#58 | Climate Summit is Back, Drawing Guy, Lisbon, Psychedelics, Speculative Climate Fiction

ABen’s irregular newsletter mixes work and play. Unsubscribe at the bottom / Sign up here Find me: Twitter - LinkedIn - Medium - Website - Podcast

Quite a busy Summer it turns out. (Note: if you don’t want to miss this newsletter, click ‘not a promotion’ in gmail if it goes to that tab)

MENU

1. WORK: Climate Summit: Great Speakers!
2. EXPERIENCES: Travel, Drawing, Lisbon
3. CULTURE: Burr, Psychedelics, Louie, Speculative Fiction
4. THOUGHTS: Mannequin, Covid Life

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1. WORK

Back on the Road

Helsinki for Arctic15, then London Tech Week and a trip to NYC. It was nice to catch up in person and meet new people, and to get back home! (in Lisbon these days)

Climate Tech Summit: Great Speakers Coming!

We announced the first speakers for the SOSV Climate Tech Summit on October 25-26, 2022 (trailer). It will include the founders of five unicorns, as well as Neal Stephenson, author of Snow Crash but more importantly Termination Shock (the climate fiction novel I talked about in a previous letter). More great ones to come!

As a reminder, it’s virtual and FREE to support the ecosystem. Over 1,500 participants are already registered (we aim for 5,000+). You can RSVP and invite contacts easily via LinkedIn here (apply filters for an easier selection).

2. EXPERIENCES

Travel Routine

My routine when traveling for work these days is to stop by a museum, see a comedy show — often more for the local cultural input than the laughs — and to train at a local jiu-jitsu gym.

I couldn’t do it in Helsinki, but managed to see comedy in London and NYC, and train in NYC (once at a ‘home gym’, and twice at Clockwork Jiu-Jitsu, which was very welcoming).

London’s comedy show was an open mic. Some audience members were also given colorful dildos to wave comedians off stage. A jury provided feedback, which added an interesting layer of ‘shop talk’ and audience involvement.

In NYC, I picked a random club near my hotel. $30 cover + two drinks and comics were pretty average compared to my usual Comedy Cellar. I also felt some disconnect in the themes as comics were telling gen-X jokes to a mostly millennial and gen-Z crowd.

Subway Drawing Guy

This NYC artist draws subway passengers in what looks like a minute (he has 26.7M followers on TikTok). Every commenter was in awe but I found a few things suspicious in the framing and editing of his videos, so I decided to test my hypothesis. Here is the result of my experiment.

Lisbon

The coastal city has been trending. Here are a few recommendations if you visit: (1) Check some Miradouro (viewpoints) (2) Berardo Collection Museum (3) Surf lesson in Caparica (don’t forget sun cream). For longer stays, there is also an emerging group connecting Lisbon and the Bay Area called Redbridge, hosting monthly events.

3. CULTURE

COMEDY

Bill Burr: Live at Red Rocks***
It’s not his best but still a very enjoyable performance from the perennial temper man.

Joel Kim Booster: PsychoSexual***
It was a shot in the dark as I had never heard of him, but this Asian gay comic had a great presence, interesting ideas, and I think a long career ahead of him. You can see him on Conan and Colbert.

Jimmy Carr**
Not exactly my style of standup — I prefer Anthony Jeselnik for dark humor — and I’m not a huge fan of one-liners, but it was pretty good. I bought his book Before & Laughter and it had some interesting ideas.

MOVIES

John Wick**
Not exactly a new movie, but new to me! Keanu Reeves is 57 (Tom Cruise is 60). He was 49 when he acted in the first John Wick movie in 2014. Keanu Reeves trained for a few months then intermittently under Rigan Machado for the past decade. I have to admit the fight scenes are pretty slick, especially as they make good use of jiu-jitsu and judo. While it’s still action for show, this analysis gives it a high mark.

DOCUMENTARIES

How to Change Your Mind*** (Netflix)
With Michael Pollan, based on his book on psychedelics. The series reviews the origins, research, uses and current state of several of them. I had read Albert Hoffman and Aldous Huxley’s books, and watched the Other Worlds and The Spirit Molecule documentaries, but there were many things I did not know.

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster*** (Netflix)
A friend recommended this documentary, which turned out to be totally different from what I expected. It’s a movie about the band’s group therapy, as they struggle to produce a new album and keep the band together. They overcome grudges, addiction, and the departure of their bass player. Note: they were playing in Lisbon this month, and Iron Maiden is coming on July 31.

