4 ms·

I would like to see normalized versions of these nuumbers, eg density-of-smart-people / population-density. Of course new york city is going to be more dense th

I would like to see normalized versions of these nuumbers, eg density-of-smart-people / population-density. Of course new york city is going to be more dense than oklahoma city, but TFA tells us nothing about the relative densities of smart people.

JeffJenkins 16y ago
I don't think that's very interesting: (smart/area) / (population/area) = (smart/population) I don't really care if the population is more educated if they're really spread out. Assuming I have some way of selecting people who are smart—which I definitely do in NYC—I'm going to get to see a lot more of them in a place with a higher smart density.
- gvb 16y ago
  Like all benchmarks, the simplification afforded by the benchmark distorts the results. We really should use a weighting function between (smart/area) and (smart/population) to identify both where smart people congregate and where there is a minimum "smartness" density.
- ebiester 16y ago
  What you're missing is that density is meaningless in a Western city. Consider a city like Tucson, which is really spread out. However, within 30 minutes I can reach 500,000 people. In Phoenix, you are 30 minutes away from at approximately 1,500,000 people. Does that compete with NYC and SF? No. However, density undervalues western cities and overvalues dense ones. Unfortunately, there's no statistics for "people with whom you can have coffee within 20 minutes of travel."
  - JeffJenkins 16y ago
    What do undervalue and overvalue mean here? Undervalue car travel? I travel by walking or cycling so the number of people I could reach in a period of time is almost exclusively a function of how dense the area I'm in is.
sesqu 16y ago
That's just regular density (smart/total). The article says that's what most economists use, but it's not automatically better - and density is a bit loose of a concept anyway. I'd say it comes down to whether you're interested in a bounded product (infrastructure) or an unbounded one (innovation). A good argument could be made for spreading degrees around geographically, focusing on area instead of population, but it couldn't be stated with any accuracy without a good model of the likely nonlinear effects of degree densities on both types of goals.
Avshalom 16y ago
The article he pulled the graph from has those numbers http://blog.robpitingolo.org/2010/05/where-smart-people-live.html http://blog.robpitingolo.org/2010/05/where-smart-people-live... the specific graphs being: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UnYG5zOkgEY/S_bRIxhp8CI/AAAAAAAABng/t8AWpDVSb_s/s1600/counties_scatter.png http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UnYG5zOkgEY/S_bRIxhp8CI/AAAAAAAABn... http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UnYG5zOkgEY/S_bRVVyNVmI/AAAAAAAABno/peFrT1HFXA0/s1600/cities_scatter.png http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UnYG5zOkgEY/S_bRVVyNVmI/AAAAAAAABn... They look like you'd expect.
- jallmann 16y ago
  That is a much more interesting article; I particularly like the graphs of predicted densities.

JeffJenkins 16y ago

I don't think that's very interesting: (smart/area) / (population/area) = (smart/population) I don't really care if the population is more educated if they're really spread out. Assuming I have some way of selecting people who are smart—which I definitely do in NYC—I'm going to get to see a lot more of them in a place with a higher smart density.

gvb 16y ago
Like all benchmarks, the simplification afforded by the benchmark distorts the results. We really should use a weighting function between (smart/area) and (smart/population) to identify both where smart people congregate and where there is a minimum "smartness" density.
ebiester 16y ago
What you're missing is that density is meaningless in a Western city. Consider a city like Tucson, which is really spread out. However, within 30 minutes I can reach 500,000 people. In Phoenix, you are 30 minutes away from at approximately 1,500,000 people. Does that compete with NYC and SF? No. However, density undervalues western cities and overvalues dense ones. Unfortunately, there's no statistics for "people with whom you can have coffee within 20 minutes of travel."
- JeffJenkins 16y ago
  What do undervalue and overvalue mean here? Undervalue car travel? I travel by walking or cycling so the number of people I could reach in a period of time is almost exclusively a function of how dense the area I'm in is.

sesqu 16y ago

That's just regular density (smart/total). The article says that's what most economists use, but it's not automatically better - and density is a bit loose of a concept anyway. I'd say it comes down to whether you're interested in a bounded product (infrastructure) or an unbounded one (innovation). A good argument could be made for spreading degrees around geographically, focusing on area instead of population, but it couldn't be stated with any accuracy without a good model of the likely nonlinear effects of degree densities on both types of goals.

Avshalom 16y ago

The article he pulled the graph from has those numbers http://blog.robpitingolo.org/2010/05/where-smart-people-live.html http://blog.robpitingolo.org/2010/05/where-smart-people-live... the specific graphs being: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UnYG5zOkgEY/S_bRIxhp8CI/AAAAAAAABng/t8AWpDVSb_s/s1600/counties_scatter.png http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UnYG5zOkgEY/S_bRIxhp8CI/AAAAAAAABn... http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UnYG5zOkgEY/S_bRVVyNVmI/AAAAAAAABno/peFrT1HFXA0/s1600/cities_scatter.png http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UnYG5zOkgEY/S_bRVVyNVmI/AAAAAAAABn... They look like you'd expect.

jallmann 16y ago
That is a much more interesting article; I particularly like the graphs of predicted densities.