6 ms·

Cultural wasteland? Wait till you have kids. Turns out it doesn't matter whether you can see a post-alt-rock band in a small venue, it's past bedtime anyways,

by jbooth 9y ago

Cultural wasteland? Wait till you have kids. Turns out it doesn't matter whether you can see a post-alt-rock band in a small venue, it's past bedtime anyways, and spongebob on youtube works everywhere.

ikeyany 9y ago
Again, not everyone believes 15 years chain restaurants, homogeneous lifestyle, and isolated affluence is worth it.
- jbooth 9y ago
  Chain restaurants?? We cook at home. Occasionally hit up our local pub in our cultural wasteland suburb. People with kids and responsibilities have different concerns from those who don't. Whether what I ate or what entertainment I consume are fashionable enough doesn't even hit the radar -- I'm happy if I can eat anything in peace or get any downtime whatsoever for entertainment. You'll be there one day.
  - ikeyany 9y ago
    Culture doesn't mean being fashionable or trendy. I think you have a mistaken view of what culture means.
    - jbooth 9y ago
      I get where you're coming from but you don't seem to get that other people have different priorities. The set of people living in the burbs with families are generally living for their kids first and themselves a distant second. Consuming more interesting culture is great and all but it's still just consumption. Even if you're producing art or music, that's something for people with a lot of time for it unless they're doing it professionally. (and lots of great music has been created by bored suburban kids, FWIW).
- rayiner 9y ago
  We're talking about suburbs where Uber and cab drivers can afford a house in a good school district. Those places aren't bastions of "homogeneous lifestyle" and "isolated affluence." More like ethnic restaurants and lots of economic/racial diversity.
api 9y ago
Wait till your kids are teens and they have nothing to do but drugs and video games because there is nothing else within 200 miles. The parent poster is right: most of the USA is cultural wasteland. It's also largely an entrepreneurial wasteland. New value creation is concentrated in the same hot spots as new culture creation. This is always true everywhere to some extent but it's gotten much worse over my life time. I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and I remember being a teen and an early twenty something there. You knew you weren't New York but there was a sense that things were possible. I worked on some pretty cutting edge software stuff around web and Internet there in the late 90s. Today it's an opium addiction ward and everyone who wants to do anything leaves. Meanwhile the "alpha cities" are experiencing uncontrollable real estate hyperinflation since everyone who wants to do anything must move there. This real estate hyperinflation problem is a symptom of something much larger. The majority of the USA (by land area) is in a permanent malaise and has been since ~2000-2001. I quite frankly find it terrifying. It's a precursor to fascism, totalitarian socialism, or dissolution.
- ShabbosGoy 9y ago
  > Wait till your kids are teens and they have nothing to do but drugs and video games because there is nothing else within 200 miles. Uhh, I think we live in very different realities. Drugs and video games are proper subcultures in their own right. It has nothing to do with where you live and more to do with your identity.
- deadmetheny 9y ago
  >Wait till your kids are teens and they have nothing to do but drugs and video games because there is nothing else within 200 miles. Teens do drugs and play video games even in your shining coastal beacons of civilization. >It's also largely an entrepreneurial wasteland ... Meanwhile the "alpha cities" are experiencing uncontrollable real estate hyperinflation since everyone who wants to do anything must move there If you're trying to become a millionaire making trash like Uber for banana hammocks, sure. Small businesses do just fine outside of dying small rural towns. Midwestern cities have plenty of work in my experience, it's just not the sexy "let's trick ourselves into thinking we're changing the world with our app" kind of work. I mean, you're not wrong that there's a malaise going around the country in a seriously troubling way. We live in an era where remote work is very doable for many of us and there's no good reason we have to all live in coastal cities. My reflex is to blame the VCs for this, but there's plenty of other businesses that also don't do it for whatever reason. IMO this mindset needs to change, and quickly.

by jbooth 9y ago

ikeyany 9y ago

Again, not everyone believes 15 years chain restaurants, homogeneous lifestyle, and isolated affluence is worth it.

jbooth 9y ago
Chain restaurants?? We cook at home. Occasionally hit up our local pub in our cultural wasteland suburb. People with kids and responsibilities have different concerns from those who don't. Whether what I ate or what entertainment I consume are fashionable enough doesn't even hit the radar -- I'm happy if I can eat anything in peace or get any downtime whatsoever for entertainment. You'll be there one day.
- ikeyany 9y ago
  Culture doesn't mean being fashionable or trendy. I think you have a mistaken view of what culture means.
  - jbooth 9y ago
    I get where you're coming from but you don't seem to get that other people have different priorities. The set of people living in the burbs with families are generally living for their kids first and themselves a distant second. Consuming more interesting culture is great and all but it's still just consumption. Even if you're producing art or music, that's something for people with a lot of time for it unless they're doing it professionally. (and lots of great music has been created by bored suburban kids, FWIW).
rayiner 9y ago
We're talking about suburbs where Uber and cab drivers can afford a house in a good school district. Those places aren't bastions of "homogeneous lifestyle" and "isolated affluence." More like ethnic restaurants and lots of economic/racial diversity.

api 9y ago

Wait till your kids are teens and they have nothing to do but drugs and video games because there is nothing else within 200 miles. The parent poster is right: most of the USA is cultural wasteland. It's also largely an entrepreneurial wasteland. New value creation is concentrated in the same hot spots as new culture creation. This is always true everywhere to some extent but it's gotten much worse over my life time. I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and I remember being a teen and an early twenty something there. You knew you weren't New York but there was a sense that things were possible. I worked on some pretty cutting edge software stuff around web and Internet there in the late 90s. Today it's an opium addiction ward and everyone who wants to do anything leaves. Meanwhile the "alpha cities" are experiencing uncontrollable real estate hyperinflation since everyone who wants to do anything must move there. This real estate hyperinflation problem is a symptom of something much larger. The majority of the USA (by land area) is in a permanent malaise and has been since ~2000-2001. I quite frankly find it terrifying. It's a precursor to fascism, totalitarian socialism, or dissolution.

ShabbosGoy 9y ago
> Wait till your kids are teens and they have nothing to do but drugs and video games because there is nothing else within 200 miles. Uhh, I think we live in very different realities. Drugs and video games are proper subcultures in their own right. It has nothing to do with where you live and more to do with your identity.
deadmetheny 9y ago
>Wait till your kids are teens and they have nothing to do but drugs and video games because there is nothing else within 200 miles. Teens do drugs and play video games even in your shining coastal beacons of civilization. >It's also largely an entrepreneurial wasteland ... Meanwhile the "alpha cities" are experiencing uncontrollable real estate hyperinflation since everyone who wants to do anything must move there If you're trying to become a millionaire making trash like Uber for banana hammocks, sure. Small businesses do just fine outside of dying small rural towns. Midwestern cities have plenty of work in my experience, it's just not the sexy "let's trick ourselves into thinking we're changing the world with our app" kind of work. I mean, you're not wrong that there's a malaise going around the country in a seriously troubling way. We live in an era where remote work is very doable for many of us and there's no good reason we have to all live in coastal cities. My reflex is to blame the VCs for this, but there's plenty of other businesses that also don't do it for whatever reason. IMO this mindset needs to change, and quickly.