[aggronn]

This isn't a unique characteristic of writers, or creatives for that matter. This is a well studied phenomena, especially in Urban Economics, called Agglomeration.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economies_of_agglomeration

The HN audience should be pretty familiar with this already considering how much we talk about startups and labor markets--proximity breeds productivity. Startups breed more startups, software jobs breed software jobs.

But it extends beyond that even. This is, in part, why similar stores cluster. The "cost" of doing business goes down when you're near other people who are doing the same business, for a variety of reasons. In writing, "cost" is feedback and gathering inspiration. Its hardly different at all.