Into the Inferno** (Netflix)
Werner Herzog is one of those filmmakers that I don’t get tired of, thanks to his never ending curiosity about the world. Even from the edge of an active volcano, his narration also has a soothing quality. He just released a sequel focused on two French volcanologists.

Elon Musk: The Real Life Iron Man (Netflix)*
I did not find much original material there.

SHOWS

Better Call Saul*** (Netflix)
The show with the most streetwise lawyer in Albuquerque is back. I continue to think it is better than Breaking Bad despite being an offshoot prequel. It’s nominated for a bunch of Emmys.

Louie***
Louis CK bought back the rights to his TV show Louie and is selling it as a bundle for $30 on his website (you can stream it for 5 years). I bought it and enjoyed watching the whole thing, including some episodes I had never seen. Here is also a link to 15 comedians who got in trouble for jokes.

Stranger Things Season 4** (Netflix)
It’s been a long time coming and was noticeably better than Season 2 and 3. It’s hard to keep it fresh when the formula is always ‘monster comes, then superpower girl kills it’. The last episode was pretty good.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4** (Prime)
The scandalous fictional female comic contemporary of Lenny Bruce is back. I don’t recall a lot of new things in this season but the acting and photography are pretty good.

Giri / Haji**
You can probably live without watching this Japanese police / yakuza drama, but it was interesting for me to catch up with the angry Yosuke Kubozuka who played a zainichi in GO, a movie I liked a lot two decades ago (his co-star then was Ko Shibasaki, who acted in Battle Royale).

BOOKS

The Ministry for the Future***
In my ‘climate fiction’ series after Neal Stephenson’s Termination Shock (which was an easier read), it took me a while to finish Kim Stanley Robinson’s opus (it’s 576 pages but felt longer than Stephenson’s 700 pages novel). It touches upon many interesting topics, including the politics of climate action and various forms of geoengineering (still mostly taboo, while nuclear has re-entered the Overton window).

The Unvisible**
My friend Fredrik Haren, who made a name for himself as a professional author and speaker about creativity, innovation and change, published his first novel. The core idea is pretty original as well as the structure of the book alternating views from both worlds. Could un-visible people live among us? How many strange events would it explain? I loved Wim Wenders Wings of Desire and found some echoes there too (though the Unvisible are no angels).

Another Now**
Written by Yanis Varoufakis, mostly known as the former finance minister of Greece during the financial crisis. He wasn’t too happy with the betrayal of the Greek vote and the bail-out plan (note: Greece’s minimum wage is now at 663 euros, and unemployment is among the highest in Europe around 17% - almost 3 times Portugal’s). I liked a lot his other work detailing the politics leading to the bail out, called Adults in the Room. This book is a kind of alternate reality economic fiction, where a parallel world lives in a “democratic post-capitalism, post-techno-feudalism system”. The write style is not enchanting but the truly interesting question is: could it happen? Azeem Azhar interviewed him on his Exponential podcast.

VIDEOS

Lego Submarine****
This guy builds various things with Lego, and his latest submarine iteration is amazing. The depth control is very ingenious and precise.

PODCASTS

Sam Harris & Morgan Housel***
If you haven’t read The Psychology of Money (which I highly recommend), you can start with the excellent interview of its author here.

4. THOUGHTS

Mannequin

There is some kind of mystique around artists, including the ‘old masters’. Yet, if you consider a portrait, most of the subject is fabric with a bit of face and hands. Tricks of the trade are not the same in the tik-tok era but some masters relied on mannequins (like here, here and here) to complement posing time.

Covid Life

It seems like we’re getting a bit of a break this Summer in terms of severity of infections, and most non-sensical policies have been put at rest. I have lost track of the latest variant. Just for fun, here is a publication discussing the bacterial and fungal presence on masks. What I took away: don’t eat natto, but I already knew that ;)

Enjoy the Summer!
— Ben

#57 | Climate Tech, Language Learning, Comedy, BJJ by Ear, Stonks & more

Ben’s irregular newsletter mixes work and play. Unsubscribe at the bottom / Sign up here Find me: Twitter - LinkedIn - Medium - Website - Podcast

Year 2 A.C. — Year 2 After Covid (soon 3 since it’s Covid-19 but who’s counting?). If you’ve never caught it, I hope you don’t feel left out.

