5 ms·

Where in Canada did you live and gone to school? I live in the US now, and don't disagree that Americans as a people are more...well, I like the word 'ambitiou

by wk_end 9y ago

Where in Canada did you live and gone to school? I live in the US now, and don't disagree that Americans as a people are more...well, I like the word 'ambitious'. But I think your characterization of Canada is overly harsh: in Toronto and Montreal I know (and love) misfits just as individual, wild, and free as anyone I met during my years in Brooklyn.

caiob 9y ago
'Free' as in as long as you both have the same socially-acceptable opinion.
__erik 9y ago
Also Canadian (Vancouver / Victoria), spend a lot of time in SF. This has also been my experience but I'm wondering if its just a big city thing in CAD.
- lambdasquirrel 9y ago
  I’m a New Yorker, grew up there and now living in SF. Brooklyn was cool, but it didn’t “get” the kind of experimental intellectualism that’s needed in a tech startup scene. Not ripping on my old hometown. They have the intellectualism but haven’t applied it to tech. If I were to go back to New York, I wouldn’t go into tech, I’d go into finance because that’s where the nerds would be. If I may, when I visited Vancouver (several times), I couldn’t find a coffee shop culture there. For some reason this seems like a big deal. In Manhattan and in San Francisco, people write in coffee shops and it’s kind of a thing. This seems like a big deal too. There’s more startups that started in a coffee shop than you’d think. Again, it goes towards a certain kind of intellectual experimentation.
  - victorjuluis 9y ago
    I remember this Ted Talk titled “Where Good Ideas Come From” [1] where the speaker suggests that coffee or the combination of coffee and stimulating conversation catalyzed the generation of ideas and the rest is history up to the birth of Enlightenment. It seems like it’s still happening around coffee shops. [1] https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_johnson_where_good_ideas_come_from/transcript?language=en https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_johnson_where_good_ideas_co...
    - ignoramous 9y ago
      That's a really good talk. Thanks.
    - otempomores 9y ago
      Some in my family have a mild form of schizophrenia (mild as in not completely life destroying) and fika always seemed to set the minds flying. Not a breakfast or afternoon went by where not some incredible machine was constructed or some enormous project was discussed. To be honest though for these to become real a pressing need or some cooler minds constant pressure necessary. Usually a prototype was built and then abandoned due to boredom.
  - _-richard 9y ago
    Which coffee shops in Manhattan?
- jholman 9y ago
  As a Vancouverite, I found people less adventurous, less free-thinking, and greedier, in the Valley. Not by a huge margin, but still. But if you're in it for the money, the 2x salaries can't be beat.

by wk_end 9y ago

caiob 9y ago

'Free' as in as long as you both have the same socially-acceptable opinion.

__erik 9y ago

Also Canadian (Vancouver / Victoria), spend a lot of time in SF. This has also been my experience but I'm wondering if its just a big city thing in CAD.

lambdasquirrel 9y ago
I’m a New Yorker, grew up there and now living in SF. Brooklyn was cool, but it didn’t “get” the kind of experimental intellectualism that’s needed in a tech startup scene. Not ripping on my old hometown. They have the intellectualism but haven’t applied it to tech. If I were to go back to New York, I wouldn’t go into tech, I’d go into finance because that’s where the nerds would be. If I may, when I visited Vancouver (several times), I couldn’t find a coffee shop culture there. For some reason this seems like a big deal. In Manhattan and in San Francisco, people write in coffee shops and it’s kind of a thing. This seems like a big deal too. There’s more startups that started in a coffee shop than you’d think. Again, it goes towards a certain kind of intellectual experimentation.
- victorjuluis 9y ago
  I remember this Ted Talk titled “Where Good Ideas Come From” [1] where the speaker suggests that coffee or the combination of coffee and stimulating conversation catalyzed the generation of ideas and the rest is history up to the birth of Enlightenment. It seems like it’s still happening around coffee shops. [1] https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_johnson_where_good_ideas_come_from/transcript?language=en https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_johnson_where_good_ideas_co...
  - ignoramous 9y ago
    That's a really good talk. Thanks.
  - otempomores 9y ago
    Some in my family have a mild form of schizophrenia (mild as in not completely life destroying) and fika always seemed to set the minds flying. Not a breakfast or afternoon went by where not some incredible machine was constructed or some enormous project was discussed. To be honest though for these to become real a pressing need or some cooler minds constant pressure necessary. Usually a prototype was built and then abandoned due to boredom.
- _-richard 9y ago
  Which coffee shops in Manhattan?
jholman 9y ago
As a Vancouverite, I found people less adventurous, less free-thinking, and greedier, in the Valley. Not by a huge margin, but still. But if you're in it for the money, the 2x salaries can't be beat.