The money in the Bay uses ‘if you’re not in the Bay you’re not serious, and even if you are other Bay money won’t take you seriously so I can’t afford to’ as a coercive strategy to draw people there. Parallel with the community issues. Giving in to such tactics makes the problem that much worse and it snowballs.
Yes, Bay tech money is bigger and more our flavor there, but there’s lots in many other places, and we’d get more out of what money exists if we were spread out than if we all chased the biggest pile, even with that pile playing hostile negative-sum games on us.
The money in the Bay uses ‘if you’re not in the Bay you’re not serious, and even if you are other Bay money won’t take you seriously so I can’t afford to’
Right. That’s my “just accept it” point. If you want that money, you (currently) have to play by those rules. If you don’t want to play that way, you need to stand up and say that your plan isn’t based on bay-area money/support levels.
as a coercive strategy to draw people there.
It’s hard for me to understand the use of “coercive” here. Other than choosing not to give you money/attention, what coercion is being applied?
Even so, I think that strategy (to draw the serious people who have the capability to contribute) is a small part of it. It’s mostly just a simple acknowledgement that distance matters. it’s just a bit more hassle to coordinate with distant partners, and that’s enough to make many want to invest time/effort/money more locally, all else equal. This is compounded by the (weak but real) signals about your seriousness if you won’t find a way to be in the center of things.
This dovetails with my experience from what I’ve heard in other points in the community, as I described in this comment:
There’s often a perception resources are only invested in projects based in the Bay Area, so trying to start projects with rationalists elsewhere and expect to sustain them long-term is futile.
Moving to Berkeley is still inaccessible or impractical for a lot of rationalists scattered everywhere that (especially if their friends leave) it breeds a sense of alienation and being left behind/stranded as one watches everyone else talk about how they *can* flock to the Berkeley. Combined with the rest of the above, this can also unfortunately breed feelings of resentment.
Rationalists from outside Berkeley often report feeling as though the benefits or incentives to moving to the Berkeley community are exaggerated relatives to the trade-offs or costs of moving to Berkeley.
The money in the Bay uses ‘if you’re not in the Bay you’re not serious, and even if you are other Bay money won’t take you seriously so I can’t afford to’ as a coercive strategy to draw people there. Parallel with the community issues. Giving in to such tactics makes the problem that much worse and it snowballs.
Yes, Bay tech money is bigger and more our flavor there, but there’s lots in many other places, and we’d get more out of what money exists if we were spread out than if we all chased the biggest pile, even with that pile playing hostile negative-sum games on us.
Right. That’s my “just accept it” point. If you want that money, you (currently) have to play by those rules. If you don’t want to play that way, you need to stand up and say that your plan isn’t based on bay-area money/support levels.
It’s hard for me to understand the use of “coercive” here. Other than choosing not to give you money/attention, what coercion is being applied?
Even so, I think that strategy (to draw the serious people who have the capability to contribute) is a small part of it. It’s mostly just a simple acknowledgement that distance matters. it’s just a bit more hassle to coordinate with distant partners, and that’s enough to make many want to invest time/effort/money more locally, all else equal. This is compounded by the (weak but real) signals about your seriousness if you won’t find a way to be in the center of things.
This dovetails with my experience from what I’ve heard in other points in the community, as I described in this comment: