What makes a city work? According to Chris Choa, it has very little to do with the buildings. In this episode, Anant Sharma speaks with Chris Choa, Founder of OUTCOMIST, about the behavioural logic that shapes how cities attract people, evolve identity, and create lasting value.
Drawing on decades of work advising mayors, sovereign wealth funds, and developers across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, Chris shares how he approaches urban systems, working backwards from outcomes and always asking why before what. The conversation moves from the accidental success of Silicon Roundabout to the limits of greenfield cities like Dubai, the rise of mega-city regions, and why the future of luxury might be less about products and more about what Chris calls the "life moat" — a deliberately constructed set of conditions that protects and consolidates the life you want.
This is a conversation about cities as systems, identity as infrastructure, and what it means to design for outcomes rather than objects.
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