In Praise of Friction
at Epic Entrepreneur House in San Diego, aspiring startup moguls can strip down to their core assets, generate a little sweat equity, and, finally, focus. At Epic, you see, nearly all distractions (, in productivity hackers’ parlance) have been removed. There’s no commute, because this is their home. The living room has standing desks; dry-erase boards line the walls from the kitchen to the family room. Friends come to them, lured by prearranged social events; an in-house chef prepares all meals. At. It’s enough to make you wonder: If the founders of yore—Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, say—had started their companies here instead of in some stupid garage, what might they have achieved?
