Is Our Town Better Because It’s Here?

Americans would rather live next to a nuclear reactor than a data center. Lead with Purpose - Ron Boire and I were chatting about data centers last week when he raised the point. We’re less inclined to live next to a facility whose worst day is a hum and a higher bill than one whose worst day is Chernobyl. I don’t think either facility is inherently bad. Obviously one makes a gigawatt and the other consumes one. But that’s not what people hate about one or like about the other. So I went looking at the whole arc — groundbreaking to retirement — for where one is genuinely better, where the other is, and where they’re essentially the same thing. --- As always, AI was used as a research partner and judgemental reader. All the ideas, words, and mistakes are mine. Say it ugly. Build it Better. --- Connections to The Insider’s Guide to Innovation at Microsoft #9 — Overcoming Cognitive InertiaA system stays as it is unless changed by an external force. Here the town is that force. Every fix in the piece is available and unused until somebody requires it. #47 — Shift LeftResponsibility costs less at inception than as an end-stage checkbox. That's the whole "yes, if": setbacks, water caps, heat off-take, and bonds are cheap before the permit and unavailable after. #74 — Innovate Upstream to Succeed DownstreamA community's leverage lives upstream of the site plan. Abilene went fast by deleting the upstream steps — pre-permitted land, on-site generation — and the neighbors found out from the dust. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit innovatingoutloud.substack.com