"Use unique structural advantages to build what others cannot Vancouver's zoning laws restrict over half the city's land to single-family homes and impose rules that prevent dense construction — but those laws do not apply on Squamish Nation territory. Recognizing this, Wilson Williams and the council concluded: "We can do different things, build higher, build differently, not abiding by the same bylaws and stuff." Where others saw a constrained city, they saw an unconstrained opportunity. The lesson is to identify the asymmetric structural advantages available to you — legal, geographic, or institutional — and build your strategy around those rather than defaulting to what everyone else is doing. Source: Wilson Williams, Planet Money, The Squamish Nation's Economic Experiment"