MENU

1. WORK: Climate Tech 100 and Climate Summit
2. EXPERIENCES: Language Learning in 2022
3. CULTURE: Comedy, Therapy, Bad Movies
4. THOUGHTS: Playing by Ear, Stonks & more

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1. WORK

SOSV Climate Tech 100

After the SOSV Human Health 100, highlighting the top 100 portfolio companies in health tech, we updated our SOSV Climate Tech 100. The total valuation doubled in 12 months, and now includes five unicorns (including cultured meat pioneer Upside Foods, which just raised $400 million).

Climate Tech Summit

Last year we had over 4,000 RSVPs to hear Bill Gates, Vinod Khosla, multiple climate unicorn founders and many other inspiring investors and entrepreneurs decarbonizing our planet (videos).

This year’s summit is on October 25-26, 2022 (trailer). We’re including more content on carbon capture and how startups can navigate and help shape policies. The first speakers will be announced soon. RSVP here - it is virtual and free!

2. EXPERIENCES

Language Learning in 2022

It’s been a while since I studied a new language, but I’ve started learning Portuguese on iTalki. It’s less than $20 per hour 1:1 and quite effective, likely more so than an in-person group class. Sadly, Duolingo only offers Brazilian Portuguese so I stopped using it. After French, English, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and Mandarin Chinese I hope to know enough to get by soon!

Siri Comedy

I went to a small standup comedy show. One comic shared his previous life of ‘gay for pay’, while another suffered from cerebral palsy and, in addition to mobility issues, he could not speak! He had a creative solution to this: he relied on his iPhone’s Siri to say his lines (with a female voice of course). He had started only three weeks prior but he was pretty funny with a dry sense of humor. He even did some improv responding to the crowd, with one-handed-thumb-typing. Very impressive. I hope he sticks to it!

Smell of Elderberries

John Cleese of Monty Python fame was on tour and I decided at the last minute to give it a chance. It wasn’t quite a comedy show but rather — as titled — “Last Time to See Me Before I Die”. The first part was a commentary on some videos of his past works and life, the second was a kind of moderated audience Q&A. I probably had misplaced expectations.

3. CULTURE

Movies & Documentaries

Ricky Gervais: SuperNature*** (Netflix)
The man knows his craft. Solid writing and delivery.

Michael Che*** (Netflix)
An interesting comic I didn’t know. Two specials on Netflix.

Stand-up for Drummers*** (Netflix)
I’m not a drummer but it was a pleasant watch. When a market grows, it segments, so I suppose that’s where we’re at in the standup world! Note: they tested people’s drumming skills to get in (maybe some other shows should test their audience before entering as well). Talking about drumming, Yoyoka, the Japanese drum prodigy, turned 12 and is always a joy to watch and listen to. I’ve also come across an outstanding bass player - check it out!

Lost Illusions**
The movie adaptation of a famous Balzac novel, detailing the rise and fall of a young poet from the countryside coming to Paris in the mid-1800s. He quickly switches his focus from the beauty of poetry to writing for a kind of tabloid, gradually losing all integrity. The acting is solid, the set and photography are gorgeous, but the story itself is sad and somewhat predictable.

Germinal**
The movie adaptation of the Zola classic describing French coal mine workers in the 1860s. While well played and filmed, it also sounded like a fantasy of the working class aimed at both scaring and reassuring the middle class, picturing workers as ugly, stupid, violent and cowardly. Meanwhile, the ruling class largely keeps out of sight.

Bill Burr: Friends Who Kill (Netflix)**
Bill Burr invited some of his favorite comic friends for this special. It was a bit uneven.

Top Gun**
I quite like Tom Cruise and the airplane shots are great but the storyline felt a bit thin. Tom still got my money.

The Northman*
A viking boy grows up to avenge his family. I took a chance on this movie thinking of its distant connection with the Hamlet story. Unfortunately, despite the photogenic sets, CG, camera work and actors (including the lead from Queen’s Gambit, Ethan Hawke, cameos by Bjork playing a witch and Willem Dafoe as a jester), it really didn’t work for me. I considered leaving the theatre several times but was curious about the ending. Maybe I reached ‘peak Viking’ too early?

Shows

In Therapy****
This show (free in French) featuring a psychiatrist (or rather: psychoanalyst) and some of his patients was created in Israel and remade in various countries. France is the latest to do it, and the acting and stories are excellent. This is the second season after the succcess of the first. It addresses the core question to life: “do you want what you desire?” (and: “do you know if what you want is what you need?”). I gave a try to the US version but it had much less charm.

