Everything in this map hangs off one spine: the stages of a human life. Frictions belong to a phase; solutions belong to frictions; companies belong to solutions.
Phases
Infancy
Birth to about two. Total dependence; every friction is felt by the parent on the infant's behalf.
Childhood
Learning, play, and protected dependence. The child begins to feel some frictions directly; the parent still pays for all of them.
Adolescence
Identity, status, and separation from parents. The first phase where the person feels most frictions directly, while someone else still pays.
Early adulthood
Training, first work, first independence. The person now pays for their own frictions with money they do not yet have.
Household formation
~22 to ~35. Pairing, moving in, merging two lives into one economic unit, acquiring a first home, preparing for children.
Parenthood
Raising dependent children. Inherits most of household formation's tree and adds a third person who cannot pay for anything.
Midlife
Peak earning, peak obligation, and the first reckonings with the body and the clock.
Late career
Winding down work, children leaving, parents failing, and the arithmetic of the exit.
Retirement
Living off what was accumulated, in a body that is slowing and a social world that is thinning.
Decline
Loss of capacity and growing dependence. The frictions of infancy return, felt now by the person and paid for by the family.
Death
Ending, and what is left behind. Most frictions are now felt by the survivors; the industries exist for them.
Across every phase
Frictions that do not belong to one phase: the body, the weather, the state, money, crime, meaning, and the daily upkeep of a life. Filed once, felt a
Human constants
A human invariant. Ten of them, unchanged across eras and cultures. Constants are not markets; they are the raw material every market is made from.
Hunger
The body must be fed, every day, forever.
Shelter
Protection from weather, a place to sleep, a place to keep things.
Safety
Avoidance of injury, loss, and predation.
Belonging
Being attached to, and accepted by, other people.
Status
Standing relative to others; being seen and ranked.
Reproduction
The drive to pair, to have and raise children.
Mortality
Everyone dies, and knows it.
Scarce time
Only so many hours; attention and effort are finite.
Scarce resources
Money, land, materials, energy are never enough for all wants.
Uncertainty
The future and other people cannot be fully known or trusted.
Enablers
Law, technology, infrastructure or knowledge that solutions require but which relieves no human friction on its own. Property law does not house anyone; it makes housing finance possible.
Property law and title records
Enforceable
Banking system
Institutions that take deposits and make loans.
Credit bureaus
Shared repositories of repayment history.
Securitisation law
Legal machinery for pooling loans into tradeable securities.
Ratings agencies
Third parties who grade the bundles.
Marriage and family law
The state's definition of the pair and its rights.
Actuarial science
Pricing risk across populations.
Insurance regulation
Guarantees insurers can actually pay.
Smartphones and internet
Ubiquitous
Road network
Public infrastructure for private vehicles.
Shared listing data (MLS)
Cooperative database of properties for sale.
Building codes
Standards a dwelling can be inspected against.
Probate and inheritance law
Rules for transferring assets at death.
Banking data APIs
Apps can read transactions from accounts.
Financial regulator
An authority able to impose and police capital and conduct rules.
Reproductive medicine
IVF
Pediatric medicine
Medicine specialised for children.
Hospital system
Institutions that deliver acute and surgical care.
Medical science
Diagnostic and therapeutic knowledge.
Geriatric medicine
Medicine specialised for the old.
Vaccine science
Immunisation as a technology.
Public health authority
The state's power to set health rules for populations.
Healthcare licensing and regulation
Rules for who may deliver care and how.
Pharmaceutical industry
Discovery
Patent law
Time-limited monopolies on inventions.
Mental health professions
Licensed therapists
Transplant medicine
Moving organs between bodies.
Road safety regulation
Licensing
Civil registry
The state's record of births
Municipal government
Local provision of parks
Family courts
Courts that decide custody
Labour law
Rules on leave
Employment and discrimination law
Rules on hiring
Tax code
What is taxed
Retirement tax law
Tax-advantaged saving and forced withdrawal rules.
Pension law
Rules governing employer pension promises.
Social security system
State-run old-age
Student loan law
Government-backed education lending and repayment rules.
Elder law
Powers of attorney
Corporate law
Entities that can own
Capital markets
Exchanges and funds that let households own the economy.
Card payment networks
Rails for revolving consumer credit.
Public school system
Compulsory
University system
Accredited institutions that grant degrees.
Testing organisations
Bodies that design and administer standardised tests.
Childcare licensing
Rules for who may care for children for pay.
Consumer product safety regulation
Standards and age rules for products.
Food safety regulator
Standards
Packaged food manufacturing
Industrial production of shelf-stable food.
Cold-chain logistics
Refrigerated storage and delivery.
Nonwoven and absorbent manufacturing
The material base for diapers and hygiene products.
Textile and apparel manufacturing
Global production of cheap clothing.
Plastics manufacturing
Cheap
Sports governing bodies
Rules
Media distribution
Broadcast
Advertising industry
Manufactures wants and attaches them to products.
Gig labour platforms
On-demand labour without employment.
Caregiver labour market
The workforce that does paid personal care.
Telecom network
Always-on connectivity for devices.
Funeral and disposition regulation
Rules for handling and disposing of bodies.
Cremation technology
Industrial furnaces for disposition.
Medical aid-in-dying law
Where and how assisted death is legal.
Electricity generation and grid
Power for every home
Oil
The hydrocarbon base of transport
Cloud computing and data centres
Rented compute and storage that every app runs on.
AI models and inference
Large models as a utility; the newest general-purpose technology.
Semiconductor manufacturing
Chips
Cybersecurity
Identity
Logistics and delivery networks
Warehouses
Mining and critical materials
Copper
Automotive manufacturing
The supply chain behind the car.
Construction and homebuilding
The labour and materials that produce dwellings.
Satellites and positioning
GPS and satellite broadband; the invisible layer under maps
Defence industrial base
The state's purchase of security; a sector that relieves no life-phase friction directly and shapes all of them.
Water infrastructure
Supply