I'm a big fan of the period between Christmas and when most of the world gets back to work in the New Year. It's the only time of year that I know of where the email firehose shuts off, the social permission to do "nothing" turns on, and the world generally quiets down.
I know that not everyone gets this time off. We all have different jobs. Earlier in my career, I used to always work these days between Christmas and the New Year because I couldn't spare the vacation days. But if you are fortunate enough to have it off, it's a unique time of the year.
It's a time for family and friends, and a good time for vacations that aren't riddled with email and work anxiety. But it's also a time that creates space for the mind to wander, and for me, it gives me a creative burst of energy.
I've been trying to think of the best way to describe this feeling, and it truly feels like "mental space." When work is "on," it simply crowds out everything else. But a more accurate neuroscientific definition would be that we're simply engaging different parts of our brains.
Supposedly, when the mind is given "space" to wander — which is also referred to as wakeful rest — we engage a system in our brain known as the Default Mode Network. This network is thought to serve several different functions, including forming the basis for the self, thinking about others, remembering past events, and imagining possible future events. Generally, this makes it very good at connecting the dots, so to speak.
The counterpart network is our Executive Control Network. This part of our brain is most active during focused, demanding, and goal-oriented tasks — so work.
These two networks are also thought to be inversely correlated, meaning when one activates, the other often shuts down. But not always and not entirely. A 2018 research article by Roger E. Beaty et al. found that highly creative people have a unique brain "wiring" that allows these different neural networks to work together, rather than in opposition.
What this suggests to me, as a cognitive neuroscience layperson, is that engaging our different brain networks is good for us. Sometimes it's good to turn down executive control and give some space to default mode.
And I find that this time of year is a perfect time to do just that.
Cover photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash
One of the big housing stories of this year was that Austin has built a lot of new apartments and it is now causing rents to fall precipitously — by as much as 22%. The market is working.
But as we also talk about on this blog, the benefits of new "luxury" housing don't just apply to those who can afford it. Since real estate development happens on the margin — in other words, it's based on the feasibility of the next unit of housing supply, not an average for the market — new market-rate housing typically needs to cater to the top end of the market. Otherwise, it wouldn't be economically feasible to build it.
However, study after study also shows that the delivery of any new housing in a city broadly tempers rents, including in a city's oldest housing stock. This is true in virtually all cities:
It's not always as straightforward as it may seem to measure the size of a city or urban region.
There's the problem of which urban boundary to use. And then once you've landed on that, there's the additional problem of estimating how many people live within it. This can be particularly challenging when it comes to informal settlements, where there isn't reliable population data.
The most common approach is to use the continuous built-up area as the urban agglomeration, as opposed to any sort of "city proper" boundaries. And this is exactly what the United Nations has done in its latest World Urbanization Prospects report.
Here, they have fundamentally revised their measurement methodology by using a new, so-called harmonized geospatial approach. If you'd like to nerd out on the specifics, you can do that here.
But one of the key takeaways is that this new methodology has resulted in a reordering of the world's largest urban agglomerations. At the top is now Jakarta, followed by Dhaka:
I'm a big fan of the period between Christmas and when most of the world gets back to work in the New Year. It's the only time of year that I know of where the email firehose shuts off, the social permission to do "nothing" turns on, and the world generally quiets down.
I know that not everyone gets this time off. We all have different jobs. Earlier in my career, I used to always work these days between Christmas and the New Year because I couldn't spare the vacation days. But if you are fortunate enough to have it off, it's a unique time of the year.
It's a time for family and friends, and a good time for vacations that aren't riddled with email and work anxiety. But it's also a time that creates space for the mind to wander, and for me, it gives me a creative burst of energy.
I've been trying to think of the best way to describe this feeling, and it truly feels like "mental space." When work is "on," it simply crowds out everything else. But a more accurate neuroscientific definition would be that we're simply engaging different parts of our brains.
Supposedly, when the mind is given "space" to wander — which is also referred to as wakeful rest — we engage a system in our brain known as the Default Mode Network. This network is thought to serve several different functions, including forming the basis for the self, thinking about others, remembering past events, and imagining possible future events. Generally, this makes it very good at connecting the dots, so to speak.
The counterpart network is our Executive Control Network. This part of our brain is most active during focused, demanding, and goal-oriented tasks — so work.
These two networks are also thought to be inversely correlated, meaning when one activates, the other often shuts down. But not always and not entirely. A 2018 research article by Roger E. Beaty et al. found that highly creative people have a unique brain "wiring" that allows these different neural networks to work together, rather than in opposition.
What this suggests to me, as a cognitive neuroscience layperson, is that engaging our different brain networks is good for us. Sometimes it's good to turn down executive control and give some space to default mode.
