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Dryad

Dryad

Asheville, NC
July 2008

OCT 15, 2009 05:12 PM

Complete list by the Daily Beast.

They explain their ranking system too. It's pretty good, but of course there are some aspects to disagree with. They do take a lot of things into consideration, and they list all 55 cities / metro areas (with over 1 million people) in order, with just a smidge of snarky commentary.

Cassiel

Cassiel

Aurora, CO
September 2004

OCT 15, 2009 05:50 PM

woot, Denver's #5

Argene

Argene

Pittsburgh, PA
June 2004

OCT 15, 2009 05:52 PM

Go Charlotte, Atlanta and Pittsburgh!
At the same time-I don't think the number of nf book sales is good measure of seeing how "smart" a city is (is the study implying that people who read mostly fiction aren't as intelligent? Also mentioned: skewed data due to faculty/students using libraries for the nf books instead of buying them).

Stevie_D

Stevie_D

Tempe, AZ
October 2006

OCT 15, 2009 06:05 PM

Whichever one I'm in.

lil_tuffy

lil_tuffy

MODERATOR

San Francisco, CA

OCT 15, 2009 06:14 PM

I don't understand why people always lump SF/OAK/SJ into one city. They are three very different and distinct cities -- it appears they lumping Berkeley in there as well to pad Oakland's score.

Dryad

Dryad

Asheville, NC
July 2008

OCT 15, 2009 06:26 PM

Argene said:
At the same time-I don't think the number of nf book sales is good measure of seeing how "smart" a city is (is the study implying that people who read mostly fiction aren't as intelligent? Also mentioned: skewed data due to faculty/students using libraries for the nf books instead of buying them).


This is where I found fault too.
Maybe smart people find nonfiction boring and they want their imaginations to run wild? tongue


lil_tuffy said:
I don't understand why people always lump SF/OAK/SJ into one city. They are three very different and distinct cities -- it appears they lumping Berkeley in there as well to pad Oakland's score.


I bet they lumped Livermore in there too, so they could up the number of grad degrees (what with the lab and all).

Ms_Magdalena

Ms_Magdalena

Minneapolis, MN
February 2007

OCT 15, 2009 07:03 PM

Cassiel said:
woot, Denver's #5



Minneapolis beat you. wink

sitar

sitar

Philadelphia, PA
June 2004

OCT 15, 2009 07:20 PM

i knew philadelphia was dumb, but i didn't think it was that dumb.
however, i think i might be the only guy on my block with a book.

Cassiel

Cassiel

Aurora, CO
September 2004

OCT 15, 2009 07:32 PM

Ms_Magdalena said:

Cassiel said:
woot, Denver's #5



Minneapolis beat you. wink



YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH

Dryad

Dryad

Asheville, NC
July 2008

OCT 15, 2009 07:35 PM

The town that I moved away from to go to college was dead last. That made me laugh and laugh.

Necia

Necia

San Francisco, CA
August 2005

OCT 15, 2009 08:07 PM

Ms_Magdalena said:

Cassiel said:
woot, Denver's #5



Minneapolis beat you. wink



"'Knowing that we might be the best or one of the best on these key measures shouldn’t stop us from striving to do better,' says Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak."

By which Mr. Rybak most assuredly means:

SPOILERS! (Click to view)
"Do you all know how much we Minnesotans, and especially we Twin Citians, love ranking high on shit like this, memorizing said rankings, and then casually mentioning our high-ass rankings to smug folks from other areas when they make cracks about us being cow-ville or whatever? Like, when someone says, 'Oh, Minnesota--isn't that flyover country?' like they're clever, and then we can be all, 'Well, actually, everyone's really hella smart here according to the rankings, and we're in the top ten as far as states that are home to the most Fortune 500 company headquarters in the country (the ninth, specifically, if you must know), and we've got more theater seats per capita in the Twin Cities than anywhere in the US outside of NYC [Google just "theater seats per capita" and see for yourself whether 1) it's not true and 2) we're not proud], and also we're better at voting than everyone in the country ever, in every election, the end, and oh hey how are your public schools doing, 'cos ours are awesome (your state university hasn't yet managed to make dead hearts beat again, in a fucking laboratory? No? Huh!) and also did I mention that we invented Target? You're welcome.' Oh, yes. We love that. See you next year, Daily Beast Smartness Rankings. Boston best watch the fuck out in 2010."



I've honestly never known a people who so truly and so deeply love knowing where they rank on the widest variety of lists like this more than Minnesotans do. We just love it so hard. love

hawkorhandsaw

hawkorhandsaw

Chicago, IL
March 2009

OCT 15, 2009 08:17 PM

35% of the scoring is done by nonfiction book sales and voting? that's ridiculous. especially since most of the best selling nonfiction works in recent memory have been written by people like coulter and oreilly.

Cynical_Illithid

Cynical_Illithid

Seattle, WA
October 2009

OCT 15, 2009 08:53 PM

Yeah, the measurements are indeed not particularly great. Why are bachelors given a higher weight than graduate if you are measuring "smartest"? Shouldn't a masters be equal to 1.5 bachelors and phD's 2x? And it doesn't mention whether there is a way of measuring multiple degrees.

I understand the reason they added nonfiction sales. but not a very accurate indicator since, as pointed out, some very unintellectual stuff is classed as "nonfiction." I am also surprised that they didn't attempt to track newspaper subscriptions, since most "smart" people like to stay informed on current events.

DevilsReject

DevilsReject

Cleveland, OH
February 2007

OCT 15, 2009 11:17 PM

Cynical_Illithid said:
I am also surprised that they didn't attempt to track newspaper subscriptions, since most "smart" people like to stay informed on current events.



