In light of some of the comments on the supposed impossibility of relocating a hub, I figured I’d suggest a strategy. This post says nothing about the optimality of creating/relocating a hub, it only suggests a method for doing so. I’m obviously not an experienced hub relocator in real life, but evidently, I’ll play one on the internet for the sake of discussion. Please read these as an invitation to brainstorm.
Make the new location a natural choice.
Host events in the new location. If people feel a desire to spend their holidays and time off in the new location, that’s a great start.
Pick a good common hotel. For people that visit regularly, this hotel should feel almost like a second home. Rationalists can bump into each other in the hotel, and they can carpool or get meals together.
Identify people that can give an “open invitation” for others to visit any time. These people are basically the ones openly ready to make friends with new rationalists. The hope is that, eventually, rationalists start coming into the area to meet up with friends.
Create opportunities to move.
Invite rationalists to interview for jobs in the new location. This would directly target people that choose to move for work reasons.
Make the new location more homely for people that have had trouble adjusting to their current location. I’ve known people (especially married people) to move for social and comfort reasons, especially ones that have had difficulty making friends in a new location. Make it easy to socialize in the new location, and make leisure-time activities more accessible, either with good information or social events.
Keep track of cheap/shared housing opportunities near the new location. Sometimes people really do move to save money. If people know where the cheap housing is, that’s one less excuse not to move. Such a list might even encourage people to get a second home in the new location.
Create guides to help people discuss remote work options with managers & HR.
Reinforce every move.
Make sure the work situation is stable: support people career-wise in the area. I don’t have ideas on how to do this, but if it’s a common reason for people moving, then it should be a common reason for people staying.
Make the new location homely. Keep track of good leisure-time activities and locations, help stabilize travel by keeping track of transit options, and make sure people moving have chances to socialize and make friends in the area.
Keep track of housing opportunities for people to move to increasingly-stable locations. For people that want cheap, keep track of cheap housing. For people that want social, keep track of group housing. For people that want a family, keep track of good neighborhoods and school districts.
Use every move to encourage further relocation.
Keep a counter of the number of people that have moved into the area (but not the number of people that have left). There’s something oddly satisfying about making/seeing numbers go up.
Help new movers host/support events and get started socializing with incoming visitors. Try to get them to do the same things for others that others did to encourage them.
Encourage people in the area to spread out work-wise to create more interview opportunities for rationalists not in the area.
In light of some of the comments on the supposed impossibility of relocating a hub, I figured I’d suggest a strategy. This post says nothing about the optimality of creating/relocating a hub, it only suggests a method for doing so. I’m obviously not an experienced hub relocator in real life, but evidently, I’ll play one on the internet for the sake of discussion. Please read these as an invitation to brainstorm.
Make the new location a natural choice.
Host events in the new location. If people feel a desire to spend their holidays and time off in the new location, that’s a great start.
Pick a good common hotel. For people that visit regularly, this hotel should feel almost like a second home. Rationalists can bump into each other in the hotel, and they can carpool or get meals together.
Identify people that can give an “open invitation” for others to visit any time. These people are basically the ones openly ready to make friends with new rationalists. The hope is that, eventually, rationalists start coming into the area to meet up with friends.
Create opportunities to move.
Invite rationalists to interview for jobs in the new location. This would directly target people that choose to move for work reasons.
Make the new location more homely for people that have had trouble adjusting to their current location. I’ve known people (especially married people) to move for social and comfort reasons, especially ones that have had difficulty making friends in a new location. Make it easy to socialize in the new location, and make leisure-time activities more accessible, either with good information or social events.
Keep track of cheap/shared housing opportunities near the new location. Sometimes people really do move to save money. If people know where the cheap housing is, that’s one less excuse not to move. Such a list might even encourage people to get a second home in the new location.
Create guides to help people discuss remote work options with managers & HR.
Reinforce every move.
Make sure the work situation is stable: support people career-wise in the area. I don’t have ideas on how to do this, but if it’s a common reason for people moving, then it should be a common reason for people staying.
Make the new location homely. Keep track of good leisure-time activities and locations, help stabilize travel by keeping track of transit options, and make sure people moving have chances to socialize and make friends in the area.
Keep track of housing opportunities for people to move to increasingly-stable locations. For people that want cheap, keep track of cheap housing. For people that want social, keep track of group housing. For people that want a family, keep track of good neighborhoods and school districts.
Use every move to encourage further relocation.
Keep a counter of the number of people that have moved into the area (but not the number of people that have left). There’s something oddly satisfying about making/seeing numbers go up.
Help new movers host/support events and get started socializing with incoming visitors. Try to get them to do the same things for others that others did to encourage them.
Encourage people in the area to spread out work-wise to create more interview opportunities for rationalists not in the area.