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“If the environment is controlled, behavior is controlled.”
B. F. Skinner
I paid two to three times what the same condo cost outside the city.
It was the tail end of a 3-year mini-retirement. I spent that time reading, biking and training jiu jitsu. By 2020 the money was running low. Either make money or go back to work for someone else.
Cheap condos sat further out. Instead I got a condo on the Atlanta BeltLine, a trail that connects neighborhoods across town.
The location made it easy to access groceries, meeting spaces and co-working offices. Some of my mastermind members lived along the same path.
I spent several hours a day biking the loop, listening to podcasts and researching Trends.vc Reports.
When Wilbur Wright set out to solve flight, he started with geography. In May 1900, he wrote to the US Weather Bureau and asked for wind records. Back came two issues of the Monthly Weather Review, listing average speeds at stations across the country.
He wanted steady wind and soft sand. Cities like Chicago had higher average speeds, but tall buildings created turbulent gusts and hard ground offered no forgiveness for crashes. He skipped the top five and picked Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, an isolated strip of dunes on the coast.
The next autumn Wilbur was gliding up to 400 feet down the dunes four miles south.
He found the environment that let him fly before he built a flyer.
Years later I booked a place in Mexico City with one window that faced a wall. The room felt smaller each day I stayed.
My output there dropped to near zero.
A new environment can break habits when discipline is not enough.
In 1971 the White House asked the psychiatric epidemiologist Lee Robins to follow 943 Army enlisted men home from Vietnam.
About 20% of them were addicted to narcotics while they were there. Within a year of landing back in the States, only 5% were still addicted.
In Vietnam the heroin was cheap, close to pure and smoked. At home it was costly, weak and came with a needle.
Relying on discipline means fighting the same battle tomorrow.
The right environment removes the fight.
Now I check four things before I choose where to live.
- A balcony or a patio
- A window that looks outside
- A separate bedroom, so sleep and work stay apart
- Groceries, coffee and a gym within a five-minute walk
You shape your environment. Then it shapes you.
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What one-time change would save you effort each day?
