There’s something about chilly cities and dense populations that lend themselves to progress and sophistication. Let’s take a look at how cooler weather and higher population density have helped some countries progress well and how the same principles can be applied to progress you.

Hot in the City
It may be cliché but warmer climates trigger the lazy gene in people. When it gets too hot things start to slow down and not much work gets done. There’s a certain energy involved with work and progress and it has to take long breaks when it’s hot. It’s all on a macro level, but it’s just like an individual brain on a hot day - slow and lethargic. With no real constant flow of progression in warm societies, people have to stop and rest and try to start back up again - a most inefficient way to go. Contrast this with the cold. I hate the cold, but it’s been much easier to heat things up then cool them down in the past 5000 years. We’ve had fire to heat rooms for thousands of years and outside in the cold we have coats to warm us. The best you could do to cool off up until 100 years ago was to strip down, or if you were lucky enough, go for a swim. Ever try working in a swimming pool? Some say this is how the Beach Boys fell apart. People also work best when they can focus on the task at hand. Environment plays a big role in this. Cooler, milder climates put little in the way of progress. The wind blows lightly and even the insects die in winter. Working indoors has been historically easier up until about 80 years ago. Working outdoors still is easier and more effective in cooler climates.
 

Closer to the heart
Historically, you’ve had to be next to someone to communicate with them. People work best together when they can communicate well. Even today with the internet and cell phones, physical proximity provides societies with efficiency in their endeavors. There will be a lot of useless, irrelevant, and downright negative communication, but over time, the more people communicate, the better things get. It’s not only communication of information that’s important; it’s also transactions – exchanges of energy. I use the term energy, because it’s at the core of those things we associate with transactions, namely money, services, and goods. Ultimately they are all forms of energy and they can be exchanged. As the universe dictates, all exchanges in energy over time, on a large enough scale, will result in an increase in local energy*, ie a good investment. If every transaction of money, goods, or services can be seen as an investment, over time these exchanges result in good investments for the society. The more investments a society makes, the better off it will be. And the closer the proximity, the easier it is to exchange these goods and services making it easier to invest. Societies with large distances between people have had a disadvantage in all this - like a race car with two suitcases in the trunk.

Moral of the story 
What does all this have to do with you? I didn’t forget. We see two principles here in action: 1. communication and exchanges of energy and 2. a favorable environment.
1. communication and exchanges of energy
And communication is really just exchanges of information – which could just as well be seen as a “service”.
People are social and you’ll see in the course of evolution that the size and power of our brains is largely attributed to the social aspects of being human. If we lived on our own and didn’t see other humans much, evolution would never have needed to make us so smart. Being social is elemental to being human. Want to see an increase in happiness and productivity? Be social. Get out there and talk to people. Network. Make new friends. Sometimes I know I want to talk to someone but I’m not sure what I actually want to get out of the conversation, but I know that the best thing to do is to just dive into a conversation and things will become clear either during the conversation or afterwards. If you’re stuck in life, go out and talk to people. Remember that people like positive, friendly individuals, so always try to be conscious and aware of your emotional presence in a conversation. The ultimate goal being to have a large, “highly energized” network which you interact with frequently.

2. a favorable environment
One of the tips on being effective in your homework as a student is to create a favorable environment - comfortable, but not too comfortable, quiet, free of distractions, etc. I’d like to make a generalization about the perfect environment to live in, but I think it’s best to see what your personality requires. Again, no need to get it perfect right away, just try to develop an awareness of your surroundings and if your environment is facilitating you in what you are trying to do or holding you back. Do you need external pressure, quiet, variation in your environment, positive people, no people, Mozart in the background, etc. Take 10 minutes to jot down what the best environment would be like and you’re already way better off than you were when you started.

* Ok, ok, energy is not increasing, but our ability to dissipate it is increasing. The basic principle of the universe is that energy is dissipating, so investing is not so much as increasing the level of energy of an entity, but increasing its ability to dissipate energy. Bill Gates has lots of money and therefore has a lot of options for dissipating energy. Yes, he has more energy (money) now than he did when he was 20, but what really increased was his ability to dissipate energy.

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