Hi, I’m Joel.

I love to learn, experiment, read, ride my bike, among other things. But most of all I love to build. I love building neighborhoods, incentive structures, technologies, and of course essays (that’s what this blog is for!)

I don’t subscribe to the idea that one has to choose between being a writer or practitioner. I stubbornly believe writing is the perfect complement to building and that pairing the two makes one more successful at each.

So that’s why I started this newsletter: not only to share what I’m learning about, but to reflect on the process of building useful things with that knowledge. I will share what goes well, what doesn’t, and anything else I can think of. I will share some fully-baked and some not-so-baked thoughts. (If I’m being honest, probably a lot more of the latter) Occasionally I will get really into a new idea and explore it over several posts. I am committing the cardinal sin of social media: I am not telling you exactly what value you’ll be getting from me. It will just be me.

As will be apparent, I am not a professional writer. This is not my job. I’m just a guy working on stuff he finds fascinating and who wants to share my interest and work with others. Thanks for joining along 😊

Joel

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Joel Anderson
Joel is a walkable neighborhood builder based in Florence, Alabama. His main interest is how Startup Cities unlock experimentation with completely new physical and socioeconomic forms in cities