Great cities attract ambitious people. You can sense it when you walk around one. In a hundred subtle ways, the city sends you a message: you could do more; you should try harder.
The surprising thing is how different these messages can be. New York tells you, above all: you should make more money. There are other messages too, of course. You should be hipper. You should be better looking. But the clearest message is that you should be richer.
From Cities and Ambition by Paul Graham. (full text)
When I was first thinking about moving to New York, I walked around some neighborhoods in Brooklyn trying to figure out where I wanted to live. After walking through north Williamsburg, I called a friend and told her 'I think I'm not cool enough to live here. Or rich enough.' After years of living in Baltimore and DC, the vibe here was very easy to feel, because it was such a huge change from what I was used to. But after a while, and I think especially after working on Wall Street for over a year, it fades into the background (which is another way to say, it percolates into your consciousness).
If only Boston were not so miserably cold...
Posted 2008/05/28 in philosophy; no comments
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