Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 709

The construction process can be a pain in the ass. It's messy. It's inefficient. It's always filled with surprises. And you could argue, as many have before , that every job is really a custom job -- a kind of prototype. But at the same time, there is something so deeply satisfying about seeing a building come to life. Part of that satisfaction no doubt comes from the fact that it usually takes years and years to get to the point in which you're digging holes, pouring concrete, and framing out spaces. It's almost as if we don't want things to get built. It's a feeling of "finally." But perhaps the bigger part of this satisfaction stems from the fact that building is creating and making something new. It's about imagining what something could be and then going out and doing everything you can to make that a reality. Some people won't like what you're trying to build. But they might when it's finished. And it is almost certainly not going to be an easy process. But it's a fulfilling one. Few things are as rewarding as creating and making something new.

Tech:NYC has just launched a new podcast called Talk:NYC . The first episode is with venture capitalist and blogger Fred Wilson . (Though, it should be noted that Fred and his wife, Joanne, are also involved in the real estate development space.) In this episode, Julie Samuels and Fred Wilson talk about why he came to New York, how to manage through a downturn, where working spaces are going, and why the magic of New York is still there -- among a bunch of other things. Click here if you can't see the embedded podcast below.

https://soundcloud.com/user-212806065/talknycep01fredwilson

Social media, as we all know, isn't all that real. Photos are cropped, edited, and distorted all the time. But that's kind of how things work these days and it's not just on social media. Back in 2014, it was revealed that about 75% of Ikea's catalogues were made up of computer generated images . It's simply a lot faster to do that than stage a bunch of spaces for photoshoots. Fast forward six years and Ikea is now taking it a step further by integrating "digital influencers" into their ads . Here's what that looks like:

https://youtu.be/6oZDUjqmUDU

This particular campaign was done to promote a new store in Tokyo's Harajuku district. And it features a popular digital influencer known as Imma . This is my first foray into the world of digital influencers, but Imma is apparently popular enough to have some 265,000 followers on Instagram. What I have just learned is that a real human is first photographed and filmed for all of this content. Imma's digital head is then transplanted onto said content. That's how these digital influencers are created.

It all feels very Japanese to me. It also feels a bit like the starting premise of a great Black Mirror episode. But on the other hand, is it really all that different from the highly doctored content that already graces the internet?