Northern Virginia YIMBYism

A homeowners group in a Northern Virginia suburb noticed that home prices in their area made their low density neighborhood obsolete. Now they're partnering with homebuilder Centex to capture the value of redeveloping the area:

Poplar Terrace, a Vienna area enclave of 70 houses with big yards and towering trees, looks like a pleasant place to live. But to Pete Young and most of his neighbors, there is much more to this subdivision they call home:

The potential for millions in profits.

In a reflection of Washington's surging home prices and the allure of cashing in, Young and nearly all his neighbors have banded together to form a real estate collective that proposes to raze their 40-acre community and realize above-market profits from its redevelopment as a cluster of more than 1,000 condominiums and townhouses.

Adam "Invisible Hand" Smith and Karl "Damn the Bourgeoisie" Marx could each find things to like in this communitarian-capitalist "real estate collective." Viva la revolucion!

To Don't Lists

Time Card
Originally uploaded by TheGoogly.

Appointments and to-do lists rule our lives. Management guru Tom Peters thinks a to-don't list is just as important. From his "60 Tom's TIB," (This I Believe) available for download as a PDF (Via BoingBoing and Brianstorms.) :

There's a crucial variation on this theme. I once watched a highly energetic chief ripped asunder by a senior member of his board. “Richard,” the determined board member almost shouted, “you are smart, energetic, creative to a fault, perhaps even a genius. But much of your 'genius' is dissipated because you apply it to ten different things at a time, albeit with great skill.

“Let me tell you what you need,” he concluded. “A 'to don't' list.”

I don't know about “Richard,” but for me that was a profound moment. Fact No. 1: We all have 50 genuine priorities. Fact No. 2: If we get even two Big Things Done in a six-year tenure on the current job, we will have had a...Great Ride. Axiom No. 1: Therefore, what we choose not to do (the sole subject of that “To Don't” list) is at least as important, or more important, as what we choose to do.

And, finally, effective “To Don't-ing” is far, far more difficult than effective “To Do-ing.”

I think the story about people only using 10% of your brain is incorrect. More likely it's that 90% of your brain is distracted 99% of the time. Geniuses of the world, FOCUS!