Agreed. And if you stay long enough you may witness a message meltdown. Living in Seattle since '82, I remember my first impression was that it reminded me of Minneapolis, but with better geography. Flash forward 25 years and the vacuity of chasing status/money is deafening. I often wonder what life here would be like if Bill had stayed in Albuquerque. It wasn't until the late 90's I had to admit finally that what I considered ambition, wasn't.
Cities and Ambition
291–300 of 313 posts
Re: Cities and Ambition
#292I suspect that being a foreigner meant you didn't pick up on a lot of the class-based ambition in London. The city is moribund with it. Every social event reeks of it.
I'm English, but lived in the US for five years, and have returned to England for five years now, in London for the first time.
Another beautiful essay though, thanks for that.
Re: Cities and Ambition
#293I'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.
Garberville, CA: Hey, man, you should give to the community and help me get some weed. Wolfeboro, NH (smalltown New England summer resort): You should pretend it's 1962 like all the retirees do. Waltham, MA (Brandeis University): Go back to NYC when you graduate. Cambridge, MA: You should be more educated. I chose "educated" over "intelligent" largely because I lived closer to Harvard. When I go to the MIT side of Ca…
The only place I've had that feeling that "education" was more important than knowledge in Cambridge was actually directly on the Harvard campus. But I completely agree.
There are two strains of culture in Cambridge, "you should be smarter" which is why I love living here. And "you should have two PHDs" -- which is very different and unfortunate message. It's almost the opposite of the Valley, which speaks so reverently of the Harvard drop-out.
The best thing that those of us who live in Cambridge could do is keep the culture focused on ideas and less on diplomas.
Re: Cities and Ambition
#294Interesting essay. I'm from New York, but I've lived in Sydney for the past 2 years. I think Sydney's natural beauty and physical remoteness lead it to be oblivious. After living here, I've never felt more capable of tuning out anything ugly. That worries me because I think we need to experience ugly things. But it's not just about physical beauty and remoteness because I can think of places similar in those respects that don't seem to express such brazenly blissful ignorance. I think Sydney is about being proud of being able to afford the luxury of obliviousness. Even if you bother keeping up with the world, nobody else here really seems to care, so it leads that ambition to be vestigial. Of course most Sydneysiders would bristle at such an assessment, but that's the attitude I pick up from my own eavesdropping. I think Sydney is also obsessed with youthfulness. Fundamentally, then, it's like living in an American high school. Why did I move here again?
Re: Cities and Ambition
#295this is almost like calvino the more intellectual less poetic version. you made me think , but what about those people who are attracted to more than one city and decides to live in between them. what about nomads and those living in nature.(i know a few and they are usually on the more intelligent side of the spectrum) and what about those who are trapped in a city and cant get out of it.
Re: Cities and Ambition
#296Earlier quoted context omitted.
Moscow: You should be rich, or Russian. Preferably both.
Wrong. If we were to choose one message for Moscow it should be: "you must be powerfull." If you are merely rich, your money can be easily taken from you by more powerful person in Moscow. And if you didn't know, Russian is a second class citizen in Russia. All in all, one message per city is insufficient. It all depends on the people around you.
You hit the nail on the head: This whole essay is based on a false premise (which nonetheless is strongly believed by PG). Cambridge only seems to be a "smart" town if your social group consists of people associated with MIT, and you're only likely to end up in that social group if you were part of the middle class when you moved there.
Re: Cities and Ambition
#297This 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 grew up in New Orleans, lived there for some of my adult life, still have much family there, and return frequently so I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the place. The message of this city comes through loud and clear to me: have fun.
Now that doesn't (always) mean acting like a drunken idiot in the French Quarter. It basically means enjoy yourself. If that means getting drunk, fine. But it may also mean hanging out on the porch and watching the sunset, having a fine meal with friends at your favorite restaurant, going to mass on Sunday, fishing for nothing in particular in Bayou St. John, or visiting the lakefront with your dog. But don't take anything too seriously, don't work too hard, and don't sweat the small stuff.
New Orleans tells you that by far the most important thing in life is not whether you're rich, attractive, skinny, or powerful. It's how much you enjoy the path you're on. New Orleans admires poor and happy far more than any other place I've ever lived. Rich and happy is good too, but not all that different by the standards of the place.
Hmm, maybe that's why I'm not all that rich or successful despite living in New York for the other half of my life. :-)
Re: Cities and Ambition
#298I live in Columbus, OH and as I read PG's essay I was wondering what Columbus tells you. And seriously, I just kept thinking about one thing: "You should play college football." College football is king in the Bus, and the players and coaches are our royalty. It's kind of a scary thought, but I'm as big a Buckeye fan as anyone else, so I'm partly to blame. But I also admit that I don't want to live in a place where t…
Being an OSU student, I have to agree with you, but to be fair, I think Columbus also has some more interesting things to say, depending on where you live. Brewery district: You should drink better beer. Short north: You should be more artistic (in terms of both art and "sophisticated" things like wine-tasting). Anywhere near High Street: You should hear more live music. Honestly, Columbus has a thriving music, art,…
Diversity is never good, though. That's such a lame stereotype of our time. Diverse cultures are dying cultures. But I agree, that's totally the message of Columbus. It's trying so hard to be the most "diverse" and "gay-friendly" place in the Midwest. But the gayness is tired and such a stereotype. It's like, "Enough already!" You'd never see straights behaving like that, or parading around so obsessively. It's gross. I shouldn't be required to like, accept, or tolerate it -- because I don't.
Re: Cities and Ambition
#299this is almost like calvino the more intellectual less poetic version. you made me think , but what about those people who are attracted to more than one city and decides to live in between them. what about nomads and those living in nature.(i know a few and they are usually on the more intelligent side of the spectrum) and what about those who are trapped in a city and cant get out of it.
Ottawa, Ontario - you should be a bureaucrat
Mexico City, Mexico - pretty much like New York
Re: Cities and Ambition
#300I think the biggest shift in deciding where to live is happening "online" rather than "offline". I am an online nomad. I never lived and never will live in MySpace. I do not like the MySpacians message (Hey lets try to see who has more friends and hookups). I sometimes spend time at Facebook. I lived there for a little while until I realized I am not so much into keeping in touch and I had no friends in the few hours…
It is good, but still low-bandwidth. Perhaps the reason for compulsively refreshing the homepage is that we just can't get enough. Any suggestions about how to make better online environments for people who care about similar things?
I think this site is a good way to link people with similar interests. it's an online software for sharing time lines about basically anything (you make them yourself).
www.dipity.com
I just made an account, and I think that shring time lines is really a good way to talk and exchange a lot. I truly think people will meet through these things. it's a social network that's surely more meaninful than myspace or facebook, cause it's made to exacge information (in a pretty user friendly way). it's sharing information instead or pure fame or coolness (or throwing pies and presents).
add me I'm "smoothboom" and I just started a time line about memetics if you're interested.