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Cities and Ambition

paulgraham.com

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Re: Cities and Ambition

#91

Post by GHFigs »

notdarkyet wrote: post #78
rms wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK -- you are saying that things are much more complicated than being able to dub a city the intellectual capital of the world. It is nearly impossible because humanity is more complex than being reduced to the experiences of one person, but if someone was holding a gun to your head and saying you had to name the world's intellectual capital, what would you name it? There really doesn't seem to be a better one than C…

No I wouldn't name Cambridge because "When you walk through Palo Alto in the evening, you see nothing but the blue glow of TVs. In Cambridge you see shelves full of promising-looking books". If intellect was based off of the number of books in ones bookshelf, a few of my friends would be gods amongst men. If the main criteria everyone is using to evaluate whether a city is the intellectual capital is a) how prestigio…

It's lovely how you dissect and dismiss the statement on the basis of being a subjective determination without questioning for a second just what the hell "intellectual capital of the world" means.

I daresay your reading comprehension skills are subpar if you're troubled to detect a subjective declaration in a subjective essay about subjective experience.

Re: Cities and Ambition

#92

Post by epi0Bauqu »

menloparkbum wrote: post #77
hugh wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine some black bum you drive by, imagine how he sees cambridge. For him its not a place of ideas. There is no push towards reading. I'm not sure why you felt the need to bring the hypothetical bum's race into it, but I disagree. A bum on the street in Cambridge sits around resenting the fact that all the successful people around him are better educated than he is. A bum on the street in Hollywood, on the other ha…

The bums in Cambridge are almost always white.

There is a disproportionate number of white bums, but there are certainly a lot of black bums too. So I would not say they are almost always white.

Re: Cities and Ambition

#93

Post by epi0Bauqu »

hugh wrote: post #59
maxklein wrote: post #14

Duuude, Mister Graham, I've never even heard of this Cambridge, and I seriously doubt it is the intellectual capital of the world. And you know what - you are not qualified to judge. You've not been to Urumuqi, Jenin, Port Harcourt or Bahia, how can you make a judgement based on having been in two cities? And furthermore, I take offense at the suggestion that American universities produce the best students. In genera…

Imagine some black bum you drive by, imagine how he sees cambridge. For him its not a place of ideas. There is no push towards reading. I'm not sure why you felt the need to bring the hypothetical bum's race into it, but I disagree. A bum on the street in Cambridge sits around resenting the fact that all the successful people around him are better educated than he is. A bum on the street in Hollywood, on the other ha…

An MIT student made a documentary a few years back about bums on the street of Cambridge. While the evidence is clearly anecdotal, none gave off the aura you describe. They were completely disconnected from the MIT/Harvard community. Instead, they were entirely engrossed in their own world (and in some cases, how they got there).

Re: Cities and Ambition

#94

Post by GHFigs »

menloparkbum wrote: post #81

Where is the art capital of the contemporary world? If Paris is where people appreciate art, and New York is where people buy art, is there a single city better than others where people go to make art?

New York, too. The artists have to be in touch with what people are buying so they know what they should make.

Re: Cities and Ambition

#95

Post by shiro »

hugh wrote: post #69
edw519 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"your best best is probably to try living in several places when you're young" I have, and here's what they've said to me: Pittsburgh: You should be nice. New Jersey: You should be in New York. Los Angeles: You should go outside. Phoenix: You should go inside. Detroit: You should be glad you have a good job. Tampa: You should buy a new pair of flip flops for dinner Saturday night.

Places I've lived: Sydney: You should spend more money on real estate. Melbourne: You should spend more money on clothes. London: You should have been here 150 years ago. Davis, CA: You should leave Davis, CA.

Tokyo, Japan: Doing nothing, even for a minute, is a sin.

