Reveal the invisible power that guides your life.
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Editor’s note: Reading, working, settling, choosing a spouse … A person’s life will always face some key intersections. Should I go left or right? Your decision will often have a decisive impact on the rest of your life. You thought that those choices were determined by your free will, but in fact there is a dark force that can greatly affect your decision. Only by correctly understanding the power of this power can you make the choice that suits you best. NFX’s managing partner James Currier used a long article to analyze the impact of network effects on life choices and guiding principles. I believe that you will have a new perspective on life choices. The original article was published on NFX under the title: Your Life is Driven by Network Effects. In view of the length, we are publishing in five parts, this is the fifth part.
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Use network effects Seven decisions that guide lifeChoice, let you live the life you want (four)
Crossroad # 6——Where to live
Where do I live?
You don’t even realize where you live will greatly affect your relationships and life direction. After graduating from college, this impact on your life is even more important than your job choices.
As mentioned earlier, geography is close to the formation of a predictable network. From a network perspective, a city is like an enlarged university. Network density, frequency, similarity, and status accumulation all contribute to the formation of urban networks. Cities do a great job helping us form networks, because cities are networks, both physical and social networks.
Where you live largely determines who you know. Who you know to a large extent determines how colorful your life is, and your chances of getting wealth and information. Your network is a wealth. It will bring you friends, career opportunities or spouses.
Working hard in one place, developing a network of relationships can increase your access to all the experiences and resources you want.
As well-known venture capitalist Saar Gur (a partner of CRV, an investor in well-known companies such as Doordash, Classpass, Patreon, Bird, etc.) said to me recently: “I do it in the San Francisco Bay Area after graduating from business school The most influential decision. Everything else is noise. “
This is definitely one of my life recommendations. Choose your city first. It all happened. Your job, spouse, friends, income and other opportunities all come from this core choice. why? The power of the network.
It’s important to note that the cities you “choose” can be greatly influenced by the networks you accumulated early. Keep this in mind, and take the “big move” sociologists call it, if you think it makes sense. (Hint: most likely).
It’s very difficult to make such a decision by moving from the past and moving to a place that can help you live your best life. Network power will make youKeep on the existing track. This network needs your help. Your boyfriend, parents, high school friends, college friends, usual ballmates, roommates, and your comfortable work.
This is true for those of us who are lucky enough to have many resources; it is also true for those who have much less resources. Malcolm Gladwell reported in an article in The New Yorker that sociologist Corina Graif’s study of low-end groups in the socio-economic field was forced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina “Move to” emerging cities such as Houston.
Interestingly, even though they were forced to relocate under catastrophic circumstances, it is precisely because of this move that their standard of living eventually improved significantly. It turned out to be a positive move, but if they were not forced by natural disasters, they would never take this action. As Gladwell points out, the focus is “to give them an opportunity to rethink what they do.” But more importantly, it provides them with a new network geography environment. New network power, new resources, new ideas, new jobs, and generally accepted standards.
In general, thanks to the development of the Internet and telecommunications, dependence on location-based networks is weakening because, despite geographical distances, it is now easier and easier to maintain and build networks. However, we have only been in the digital world for 25 years, and it will take 50-75 years to complete this process.
In the startup world, digital tools such as Signal and The Company Brief give everyone access to the knowledge and networking opportunities previously available only to people living in Silicon Valley.
Some people are able to use the Internet to find, build, and maintain personal networks—this is usually done around niche markets or interests like games, cars, or fashion. For most people, the Internet is simply an enhancement or overlay of the network they have established in real life. For most people who are not building networks online, geography is very important.
The basis of urban appeal is network mathematics, which also helps explain why the earth is rapidly urbanizing. In short, due to the network characteristics of a city, as the city expands, it can bring + 15% of the income to citizens in terms of income, ideas, speed and stimulus, and in roads, water, electricity, The corresponding costs for gas pipelines, gas stations and safety services are -15%. This 30% gap is huge, and it is driven by the city’s network effect.
Cities will also have higher social interaction rates, which will have a significant impact on your ongoing network topology. Larger cities mean that you have more access to network clusters than smaller cities, which makes people more diverse in talent, ideas and backgroundsSex is more abundant. It also means that meeting new people will be easier, but building strong relationships may be more difficult.
Your network is a form of wealth.
With all this in mind, when you decide where to live, ask yourself the following questions:
Do people in this city look like me? Each city has its own specific atmosphere, and that atmosphere may or may not be right for you. Every city calls on aspiring people to make improvements in certain areas. New York City calls on you to make more money. Seattle and Portland call on you to make more. Washington DC calls on you to get in touch. San Francisco calls on you to create more and invent more. Uncle Mad made a crazy invention in the garage. If you can find a city that can promote you in the way you want, then you are lucky, you should settle down, build a network with your people, and live your life. If no city can impress you, find a subnet that impresses you in a city you don’t mind.
How long do you think you can stay there? When you move, the network you built in the last place shrinks. Your network is a form of wealth, and every time you move you reset your bank account.
How important is your profession to you? Because the GDP of a city grows non-linearly with the size of the population, your professional income in a big city will grow faster than elsewhere. More importantly, in big cities, there will be greater opportunities to build professional networks and meet top talent in your industry.
How do you adapt to a fast-paced life? In big cities, everything goes faster. People walk faster, and they have more opportunities to meet new people and meet new ideas. This is the inevitable result of a larger and denser network.
How do you like or value meeting new people? If you want to expand the middle and outer layers of your network hierarchy, then cities are a good choice.
Is the core part of your network topology complete? Do you have a close relationship you can satisfy and rely on? If not, then small cities may be better for you than big cities.
Crossroads # 7-reassessment
At any time, you can choose to reassess your current route.
Since you were born, the gravity of the web has grown and will grow stronger over time. Each network will expand and integrate with other networks, a move that will change the math operations on your dashboard until it approaches your destiny. But you can also choose to ignore the network math inside,And force changes. In fact, this is easier to do for older people who have done what they ought to do (raising children, having a successful career, and earning some money). That’s why you see the emergence of a middle-aged crisis. The power of the network has been guiding people’s lives for a long time, and then no longer exerts so much pressure. At this time, talents start to think about what they are really interested in.
The most lasting and effective way to change your life is to change the people around you. Because the Internet has such a big impact on our identity and the way we work, the best way to change ourselves is to change our network.
This is a big limitation on how we look at self-development and self-transformation. We always thought that when we woke up one day, we woke up to express our determination for the New Year and we could become a new person. However, this approach ignores the definition of who you are and the biggest variable in your life-network power.
This is not to relieve our responsibility for our actions and to shirk responsibility to others, but to emphasize the fact that we are strongly constrained by the network environment. Therefore, for those who want to make a change, the smartest way to use energy is generally to carefully re-evaluate the networks we participate in and find new ones that are more suitable for the path of life we want to take method.
On the other hand, if your life is going well and you are happy, it is important to understand the importance of the Internet. Double your bet on your relationship. Treasure those people who walk into your life. Be aware of their relationships and the value of the networks you participate in.
Our network is our most valuable resource. They are a means of expressing ourselves in our lives. These networks are made up of living people, the people you care about, the people you motivate, infect, and help to live your best life.
Translator: boxi.