Devon Zuegel: How To Create A New Town - [Invest Like the Best, EP.413]

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O'Shaughnessy is the CEO of Positive Sum. All opinions expressed by Patrick and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Positive Sum. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. Clients of Positive sum may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast. To learn more, visit psum.vc.

My guest today is Devin Zugel. Devin is the founder and president of the Esmeralda Institute, and she is creating a new town called Esmeralda in California wine country. Learning of Devin and her plan, I couldn't help but wonder why there are more people building new towns. She shares the origin story of her project, a modern reinvention of the Chautauqua community she cherished growing up, and we explore her fascinating work building communities and reimagining how we live together. We discuss how environments fundamentally shape human behavior, how cost of space impacts creativity, the finan

such a fun question. I think it came from realizing just how much environment shape the way I think, the way I feel, and the way I behave. Even from small things like the shape of the floor plan of an office can make a huge difference in the way that team members interact, and the weather outside affects how much I go outside, and the layout of streets ends up affecting whether I walk somewhere or I take a car. And realizing I'm kind of obsessed with trying to make my life better and make better decisions, and I realized that it's way easier to make better decisions if your environment support

us a sense or a flavor of some of the things in environment that shape you or the way that you think that might surprise us.

So here's a silly one, but it's so true is if I have my phone next to me as it is right now versus behind my computer screen where I can't see it, I will not use my phone if it's behind the screen, and I'll just forget that it even exists. Versus if it's next to me, I'll check it every few minutes and see if I have notifications. And so, actually, I'm gonna hide it behind my screen right now. Mhmm. And at a more macro scale, I think how close you live near a friend makes a huge difference in how likely it is that you'll see them and the context in which you see them. So if you live on the same

So proximity is one key variable or dimension of your setup in life. What are the other key variables that interest you most?

I think another really interesting one is cost of space. You see this play out in just the way the restaurant might treat you. If you're in a restaurant in Manhattan, you can tell that the restaurant wants you to eat your food, get out, pay the check so that they can turn over the tables because that seat is expensive for them. Versus if you're in a lower cost city where the real estate isn't so expensive, there's often a little bit more of a, it's okay if you sit there for three hours and chitchat with your friends and or at coffee sho