Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 1201

Using anonymized credit and debit card data from over 54 million Chase customers across the US, City Observatory recently published a chart showing the percentage of retail sales that goes to “small businesses” in 15 US cities.

This is based on proprietary data (2015) from JPMorgan Chase and is surely not perfect. But it’s still an interesting approximation.

At the top of the list is New York with 36% of all retail sales going to small businesses. And at the bottom of the list – keep in mind that this list only has 15 cities – is Columbus with 23% of retail sales.

One of the overarching findings was that urban centers tend to see 10-15% more retail sales going to small and medium sized businesses compared to the suburbs.

Intuitively, this makes sense to me. Space is a precious commodity in urban centers and that may naturally privilege the small operator. There’s also the question of consumer preference among urbanites.

If you’re interested, you can download the full report from JPMorgan Chase, here .

I came across this tweet last night before bed:

Some pics of my home the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station #11monthsInAntarctica #auroras #milkyway #stars pic.twitter.com/f12tclwoGz

— Dr. C. Corbett Moran (@corbett) May 13, 2016

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I am late to the party on this one, but Dr. Christine Corbett Moran has been living in the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station since January 2016. She is “wintering” with the South Pole Telescope and studying Cosmic Microwave Background radiation with the University of Chicago.

I don’t profess to be a student of CMB, but I am so intrigued by her settlement situation. She is living in a place where there is effectively one long day and one long night. There’s sun for 6 months and then no sun for 6 months. 

I’m not sure how I would feel living in such a remote place with no sun for half of the year. I’m thinking about it now and it’s making me a bit anxious. I’m not sure if the remoteness would make me feel liberated or trapped.

Thankfully, Christine has a newsletter where she shares her experience in the South Pole. I signed up for it last night and I’m looking forward to seeing what she publishes. If you’d also like to give it a go, you can sign up here .

I am still a young guy, but already I find people of my vintage starting to hate on some of the things that even younger people are into.

I hear people say that they’re not into Snapchat because it’s for teenagers. What’s the point?

I hear people say that they don’t get why anyone would want to rent an urban shoebox. It’s so small. Do you have to hang from the ceiling like a bat when you sleep?

I hear people say that they don’t get how that new app will ever make money and turn into a business. It’s just a toy.

It’s so easy to fall into this mentality, where you think that you’re right and everyone else is wrong. But it can be toxic.

Because what is crazy and fringe today could very well become mainstream tomorrow. And the earlier you can recognize that shift, the easier it is to stay ahead of the curve in business and in life.

I’m not suggesting that we all try and predict the future. Instead I am suggesting that we all try and remain as open as we can so we recognize the shifts earlier.

I think there can be a natural tendency to close up over time – unless you deliberately fight it. We start to believe that there’s a certain way that things should be done. We get busy and don’t want to reinvent the wheel. I find myself falling into that trap sometimes and then I try and fight it. This must be why Steve Jobs told us to “stay foolish.”

In an information and attention economy where the best new ideas win, it pays to keep an open mind.

(This post was written on my phone which is why it’s void of links.)