The Transition is the Hard Part

Densifying a city is like growing a beard

It’s acceptable to look baby-faced, and it’s acceptable to have a beard. But it’s not acceptable to look unshaven. So how do you get to having a beard?

I thought of this question years ago, probably in college, when I was thinking about professionalism. (I suppose the answer is you grow a beard on vacation?) But I’ve thought of it as an analogy for how the uncanny transition between two states is the thing that people are often objecting to, rather than the final state. Construction is growing a beard. Densifying a city is growing a beard.