Drole*** (Netflix)
A nice show featuring fictional stand-up comedians trying to succeed. Created by Fanny Herrero, the screenwriter who gave us Dix Pour Cent (“10%”) chronicling the world of actors' agents (the UK remake just came out). Herrero was taking a break after the success of Dix Pour Cent and fell into the world of standup comedians, and her new show is focused on the characters and their industry. In an interview, Herrero mentioned one of the French government ministries contacted her to get advice on how to use TV-style storytelling for their political communication (she turned them down).

3%*** (Netflix)
I was looking for a show in Portuguese to study and came across this dystopian sci-fi one. The top 3% live on an island (think Singapore) while others live in a dump. There is a test for those turning 20 and only 3% are picked. I’ll rank it below Dark but the characters and acting are great, and the storyline pretty good as well.

History of Stand-up*** (podcast)
If you’re into the genre, this is an interesting exploration.

The Pentaverate* (Netflix)
Netflix has some extra money and gave it to Mike Myers (Austin Powers) who decided to make a rather obnoxious show about a nonsense cult. He saved some costs by playing a dozen characters himself. As one commenter wrote “it’s not brilliant but neither are you” (or me).

Books

Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters****
I was browsing in a museum shop when this hardcover book caught my eye and I immediately bought it. It’s a detailed investigation by the famous painter of Californian pools David Hockney into how classical masters moved from “low-resolution” to HD painting over a few centuries, likely thanks to the use of advances in optical instruments. Hockney might be wrong but this remains a fascinating and beautifully illustrated book, which also removes some of the mystery and sacredness of ‘Art’ vs. craft. A few weeks later it inspired me to use Michelangelo’s famous hands and my computer screen to trace then paint a neo-classical wrist-lock for my BJJ coach. It worked great!

4. THOUGHTS

Playing by Ear

When I try to be proactive in my Brazilian jiu-jitsu training, I think “let’s find how to avoid my most frequent problems”. I go to YouTube to look for tutorials, then I practice them during sparring. This is a decent feedback loop, but something felt amiss. Should I play a score or play by ear? Many famous musicians notably can’t read music (and were even worried about losing their creativity if they learned). It might be like learning to code only by copy-pasting from StackOverflow, not understanding the core principles behind programming. I haven’t quite figured it out yet, but I will try to ‘play by ear’ more in sparring.

Performative War

I finished reading Neal Stephenson’s Termination Shock climate fiction. In it, he describes hand-to-hand fights at the frontier between two nations, streamed online in a kind of ‘performative war’, where fighters become online celebrities. Then I heard that the show in which Ukraine’s president starred was being sold worldwide, which gave me a strange feeling, as if Netflix could start a war to market a show... Meanwhile, I have both Ukrainian and Russian friends suffering.

Stonks

Back in August 2020 I was wondering why the stock market kept pushing higher, even beyond pre-Covid years despite the obvious slowdown in the global economy. I guess it caught up — painfully — with reality. Between “the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent” and “a broken clock is right twice a day”, what’s rational these days?

Meanwhile, it’s hard to find which asset class is the right one to invest in currently: cash is losing value, the stock market is unpredictable, gold is not particularly strong, real estate might go up… or down (if you believe this WSB ape). Even crypto is not moving much (I bought 1 million LUNA after the crash in the unlikely event it shoots back above micro-cents). Wait and see?

High Maintenance

The fridge’s lamp stopped working though the fridge was a few months old. As I tried to change it, I saw it wasn’t a bulb but some LEDs on a circuit board. Of course, this is not sold in retail and a technician had to come over. Making things too smart could lead us to a world where things are hard to fix. A friend of mine is the proud owner of a tiny old Fiat which has no electronics. When the great EMP will blow up all our gadgets, he will still be rolling!

Until next time,
— Ben

#56 | Fly or Fight, Licorice, Climate Fiction, Nocebo and French Cakes

Ben’s irregular newsletter mixes work and play. Unsubscribe at the bottom / Sign up here Find me: Twitter - LinkedIn - Medium - Website - Podcast

Disease, war, climate change… which other plagues await? And we’re barely in March. Here are my — much lighter — updates.

MENU

1. WORK: Health Tech List, Next Climate Summit
2. EXPERIENCES: Fly or Fight
3. CULTURE: Licorice Pizza, The House, Hip-Hop, Climate Fiction
4. COVID LIFE: Nocebo, Policies, Facilitating antibodies?
5. THOUGHTS: French Cakes, Jevons Paradox, Asymmetrical Opportunities, TED Comedy

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1. WORK

SOSV Human Health 100

Aside from climate tech investments, SOSV is also very active in health technologies and we just published the SOSV Human Health 100. Notable categories include Mental Health, Remote Diagnostics & Monitoring, Women’s Health, and many more. SOSV operates at — according to Po Bronson, GP and Managing Director of our biology program IndieBio — the “Shibuya Crossing of hardware, genetics, and frontier markets.”

