Today I had lunch with twelve young Irish people — a wonderful bunch in their early 20s working on rockets, biotech, software/AI, etc. I enquired about whether any were planning on leaving Ireland over the next 3 years. All hands but one went up. I asked the holdout why he was staying; he clarified that he was also going to leave, just not in the next three years. Mobility is a wonderful thing, but it feels worrisome if everyone in such a group concludes that they ought to emigrate. This desire seems to generalize. A 2023 study suggested that more young people want to leave Ireland than any other EU country.

Patrick Collison @patrickc