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I wrote this four months ago in an email to a friend of mine: "San Francisco is definitely a great area, and you should at least visit some day. There's a vib
by subwindow 18y ago
I wrote this four months ago in an email to a friend of mine:
"San Francisco is definitely a great area, and you should at least visit some day. There's a vibe there that's completely different from anywhere else I've ever been. It is hard to explain. You just go there and you feel it. Things seem possible out there that would be laughed at here. That's the best way I can put it.
Every city that I've been to has a certain feel to it. New York is rude and busy. Portland is relaxed and thoughtful. San Francisco is ambitious and free-spirited. Atlanta is comfortable and complacent. Atlanta's feel was good for growing up, and it is one that's good for growing old if you're willing to play it conservatively and live a life of moderate wealth and complacency. But if you're not, you should go to a city that has a better feel for what your goals are at that stage in your life.
Does that make sense? I'm by no means trying to convince you to go to San Francisco, but for me it was important that I travelled around and discovered the city that had the right feel for me. Portland was very close, and San Francisco is nearly spot on. I have no doubt you'll be somewhat different. Give it a try though, eh?"
Its like PG read my email and decided to write an essay on it.
- Prrometheus 18y agoHave you been to Austin? I am very interested in going there and would like your take on it.
- subwindow 18y agoNope. I keep meaning to attend an SXSW, but can never find the time/money.
- initself 18y agoAustin tells you 'you should be weird'.
- larrykubin 18y agoI live there. I think the message is: You should be younger and hipper and enjoy indie music.
- SwellJoe 18y agoActually, you're picking up the last bit wrong..."and join a band" is actually the way the last bit of the message goes. But close enough. In personals ads in Austin, "musician" is code for "unemployed", because everybody is a musician. You only mention it if you don't have anything better to say about your career.
- byrneseyeview 18y ago"New York is rude and busy." New York is just busy -- if you are as busy as everyone else, wasting time with "Please" and "Thank you" would strike you as rude.
- pg 18y agoNot everyone is just busy. The place turns some people into monsters.
- Xlp-Thlplylp 18y agoThe values of New York come from Wall Street, which sets the tone for the rest of industry there. The attitude that everything has its price is responsible for the bad reputation that New York and New Yorkers have in the rest of the country. If you live in New York, in some sense you aren't a citizen of the United States: your residency means that you have a passport to enter the "real" United States. Another thing about New York: it clearly isn't known for science. The Science Museum in Oakland California would be impossibly out of place in New York. The two main categories of industry in New York are finance and media, broadly conceived (including the arts, television, publishing, fashion, advertising and so on).
- byrneseyeview 18y agoColumbia, NYU, and Cooper Union are excellent schools. If they were located anywhere but in the center of the world's media and financial system, they would define that place as an unparalleled academic center.
- pg 18y agoI don't know about unparalleled. Harvard + MIT + Tufts + BU + BC + Northeastern + ... would probably still win.
- Xlp-Thlplylp 18y ago"I don't know about unparalleled." That means, "compared with CUNY."