1BR in "the loop" aka right downtown for a bit o…

Yep, Chicago’s discount over cities of similar stature is pretty staggering. And if you want to live the same frugal lifestyle you would in SF (roommates + hour commute on public transit) you could spend $600 on housing and potentially burn less than $15k/year. That would be some incredible progress towards savings goals or financial independence at a Chicago tech worker’s salary.

Re: Cities and Ambition (2008)

#56

Post by madcaptenor »

amyjess wrote: post #34
artimaeis wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a professor some years ago who summed up Atlanta perfectly for me - "[...] it's the biggest small town in America". Having spent the past 15 years in the region I think he hit the nail on the head. I believe the biggest message Atlanta is sending out is one of music - musical arts are alive and kicking in Atlanta in ways that are very different to the other big music cities. I'm really hopeful that the general…

> I had a professor some years ago who summed up Atlanta perfectly for me - "[...] it's the biggest small town in America". My friends and I regularly make similar comments about Dallas. I very rarely meet someone new without finding out that they are somehow connected to somebody I know. Sayings like "Dallas is the world's biggest small town" and "I know I shouldn't be surprised, but how do the hell do those two kno…

The same "small town" thing happens in Philadelphia, where I used to live. This might be a property of cities of roughly that size.

Re: Cities and Ambition (2008)

#57

Post by padobson »

dionidium wrote: post #52
philipkglass wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are autodidacts who can go a long way with a big library (or nowadays: sci-hub, b-ok, MOOCs) and their own self-directed study. But if you haven't started on that path before finishing high school, it seems extremely risky to assume that you can start doing it instead of attending a university. Further, if you're already self-motivated and learning on your own, you're probably going to have a lot of (intellectu…

Obviously, everything you said is true. Manifestly, there also exist professional athletes. My advice to teenagers remains: you're not going to be one of them.

My advice to teenagers remains: you're not going to be one of them

This is not usually very hard to check, depending on the sport. Professional athletes at specific positions have fairly specific body types that enable them to succeed. Ask them what sport and position they want to play, and check their body types against the prototypical player at that position.

They'll always be able to point to exceptions - someone who had ridiculously high physical coordination or work ethic, but those traits are often more obvious than physical traits.

Re: Cities and Ambition (2008)

#58

Post by dionidium »

padobson wrote: post #57
dionidium wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously, everything you said is true. Manifestly, there also exist professional athletes. My advice to teenagers remains: you're not going to be one of them.

My advice to teenagers remains: you're not going to be one of them This is not usually very hard to check, depending on the sport. Professional athletes at specific positions have fairly specific body types that enable them to succeed. Ask them what sport and position they want to play, and check their body types against the prototypical player at that position. They'll always be able to point to exceptions - someone…

They'll always be able to point to exceptions - someone who had ridiculously high physical coordination or work ethic, but those traits are often more obvious than physical traits.

Yes, and my sort of utilitarian calculation is that you'll do more good in the world by discouraging a few would-be exceptions while not misleading a billion kids who obviously aren't going to be a professional athlete (or an extreme autodidact, or a Supreme Court Justice, or anything else like a handful of humans can do that the rest of us can't).

The truly odd thing about a forum like this one is that some of the people here actually are truly exceptional, one-in-a-million talents. I'm not talking to you :)

Anyway, my hypothesis (similar to yours, I think) is that those one-in-a-million talents receive a lot of reinforcement that they're one-in-a-million talents, already. They don't need it from me.

Re: Cities and Ambition (2008)

#59

Post by soperj »

philipkglass wrote: post #44
soperj wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must have gone to a University with better students than the one I went to, because the majority of the people I went to University with just wanted a piece of paper, and so "will this be on the test" was essential to their well-being and learning was at best secondary.

I was a freshman in 1998 and received my BS 4 years later. Was your experience more recent? I wonder if my experience was better due to the respective schools we attended, the timeframe, or perhaps both. I get the impression that credentialism is still worsening over time. Intensified credentialism has the effect of diluting classrooms that could be engaging with a bunch of people who are just XP-grinding to level up…

Not really. Freshman in 2001, though finally graduated in 2008 (took some time off in the middle to work).

> I also resent them This was the absolute biggest problem I had in University.

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