Re: Cities and Ambition

#96

Post by notdarkyet »

GHFigs wrote: post #91
notdarkyet wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No I wouldn't name Cambridge because "When you walk through Palo Alto in the evening, you see nothing but the blue glow of TVs. In Cambridge you see shelves full of promising-looking books". If intellect was based off of the number of books in ones bookshelf, a few of my friends would be gods amongst men. If the main criteria everyone is using to evaluate whether a city is the intellectual capital is a) how prestigio…

It's lovely how you dissect and dismiss the statement on the basis of being a subjective determination without questioning for a second just what the hell "intellectual capital of the world" means. I daresay your reading comprehension skills are subpar if you're troubled to detect a subjective declaration in a subjective essay about subjective experience.

Ok, So apparently an ad hominem argument without any valid justification or reasoning is acceptable. I at least tried to support with some sort of criteria or justification for a title. Not from PG, but from all of the commenter's who support the claim.

"I daresay your reading comprehension skills are subpar if you're troubled to detect a subjective declaration in a subjective essay about subjective experience."

Well sadly your reading comprehension skills are subpar because I have been responding to the thread, not the content of the essay. The use of the quote from the essay was used to make the point that the individuals here seem to so easily accept Cambridge as the capital without any mention or rebuttal with criteria or evidence to support.

There seems to be blind support to these claims and no defense for them. Why is it wrong for me to reject a claim but alright for you all to accept it? I seem to be the only one that is attempting to dissect the criteria or claim subjectivity while you give none.

Rather than downmod me and tell me I am wrong, propose reasons why your argument is valid.

Re: Cities and Ambition

#98

Post by ssanders82 »

muhfuhkuh wrote: post #84
coglethorpe wrote: post #39

I've noticed messages as well: Gary, IN: Lock the doors. Do not stop. Macon, GA: You know, Atlanta is just up the road, right? Elko, NV: The only winners are the house and the mine owners. Milwaukee, WI: Fourth place is just fine, given enough beer. Clearly, I need to hang out in better cities.

Okay, me too. Columbia SC: Uh, the culture is pretty much centered around it's mid-tier University of South Carolina, which is a party-hardy Frat/Sorority vibe. So, I guess it says "YEEE-HAAAAW! More beer, Bo!" Hartford, CT: Unless you can calculate the death of a 55 year old smoker with no major medical history within a margin of error, the city says "There's NY below and Boston above, take your pick, pay your toll,…

Clemson SC: Aren't we all glad we don't live in Columbia! More beer, Bo!

Re: Cities and Ambition

#99

Post by maw »

Xlp-Thlplylp wrote: post #56
pg wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone is just busy. The place turns some people into monsters.

Since we're on the subject of the politeness of New Yorker's and the attitude that everything has its price, in New York, a simple "thank you" might be considered a costly acknowledgment. Here's a dismal example by hacking standards, but it's still indicative of the attitude. Someone from a financial firm, known for its rating system and price indexes, had a data conversion problem. They were using Matlab--a dismal l…

Just typically corporate, in my experience. That kind of person uses "I" when "we" would be the correct pronoun, and "we" when "you" would be. When "I" would actually be correct, it'll be capitalized, or attention drawn to it some other way.

Re: Cities and Ambition

#100

Post by Xlp-Thlplylp »

hugh wrote: post #67
Xlp-Thlplylp wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The values of New York come from Wall Street, which sets the tone for the rest of industry there. The attitude that everything has its price is responsible for the bad reputation that New York and New Yorkers have in the rest of the country. If you live in New York, in some sense you aren't a citizen of the United States: your residency means that you have a passport to enter the "real" United States. Another thing a…

I've never been to the Science Museum in Oakland, but New York has some pretty good science museums. And I can't really say that Science and Oakland go together all that way in my mind either.

As I recall, the Oakland Science Museum is focused on technology. The American Museum of Natural History is a better museum in many ways, but its focus is entirely different. The Hall of Science seems like a leftover from the World's Fair--I'm probably completely mistaken.

I associate the Hall of Science with cranky aging amateur radio operators on account of the annual hamfests they hold in the vicinity. Those hams seem as if their wives ordered them not to come home until they sell off their old equipment. That's the impression of science and technology you get from the Hall of Science. That impression might be a little hard to convey, so try comparing the discussions on eHam with those on hacker news.

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