
Historical figures have moved to cities in the same way for centuries - spindritf
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/big-cities-beckoned-the-brainy-across-history/
======
chatmasta
About 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...](http://www.citylab.com/work/2014/07/the-smartest-people-move-into-
and-out-of-cities/373760/)

Paper (paid gateway, can't find free):
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289614...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289614000750)

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
It 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.

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burkemw3
For 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!

------
micro_cam
The 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.

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throwaway1982
Of 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.

~~~
Swizec
I'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.

~~~
Amezarak
> I'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.

That doesn't seem to be a really high bar. For example, the county I live in
has approximately 140k people and a population density of 128 / square mile. I
think that most people would regard it as pretty rural, and it is in flyover
country.

Yet I can still go out any day of the week to any one of a sizable number of
bars and expect them to be decently full. I've run into all kinds of
interesting people...though I don't expect to ever run into anybody famous.

I've traveled a lot and I don't _mind_ big cities, but I've never really
understood what they have to offer that I don't already have, barring certain
kinds of professional network effects (e.g. Silicon Valley for startups, LA
for the movie industry.)

~~~
Swizec
> Yet I can still go out any day of the week to any one of a sizable number of
> bars and expect them to be decently full. I've run into all kinds of
> interesting people...though I don't expect to ever run into anybody famous.

In my experience there is a _big_ difference between "sizable number of bars
... decently full" and "a lot of bars/clubs/places ... full".

In my home town (300k people) you get many of bars that are pretty full a lot
of the time, some bars that are full-ish some of the time, and _a lot_ of bars
that are mostly empty most of the time. And nightclubs, god help you if your
taste in music is not mainstream. You will go to a club on a super duper full
night and there will be 20 people there.

Compare that to SF. More bars than I could visit in my lifetime. Most of them
decently full most of the time. Most of them _packed_ on party nights. No
matter what music I decide to listen to, the club will be packed. As obscure
as I can bear, club will still be packed.

And SF is not even a giant city. It's got less than 3x the population of my
home town.

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mgraczyk
The paper:

[http://yongyeol.com/papers/schich-
history-2014.pdf](http://yongyeol.com/papers/schich-history-2014.pdf)

------
pigeons
really a lot of pro-city living propoganda on HN. I've just accepted its not
the mountainsteader demographic.

~~~
corford
Until 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)

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Lambdanaut
Is it that brainy people moved to cities, or that cities made people brainy?

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slurry
Thus, NIMBYs and city haters are standing in the way of history.

Lobbying for height restrictions? Lobbying against the next Michelangelo.

~~~
seszett
Paris has height restrictions, which doesn't seem to have deterred artists.

~~~
slurry
_Paris 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-aac2-00144...](http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/a096d1d0-d2ec-11e2-aac2-00144feab7de.html#axzz39MesazLE)

~~~
oska
Your 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
Other 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.

