7 ms·

This. Europe, because of lingual and cultural differences, lack the sort of high-density clusters you get in the US. There's no Cambridge, MA or bay area becaus

by tormeh 13y ago

This. Europe, because of lingual and cultural differences, lack the sort of high-density clusters you get in the US. There's no Cambridge, MA or bay area because moving around is such a big deal here. Berlin is the closest we have, but it's not nearly enough. Basically, Europe is too spread out. Americans always talk about the US' low population density, but the population density of NY and LA is incredibly high. It's in the cities that most creative endeavors get done. The flyover states and the countryside is only of interest to cartographers and the people who live there.

mjn 13y ago
Could be what I'm looking for and how far I'm willing to drive to get somewhere, but as a subjective feeling, Copenhagen feels like it has a bigger concentration of intellectually stimulating "stuff" happening on a regular basis than either the SF Bay Area or Atlanta did (the two places I lived previously). This is probably not literally true numerically, but in terms of things I hear about, are accessible to me (usually for free), and easy to get to, I run into a lot more, despite being a foreigner who doesn't even speak Danish, which you'd think should be a handicap. There are always interesting talks and meetups happening, from regular events like SpilBar (http://english.dadiu.dk/invitation-spilbar-14-0-surprise http://english.dadiu.dk/invitation-spilbar-14-0-surprise) or Science & Cocktails (http://www.scienceandcocktails.org http://www.scienceandcocktails.org) to active hackerspaces (https://labitat.dk https://labitat.dk and http://www.illutron.dk http://www.illutron.dk), a whole building hosting an indie-game community (http://www.dfi.dk/nyheder/filmupdate/2010/velkommen-til-spilhuset.aspx http://www.dfi.dk/nyheder/filmupdate/2010/velkommen-til-spil...), etc. Events at universities also feel more "open to the public": if I want to hear a bunch of internationally famous visitors talk about biotech or experimental mathematics, I can go to something like http://danstem.ku.dk/events/seminar_series_2014/ http://danstem.ku.dk/events/seminar_series_2014/ or http://www.math.ku.dk/english/research/xm/seminar/ http://www.math.ku.dk/english/research/xm/seminar/ respectively. Whereas apart from a handful of advertised public talks, the large amount of stuff undoubtedly happening at Stanford or UC Berkeley didn't feel like part of "my" neighborhood, something I'd hear about or go to as a non-Stanford, non-Berkeley person (or necessarily even be allowed into). There was certainly interesting stuff in SF as well, but it felt less like it was always happening, and more like I had to seek it out and drive anywhere from San Jose to Oakland to get to it, more like a "trip" to an event (like SuperHappyDevHouse, which is great) than a feeling that stuff is always happening all around me. The videogame-dev scene in particular was very scattered, with a good number of studios generally in the area, but that meant anywhere from Marin County to Santa Cruz, so you didn't really end up at the same events on a regular basis.

by tormeh 13y ago

mjn 13y ago

Could be what I'm looking for and how far I'm willing to drive to get somewhere, but as a subjective feeling, Copenhagen feels like it has a bigger concentration of intellectually stimulating "stuff" happening on a regular basis than either the SF Bay Area or Atlanta did (the two places I lived previously). This is probably not literally true numerically, but in terms of things I hear about, are accessible to me (usually for free), and easy to get to, I run into a lot more, despite being a foreigner who doesn't even speak Danish, which you'd think should be a handicap. There are always interesting talks and meetups happening, from regular events like SpilBar (http://english.dadiu.dk/invitation-spilbar-14-0-surprise http://english.dadiu.dk/invitation-spilbar-14-0-surprise) or Science & Cocktails (http://www.scienceandcocktails.org http://www.scienceandcocktails.org) to active hackerspaces (https://labitat.dk https://labitat.dk and http://www.illutron.dk http://www.illutron.dk), a whole building hosting an indie-game community (http://www.dfi.dk/nyheder/filmupdate/2010/velkommen-til-spilhuset.aspx http://www.dfi.dk/nyheder/filmupdate/2010/velkommen-til-spil...), etc. Events at universities also feel more "open to the public": if I want to hear a bunch of internationally famous visitors talk about biotech or experimental mathematics, I can go to something like http://danstem.ku.dk/events/seminar_series_2014/ http://danstem.ku.dk/events/seminar_series_2014/ or http://www.math.ku.dk/english/research/xm/seminar/ http://www.math.ku.dk/english/research/xm/seminar/ respectively. Whereas apart from a handful of advertised public talks, the large amount of stuff undoubtedly happening at Stanford or UC Berkeley didn't feel like part of "my" neighborhood, something I'd hear about or go to as a non-Stanford, non-Berkeley person (or necessarily even be allowed into). There was certainly interesting stuff in SF as well, but it felt less like it was always happening, and more like I had to seek it out and drive anywhere from San Jose to Oakland to get to it, more like a "trip" to an event (like SuperHappyDevHouse, which is great) than a feeling that stuff is always happening all around me. The videogame-dev scene in particular was very scattered, with a good number of studios generally in the area, but that meant anywhere from Marin County to Santa Cruz, so you didn't really end up at the same events on a regular basis.