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Cities and Ambition

paulgraham.com

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Re: Cities and Ambition

#201

Post by DanielH »

wheels wrote: post #179
asdflkj wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting! How did the housing surplus come about?

A lot of people left West Berlin when the city was divided and a lot of people left East Berlin right after reunification. The massive housing surplus that resulted caused housing costs to sink and cheap housing made the city a mecca for alternative culture. Cost of living probably doesn't even hit a quarter of Paris or London. Here's an article from 6 years ago that's somewhat dated, but still gives you a feel for t…

Berlin is really something to consider if you start in Europe... ;)

Re: Cities and Ambition

#202

Post by tyn »

pg wrote: post #83
tyn wrote: post #74

"What happened to the Milanese Leonardo?" Just for the sake of argument, I can think of some counterexamples: Archimede living in Syracuse (not exactly the mathematics and engineering capital of the ancient world), Einstein in Bern, Bobby Fischer in NY (and not Moscow). I'm sure you can find many many more.

Syracuse was in fact probably the richest and most sophisticated city in the West at the time.

What happened to the other Syracuse geniuses, then? Now it gets more complicated. I think that the article's argument apply more to some fields (e.g. painting, cinema) than others. IT is probably one of these other fields (Guido van Rossum comes to mind here).

Re: Cities and Ambition

#203

Post by geebee »

caderoux wrote: post #186
geebee wrote: post #177

This is an interesting take on cities. What do you think New Orleans says? I haven't been there post-Katrina, but it definitely has a very powerful vibe (the "show us your tits for beads" stupidity is actually just a very small section of the city, not at all characteristic of the rest of the place...) "You should live more soulfully?"

I would think there is no doubt that New Orleans says: You should be yourself.

I read an article about a tourist who asked "where are the oysters from" and got the reply "from the bay."

The lesson being that if you want to enjoy oysters, you're going to have to let go and accept that there's a bit or risk in any real pleasure.

To me, that's always been the message of new orleans. True pleasure requires some risk, and you have to embrace it, rather than merely tolerate it.

Re: Cities and Ambition

#204

Post by osipov »

ii wrote: post #76

Great article. I think that those messages apply not only to cities, they apply to whole countries in a certain periods of time. I live in Russia and I can hear the message very clearly: "you have to win". And it works: soccer, hockey, music -- we've won several competitions in a very short time frame. Hope you'll hear about us on the web startup front in a near future too :) I never thought before about the importan…

Why not Novosibirsk? With the Siberian climate the message is clearly "you should stay indoors and work"

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/...

Re: Cities and Ambition

#206

Post by pchristensen »

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.

Provo, UT: You're still single?

Chicago: There's nothing wrong with second place.

Stockholm, Sweden: You're not clean enough!

Re: Cities and Ambition

#207

Post by JesseAldridge »

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.

Austin, TX: You should be having more fun on the weekends.

Rio Grande Valley, TX: Play your cards right and some day you could be middle class!

Re: Cities and Ambition

#208

Post by hassy »

pfedor wrote: post #141
izaidi wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you say those cities' messages are? (I'm especially interested in Amsterdam because I'm thinking about moving there.)

I lived in Amsterdam for half a year ten years ago. It's very walkable and beautiful. You walk the streets and people smile at you. It's a happy place. I think the message is something like, "Be happy." Also, I believe it's the only country in Europe except for the UK where everyone speaks good English. In most big cities in Europe you will eventually find someone who speaks English, but in Amsterdam the odds that it…

> Also, I believe it's the only country in Europe except for the UK where everyone speaks good English. In most big cities in Europe you will eventually find someone who speaks English, but in Amsterdam the odds that it will be the first person you approach are no worse than in London or California.

Stockholm is similar -- most people speak good English.

Amsterdam is one of the biggest tourist destinations in Europe, no wonder about the quality of their English (although this applies to the whole of Netherlands, not just Amsterdam).

I hear the Danes speak excellent English too, but I haven't been to Denmark myself.

Re: Cities and Ambition

#209

Post by tyg »

hassy wrote: post #208
pfedor wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in Amsterdam for half a year ten years ago. It's very walkable and beautiful. You walk the streets and people smile at you. It's a happy place. I think the message is something like, "Be happy." Also, I believe it's the only country in Europe except for the UK where everyone speaks good English. In most big cities in Europe you will eventually find someone who speaks English, but in Amsterdam the odds that it…

> Also, I believe it's the only country in Europe except for the UK where everyone speaks good English. In most big cities in Europe you will eventually find someone who speaks English, but in Amsterdam the odds that it will be the first person you approach are no worse than in London or California. Stockholm is similar -- most people speak good English. Amsterdam is one of the biggest tourist destinations in Europe,…

As I understand it, the reason the Dutch speak English so well is that a lot of American television is shown there...still in English, but with Dutch subtitles. So kids grow up essentially in a semi-immersion program of English as a second language, which gets reinforced later in life due to tourism and English being the current effectively most common language.

Re: Cities and Ambition

#210

Post by gcv »

Living in New York, I completely concur that it sends a message about having more money, and I suppose it significantly shapes my own thinking. I've noticed it even more in other people.

Just two nitpicks about the essay. First, I think that, in the London of Oscar Wilde, you would have seen "hipness" as being important. Plenty of hip dandies of the time, Wilde included, did not descend from the aristocracy of the time. Second, I'm not so sure about the required jackets for men metric. For one thing, some of the nicest restaurants in New York wouldn't bat an eyelash about a patron in jeans, for precisely the reasons you discuss. I would trust what Zagat has to say on the matter. I think a better metric would be how many men choose to wear a jacket and tie, and on that score, I suspect that New York still loses out as a startup hub.

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