4 ms·

Only at the mecca of social-awkwardness (MIT) could something like this be developed. Kidding aside, MIT never ceases to amaze. Boston's most valuable resource

Only at the mecca of social-awkwardness (MIT) could something like this be developed. Kidding aside, MIT never ceases to amaze. Boston's most valuable resource by a mile, IMHO.

shriphani 15y ago
I sometimes wonder how lucky the residents of Cambridge, MA are. MIT AND HARVARD... man that is some concentration of intelligence.
- danielharan 15y ago
  I stayed in Cambridge a few days ago, half way between MIT and Harvard - and a mile away from a chocolate factory. Center of the fucking universe!
  - jamesbkel 15y ago
    Taza chocolate, perhaps? Great stuff.
    - danielharan 15y ago
      Indeed! Well worth the detour for anyone visiting.
- clistctrl 15y ago
  I love having an ordinary day, maybe taking a ride on the T and overhearing a conversation about quantum mechanics or cryptology. Cambridge really does have a unique culture.
- api 15y ago
  I lived there for five years, and recently moved away. Plus: highest concentration of intelligence on the Eastern seaboard. It's pretty spectacular. Minus: Warning: what follows is my own opinion based on my own experience, and YMMV, but: Coldness. People don't really connect. They don't really have friends. They don't "hang out," or if they do the conversations are either technical or about the weather. Try to talk to someone about anything emotional, or far out, or speculative, or... anything other than brainy topics or the weather... and you're very, very weird and people look at you funny and go back to the weather. For the first two years I lived there I thought it was me. Then I had this friend who lived there... total social butterfly, way more than me. After he'd lived there for five years, he had more friends in New York than in Boston. He moved to New York. I went and visited him and after being there for three months he had like twenty friends. The entire Boston area is cold and anti-social, especially the MIT/Harvard nexus. Somehow I don't think the specs are going to help, because I don't think it has anything to do with social ability. I got the distinct impression that being friendly was considered a mark of low social class.
  - smhinsey 15y ago
    Funny, I also lived in Cambridge for 5 years (mostly the Inman area) and had the exact opposite impression, and in fact, I'm in the process of trying to find a way to leave DC because I think it's cold in exactly the same way you describe. I pretty frequently find myself wishing I was back in Cambridge.
    - qq66 15y ago
      I've lived ~3 months in many different US cities (DC, Chicago, Seattle, Austin, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Boston) and DC was my least favorite. Everyone there is obsessed with their proximity to the Washington power structure, which is a cold organization full of boring people.
      - smhinsey 15y ago
        I'm not the most social person to begin with, so I gave it a lot of time, but I just totally failed to make any non-work friends because of stuff like that. I've been here for ~4 years and am so ready to get out West. Of course, it's never as easy to move that far as you'd want it to be. I remember in Cambridge I could swing downstairs to the neighborhood bar, find a stranger, and strike up a conversation. Maybe it didn't work half as well as I am recalling, but even then, it was better than DC, where it always turns to "where do you work?" And "a startup" has only slightly more cachet than "I'm unemployed." From a professional standpoint moving here has been great, but from a personal point of view, I think it's the biggest I've made.
    - api 15y ago
      That's interesting, and is why I put YMMV. I sometimes wonder if there is some kind of random stochastic effect that's related to where on the social graph you connect initially in a city that determines this outcome. But I really, really tried. So did my friend, who was far more outgoing than me. Neither of us were able to meet very many people in Boston, or ever to feel comfortable there.
jamesbkel 15y ago
While I agree with your general sentiment (I love living in Cambridge, right between MIT and Harvard), it would be a mistake to get too wrapped up in tech and ignore what has historically and still is arguably Boston's greatest resource: teaching hospitals/medicine.

Only at the mecca of social-awkwardness (MIT) could something like this be developed. Kidding aside, MIT never ceases to amaze. Boston's most valuable resource by a mile, IMHO.

shriphani 15y ago

I sometimes wonder how lucky the residents of Cambridge, MA are. MIT AND HARVARD... man that is some concentration of intelligence.

danielharan 15y ago
I stayed in Cambridge a few days ago, half way between MIT and Harvard - and a mile away from a chocolate factory. Center of the fucking universe!
- jamesbkel 15y ago
  Taza chocolate, perhaps? Great stuff.
  - danielharan 15y ago
    Indeed! Well worth the detour for anyone visiting.
clistctrl 15y ago
I love having an ordinary day, maybe taking a ride on the T and overhearing a conversation about quantum mechanics or cryptology. Cambridge really does have a unique culture.
api 15y ago
I lived there for five years, and recently moved away. Plus: highest concentration of intelligence on the Eastern seaboard. It's pretty spectacular. Minus: Warning: what follows is my own opinion based on my own experience, and YMMV, but: Coldness. People don't really connect. They don't really have friends. They don't "hang out," or if they do the conversations are either technical or about the weather. Try to talk to someone about anything emotional, or far out, or speculative, or... anything other than brainy topics or the weather... and you're very, very weird and people look at you funny and go back to the weather. For the first two years I lived there I thought it was me. Then I had this friend who lived there... total social butterfly, way more than me. After he'd lived there for five years, he had more friends in New York than in Boston. He moved to New York. I went and visited him and after being there for three months he had like twenty friends. The entire Boston area is cold and anti-social, especially the MIT/Harvard nexus. Somehow I don't think the specs are going to help, because I don't think it has anything to do with social ability. I got the distinct impression that being friendly was considered a mark of low social class.
- smhinsey 15y ago
  Funny, I also lived in Cambridge for 5 years (mostly the Inman area) and had the exact opposite impression, and in fact, I'm in the process of trying to find a way to leave DC because I think it's cold in exactly the same way you describe. I pretty frequently find myself wishing I was back in Cambridge.
  - qq66 15y ago
    I've lived ~3 months in many different US cities (DC, Chicago, Seattle, Austin, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Boston) and DC was my least favorite. Everyone there is obsessed with their proximity to the Washington power structure, which is a cold organization full of boring people.
    - smhinsey 15y ago
      I'm not the most social person to begin with, so I gave it a lot of time, but I just totally failed to make any non-work friends because of stuff like that. I've been here for ~4 years and am so ready to get out West. Of course, it's never as easy to move that far as you'd want it to be. I remember in Cambridge I could swing downstairs to the neighborhood bar, find a stranger, and strike up a conversation. Maybe it didn't work half as well as I am recalling, but even then, it was better than DC, where it always turns to "where do you work?" And "a startup" has only slightly more cachet than "I'm unemployed." From a professional standpoint moving here has been great, but from a personal point of view, I think it's the biggest I've made.
  - api 15y ago
    That's interesting, and is why I put YMMV. I sometimes wonder if there is some kind of random stochastic effect that's related to where on the social graph you connect initially in a city that determines this outcome. But I really, really tried. So did my friend, who was far more outgoing than me. Neither of us were able to meet very many people in Boston, or ever to feel comfortable there.

jamesbkel 15y ago

While I agree with your general sentiment (I love living in Cambridge, right between MIT and Harvard), it would be a mistake to get too wrapped up in tech and ignore what has historically and still is arguably Boston's greatest resource: teaching hospitals/medicine.