On Cities and Serendipity

Now that things are opening up again, I've been thinking of the importance of being in cities that are known in your space. For e.g. Bombay for Media/Finance, Bangalore for Tech, Paris for Fashion.

This was really important for career growth before Covid and remote work. Does it still hold now? I would think so.

Let's take a few examples. I frequent a Blue Tokai coffee shop in Bombay in an area where a lot of people working in media and entertainment come to. There's a good chance of serendipitous encounters with someone in your field and that could lead to relationships being formed that could propel your growth.

In my recent trip to Bangalore, at Third Wave in Indiranagar, you would bump into a fellow product manager at a startup or someone who you knew from Twitter. Or meeting a founder from your alma mater at a VC meetup.

You miss out on this kind of serendipity if you're in a city that's not in your space. But at the same time, it would be exhausting. "If everyone is going for meetups, who is building?" Staying in such a place means that you are less likely to disconnect and be always on.

As long as you can do work remotely, a good balance is visiting a city with network effects once a quarter for the sole purpose of just meeting people. And then going back to your base where you have a thriving social life with friends, family that are outside this bubble.