Top all-time · #1144
Devon Zuegel
Personal blog · devonzuegel.com/posteconomicspolitics
Devon Zuegel's personal blog at devonzuegel.com covers economics and politics. Since 2018, 59 different Hacker News readers have linked it 79 times, most often “North American vs. Japanese zoning”. The last post was in 2024, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (25) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Devon Zuegel's posts, mainly on Japanese versus North American zoning and housing costs, plus a few on urbanism, tech and crypto.
- Recommended for · 6 comments
- Called a great thinker; her Japanese zoning post called fantastic, and a housing price post a worthwhile read.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 25 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
None
Most-linked posts?
- North American vs. Japanese zoning7 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2018-05-30
- /post/north-american-vs-japanese-zoning3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2018-12-25
- Travel photos are underrated (2019)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-06-10
- The New City in California3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-02-21
- Field Notes: Miami3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-04-21
- The Silence Is Deafening3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-07-03
- What are startup cities for? (2021)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-07-06
- Argentina's currency exchange black markets2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-09-10
- We Should Be Building Cities for People, Not Cars (2016)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-06-28
- The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling by Ted Chiang2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-01-12
What Hacker News says?
I don't really agree with the original post and I don't buy into the "purely digital world" argument. I'm excited about crypto for different reasons. But a few thoughts: > So then the question becomes, what is the value of <insert coin here>. Some will talk about energy, or efficiency. Some will talk about scarcity. Some will talk tech merits. But nobody to date has been able to convince me that it has any real valu…
Comment linking /post/inside-argentina-s-currency-exchange-black-markets
on “The Ethereum merge is done”Submitted The Silence Is Deafening as a story · 438 points
HN discussionTed Chiang explores this idea in a short story called "The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling" ( https://devonzuegel.com/post/the-truth-of-fact-the-truth-of-... ), which takes place in a world where commercial, individual, always-on recording exists. Ted Chiang also wrote the short story that the movie Arrival was based on.
Comment linking /post/the-truth-of-fact-the-truth-of-feeling-by-ted-chiang-subterranean-press
on “I record myself on audio 24x7 and use an AI to process the information”Submitted We Should Be Building Cities for People, Not Cars (2016) as a story · 380 points
HN discussionAn example is Japanese zoning [1]. Zones are layered - if you can build an apartment, you can also build a single-family home. In the US, they are all distinct - single family only or apartments only - no choice. 1 - https://devonzuegel.com/post/north-american-vs-japanese-zoni...
Comment linking /post/north-american-vs-japanese-zoning
on “Let's build houses for people, not cars”Submitted Remote work will break the US monopoly on global talent as a story · 308 points
HN discussion>but rather to everyone quietly reading comments as someone who reads a lot but doesn't comment much you've got the topshelf content here consistently, its so obvious when someone has a clue or doesn't if you're in the same areas, very easy to fool others with confident assertions (cough airline issues on HN) but for someone in the industry it's not at all funnily enough this comment about zoning which isn't your or…
Comment linking /north-american-vs-japanese-zoning
on “Does Georgism work? Five years later”Submitted Inflation propagates unevenly as a story · 245 points
HN discussion"The road to hell is paved with asphalt" saw this here on HN not long ago - https://devonzuegel.com/the-road-to-hell-is-paved-with-aspha... They mention less heat as one of the multiple benefits of pavers / bricks. I used to dislike them by default - "They're bumpy". They're not bumpy. There's a shopping center in my town, and even a new Taco Bell, that use pavers for their parking lot, and I can't even notice. We c…
Comment linking /the-road-to-hell-is-paved-with-asphalt
on “Botanical gardens can cool city air by an average of 5°C”Submitted North American vs. Japanese zoning as a story · 224 points
HN discussionSo I probably tried a vast majority of all the major notetaking solutions out there. And many of the different ways you can organize things (GTD, david allen, secretweapon, inbox zero, etc) as well as my own creative variations as well. The solution I have is that there is no gold bullet when it comes to notetaking. They all have problems. You just have to try many different methods and solutions to see what works,…
Comment linking /post/memex-my-personal-knowledge-base
on “Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?”Submitted Field notes: London, England (2018) as a story · 205 points
HN discussionYou may also appreciate: https://devonzuegel.com/post/we-should-be-building-cities-fo...
