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This may sound silly, but... Suppose an aspiring amateur mathematician wanted to plan to move to another city...

What are some cities that are home to some of the largest number of the brightest mathematicians? I'm sure this may depend on university presence, or possibly industry presence, or possibly something surprising. Wondering where the best place to take a non-faculty job at a university and try to make friends with some sharp minds in the computer lab or at the nearby pub might be.

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    Community wiki?2010-11-01
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    One way to plug into the mathematical culture of a city would be to attend the kind of informal talks that most college/university departments tend to hold each week or so, where professors (or even students) discuss topics of interest. In that case, you'd probably want to choose the city based on which school happens to be particularly strong in the area of math you like best. (The rule of thumb I've heard is that one chooses an undergrad school based on department, and grad school based on a particular faculty member; I'm not sure which applies to "mak[ing] friends with some sharp minds". :)2010-11-01
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    If you're already willing to contemplate moving to a city based on its mathematical IQ, why not just enroll in an actual under/graduate program of mathematical study? Then the sharp minds will actually be paid to interact with you. Forgive me if I am misconstruing something, but an elaborate plan to brush shoulders with them at labs and pubs strikes me as slightly creepy.2010-11-01
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    Not an answer of any sort, but to give a personal anecdote @Pete Clark re: pubs and Cambridge and brushing shoulders. "Slightly creepy" just doesn't cut it when small talk with a foul-mouthed local turns into (after he found out you are a mathematician) full-on proselytizing of [Bohmian mechanics](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Broglie-Bohm_theory) interspersed with drunken curses.2010-11-01
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    Where do you live, and how far are you willing to move? The current answers seem to assume that since you didn't think it necessary to state this you must be in the US, but I'm less judgmental ;)2011-02-02

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