Devon ☀️

I'm honored that @JoinColossus wrote a profile on how we're building Esmeralda from the ground up! The piece covers everything from our 5 design principles to why we spend so much time in spreadsheets & talking to civil engineers

Above is an AI render of the bigger version. Below is what the smaller one looks like in real life. This is 100% reflected ambient light. Will cost me >$15k to get the underlying structure fabricated, so serious offers only please.

It is time for the United States Postal Service to ban junk mail. Unsolicited spam calls are already prohibited by the FCC. Emails are heavily regulated by the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Junk mail is the majority of mail, 100 million trees per year. Enough!

@BokTower Video evidence for anyone who doesn't believe me: youtu.be/5SZiO74GwDM?si…

@BokTower The underside of a water lily is wild:

A water lily can carry a lot more weight than I intuitively would've thought... This lily pad at @BokTower Botanical Garden was able to hold a whopping 183 pounds!

The bottom scenario exists, it's called Los Angeles.

OH in New York: "Bro I live in a 3-dimensional world, I don't do that hentai sh*t"

@rsnous @malonehedges This is one of my primary hobbies

@malonehedges @devonzuegel

i really need to sit down with my calendar

I am very excited to see this idea of a kids residency at Edge Esmeralda this June!

Question 1: How big is this premium? Methodology: I compared home sale prices in places like @AlysBeach @Serenbe @SeabrookWA & @LasCatalinas to prices in their underlying markets The average premium in these communities is DOUBLE their surrounding markets!

Different properties create different long-term cost burdens for the city One of the biggest contributors to that variance is the amount of infrastructure they require, which correlates with the amount of space they take up

I think this reflects our confused spiritual relationship with our own past. We feel a strong and intuitive affinity for what we used to build, while our contemporary frameworks consider such buildings misguided and "immoral". The mind says massing prohibitions and setbacks; the heart says beautiful masonry, higgeldy-piggeldy layouts, and Victorians. Rather than resolve the tension, we designate large fractions of our city ontologically confused, simultaneously protected and illegal; sanctified and condemned.

I'm interested in "trapped buildings": those that couldn't be built today (because of zoning and code changes) but also can't be substantially modified or demolished (because of historic protection rules). One of those phenomena that really makes one wonder what exactly we're trying to do. Has anyone ever estimated what fraction of buildings in major cities fall into this category? When I asked Claude about San Francisco, it concluded: "If forced to give a single number with a single confidence rating: roughly 100,000 buildings — about two-thirds of San Francisco's physical structures — sit in the trap as a practical matter. Confidence: moderate. The number could be 70,000 or 130,000 depending on how strictly you operationalize "can't be substantially modified.""

@nanransohoff can i buy the rooster one please?

Get you a sister who casually drops stunning paintings she's working on in your family text thread. A few of my recent favorites (oil on canvas). More: sarahransohoff.com

Living Carbon has not only figured out incredible technology, it has also cracked how to finance & scale it! That second bit can be just as challenging & important as the first. You are an inspiration, Maddie!

The one month countdown to @EdgeEsmeralda 2026 has started. Here's a small taste of what life in the village looks like ↓

Congestion pricing works.

I love this description of barbed wire by 19th century pioneer salesman John Gates: "Light as air. Stronger than whisky. Cheaper than dust."

Planting tall street trees is a much more cost-effective way to enhance neighbourhood amenity than preserving unremarkable old houses. Yet our planning system only does the latter. Systemic failure.

The biggest issue facing young adults today? Housing & lack of community. The picket fences and idealistic social towns of the boomers are but a fever dream of the past. Having a garden AND room for 2.4 kids? You best hope you joined Anthropic in 2023. This is a failure of a half century of bungled policy holding back the original ultimate human technology. Cities. @devonzuegel thinks there is no reason the next great American city can’t be oriented to both families and founders, and she's hard at work 90 minutes north of SF proving it. For Episode 9 of Forecast 2050, I sat down with Devon of @esmeralda_inst to talk about harnessing urban planning as a powerful technological force for good, age-segregation in America and the impending population crisis, and why we need more incredible cities popping up across the country over the next 25 years. We discuss: - The American college system drives age-segregation and breaks up families. - How self-driving cars will transform cities by 2050. - The widening gulf between the physical and the digital, as it becomes increasingly harder to build in the real world and easier to do things in the digital one. - Why we need an alternative to the suburbs. - Chautauqua, the town once home to Thomas Edison’s family, as the inspiration behind the family-oriented builder community Devon is building with Esmeralda. youtu.be/_23ErA8FQz8