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Why Living in a City Makes You More Innovative

blogs.smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Why Living in a City Makes You More Innovative

#31

Post by qwerta »

saosebastiao wrote: post #30
dominotw wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignorant how?

Because all you know about him is that he has a house big enough for his family and that he lives in the suburbs. Just because the suburbs vs city has a trend for energy use doesnt mean that he uses more energy than you or even the average city dweller. For all you know, his abode could be 100% solar power and his commute is to his back yard shop where he is pioneering new cellulosic ethanol production methods.

The funny part is that I do not even live at suborbs, I wrote outside of city. I live in small town (4000 people) on west coast of Ireland. The closest city is Dublin 120 miles away. I work from home (zero commute) and I hope my startup will reduce power used by data-centres by a few percents.

Re: Why Living in a City Makes You More Innovative

#32

Post by rsl7 »

dagw wrote: post #24
qwerta wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still do not get how is large house at suburb related to environment.

Living in a large house in the suburbs has a far greater environmental impact than living in an apartment in a city by basically any metric you care to measure.

except that cities are incredible, giant islands of heat.

Re: Why Living in a City Makes You More Innovative

#33

Post by bane »

qwerta wrote: post #31
saosebastiao wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because all you know about him is that he has a house big enough for his family and that he lives in the suburbs. Just because the suburbs vs city has a trend for energy use doesnt mean that he uses more energy than you or even the average city dweller. For all you know, his abode could be 100% solar power and his commute is to his back yard shop where he is pioneering new cellulosic ethanol production methods.

The funny part is that I do not even live at suborbs, I wrote outside of city. I live in small town (4000 people) on west coast of Ireland. The closest city is Dublin 120 miles away. I work from home (zero commute) and I hope my startup will reduce power used by data-centres by a few percents.

Based on my limited time in Ireland, I'm guessing you can also get most of your daily needs serviced by very local businesses.

Re: Why Living in a City Makes You More Innovative

#34

Post by HarryHirsch »

dominotw wrote: post #12
qwerta wrote: post #10

I have City associated mostly with high cost of living and lower life standard. In City I would probably spend 60+ hours/week in office and on commute just to break even. Outside of City a can have big house for my family, spend 3+ hours/day on my hobbies. And even make enough savings for 1 year runway for my startup :-)

What about the environment? What about thousands of people getting killed by our government to acquire energy sources to fuel your house in the burbs?

I don't see why this is being downvoted. The lack of urban development policy in the US is a problem. It's not natural that most city centers are hollowed-out, crime infested and surrounded by outer-ring suburbs without sidewalks and with gigantic setbacks to the road.

Phoenix, AZ is an abomination. Don't even get me started about golfing ranges in the Western desert while Lakes Mead and Havasu are running dry.

Re: Why Living in a City Makes You More Innovative

#35

Post by qwerta »

bane wrote: post #33
qwerta wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funny part is that I do not even live at suborbs, I wrote outside of city. I live in small town (4000 people) on west coast of Ireland. The closest city is Dublin 120 miles away. I work from home (zero commute) and I hope my startup will reduce power used by data-centres by a few percents.

Based on my limited time in Ireland, I'm guessing you can also get most of your daily needs serviced by very local businesses.

Yeah, local food is great. There is also multiplex cinema, gym with swimming pool and plenty of pubs. And people are just amazing. Pretty nice for small town. The only thing that sucks is weather and internet connectivity.

Re: Why Living in a City Makes You More Innovative

#36

Post by dominotw »

qwerta wrote: post #31
saosebastiao wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because all you know about him is that he has a house big enough for his family and that he lives in the suburbs. Just because the suburbs vs city has a trend for energy use doesnt mean that he uses more energy than you or even the average city dweller. For all you know, his abode could be 100% solar power and his commute is to his back yard shop where he is pioneering new cellulosic ethanol production methods.

The funny part is that I do not even live at suborbs, I wrote outside of city. I live in small town (4000 people) on west coast of Ireland. The closest city is Dublin 120 miles away. I work from home (zero commute) and I hope my startup will reduce power used by data-centres by a few percents.

As I said I was not talking about your particular case. I dont care about where you live at all.

I was using an 'impersonal you'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_you

Re: Why Living in a City Makes You More Innovative

#37

Post by KevinEldon »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #34
dominotw wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the environment? What about thousands of people getting killed by our government to acquire energy sources to fuel your house in the burbs?

I don't see why this is being downvoted. The lack of urban development policy in the US is a problem. It's not natural that most city centers are hollowed-out, crime infested and surrounded by outer-ring suburbs without sidewalks and with gigantic setbacks to the road. Phoenix, AZ is an abomination. Don't even get me started about golfing ranges in the Western desert while Lakes Mead and Havasu are running dry.

This made me smile. Why stop with the the man made golf courses; why not raise questions about allowing cities to expand to require monstrous man made dams blocking rivers to create lakes like Mead and Havasu (if you're not familiar w/ the environmental loss that is the Hetch Hetchy reservoir it's worth looking into). I get the economic benefits of damming up rivers for power, predictable water supplies, and flood control... it fuels economies which helps people earn more (I benefited from TVA and have read about what it was like in the Tennessee valley before TVA; I'm glad TVA exists even w/ all of its flaws)... but I still found it amusing that you picked one specific sign of the success of these programs to complain about.

Re: Why Living in a City Makes You More Innovative

#38

Post by alwaysinshade »

kstrauser wrote: post #15

"...in certain very specific areas." I grew up near quite rural areas and a certain level of mechanical innovation was expected. You need to use the power take-off on a tractor to run an irrigation pump temporarily until you can buy a new one? Break out the welder. The snow plow broke beyond reasonable repair? Break out the welder. For further evidence, watch any TV show making fun of rednecks. You'll typically see t…

> City life very well might increase innovation in certain fields. I'd posit that country life increases innovation just as much, but in different areas.

Innovative people are everywhere - the benefit that cities offer is that for every unit of space you have a greater number of people, thus you're likely to find a few intelligent, like-minded people condensed into a smaller area. They become easier to find an collaborate with. To use a metaphor: you have a better chance of picking up in a bar if there are 50 members of the opposite sex than 5.

Re: Why Living in a City Makes You More Innovative

#39

Post by shpxnvz »

alwaysinshade wrote: post #38
kstrauser wrote: post #15

"...in certain very specific areas." I grew up near quite rural areas and a certain level of mechanical innovation was expected. You need to use the power take-off on a tractor to run an irrigation pump temporarily until you can buy a new one? Break out the welder. The snow plow broke beyond reasonable repair? Break out the welder. For further evidence, watch any TV show making fun of rednecks. You'll typically see t…

> City life very well might increase innovation in certain fields. I'd posit that country life increases innovation just as much, but in different areas. Innovative people are everywhere - the benefit that cities offer is that for every unit of space you have a greater number of people, thus you're likely to find a few intelligent, like-minded people condensed into a smaller area. They become easier to find an collab…

But not if the number of same-sex competitors increases by the same amount.

Re: Why Living in a City Makes You More Innovative

#40

Post by recursive »

_pius wrote: post #9
recursive wrote: post #2

Oh look, a fluffy article about how living in a city makes you more innovative. On a website primarily used by city dwellers that pride themselves on being innovative.

On a website primarily used by city dwellers .... How do you know that?

Because San Francisco is a city.
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