Next Climate Tech Summit

Our next summit: October 25-26, 2022. You’re welcome to RSVP early and suggest speakers, topics or other ideas!

2. EXPERIENCES

After the Flight

I tried indoor skydiving and liked it better than actual skydiving. Air is blown from the ground, and an instructor guides you up and down and around. Each flight was only one minute but the sensations are quite something. If you train enough you can fly solo. They’re already in a bunch of countries.

After the Fight

I didn’t do it as a white belt, so I joined my first BJJ competition as a blue belt. A few takeaways:

• The run-up to the event was much more stressful than the actual fights, where there is no time to worry.

• I was called 30 minutes early for the first one, before I had time to warm up. Fortunately, my opponent had the same issue. Still, going from 0 to 11 in a few seconds was draining. The intensity was many times higher than usual sparring.

• Prep is physical, mental and technical. While I was quite ok physically and technically, I was not mentally prepared enough. I won the first fight but lost the second on minor things. My opponent found a way to block my game, and I think was more motivated to win...

• One friend showed up 1.5kg too heavy for his weight class. He spent 3 hours running, rope-skipping and sweating as much as he could, he also borrowed a lighter uniform, went commando, and even chewed gum to spit saliva (!). Eventually he made the cut and won his first match with a nice triangle choke (I saved myself the trouble of cutting weight for this first time).

Abyss

I don’t play much video games or board games, but tried this one, first as a board game, then online on Board Game Arena, which offers a faithful online version as a subscription alongside many other games. This strategy game is quite well balanced between skill and luck, and offers various ways to win as you build your underwater kingdom. It is also quite quick to play and the artwork is spectacular, which doesn’t hurt.

3. CULTURE

Movies & Documentaries

Licorice Pizza****
Paul Thomas Anderson is back — I loved his Magnolia and liked Punch Drunk Love and Boogie Nights. I went in not knowing anything about the movie and was very pleasantly surprised by both Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman (son of Philip Seymour Hoffman). The story is partially true, inspired by Gary Goetzman's early years. Great fun!

The House**** (Netflix)
If like me you’re into stop motion animation — which courageously uses sets and thousands of photographs to animate a world (e.g. Wallace & Gromitt, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Isle of Dogs, etc.) — you might enjoy this disturbingly delightful one. The story revolves around a house, over different time periods. Note: not suitable for young children.

The Wolf’s Call*** (Netflix)
An underwater thriller involving Russia, France and submarines. A very timely watch though the movie came out in 2019.

Promises (in French)***
A popular mayor has to decide whether to continue her political career or try a Hail Mary to fix a derelict housing project. Great acting.

The Snow Panther (in French)**
In this documentary, a wildlife photographer goes to Tibet to shoot an elusive snow panther. Mostly, he waits in silence in the cold, marveling at whatever the harsh nature throws at him. A contemplative experience.

Heart of Oak**
Can you make a feature film about a tree? Yes if you include its birds, squirrel, rodents, odd insects seen via micro-cameras, stop motion mushrooms, and some CG. Side trivia: the movie is co-directed by Michel Seydoux, a producer from a wealthy French cinema family, who tried in the 70’s to produce Dune with Alejandro Jodorowsky (before David Lynch). He ended up producing Jodo’s amazing surrealist biopic The Dance of Reality about 40 years later.

Belle**
I enjoyed the director’s previous animation movies Summer Wars (metaverse fans should watch it) and Wolf Children (it deals with a single mom of special children, it’s very good but not suitable below 10 or 12yo probably), so I got curious about his remake of the Beauty and the Beast story, in cyberspace. Despite a few emotional moments and some impressive visuals, the story and characters felt a bit underdeveloped. A brave attempt but I was hoping for more innovative ideas.

Mirai, My Little Sister**
Also from the Wolf Children director. The title translation didn’t capture the original one: Mirai also means ‘future’ in Japanese and the original title is closer to The Future Mirai (Mirai no Mirai). I watched it without knowing anything about it. It turned out to be a story about the jealousy of a little boy as a baby sister joins the family. The topic was a worthwhile exploration and the movie is pretty good.

