Most compelling to me in Paul Graham’s essay on Cities and Ambition is the idea that “most people who did great things were clumped together in a few places where that sort of thing was done at the time”. Cities are made up of several voices, but one voice speak louder than the others. According to Graham, New York calls for you to make more money; Silicon Valley calls for you to be more powerful; and London calls for you to be more aristocratic. (But as Nancy Mitford put it: “An aristocracy in a republic is like a chicken whose head has been cut off; it may run about in a lively way, but in fact it is dead.”) Since we’re living in a world with penetrable social walls, we are able to move towards a city’s centre of gravity, if we want to go that way.

Brighton’s voice is: Decadence. There is a culture for enjoying oneself. Brighton is like a really thrilling romance that has the benefit of being wholesome. It reminds me of California – somewhere in-between Santa Cruz and San Francisco, with a touch of London cool.

It’s not just a party town – it is serious and ambitious as well. A prerequisite for my presence here is the fact that it’s full of people passionate about, and ambitious for, what they do. It’s hard not to be infected by the positivity and interest in life and work, and there is a community here. Paul Graham isn’t personifying architecture and geography; he is talking about people.