Printed news is dying. I read my local paper online. i don't think newspaper subscriptions would accurately depict that, seeing as that most printed news is also available online, free.

Thankfully Cleveland has Case Western Reserve.....31 isn't too bad. Three Ohio cities appeared in the top fifty.....amazing.

Necia

Necia

San Francisco, CA
August 2005

OCT 16, 2009 12:10 AM

Cynical_Illithid said:
Yeah, the measurements are indeed not particularly great. Why are bachelors given a higher weight than graduate if you are measuring "smartest"? Shouldn't a masters be equal to 1.5 bachelors and phD's 2x? And it doesn't mention whether there is a way of measuring multiple degrees.

I understand the reason they added nonfiction sales. but not a very accurate indicator since, as pointed out, some very unintellectual stuff is classed as "nonfiction." I am also surprised that they didn't attempt to track newspaper subscriptions, since most "smart" people like to stay informed on current events.



You could also argue that a lot of "smart" people these days are familiar with internets and get their current events info there, since internets have magic by which they are mysteriously more instant and therefore more current than the average paper publication. I've never in my life had a newspaper subscription and I'm not entirely a dumb by at least some respectable measures. If nothing else, I feel that I'm smart enough to decide that instant access to the paperless version of a publication for free (oftentimes for free, anyway) tends to beat paying for a pile of paper that'll tell me stuff that's happened only before the time it took to print and ship it to me--stuff about which I could otherwise have learned instantly elsewhere.

And as to the other point of yours, I do think that there's a valid argument to be made that such lines exists in terms of educational quantity after whose crossing it can be said that you're nowhere near twice as "smart," or even 1.5 times as "smart," as you were prior to the crossing of said line. The difference in education and knowledge base between a high school grad and a college grad, in my opinion, is greater and more notable than the difference between a master's degree holder and a PhD holder--and far more notable than the difference between the holder of one PhD and the holder of two.

Necia

Necia

San Francisco, CA
August 2005

OCT 16, 2009 12:12 AM

DevilsReject said:

Cynical_Illithid said:
I am also surprised that they didn't attempt to track newspaper subscriptions, since most "smart" people like to stay informed on current events.



Printed news is dying. I read my local paper online. i don't think newspaper subscriptions would accurately depict that, seeing as that most printed news is also available online, free.



See? The first of my two points as noted above has been anecdotally supported already, by another friend of internets and their magically free, near-instantaneous supply of news-item-things.

gdarklighter

gdarklighter

San Diego, CA
August 2005

OCT 16, 2009 01:03 AM

Part me wants to say "Suck it, LA!" while part of me wants to know how they decided to merge cities. San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose all get lumped together, but Baltimore and DC get split? And I admit to knowing nothing about Michigan, but Battle Creek/Kalamazoo/Grand Rapids?

StarBelliedBoy

StarBelliedBoy

Philadelphia, PA
December 2003

OCT 16, 2009 03:37 AM

sitar said:
i knew philadelphia was dumb, but i didn't think it was that dumb.
however, i think i might be the only guy on my block with a book.



11/55 is not bad at all. You can find dumb people everywhere you go, all around the world.

Dryad

Dryad

Asheville, NC
July 2008

OCT 16, 2009 01:03 PM

gdarklighter said:
... And I admit to knowing nothing about Michigan, but Battle Creek/Kalamazoo/Grand Rapids?



I used to live in Michigan (though only for a few years) but I consider those 3 separate places. However, I also use to live in "San Francisco" which as has been noted is comprised of several areas that could be considered separate.

I'm not sure where they decided to draw the line at "metro areas."

MutantBaby1

MutantBaby1

USA
March 2009

OCT 17, 2009 10:48 AM

Chicago is #24? doesn't really surprise since we have a MORON for a mayor. whatever

MutantBaby1

MutantBaby1

USA
March 2009

OCT 17, 2009 11:00 AM

LOL Phoenix ranked at #49 biggrin

toothpickmoe

toothpickmoe

Los Angeles, CA
May 2004

OCT 17, 2009 12:51 PM

The photo for Boston is of Red Sox fans. Priceless.

Cynical_Illithid

Cynical_Illithid

Seattle, WA
October 2009

OCT 18, 2009 08:05 PM

DevilsReject said:

Cynical_Illithid said:
I am also surprised that they didn't attempt to track newspaper subscriptions, since most "smart" people like to stay informed on current events.



Printed news is dying. I read my local paper online. i don't think newspaper subscriptions would accurately depict that, seeing as that most printed news is also available online, free.

Thankfully Cleveland has Case Western Reserve.....31 isn't too bad. Three Ohio cities appeared in the top fifty.....amazing.



I'm aware of the fate of print media. Doesn't mean it shouldn't be tracked. There are also certain news papers that actually have online subscriptions, which can be tracked. The measure isn't perfect, because you can't include people that only get their news from television accurately either. The point is more that they are making an attempt to account for it.

Heigai

Heigai

Columbus, OH
May 2004

OCT 19, 2009 11:34 AM

hawkorhandsaw said:
35% of the scoring is done by nonfiction book sales and voting? that's ridiculous. especially since most of the best selling nonfiction works in recent memory have been written by people like coulter and oreilly.



For a data set like this, Coulter and O'Reilly aren't necessarily that bad, but think about something like "The Secret." I really don't see a correlation between sales of that book and intelligence of any kind.

silversoul7

silversoul7

Portland, OR
January 2008

OCT 19, 2009 12:05 PM

#9

Dammit! Seattle beat us.

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