I’m starting to become a big fan of cities.
I used to feel that I didn’t live in a city, and thought of them as places build to house a lot of factory workers. I was in the suburbs, which I know see as part of cities, and thought downtown meant old and grimy. When someone suggest revitalizing, I’d laugh at what I thought was the futility of propping up the decay.
I was wrong.
I’ve been studying the best ideas for the future of mankind. Ideas about cities keep coming up and has caused me to rethink how important the fast growing cities (think China) are housing more and more people.
A City is the Center of Progress
One of the great turning points in my understanding about cities was Paul Romer’s TED talk on Charter Cities. Romer showed how cities are not using up the land and resources, and actually have a tremendous ROI.
That made me face the feeling I had and learn that while I have always been a fan of progress, I needed to stop blaming cities for the world’s problems.
There is more of everything in cities. The density accentuates problems, but what is often not mentioned is the positive side of these density efficiencies
- Higher wages
- More patent applications
- More arts and creativity
It’s leverage.
Ideas move faster in cities, there are more data points to prove out any hypothesis and of course, more buyers in whatever market you are targeting.
Let’s Think of Some Positive Ideas for Cities
You’ve heard that technology, networks and social media are revolutionizing business and life. Now let’s review what even faster innovation, commination and positive progress can be made
This video from Ericson is a great place to start. It’s the first in the series and got me thinking (and started on this post). Watch it below:
We’re Just Getting Started
I’ve rambled through just a few of the ideas that I’ve been thinking about. I didn’t scratch the surface of my real focus here.
Things are are going to continue to get better at a faster rate.
I’ll be sharing more soon. I hope you’ll leave a comment and tell me where I’m wrong, or how we might all profit from this accelerating trend. What else should we be looking at, and how will this affect us?
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