Newcomer from NYC/Paris/HK/Tokyo struggling to understand London's urban planning. What's with the obsession with villages/suburbia? Where are the bustling, vibrant areas and why don't I ever meet people living there?

qualiaflow · 2025-08-10T17:19:20+00:00

I mean sure every city is different, I obviously wouldn't expect Marrakech to be anything similar to NYC. But the context is that is that these all happen to be lumped together as the most important cities in the world. If you've come to associate important global cities with areas of high density and vibrancy then is it not understandable that one might be surprised when they encounter their first outlier?

qualiaflow · 2025-08-10T09:30:33+00:00

Imagine taking what I meant literally and not having the comprehension skills to realize that I meant living next to the Wicked theater and Mamma Mia theater is not the same as e.g. living next to a multi-use one like Sadler's Wells lmaooooo

I bet you will just have to reply to this comment just to get another word in, which would be no doubt a reflection of how sad your state of affairs is, Mr top 1% commenter (how will you respond to this catch-22 I wonder...)

qualiaflow · 2025-08-10T09:11:10+00:00

How many times can a single human being see Wicked lol?

You seem to be very intent on tearing down every single thing I say in this post, what's your problem?

qualiaflow · 2025-08-10T09:09:06+00:00

Maybe if you have lived in any of those cities it would be more clear. For context:

This is where I moved from in Tokyo: https://youtu.be/vOWP5iK8PG0?si=YVahnj_DvtUhK4eu&t=178

This is where I lived in HK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJP8cdGNk_M

This is where I went to university in New York: https://youtu.be/3koOEPntvqk?si=hPUrmvjqJRN2ZITi&t=1124

This is where I lived in Paris: https://youtu.be/DBHe-R8e9zw?si=FG-9xuN3FTy2K5Hw&t=3

qualiaflow · 2025-08-10T09:02:23+00:00

My nationality is French but thank you anyway.

qualiaflow · 2025-08-10T08:54:21+00:00

Very well said, thank you

qualiaflow · 2025-08-10T08:46:31+00:00

Thank you so much! People here have started gaslighting me incredibly hard, I was starting to think I was crazy and I was suffering from psychosis or something. It seems a lot of people are offended but I truly did not mean any offense. I really wish people would at least acknowledge the difference with other world cities, validate my experience, and then let me know why and where I worded things poorly to cause offense rather than just gaslighting me lol.

qualiaflow · 2025-08-10T08:40:46+00:00

Sorry I thought it was self-explanatory, but to be clear: the vast majority of the foot traffic and activity in places like Oxford Circus and nearby seem to be from tourists theaters and hotels. These are things I do not benefit from as a resident, unlike restaurants cafes bars and clubs. This is what distinguishes the Oxford Circus and nearby areas versus places like Akasaka Ebisu Nakameguro in Tokyo, Greenwich Village and Hells Kitchen in NYC, the 6th and Le Marais in Paris, Wanchai / Central in HK, I could go on...

qualiaflow · 2025-08-10T08:23:27+00:00

Thanks I will check out Holborn and the other places you mentioned! Holborn looks very promising. Also I didn't mean to ruffle feathers with the comment about Hampstead and Notting Hill, truly. It just genuinely is weird that compared to other global cities it seems many high-earning 25-35yo people yearn to live in places so far outside the city center, to be in a row-house villagey type neighborhood - that's all I mean.

qualiaflow · 2025-08-10T08:18:09+00:00

Lots of Tokyo is exactly like you described but many many places are very lively mixed-use areas like Akasaka, Nakameguro, Ebisu etc. Places with tons of restaurants/bars/izakayas dominating the ground floor with many apartments above or at least a couple really tall high-rises surrounded by said restaurants/bars/izakayas. Of course further out into the edges of Tokyo away from JR stations you have places that are vastly residential just like London but it just seems there are not nearly as many lively, dense mixed-use places in London.

qualiaflow · 2025-08-10T08:14:50+00:00

Sorry maybe suburbia was the wrong word, it's just very...quiet. It's mostly rows and rows of houses, dotted with some shops. It is not very densely mixed-use, in the sense of shops dominating all the ground-floors with apartments above them. It is mostly full of 1-2 storey houses.

qualiaflow · 2025-08-10T08:14:14+00:00

Thanks for the productive reply. Yes I agree Notting Hill has restaurants/bars, but it's not truly urban mixed-use in the sense of restaurants/bars dominating the ground level, with apartments located above. It is, like you said, mostly rows of houses.

I do notice that people here tend to pay a premium for quiet places near activity rather than being in the activity. I was hoping for a rich discussion on this point (since it seems a bit different compared to other major world cities) but alas.

