Sunday Culture Watch

Posted under Culture, Richard Florida, creative, creative class, creativite, global

In his new book, Who’s Your City? Richard Florida examines how “mega-regions” are driving the global economy and how each one is informed by its own distinct personality. Where we choose to live, argues Florida, is crucial not only to how we live and who we share our lives with, but also to what kind of career we end up having.

 The maps above (called geographical clustering) are dictated by five basic personality traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. What I find interesting is his conclusions. Florida asks an intriguing question.

“What if skill is more than education and more than work? The type of skill economists are interested in, he writes, “implies something that can be acquired with proper training, talent, motivation, and resources.” But, he adds, “It’s more consistent with personality theory to argue that personality traits predispose people to acquire certain skills.

 Agreeableness is associated with jobs in management and health care. And, while it is positively associated with innovation, high-tech industry, wages, and income in our more advanced models, the effects are quite small. This could mean that the ability to work well with others contributes, albeit slightly, to innovation.

Neuroticism is negatively associated with top talent in the form of human capital or the super-creative class. In more advanced models, it also turns out to be negatively associated with the creative class, high-tech industry, and wages. In other words, regions with high concentrations of highly educated and ultra-creative individuals tend to be more emotionally stable, less volatile, and more resilient. This suggests, among other things, that these are places where people may be more likely to take risks because they’re less concerned about failure.

Extroversion is significantly correlated with management and sales jobs, but it too has no effect on human capital overall, high-tech jobs, or regional income.

Richard Florida and the Creative Class Exchange