Comment linking /post/we-should-be-building-cities-for-people-not-cars
on “I'm retiring from the engineering profession”Submitted Travel photos are underrated (2019) as a story · 173 points
HN discussionTotally, but in the North America it seems like we are culturally nowhere near aligned on changing this for the better. The cultural opinion seems to be slowly improving, but it still seems like most of North America has very agrarian/suburban tendencies. P.S. Japanese zoning is fascinating [1], but not without its faults. For example, the relatively laissez-faire zoning policies can be seen as to blame for the lack…
Comment linking /post/north-american-vs-japanese-zoning
on “What a Real Train System Looks Like (2009)”Submitted Continuous urbanization in Japan as a story · 117 points
HN discussionDevon Zuegel is a great thinker in a large breath of subjects -> On Urbanism: Her podcast Order without Design [0] where she interviews the Bertaud couple Fields note on Miami [1] (with beautiful pictures) Metamuse interview on cities [2] and a lot more on her blog On tech : She was the PM for Github sponsors (and I believe other open-source friendly projects), great interview of her by the changelog [4] The Pioneer…
Comment linking /post/field-notes-miami
on “Alan Kay on the context and catalysts of personal computing”Submitted The Silence Is Deafening (2020) as a story · 116 points
HN discussionJapan has avoided much of the housing issues we have in much in the western world, and in the English-speaking world in particular. Some factors in this is that construction is much more by-right, has sensible zoning, excludes a gnarly community process and is planned centrally instead locally which in combination avoids all issues with NIMBYs and results in a good housing supply. A great article on zoning to get st…
Comment linking /north-american-vs-japanese-zoning
on “Japanese police arrest man for tampering with Pokémon Violet save data”Submitted Argentina's currency exchange black markets as a story · 99 points
HN discussion> The real issue with NIMBYs is how restrictive zoning is Yeah, zoning in the US tends to be single use, which prevents most buildings from being built in most places. I recently read a fantastic blog post on how zoning works in Japan, where uses are instead ranked by how much of a "nuisance" they are, and zones have a maximum nuisance level. Anything at or below that level can be constructed in that zone. http://de…
Comment linking /post/north-american-vs-japanese-zoning
on “San Francisco Denies Scooter Permits for Bird, Lime, Uber and Lyft”Submitted The road to hell is paved with asphalt as a story · 97 points
HN discussionThere was a fantastic post about how zoning in Japan works a couple months ago: http://devonzuegel.com/post/north-american-vs-japanese-zonin...
Comment linking /post/north-american-vs-japanese-zoning
on “San Francisco Denies Scooter Permits for Bird, Lime, Uber and Lyft”Submitted Singapore: Sovereign City as a story · 88 points
HN discussionInstead of abolishing single-family zoning completely, I would suggest adopting an approach more like the Japanese. They use "stacked" zoning for most uses, instead of the American-style single-use zoning. Their zoning is also done at a national level, instead of community level. https://devonzuegel.com/post/north-american-vs-japanese-zoni... https://cdn-images.postach.io/0bd25fcc-8ab1-40fe-8eef-bcafaa...
Comment linking /post/north-american-vs-japanese-zoning
on “Eating Jell-O with Chopsticks”Submitted Agglomeration effects might change the YIMBY calculus as a story · 61 points
HN discussionOne of the issues is that we, in the US, don't look at other successful cities or countries and consider implementing their solutions. Then in California, we don't look at other cities or states within the US who have solved similar problems. Tokyo has rational zoning rules that has lead to affordable housing in a growing metropolis. This blog post https://devonzuegel.com/post/north-american-vs-japanese-zoni... desc…
Comment linking /post/north-american-vs-japanese-zoning
on “Approaching Peak Housing Dysfunction in California”Submitted Comparison of text editing methods as a story · 53 points
HN discussionSure. But I think he's describing a massive mindset change w.r.t. zoning. Basically, something similar to the Japanese blacklisting approach (everything up to a certain use is allowed) vs. the incredibly specific North American whitelisting approach (this area can only have big box stores, vs. this one which can only have small storefronts). http://devonzuegel.com/post/north-american-vs-japanese-zonin...
Comment linking /post/north-american-vs-japanese-zoning
on “Single-family homes cover almost half of Los Angeles”Submitted Why is flaking so widespread in San Francisco? as a story · 46 points
HN discussion