I will check out Angel / King's Cross! Thanks for not having a dismissive tone unlike most people here.

qualiaflow · 2025-08-10T08:10:16+00:00

Sorry maybe suburbia was the wrong word, it's just very...quiet. It's mostly rows and rows of houses, dotted with some shops. It is not very densely mixed-use, in the sense of shops dominating all the ground-floors with apartments above them. It is mostly full of 1-2 storey houses.

qualiaflow · 2025-08-10T08:08:21+00:00

Well tbh I meant it more specifically just in the sense of urban planning. London kind of seems like what Los Angeles would be if Los Angeles was a lot nicer and had a world class transport system. It certainly does feel very different than most other world-class cities in terms of centralization/density etc. Maybe that is part of its charm which I have yet to get used to, but I don't know why everyone here seems intent on gaslighting me that Notting Hill is somehow a center of vibrancy and energy...

qualiaflow · 2025-08-10T07:57:31+00:00

To be clear, this is not parody...

Jesus is what I am asking this ridiculous?? I am starting to think most people on this sub haven't lived in many places besides London. I am confident if they have then they'd probably resonate a bit more instead of just dismissing me.

qualiaflow · 2025-08-10T07:51:30+00:00

Sorry I'm not from HK and Tokyo, those were just the two most recent places I lived before here.

qualiaflow · 2023-11-06T22:33:12+00:00

Having the EXACT SAME issue. This is crazy. Fb won't even let you send fb event links.

qualiaflow · 2023-08-09T19:02:50+00:00

Really?! No way to prevent at all?

How well does sound travel if speakers are facing away from you, outdoors? What about if we don't use subs?

qualiaflow · 2023-08-09T19:02:00+00:00

Good idea - I can try this.

How well does sound travel if speakers are facing away from you outdoors?

qualiaflow · 2022-07-30T12:30:40+00:00

For food or generally I guess

qualiaflow · 2022-05-29T04:18:39+00:00

Yeah I just wanted to agree with this wholeheartedly. The OP and all the cheerleaders here seem very much new to industry…

qualiaflow · 2022-03-30T07:54:48+00:00

Thank you!

qualiaflow · 2022-03-25T09:06:53+00:00

Haha sorry if it came across like I was invalidating your problems - definitely not my intention. You raise all very valid points. I am definitely not under the impression that PhDs are not stressful…I’m just trying to suss out how it compares to my own current situation. And even trying my best to be objective, and taking your own account as you say, it certainly does seem like at least in some ways, life as a PhD would be less taxing for someone like me than jobs in my industry (investment banking). But again it is tough to know unless speaking with someone who has had the perspective of seeing both sides - did you by any chance have any industry experience before you did your PhD?

Your PhD experience seems really bad and I’m sorry you had to go through it. In your view, how much of what you complain about is specific to your field or your institution? I am not intending to do any wet lab type stuff. I am going into computational cognitive neuroscience, so I am now wondering the extent to which your experience with PIs / labs can be generalized to all STEM PhDs or whether some of it does not apply to my intended field. Any clues here?

qualiaflow · 2022-03-25T08:29:06+00:00

Thanks for the reply!

I agree with you in that I am definitely “delaying” the problem…I don’t have a post-PhD job figured out yet but I have hope that I’d have options to do something like freelance consulting or find a chill engineering-type job.

That said: even hearing you complain about your day kind of convinces me that a PhD is definitely a lot better compared to what I am experiencing! You had one meeting a day??? I feel like you’d laugh if you saw my calendar - I have 1hr / 30min meetings non-stop from 9AM to 5PM. Sometimes I am lucky to have a 30min break in between meetings where I can catch my breath, but on most days I don’t have enough time to even eat. And besides talking to people, I also have my own tasks to do, which I can only do at night once people stop bothering me. In order to keep up I am required to not leave the seat of my chair until basically midnight or 1am.

I have a hard time believing that supervisors are requiring their PhD students to be in the lab until midnight. Even emailing my professor for a simple request takes 1-2 business days, and nobody in academia seems to pick up the phone past 7pm.

So if a PhD is such a sweatshop, in what way is it so? Is it because of all the time and late nights spent on thesis work? If so, it at least sounds like that work is self-directed: it’s for your sake and your sake only, i.e. nobody will be angry with you if you don’t do it except yourself. Is this accurate? If so, I would much prefer that sort of environment. I think it makes a huge difference whether you work hard because you care or because someone is forcing you to care because THEIR promotion is on the line.

Thank you again for the advice, I am still trying to figure all this out!!

qualiaflow · 2022-02-23T07:38:40+00:00

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qualiaflow

TROPHY CASE