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“Plan for traffic jams, get traffic jams. Plan for human flourishing, get human flourishing.” Thats not just some cheesy urbanism mantra, its behavioral science. Human behavior is often just following the path of least resistance. Not necessarily because we’re lazy, but because our brains are wired to conserve effort. Psychologists will tell you that the more friction we encounter (physical, mental, or procedural) the less likely we are to continue the thing were doing. The fox and the grapes Aesops fable The Fox and the Grapes is a parable about decision-making. The fox cant reach the grapes that are way up high on the vine, so he figures they must not be ripe. Its where we get the phrase sour grapes to describe how someone rationalizes their poor reasoning. I came across a research study that applied Aesops fable. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he explores ideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"green","redirectUrl":""}} Fifty-two participants judged the direction of moving dots on a screen by using handles in either hand. When researchers subtly increased resistance in one handle, participants unconsciously altered their judgments to favor the easier action. For example, adding resistance to the left handle made participants more likely to perceive the dots moving to the right, since moving the right handle was easier. “Our brain tricks us into believing the low-hanging fruit really is the ripest, neuroscience researcher Dr. Nobuhiro Hagura said. We found that not only does the cost to act influence people’s behavior, but it even changes what we think we see.” Dr. Haguras team found that bias occurred without participants realizing that one response required more effort. In other words, their brains recalibrated what felt right based on ease, not accuracy. Unconscious decisions People dont read zoning ordinances. They dont memorize bus schedules. They dont have a photographic memory of where to find bike lanes. They dont make pro/con lists before deciding whether to walk to the store or drive. Most daily decisions are unconscious. So if local government leaders want people to choose healthy, sustainable, socially beneficial behaviors, those behaviors have got to be the easiest ones to choose. Unfortunately, most American towns and cities are built the opposite way. Walking your child to school often means dodging traffic, climbing over curbs, and waiting at unshaded intersections with no bench in sight. Riding a bike might mean taking a lane next to speeding trucks. Taking transit might mean waiting in the mud with no sidewalk or shelter. But hopping in a car? Thats easy. Weve paved a deadly path of least resistance. Whats doable, but requires some up-front energy by the expert planners and engineers, is to make safe and healthy choices as simple and intuitive by creating a system that nudges you in the right direction. Organizing principles Entrepreneurs often cite their one-line hook for a product or service as the key to staying focused. Urban planners, policy writers, and elected officials should steal this tactic. Every transportation plan, housing study, parking reform, or downtown revitalization effort could begin with a one-sentence purpose thats clear, memorable, and anchored in human flourishing. That sentence becomes your compass when debate veers off course. For example: Our streets will be safe for 8-year-olds riding bicycles. We will eliminate policies that interfere with abundant housing. Cars are welcome on our streets, but they will move slowly. Townhouses should be legal in every neighborhood. Our residents should not be forced to drive to get around. Housing people is more important than housing cars. The bus should not be stuck in traffic. These types of one-liners can be organizing principles, which is more powerful than empty slogans. If the plan, ordinance, or capital project doesnt help achieve the one-sentence purpose, its off-mission. If it conflicts, it should be stopped. People choose whats easy, so make good urbanism easy. Make it the path of least resistance. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he explores ideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"green","redirectUrl":""}}
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E-Commerce
Many real estate investors dont set out to build rental businesses. Rather, they stumble into them. Think of the Gen Xer who just inherited their parents home, the professional whos moving out of state for a new job but is reluctant to sell their current home, or the empty nester who bought a townhome for their college student to live in and is renting extra rooms out to other students. We see many of these accidental investors applying gig economy principles to manage their properties with the precision, efficiency, and professionalism of full-time operators, without traditional overhead. Instead of relying on manual processes, accidental operators are embracing a tech-forward, efficiency-driven approach that mirrors how gig workers treat rideshare, delivery, or freelance work: Generate income with maximum efficiency and minimal friction, while building flexible systems that scale. Embrace the gig economy blueprint The gig economy didnt just disrupt industriesit rewired expectations. Rideshare drivers, delivery couriers, and freelancers embraced flexible, app-enabled platforms that allowed them to monetize time, skills, and