Yes, NYC has become a cult. And so have London, Paris and many other cities. A city is supposed to be transactional. You move there to get access to better jobs, smarter people, capital, culture, dating markets, ideas, luck. You tolerate the rent, noise and chaos because the city increases your surface area for opportunity. But a lot of people now treat living in NYC/London/Paris as the achievement itself. They’re not building much, not saving much, not owning anything, not starting families, not necessarily living that well. Social media (and short visits) made this worse. People not living in those cities romanticise them and feel FOMO, while people living there turn the city into their entire personality / personal brand. Even San Francisco, which used to be somewhat immune to this, is starting to turn into a status symbol for wannabe entrepreneurs...