Seth Godin wrote on his blog today about what it means to be a lifelong fan -- whether it be of a sports team, a car company, a political party, or, in his words, "anything where affiliation drives our sense of self and community."

There's a powerful sentence in the middle of his post and it's this one here:

"People like us do things like this."

We often make decisions about products, brands, and even where to live based on a narrative that we craft for ourselves. We tell ourselves that I am the kind of person who lives in this neighborhood and drives this car. People like us do things like this.

There's an innate, emotional, and sometimes nonsensical desire to be part of what Seth calls our chosen "tribe." And tribe does really feel like the right word. We all want to be a part of something. It helps to create meaning.

So what's your internal narrative? It probably determines how you hire for many of the "jobs" you need filled.

I came across this interview with Warren Buffet over the weekend. It's not new. But he does say some interesting things about how to negotiate. We all have to negotiate things in life. And we all have different approaches. Warren's approach is both simple and consistent:

"I say what I'll do."

"And I don't do anything else."

What I love about this approach is that it's expedient. And I value speed over most other things. But for it to work, you need to be consistent at it. People need to know you're for real. And you also need a counterpart that is motivated to make things happen. That's not often the case.

Fewer games. More action. That's what I like about it.

From the outset, people have been predicting that the internet would become a decentralizing force for cities. That is, technology would allow us to spread out and work from anywhere -- perhaps from a small mountain town in the BC interior. While working from home (WFH) and working from anywhere (WFA) does appear to be on the rise, it hasn't made cities irrelevant. (US Census data from 2018 estimates that only about 5.2% of Americans work entirely from home.) In fact, the "new economy" seems to have made superstar cities, such as London, seemingly even more important. It has concentrated economic activity; so much so that we're searching for ways to spread out income and wealth more evenly.

But could it be that the technology simply wasn't there yet? Fred Wilson posited on his blog today that right now might be video conferencing's moment. Between not wanting to travel (coronavirus, carbon footprint, time, etc...) and advancements in the actual technology, companies such as Zoom are changing the way people and companies engage over long distances. It is happening in our offices. And come to think of it, there are probably a bunch of meetings that I could and should switch over to Zoom. I'm not yet convinced that it will become a decentralizing force for cities. But it does seem to be empowering less travel and more flexibility.

Photo by Nastuh Abootalebi on Unsplash