And I find that this time of year is a perfect time to do just that.
Cover photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash
One of the big housing stories of this year was that Austin has built a lot of new apartments and it is now causing rents to fall precipitously — by as much as 22%. The market is working.
But as we also talk about on this blog, the benefits of new "luxury" housing don't just apply to those who can afford it. Since real estate development happens on the margin — in other words, it's based on the feasibility of the next unit of housing supply, not an average for the market — new market-rate housing typically needs to cater to the top end of the market. Otherwise, it wouldn't be economically feasible to build it.
However, study after study also shows that the delivery of any new housing in a city broadly tempers rents, including in a city's oldest housing stock. This is true in virtually all cities:
It's not always as straightforward as it may seem to measure the size of a city or urban region.
There's the problem of which urban boundary to use. And then once you've landed on that, there's the additional problem of estimating how many people live within it. This can be particularly challenging when it comes to informal settlements, where there isn't reliable population data.
The most common approach is to use the continuous built-up area as the urban agglomeration, as opposed to any sort of "city proper" boundaries. And this is exactly what the United Nations has done in its latest World Urbanization Prospects report.
Here, they have fundamentally revised their measurement methodology by using a new, so-called harmonized geospatial approach. If you'd like to nerd out on the specifics, you can do that here.
But one of the key takeaways is that this new methodology has resulted in a reordering of the world's largest urban agglomerations. At the top is now Jakarta, followed by Dhaka:
The above chart is from this recent Bloomberg article, talking about how "luxury apartments are bringing rents down." But if you look closely, there is one city on this chart that appears to be an outlier: Miami.
Despite adding a respectable number of homes, rents have not fallen as much as you might expect given the figures for the other cities on this list. The intuitive explanation is likely that Miami is in the midst of experiencing an extraordinary wealth transfer.
For the five-year period through to 2022, it was estimated that some 30,000 New Yorkers with combined annual incomes of $9.2 billion moved to Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. It's also an important capital safe haven for Latin America.
I vividly remember looking at condo listings in Miami in 2008 and thinking, "Damn, this is cheap!" I even tried to find a job there after grad school, but at that time, it was no place for a new real estate developer. My best bet would have been something in loan workouts.
Who could have predicted such an incredible transformation? It isn't the third most important global city in the US according to the numbers, but it certainly has a lot of momentum right now. In this instance, new supply does not appear to be more than offsetting demand.
Cover photo by Valeriia Neganova on Unsplash
Previously, Tokyo was thought to be the world's most populous megacity, but it has dropped down to 3rd in this new report. And by 2050, it is forecasted to drop even further to 7th place:
As we spoke about yesterday, the world's economic center of gravity is rapidly shifting toward Asia. And that shows up in these charts.
I have a strong desire to visit the largest cities in the world. It's fascinating to see how such large urban clusters manage to organize themselves. There are always systems that naturally emerge to make things work, even if it feels chaotic on the surface.
I've only been to 3 cities from the 2025 chart, so I have my work cut out for me.
Cover photo by Rifki Kurniawan on Unsplash
The above chart is from this recent Bloomberg article, talking about how "luxury apartments are bringing rents down." But if you look closely, there is one city on this chart that appears to be an outlier: Miami.
Despite adding a respectable number of homes, rents have not fallen as much as you might expect given the figures for the other cities on this list. The intuitive explanation is likely that Miami is in the midst of experiencing an extraordinary wealth transfer.
For the five-year period through to 2022, it was estimated that some 30,000 New Yorkers with combined annual incomes of $9.2 billion moved to Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. It's also an important capital safe haven for Latin America.
I vividly remember looking at condo listings in Miami in 2008 and thinking, "Damn, this is cheap!" I even tried to find a job there after grad school, but at that time, it was no place for a new real estate developer. My best bet would have been something in loan workouts.
Who could have predicted such an incredible transformation? It isn't the third most important global city in the US according to the numbers, but it certainly has a lot of momentum right now. In this instance, new supply does not appear to be more than offsetting demand.
Cover photo by Valeriia Neganova on Unsplash
Previously, Tokyo was thought to be the world's most populous megacity, but it has dropped down to 3rd in this new report. And by 2050, it is forecasted to drop even further to 7th place:
As we spoke about yesterday, the world's economic center of gravity is rapidly shifting toward Asia. And that shows up in these charts.
I have a strong desire to visit the largest cities in the world. It's fascinating to see how such large urban clusters manage to organize themselves. There are always systems that naturally emerge to make things work, even if it feels chaotic on the surface.
I've only been to 3 cities from the 2025 chart, so I have my work cut out for me.
Cover photo by Rifki Kurniawan on Unsplash
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
