[ChainsawSurgery]

I thought it was pretty clear that the implied irrational part of it is the opportunity cost of choosing your hometown, not the actual attachment itself.

If I'm a brilliant mathematician or a world-class athlete and I choose Kansas over Cambridge/Boston, then yeah, plenty of people are going to think that my attachment to Kansas is making me act irrationally. I don't think they lack a "modicum of intelligence" because of that thought.

There are obviously exceptions where your choice of location doesn't matter, but if you're a high performer then it frequently does (with the obvious notable exceptions e.g. Prince).

[EDIT: I originally just had a quip about not being a sports fan, but I thought you deserved a real reply.]

[jackmaney]

As a mathematician by training, I would venture to say that there are probably few mathematicians who are able to choose a location first and then a suitable job in academia or industry (in academia, that number is almost surely zero).

In particular, if you're an academic mathematician and you ended up in Kansas, then that probably means that you're working at the University of Kansas or Kansas State University.