In 1980, Pittsburgh was a steel town in the middle of a catastrophe.
The mills were closing. Not slowing down, closing. Tens of thousands of jobs vanished in a few years. Entire river valleys that had run on steel for a century went quiet.
People left. The population fell by nearly half from its peak. Young people graduated and moved away, because there was nothing to stay for.
Today that same city is one of the most important robotics centers in the world.
Self-driving vehicle research. Warehouse automation. Surgical robots. Machines built for mines, disaster sites, and other planets.
How does a city do that? How do you lose your entire reason for existing and build a new one?
The answer is not what economic development brochures claim, and it is genuinely useful.
Let us walk through it.