Monday Musings (7/22/19)

Hey everybody, 

Greetings from upstate New York! I’m spending the next few days at a house in Millbrook with a friend.

In the next few weeks, I’ll be traveling through the Midwest. I’ll be in Michigan, Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois. Then, I’m off to Mexico City in August to work on a project I can’t wait to tell you about. 

New York vs. Los Angeles

Early in my career, I was strongly influenced by a YouTuber named Casey Neistat. 

I started watching his videos back in college. For years, I didn’t miss any of them. He taught me about travel, marketing, and internet culture. Then, after I moved to New York,  I wrote my first viral article about Casey. 

This week, he moved from New York to Los Angeles. He wants to escape the hustle-and-bustle culture of New York. As he said: 

"New York City is a place where you can do anything and be anything because everyone is too damn busy to worry about what anyone else is doing. It’s a place where you’re all at once surrounded by thousands of people, but are entirely alone, left to your devices to do whatever you set out to accomplish. Nobody lives in New York City. You simply survive in this place. And that weeds out the weak. And that social Darwinism leaves you with 8.5 million other people looking to make their mark... nobody lives in New York because they want to relax. Nobody is here because they want to slow down in life.

There’s no conversation you’ll ever have in New York City that doesn’t end with you talking with another person about your career, your goals, and how you’re going to get there. I’ve been here for 18 years and that pretty sums up every human interaction I’ve ever had in this city. And that’s what makes it great... unless you’re not on that path.”

Casey’s assessment of New York is spot on. I’ve lived in New York for 4 years and I’ve visited Los Angeles twice in the past year, so here’s my off-the-cuff take on the two cities:

LA is a buffet. It’s the birthplace of cool, and like most things fashionable, it floats without direction like a log in the ocean. You can be nobody or anybody. It’s the home of tattoos, beach yoga, and “mind over body” billboards. If spiritual, but not religious was a