assets without needing to build infrastructure themselves. These platforms emphasized speed and user experience, qualities that became the gold standard across industries. Whether someone was delivering food, designing a logo, or driving someone to the airport, the mindset was the same: Use tech to accomplish more with less effort. That same logic is now being applied to real estate investing. A gig economy approach to rental operations Gig economy thinking favors systems over sweat. Instead of building massive operations, part-time rental investors prefer to think like gig workers, plugging into tools that do the heavy lifting. That means ditching time-consuming manual processes for technologies that simplify and streamline virtually all aspects of managing properties. Heres how they do that. Automation as infrastructure: Mirroring the way gig platforms consolidate multiple functions into one easy-to-use app, investors are turning to mobile-first platforms to handle everything. What used to take hours of work to manage property listings, tenant screening, lease signing, rent collection, maintenance coordination, and communication now takes just a few taps on a phone. Automation not only saves time but also ensures consistency. Rent reminders are sent automatically. Late fees are triggered when appropriate. Maintenance workflows keep tenants, vendors, and owners updated in real time. These tools create a seamless operating backbone that allows even part-time investors to run their portfolios like a professional business without needing a large back office, much like a rideshare driver operating solo but supported by enterprise-grade technology. Customer experience mindset: Similar to how gig platforms prioritize customer convenience, tenants benefit from more attention with less effort on the investors part, thanks to tech that provides 24/7 access to services from convenient digital rent payment options to submitting and tracking maintenance requests any time of the day or night. Additional perks like credit-boosting features that report on-time rent payments help improve tenants financial standing enhance satisfaction and retention, a dynamic common across gig platforms. Data-driven decision making: Inparallel to how gig workers use ratings, earnings dashboards, and performance data to refine their approach, real estate investors now have access to real-time insights that help them optimize key aspects of their portfolio without relying on spreadsheets or guesswork. Analytics such as rent collection trends, on-time payment rates, maintenance performance, expense breakdowns, and occupancy patterns provide a clear picture of whats working and where improvements can be made. These tools allow investors to fine-tune pricing strategies, manage turnover, forecast cash flow, and control repair costs with greater confidence and precision. In short, real estate investors are managing systems with the same mindset that defines successful gig economy operators. Turn passive income into a streamlined operation Real estate investing has always promised passive incomebut in practice, the day-to-day demands of managing properties often told a different story. Now, thanks to automation and centralized platforms, todays investors are much closer to realizing the true potential of passive income. They can reduce the time, effort, and stress traditionally involved in managing rentals. Automated rent collection eliminates the need for paper checks and late-night accounting. Features like automatic reminders, late fees, and autopay help ensure payments come in on time without the investor needing to chase tenants or manually track balances. Maintenance coordination is now a seamless process. Tenants can submit requests through the app at any hour. Vendors can respond directly. Everything from work orders to invoices is logged automatically. This prevents after-hours disruptions and keeps all parties informed in real time. Pre-screening and leasing tools further reduce the time investment. Investors can quickly identify high-quality tenants using built-in scoring systems that evaluate applicants on key risk factors, offering an instant snapshot of whether a candidate is a strong fit, a conditional accept, or potentially high risk. This helps fill vacancies faster and with greater confidence, lowering turnover and vacancy rates. Gig economy thinking is about doing less, better. By setting up efficient systems, todays real estate investors are building flexible, resilient rental businesses that demand far less hands-on time than in the past. Technology not only reduces workit empowers investors with greater control and visibility, without adding friction to the process. A growing segment with institutional-level ambition Many accidental operators start small, but todays tech makes it easier than ever to scale. With digital platforms and streamlined systems, these investors are closing the gap between independent and institutional playersnot in size, but in sophistication. The same tools that help part-time investors operate like seasoned professionals are raising industry standards. In many cases, they now deliver faster service, stronger communication, and greater transparency than traditional operators. Just as Uber and Airbnb empowered individuals to transform entire industries, tech-enabled investors are reshaping the future of real estate, one property at a time. Ryan Barone is cofounder and CEO of RentRedi.
