5 ms·
Historical figures have moved to cities in the same way for centuries
- slurry 12y agoThus, NIMBYs and city haters are standing in the way of history. Lobbying for height restrictions? Lobbying against the next Michelangelo.
- seszett 12y agoParis has height restrictions, which doesn't seem to have deterred artists.
- slurry 12y agoParis has height restrictions, which doesn't seem to have deterred artists. On the contrary, http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/a096d1d0-d2ec-11e2-aac2-00144feab7de.html#axzz39MesazLE http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/a096d1d0-d2ec-11e2-aac2-00144...
- oska 12y agoYour linked article does not support the case that height restrictions are what is making Paris, or other global capitals, expensive. But thanks for the link, I found it an interesting read.
- nitrogen 12y agoOther articles on HN have supported the idea that height restrictions contribute to scarcity, and that scarcity contributes to high prices. The supply is not allowed to increase to meet demand.
- twic 12y agoMaybe that's what attracted Napoleon.
- nhebb 12y agoNapoleon actually wasn't that short: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_depictions_of_Napoleon#Napoleon.27s_height http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_depictions_of_Napoleon...
- burkemw3 12y agoFor a moment after reading "a study of 150,000 historical figures that shows cities have long acted as cultural magnets" I was wondering if 'historical figures' referred to people or the actual data. In this case, it's both!
- pigeons 12y agoreally a lot of pro-city living propoganda on HN. I've just accepted its not the mountainsteader demographic.
- contingencies 12y agoFWIW, I live on a mountain in southwest China.
- corford 12y agoUntil quite recently I lived at the foot of this: http://www.valcanigou.net/IMG/jpg/canigou01.jpg http://www.valcanigou.net/IMG/jpg/canigou01.jpg
- micro_cam 12y agoHaven't heard that term before but I live in a farm house at the base of a wilderness range in the northern rockies if that counts.
- throwaway1982 12y agoOf interest to me is if this trend will or even is still continuing now that we don't rely on the slow communication and transportation methods of the past. I'm currently working for a company slightly past "startup stage" with a bunch of smart people in as rural a location as you can get in the North East and we constantly fly out and teleconference with big partners and clients in San Francisco without much or any net price/hassle if you factor in all the cost/time/stress savings of our location.
- ams6110 12y agoI think it will continue. There are still significant economic efficiencies in high population densities. Remote video conferences only address a very small slice of those.
- bergie 12y agoYep. Moving a place like San Francisco or Berlin might not be required for the "actual work", but it certainly provides other benefits in available services, cultural activities, etc.
- Swizec 12y agoI'm no historical figure, but I can't feel productive in a location where I can't just randomly decide one night that I've had it with work, want to throw my laptop out hte window, and should just go out for a pint. So you get up, walk outside, and voila, full bars on any random night of the week. Sometimes you run into people from your field, sometimes from other fields, sometimes nobody at all. But it's a good way to recharge your brain, increase productivity, and merge disparate ideas. Your mileage may vary, but I really really need that.
- XaspR8d 12y agoI appreciate the way you worded it, and I agree 100% for myself. I'm hardly a strong extrovert, but something about the assurance of being able to go and find activity at any time really makes me less stressed and more effective at working. But I accept that this may not be a helpful environment for everyone. I know I have to balance this need with the needs of my SO, who feels similarly about having forests and lakes nearby (which certainly soothe me, but don't rank as high as having humans about).
- mgraczyk 12y agoThe paper: http://yongyeol.com/papers/schich-history-2014.pdf http://yongyeol.com/papers/schich-history-2014.pdf
- micro_cam 12y agoThe headline (not the hn title which is the subtitle of the article) is really over the top. The conclusion that "the brainy" have moved to cities at any different rate then the general populous is in no way supported by the source paper. In fact it states explicitly that historical figures are just the only people we have good data for and implies they represent patterns in the population as a whole.
- Lambdanaut 12y agoIs it that brainy people moved to cities, or that cities made people brainy?
- chatmasta 12y agoAbout a month ago, a study came to the same conclusion about modern Americans. That is, Americans born in rural areas who move to urban centers have higher cognitive ability on average than their counterparts who stay put. Overview Article: http://www.citylab.com/work/2014/07/the-smartest-people-move-into-and-out-of-cities/373760/ http://www.citylab.com/work/2014/07/the-smartest-people-move... Paper (paid gateway, can't find free): http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289614000750 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289614... Anecdotally, from my own experience this isn't surprising at all. I grew up in a small town, and wanted to move to a big city since I was about ten years old. I just got bored in that small town. Seeing the same < 100 people every day, going to the same places... It's simply not as stimulating. When I went to boarding school, I found that many of my peers from similar backgrounds felt the same. Eight years later, almost all of us are living in a big city. Maybe this will change as we begin to have families, but it does seem that we all had an instinctive desire toward the draw of big cities.
- Houshalter 12y agoIt seems more likely that they have to leave to go to college, or that they are more likely to take occupations that require them to move.