Cat Diffusion

Whenever you meet someone who owns two cats, there is one question that must be asked immediately:

“Which one is the criminal mastermind, and which one is the derpy idiot with a heart of gold?”

The criminal mastermind watches the environment, plans (to the extent cats can do so), and takes the lead in activity. The derpy idiot follows along, supports where he can, and curries affection from the humans as much as possible. The criminal mastermind is sorta strengthened by having a minion lending more paws when needed, as well as bonus licks and cuddles. The derpy idiot is strengthened by having a smarter and more capable cat making better decisions and taking agency. The house is purged of vermin and kept mouse-free, and DerpyPaws has a chiller life.

If the criminal mastermind didn’t exist, DerpyPaws wouldn’t be quite so derpy and quite so idiotic. He’d step up to the degree needed, and probably even quite a bit more than the bare minimum. He’d be a mini-mind, and do alright. Just not as good at it as his more gifted brother. (I’ve decided they’re brothers now). Some mice would get away with existing in the shadows, sometimes.

Imagine the two are separated when their owners break up. Mastermind is brought into a new home in Europe with an even smarter and more capable cat! Nearly inconceivable! But you can’t argue with reality when it’s laid out in front of you like that. There isn’t much use in having two Masterminds in a house. And trying to be a Mastermind when there’s an even better Mastermind around is just embarrassing. The old mastermind slips into the supportive “derpy heart-of-gold” role and lets the better Super Mastermind lead. They are both better off than before, though just a bit. Meanwhile, old DerpyPaws is stepping up his game back home and masterminding to the level he can. He isn’t as good of a Mastermind as his brother was, and that household hears some mice having mouse parties on the mice high holy days.

In purely cat-utility terms, the world would be improved if the old Criminal Mastermind returned to his brother. Their household would never be as good as Super Mastermind’s house in Europe, but Criminal Mastermind’s ability is more valuable in America because he was helping raise the bar in America significantly more than the little bit he can raise it in Europe by giving Derp-assistance.

This is a metaphor for moving to the Bay.

All the rationalists around the US (and even from outside the US!) keep moving to the San Francisco Bay Area. This is often good for them, they can coordinate with a lot more people, there is a lot of talent and driven people out here, and the social scene is amazing. This is also good for the super-human top-tier rationalists already here, they have more support and talent to draw on. However it does mean that all the cities that aren’t either Berkeley or New York struggle to keep their rationalist groups going. When half your most dedicated rationalists keep leaving the city its nigh impossible to get a solid critical mass. Importantly, the amount of extra good one can do by moving to the Bay is a lot smaller than the amount they improve the place they already are.

This is generalizable to most things. If you’re talented there is more personal gain in moving to a larger pond and coordinating with a lot of large fish. But the amount of good you can do locally is a lot greater if you move to a small pond where your personal contributions are a more significant percentage of the whole. You are needed more there.

The extremely high social and geographic mobility within America is great for each individual talented person. Yet it results in ever more pressure for everyone to be concentrated in smaller and smaller places. There used to be some very smart, very competent people in small towns, who were widely admired and depended on. As they all leave the towns become ever-worse places to be, driving even more folks out. This starts to cascade even to hollowing out mid-sized cities, driving infinite population density into a few extremely expensive places.

This happens to professions. It wasn’t that unusual to find very intelligent and driven people in more menial professions. They’d improve the productivity of everyone around them by driving up standards, innovating, and leading by example. They are growing rare, as most of them can pivot to high-paying highly-cognitive work. This is a more valuable use of their talents, but there is a loss to having genius-level electricians and carpenters simply not around anymore.

Yes, there’s advantage to concentrating all the top talent in an extremely focused way. All the best heist movies begin by rounding a crew of the best-in-the-world at extreme specialists. By working together they can achieve miracles. But notably after the miracle is achieved they all return home to spread their gains and diffuse their talents into the broader communities they came from.

American capitalist culture pushes everyone into the most valuable positions in the most valuable cities, to eek out more marginal value. They are certainly compensated. I encourage people to consider moving to smaller ponds, to have a higher personal impact. You can do more net good and be more appreciated in a smaller pond. Be the Criminal Mastermind that your DerpyPaws needs you to be.