"At times, though, it seems as if Hsieh’s strategy is much looser and based, in part, on instincts. It raises a question: How will Hsieh know when the project has succeeded? According to Glaeser, success is a matter of longevity. “If some of the businesses fail — and they will, that’s not a sign of failure for the project. It’s capitalism for you,” he said. “Failure would be if people didn’t stay around in 15 years.” And for his part, Hsieh believes there will be people who move here and stick around for that long. “However,” he said, “our timeline is a lot more aggressive. Downtown Vegas will change dramatically for the better within five years.”

In the meantime, Hsieh is still trying to persuade the reluctant. A few days after the Bronstein dinner, he had worked out a contingency plan. With a fresh martini in hand, he laid out a formula by which a certain number of the 10,000 new residents the project intends to attract could be “commuters” — as long as they engaged in “approximately 1,000 hours per year of serendipitous encounters.”"

Not even enough time if he were running for office! 5 years? We expect change sooner. ;)

I love this vision. I think it's one of the boldest visions we've seen in the US in the past dozen years.

I'm doing the math -- 1000 hours a year of serendipitous encounters averages 20 hours a week.

Luck be a lady tonight!