Place Matters

Tim Hartford, author of The Logic of Life, writing in Wired:

As a columnist (which is fancy for "journalist in jammies"), I ought to personify the conventional wisdom that distance is dead: All I need to get my work done is a place to perch and a Wi-Fi signal. But if that's true, why do I still live in London, the second-most expensive city in the world? If distance really didn't matter, rents in places like London, New York, Bangalore, and Shanghai would be converging with those in Hitchcock County, Nebraska (population 2,926 and falling).  ... If geography has died, nobody bothered to tell Hitchcock County ... Technology makes it more fun and more profitable to live and work close to the people who matter most to your life and work ... Paradoxically, your cell phone, email, and Facebook networks are making it more attractive to meet people in the flesh.

Comments

[The City Gal]

I am reading his book and loving it so far. Never before, economy has made so much sense to me!

Thanks for the heads-up about his appearance in Toronto. Won't miss it.