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E-Commerce
The clean energy transition is acceleratingbut it’s running into a critical roadblock: the mineral supply chain. Lithium, cobalt, and other critical minerals power everything from electric vehicles to grid-scale batteries. But the world cannot mine these minerals fast enough to keep up. By 2040, global demand for lithium alone is expected to surge more than 700%. Yet traditional mining remains slow, polluting, and geopolitically risky. Industry leaders and policymakers agree: We cant build a sustainable tomorrow on an unsustainable supply chain. But theres a smarter solutionand its already flowing beneath us. The minerals hidden in our water Lithium and other critical minerals are already present in surprising abundancenot only in traditional hard rock or salar basins, but in often-overlooked water sources like geothermal brines, industrial effluents, and oilfield produced water. For years, these streams were dismissed as too complex or costly to process. But thats beginning to change. Advancements in direct lithium extraction (DLE) are now making it possible to recover lithium from these unconventional sourcescleanly, efficiently, and at scale. By isolating lithium directly from water without relying on evaporation ponds or invasive mining operations, DLE opens access to vast untapped U.S. domestic reserves. While the potential is immense, DLE remains an emerging technologyone that only a few companies globally are starting to prove at commercially viable levels of recovery, purity, and sustainability. DLE technologies that balance performance, sustainability, and cost are likely to define the next generation of critical mineral production. Among the most promising approaches are integrated, modular systems that combine extraction, concentration, and conversion processes into a single platform. Clayton Valley in Nevada and regions like the Smackover Formation in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas, and the Marcellus Shale Formations in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New York, are emerging as the proving grounds for this next generation of lithium production. Here, innovative DLE platforms are being piloted in real-world conditions and tested for adaptability to diverse brines and scalability for industrial deployment. As regulatory support grows and urgency around domestic critical minerals intensifies, the outcomes from these early deployments are likely to shape the future blueprint for lithium extraction. Faster, cleaner, smarter Compared to conventional methods, DLE slashes production timelines from monthsor even yearsto just hours or days. It eliminates the need for expansive land use and significantly reduces the environmental footprint. As global demand for lithium surges, DLE represents more than a technical advancementits a radical shift toward cleaner, faster, and smarter mineral production. DLE also delivers powerful cost advantages over traditional hard rock mining and refining. Its modular, compact design requires far less capital investment, bypassing the need for open-pit mines and evaporation ponds. Operating costs are lower thanks to higher lithium recovery ratesoften 6090% versus 3050%and energy-efficient processes that use fewer chemicals. Faster deployment means quicker returns, and it’s a lighter environmental footprint that streamlines permitting and regulatory approval. Combined, these benefits make DLE a breakthrough solution for the next generation of lithium production. Resilient supply chains start at home As geopolitical tensions strain access to global mineral reserves, the urgency for domestic solutions has never been greater. DLE offers the U.S. and other hard-rock-constrained nations a pathway to build resilient, local supply chains. This approach opens the door to new jobs and economic activity in otherwise overlooked geographies. U.S. policy is beginning to catch up. The federal government has designated critical mineral security a national imperative. Programs like the Department of Energys MINER initiative are catalyzing research into greener, more efficient extraction methods. Still, government support alone isnt enough. Its time for the private sector to lead. The call to lead The minerals needed to power the future arent buried in far-off mines in South America and Australia. Theyre right here, already flowing beneath us. Utilities, oilfield operators, and technology innovators already manage the infrastructure, data, and water resources that can power this next frontier. By reimagining wastewater not as a burden but as a resource, we can unlock new revenue streams. In doing so, we also help build resilient domestic supply chains and strengthen national energy security, reducing dependence on foreign lithium sources and securing the materials critical for the clean energy transition. Its time to stop digging deeper and start thinking smarter. Water isnt just a resource. Its a solution. For those bold enough to lead, its the future. Prakash Govindan is COO of Gradiant. Anurag Bajpayee is CEO of Gradiant
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E-Commerce
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