Eureka! On the clustering of geniuses

It could be that the smartest people, with the highest potential, automagically gather in the same place through a process of mystical osmosis. Let's call that Hypothesis A... Or possibly it could be that the formation of the cluster is what transforms people into geniuses. Being a part of a group makes B players look like A players, and A players ... See more

One commonality that we find when looking across these clusters is that they are all geographically close by. This by itself shouldn't surprise us. Geoffrey West's fantastic work shows us that cities, for instance, help create exactly this dynamic. In bringing people together it increases the rate of reproduction of ideas, speeding up the emergence... See more

If you look at the exceptional outpouring of art in the Renaissance, it came from the few city states that had amenable, even modern, rulers.

If you look at the Silicon Valley cluster, they all seemed to be within a few miles of the Stanford campus.