Cambridge & Network States
why Cambridge is great
Over the past few months I’ve been reflecting on Cambridge, and why I love it so much.
I first moved here in August of 2021, and I’m now approaching two years in Cambridge. It has grown on me immensely, and the more time I spend here the more impressed I am.
Almost a year ago, I was describing to someone I recently met why I love Cambridge. They told me about a 2008 essay from Paul Graham titled Cities and Ambition. Rereading the essay the other week, this quote stood out to me:
“The people you find in Cambridge are not there by accident. You have to make sacrifices to live there. It's expensive and somewhat grubby, and the weather's often bad. So the kind of people you find in Cambridge are the kind of people who want to live where the smartest people are, even if that means living in an expensive, grubby place with bad weather.”
Cambridge is expensive, kinda grungy, and the weather isn’t always perfect. But those factors are all essentially “taxes” one pays to live in Cambridge, not to mention the very real and very expensive normal taxes of Massachusetts.
Cambridge is clean, safe, walkable, social, extremely diverse, fun, and littered with impressive infrastructure. Largely the result of Harvard, MIT, and other institutions here, but the sheer amount of buildings you can just walk into and hang out in is absurd. There are public and free events nearly everyday, and no matter your interest or passion you can find groups of likeminded people here who are operating at the highest caliber.
Cambridge is also, importantly, a transient space. There are people who reside in Cambridge full-time, but a remarkable amount of remarkable people come through Cambridge quite often. Whether for a lecture, fellowship, or simply hanging out, remarkable people come and go through Cambridge.
By the numbers, Cambridge has a population of roughly 118,000 and roughly 28% of that population is students. That means nearly 30% of the population is relatively young, somewhat ambitious, and definitely curious. You can feel this as you walk around Cambridge, people are always hanging around and chatting about interesting things.
Network States, as Balaji describes them, aim to be well-capitalized online communities that buy land, create a physical community, and gain recognition from existing nations. The goal is to create a new, better place to live, work, and play. While the nuances of Balaji’s argument are up for debate, the core essence of the Network State and similar hypotheses about the future of cities is that we can, and should, create better living cities and countries.
Recently, Zuzalu put this theory into action. Zuzalu was (and still is) an intentional community of people from a variety of fields including crypto, AI, and longevity, who came together in Montenegro for 2 months. Zuzalu self proclaims as “a first-of-its-kind pop-up city community in Montenegro,” for “200 core residents brought together by a shared desire to learn, create, live longer and healthier lives, and build self-sustaining communities.”
Zuzalu was held in Lustica Bay, a luxury resort development on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. 200 people lived there full-time for 2 months, and around 600 visited at various points throughout that period.
I was invited for the whole 2 months, but after some consideration I decided to only go for the last 10 days. I didn’t want to be away for that long. A week or two here and there is perfect, but 2 months is a major commitment.
The thing with these new cities is you basically have to drop everything and move to a new place. And that’s the point. Leave the old city for the new one.
For some people, this is a dream come true. If you live with your parents, or are going through a breakup, or generally are just unhappy in your context, this is the perfect opportunity. You can finally exit.
But for others, it’s hard to sever ties and be away for that long. There are people and places we love, and we like to spend time with the people that we love.
New cities are coming, but they won’t replace places like Cambridge. Rather, new cities should aim to emulate the greatest characteristics of Cambridge: young, ambitious, social, and filled with impressive infrastructure. Cambridge exists because of its history and reputation, and you can’t replicate history in new places, and reputation gets built through repeat interactions, reliability, and time.
But you can create an inspiring and alluring places that begin to genuinely complement Cambridge. Zuzalu was the first to do this, and there are many more to come.