It’s a question that many have asked—but the answers have always seemed a bit… anecdotal.

hard data always seemed elusive…

until now.

Thanks to the work of Edwin Chen, a quantitative analyst at Google, we finally have numerical data to shed some light on this age old question:  “What cultural differences exist between New York and San Francisco?”

Just like you (and me), Chen was curious about this question—so he took it upon himself to answer it the way a quant would—using data.

Chen pulled some Twitter data and constructed a simple machine learning program (called a Naive Baysian model) to analyze it- what he found is quite interesting.

The results of his analysis show that certain words that people tweet are strongly associated with ether NYC or SF. (for example- if someone tweets the word ‘fashion’ there is a 72% chance they are tweeting from NYC).

Examining Chen’s work may help us understand how New Yorkers differ from San Franciscans (and Silicon Vally-ers) in terms of what careers they are interested in and what their personal values are.

Lets take a look at some possible interpretations of this data.

New York vs. San Francisco – What careers are they interested in?

New Yorkers: like fashion, entertainment, the arts, finance, publishing and established industries / companies

Tweets That Are Likely From New Yorkers:
(implied interests are in bold)

• Fashion: fashion
• Entertainment: actress, theatre, filmmaker, entertainment, producer
• Publishing : magazine, publishing, journalism, digital
• Finance: finance, money
• Established companies: president, executive

San Franciscans: like Tech and Startups–

Tweets That Are Likely From San Franciscans:
(implied interests are in bold)

• Tech: developer, designer, technology, engineering, programmer, software, hacker, support
• Startups: founder, entrepreneur, cofounder, startup

New York vs. San Francisco – Personal Values:

New Yorkers: care about looks, are more self-centered, define themselves by what they hope to accomplish in the future and are more interested in social Activities such as parties

Tweets That Are Likely From New Yorkers:
(implied interests are in bold)

• Looks: makeup, fashion
• Self-centered: myself, self
• Defined by  future goals: dreams , intern
• Social activities / Parties:  party

San Franciscans: are more interested in outdoors activities / fitness, more community oriented, and define themselves by what they have accomplished in the past, and are more interested in ‘solitary’ activities such as games, or ‘hacking’.

Tweets That Are Likely From San Franciscans:
(implied interests are in bold)

• Outdoors activities & fitness: Surfer, cyclist, running, yoga, baseball, health
• Community oriented: community, friend
• Defined by past accomplishments:  past, former,
• Solitary activities – games, hacker

This analysis seems to support already prevalent beliefs about the Cultural Differences between these two great cities. What do you think of this analysis?

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Photo credit – modified
photo credit – modified