On geography
Mar. 4th, 2026 05:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
posicScott D. Clary writes in Facebook -- https://www.facebook.com/scottdclarypage/posts/pfbid02g8EohDyAfMYjB87wnhnKp8RFVGgzmdpboEJRSB5sbhAyZxi29NjkUGLbzPSt9uiMl :
Most people's idea of a fresh start is changing their environment while keeping their habits. It doesn't work. The habits follow you. The new city, the new job, the new relationship, none of it sticks if the underlying patterns don't change. The geography is never the problem.
***
I changed my environment in 2014-18 while keeping my habits, and it worked. The new country, the new city, the new job. The same contramodules and contraherent cosheaves, the same fierce independence, the same extreme nonconformism, the same disregard for career considerations, the same workaholic lifestyle. But a much more pleasant life.
The geography was the problem.
The patterns of other people's behavior towards me had to change in order to resolve my problems. And contrary to the fashionable sloppy thinking, the people in different geographical locations are not the same.
Most people's idea of a fresh start is changing their environment while keeping their habits. It doesn't work. The habits follow you. The new city, the new job, the new relationship, none of it sticks if the underlying patterns don't change. The geography is never the problem.
***
I changed my environment in 2014-18 while keeping my habits, and it worked. The new country, the new city, the new job. The same contramodules and contraherent cosheaves, the same fierce independence, the same extreme nonconformism, the same disregard for career considerations, the same workaholic lifestyle. But a much more pleasant life.
The geography was the problem.
The patterns of other people's behavior towards me had to change in order to resolve my problems. And contrary to the fashionable sloppy thinking, the people in different geographical locations are not the same.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2026-03-04 09:15 pm (UTC)There is also a lot of a difference between Moscow and Prague. The people are way more aggressive in Moscow. The mores in Prague are much softer. That's what has made all the difference for me.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2026-03-04 11:15 pm (UTC)Alabama is the most conservative, insular state I've visited personally.
>> Being a sharply politically incorrect right-winger (like me) would be problematic in a university in or near San Francisco.<<
Likely so. And that's why cultural diversity matters -- so everyone can wander around to find a place that fits them better, if their current location does not.
>>There is also a lot of a difference between Moscow and Prague. The people are way more aggressive in Moscow. The mores in Prague are much softer. That's what has made all the difference for me.<<
Yeah. Moscow is weirdly tight-assed. When I visited Russia a few decades back, and we went into then-Soviet Georgia, the Georgian folks constantly heckled the Russian tour guide. I liked Tblisi a lot better than Moscow. But part of the point to traveling is to observe different places, their people, culture, food, wildlife, everything. It discourages you from getting stuck in your own head.