[dionidium]

The use of political borders to make regional comparisons is a common source of ridiculous conclusions. It usually happens in more banal and easily-identified ways, like when you hear somebody say something like, "Austin is bigger than Boston," (no, it isn't, obviously) but this shows how it can fool even very smart people if they're not paying attention.

[edanm]

mmm, isn't Austin bigger than Boston? I'm not sure what you mean there.

[dionidium]

Austin isn’t anywhere close to the size of Boston, neither statistically nor experientially. That this isn't obvious to everyone sort of proves my point. The use of political borders as boundaries for making regional comparisons only misleads.

I really don’t think I can put too fine a point on this: the Boston region is so much bigger than the Austin region that nobody familiar with both places could possibly think Austin is bigger. The only way to think Austin is bigger is to be mislead by the arbitrarily drawn political borders of each region’s core city. (I’m also taller than Shaq if for some silly historical reason we only define Shaq to include the parts of his body up to his knees.)