

America's brainiest cities - jedberg
http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/01/pf/college/Americas_brainiest_cities/index.htm

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Towle_
_Call it America's brainiest place to live._

I will do no such thing, CNN.

I grew up in the DC metro area. It's a horrible place, don't ever move there.
Where SF has an entrepreneurship draw and LA has a fame draw and NY has a
money draw, DC has a power draw. People literally move there so they can take
their shot at being the best Machiavellian sonofabitch they can be. There
aren't any brainiacs around there. Some very smart people, sure, but no
brainiacs.

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elblanco
It seems to be one of those few places where people will be content to be
absolutely miserable in their jobs for 20 years. There's a certain _feeling_
to doing business in the area (even if it's not with the government), a
certain soul-sucking tired grind, that doesn't seem replicated exactly the
same way elsewhere.

*edit: the high prevalence of degrees also means that B.S./B.A. degrees have almost no weight. You'll commonly see the phenomenon of multiple degrees, multiple masters, very young PhDs...just so you can get noticed in the crowd. People seem to go to school forever out here.

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hsuresh
Dear CNN, people with degrees != brainy people

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warble
+1 - In my experience educated people is a good thing. I work with many of
them, and I live and am related to them. However intelligence and education
are absolutely not the same thing.

Intelligent people have a tendency to educate themselves, the education
doesn't make them smart.

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nkassis
I'm sadden by the bottom 10, 2 cities in Florida. I wonder how the state fairs
as a whole. Fark might have a point with their Florida tag.

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harshpotatoes
In Florida, I think it's something that will be fixed as time goes on. Right
now, florida is home to several very large universities (Orlando has
University of Central Florida, which is quite large now), but these colleges
basically did not exist until sometime quite recently (the past 30 years
maybe?). Right now they are going through a period of large growth, so I think
that while the older generation mostly did not go to college, the current
generation will be going to college in increasing numbers.

Additionally, while Florida is still mostly known for its gigantic tourism
industry, there are newer industries popping up throughout central florida.
Biotech is quite large in Orlando, and additionally optics is quite big
throughout central florida (Tampa and Orlando).

So I think in the future, the trend will be towards more education in florida.

~~~
nkassis
That's a good point.

I did not realize UCF was that new. I'm guessing USF is probably not that old
either.

I've only lived up in north Florida (tallahassee) while in college at FSU and
that town is almost 30% students so that number doesn't match my experience in
the state. I think that holds for Gainsville and Jacksonville too albeit, Jax
it's mostly due to the type of industries there.

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whimsy
Ironic link text is ironic.

Is this article suggesting that cities have a sort of "maturation" process
whereby the city attracts smarter people the older it gets?

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waterlesscloud
I've heard that Los Alamos and/or Huntsville have the most PhDs per capita,
which makes a lot of sense, but may not actually be true.

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crizCraig
After reading this, I also found this interesting article on degrees per
square mile: [http://blog.robpitingolo.org/2010/05/where-smart-people-
live...](http://blog.robpitingolo.org/2010/05/where-smart-people-live.html)

