Thread by @simonsarris

new york city is 4(?) hours away and I have never been

https://twitter.com/ArtirKel/status/1442303958140129284

I did go to NYC one time for mere hours, for a google conference in 2013, when they were trying to recruit me. I stayed with a friend in CT and took a train in the next morning, and went from the station platform to the subway...

When the subway car came, everyone to the left and right of me slammed into it, like self-canning sardines, as I stood there. I think I was the only person who did not get on. I got on the next train.

After the conference, Google escorted us to a bar/fancy club that they reserved just for us. But the music was so loud that talking was onerous. A strange atmosphere, I really don't have the words to describe it, though I am trying to come up with them.

Yes it had nothing to do with New York City, it was just this strange event that happened. That's why I say I have never been!

Not that I minded the event, but it had me feeling forlorn.

https://twitter.com/yeetgenstein/status/1442308951652147201

I don't know. We have beer at home.

When me and Simi want to go on a dining spree we drive to Montreal for a weekend, 4.5 hours away (farther than NYC, strange to think), where we have been many times.

https://twitter.com/lex_mala_/status/1442305256872976385

I guess I just don't see the appeal of NYC. It's big and there's lots of it. Maybe we will go some time to see the museum and get fat on good restaurants.

But Boston is just one hour away, and has these things too. And Boston is a nice size: you go and you walk from one side to the other and say, that was Boston. After a few times, you can linger a while and the real thing will let you in.

some day perhaps I go but strange to think:

I live 10 miles away from my place of birth and brooklyn is over 11 miles long

brooklyn 2.59 million and all of New Hampshire has 1.36 million people

https://twitter.com/KaseyKlimes/status/1442316902571855872

maybe needs separate thread: makes me wonder how much I "impact" other people's lives vs a person in the city. I certainly have no power but sometimes people DM me to thank me for changing their life or moving them, which is as astonishing in many ways.

https://twitter.com/ConradBastable/status/1442319210336735233

autre thought, part of the reason cities make me feel uncomfortable is that people do not seem to impact other people on a base level. When I am in any NH city or town people say hello, smile, etc. When I am in a city I am literally not a person on the sidewalk but this obstacle.

This feeling is very strange to me. To experience depersonalization in a big city all you have to do is... walk around a little. I do not know if this just does not bother city people at all or if it just gets tuned out with other background stressors over time.

To the credit of Paris, once you walk out of an apartment three days in a row the old guy living next door will happily say bonjour to you each morning henceforth.