Sarah Drinkwater
@sarahdrinkwater
Sarah Drinkwater
@sarahdrinkwater
more new cities have been created over the past several decades than most of us may realize, including several in the United States. And over the past decade, three macro trends have led to renewed interest from many in the creation of new urban areas.
One, remote work has untethered more knowledge workers from existing cities, lowering the economic cost of “trying out” a new place.
Two, the flaws of existing cities—often some combination of housing shortages, decaying transit, homelessness, and crime—have gained prominence and attention, driving some respected entrepreneurs and investors to propose the creation of new cities.
Three, the rise of “placemaking” as an attractive real estate investment thesis—think DUMBO or Reston Town Center—offers a stepping-stone for ambitious real estate investors.
The way managers are taught to run companies seems to be like modular design in the sense that you treat subtrees of the org chart as black boxes. You tell your direct reports what to do, and it's up to them to figure out how. But you don't get involved in the details of what they do. That would be micromanaging them, which is bad.
Hire good people and give them room to do their jobs. Sounds great when it's described that way, doesn't it? Except in practice, judging from the report of founder after founder, what this often turns out to mean is: hire professional fakers and let them drive the company into the ground.


