Finding My City in a Hampstead Charity Shop

The best charity shop finds are when you walk out with a book that fits so perfectly into your current life context that it feels like someone planted it there on purpose.
Came across Who’s Your City? by Richard Florida in a Hampstead shop. A book about how where you live affects everything: career, relationships, happiness levels, income, and even your chances of falling in love successfully. The last one deserves a separate post—maybe even a podcast or a whole channel—but let’s stick to culture for now.

Florida, in case you missed it, is the guy who coined the term creative class (aka all of us working in the post-industrial economy) and wrote a book of the same name. In this one, which, by the way, has never been translated into Russian, he dismantles the myth of globalization, the idea that we all supposedly have equal opportunities no matter where we live—whether it’s Chicago, Paris, or some Alpine village with excellent Wi-Fi. No, Florida argues, place still matters—for career growth, networking, family, and even mental health.

And this sounds especially ironic given The Economist’s 1995 headline The Death of Distance—suggesting that physical location no longer plays a role. Spoiler: it does.

I’ve just started reading and I’m already obsessed. Love everything socio-anthropological. The new terminology is especially fun—like Florida’s bohemian-gay index: the more artists, designers, and openly gay people (banned term in Russia) in an area, the higher the levels of innovation, creativity, and economic growth. Apparently, an environment where people feel free to be themselves is also where new ideas and businesses thrive.

So, if you’re having a Should I move cities? crisis, this book is for inspired relocations (or, on the contrary, for rethinking past ones). And beyond that, just an entertaining and thought-provoking read. Once again convinced that I need to be in London.