That's just a property of the fact that the interesting people all know each other and the uninteresting people don't know them. In some sense, Sam Altman, Emmett Shear, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Paul Graham, Elon Musk, John Carmack are in a shared sphere. And they are interesting whether you think they are smart or not.
You don't hear about John-Pierre Duvage from the coffee shop because he wasn't interesting. In the future, they will talk about the places where these people met.
Groupies always wonder where the musicians are. The musicians find each other easily.
Those people you mentioned are interesting and intelligent but I wouldn’t call them artistic, or diverse intellectually. And more importantly they aren’t “a scene”, in a physical place, like Paris or lower Manhattan were.
Their sphere almost certainly include the rest that those outside barely know of. For every well-known Aella in the group, there is someone more strange and esoteric with local influence only within. The strange and interesting are never as legible to their contemporaries as they are to those who come after because one's influence is only clear after one has sufficiently influenced.
A thing that strikes me is that people in the Bay Area frequently claim that it has nothing interesting, but my friends hosted a 30-person event locally that had musical compositions, art, and talks about all sorts of things. A local festival. No one outside us knew. I suspect that, like us, there are numerous groups of people out there and that this sort of stuff is common. Only those with breakout ideas make it out, but the groups themselves comprise individuals who, if you teased out their tales, would make good stories.
If my friend groups span libertarian billionaire techies and union working-class ironworkers, I must assume that the rest of these groups are similarly diverse.
For my part, I have found the Bay Area a fascinating place full of fascinating people. I am thankful to have found my way here. Sometimes I think not even Moll Flanders has lived more exciting a life than many of those I have met here.
You don't hear about John-Pierre Duvage from the coffee shop because he wasn't interesting. In the future, they will talk about the places where these people met.
Groupies always wonder where the musicians are. The musicians find each other easily.