Shows

Dopesick*** (mini-series)
This documentary on the opioid epidemic is pretty riveting. I am glad that two of SOSV’s portfolio startups work on non-opioid painkillers (one using a neuromodulation device - more details here).

Jeen-Yuhs** (Netflix mini-series)
A documentary-ish about the making of Kanye West, from his early beginnings. What I took away is that his mom had been a constant support and confidence boost, but also that Ye put in tremendous amounts of work - first in producing songs for others, then into his own tracks, but also in finding resources to shoot videos, promote his work, and more. I saw many parallels with the startup world.

The Defiant Ones*** (Netflix mini-series)
It was hip-hop documentary season for me. This other one focuses on Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine and how they built the headphone brand Beats. Again, two hard working creative types, who also grew their business acumen (‘Not sneakers, speakers!’). Beats ended up being acquired by Apple for $3.2 billion, making Dre arguably the first ‘hip-hop billionaire’. Iovine’s eye for production and collaborations was also interesting to learn about (and likely inspired Ye above).

Seven Seeds** (Netflix mini-series)
Continuing my exploration of ‘climate fiction’, this short Japanese animation series takes place in the future, after a catastrophe that lead the oceans to submerge most of the world. A few selected young people — some with unique skills — were kept frozen until the environment became suitable again. No technology in this show, which is rather about the value of cooperation.

Eden* (Netflix mini-series)
Yet another cli-fi animation series. Humans have disappeared from Earth due to a combination of environmental issues. Only robots remain, when a pod opens revealing a baby girl. Probably good for younger children but a bit boring for grown-ups.

BOOKS

Termination Shock***
Sci-fi author Neil Stephenson is famous for Snow Crash, an early cyberpunk / metaverse novel, that many might have dusted off with the recent buzz on the topic. Stephenson’s new book is a ‘climate fiction’: climate change has made the Earth less hospitable, the oceans are rising, and (SPOILER) someone might have a solution that doesn’t require a vote and might not please everyone. The author also includes a few technologies that have become widespread (cultured meat, augmented reality, etc.). An enjoyable read so far.

4. Covid Life

Note: I am not a doctor, an epidemiologist or Joe Rogan. Below are observations and interrogations that arose from information I came across or researched.

The Nocebo Effect

The opposite of the famous placebo effect: a harmless substance or treatment that has harms due to the psychological condition of the patient. Apparently many adverse reactions to Covid vaccines could be ascribed to the nocebo effect. Unfortunately, those effects are just as real!

Pick Your Policy

The policy response to Covid continues to vary enormously:

• On one end, China puts cities into full lockdown as soon as they find cases (there is still a 3 weeks mandatory quarantine to enter the country).

• On the other end, Denmark and Norway lifted most remaining measures, judging that Covid was ‘No longer a socially critical disease’.

• Sweden, who had controversially decided on a ‘no lockdown’ policy, ended up with comparable results with European countries that took more draconian measures (a higher death ratio than other Nordics, but similar to Germany, and half the US ratio).

Facilitating Antibodies?

• Israel, where most people are double vaccinated now has widespread infections. A preliminary study there with quadruple vaccinated hospital staff showed that the Pfizer was ineffective in blocking Omicron.

• Apparently it is well known that people vaccinated against Dengue get worse symptoms than first-time unvaccinated people, a phenomenon knows as antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE). It seems that the same phenomenon could be at play with Covid vaccines.

Overall, it looks like there are still many aspects of this that are not well understood…

5. THOUGHTS

How the Grinch Stole French Cakes

I watched a shocking documentary about French cake shops (in French). It said that many stores were simply getting cakes delivered from wholesalers (which had large catalogs and could even customize cakes). Less labor, better margins, but deceptive as this means that many cake shops are just resellers of products you could probably buy in the supermarket next door (they might have the same supplier!).

How is this possible? Because while a ‘Boulangerie’ has to bake their own bread and can’t sell frozen products (the fine is 300,000 euros and/or up to 2 years in jail), there is no regulation against calling a shop a ‘Patisserie’ in this situation. I was still in a bit of disbelief when, just a day later, I saw a lady welcome an unmarked delivery van at a patisserie I know. She even said a warm ‘that’s the best part of my day!’ to the guy offloading racks of cakes.

Regrets

Dan Pink wrote a new book called ‘The Power of Regrets”, which my friend B. summarized to me saying that there are 4 types of regrets:

• Foundation regrets (study more, save more…),

• Boldness regrets (crazy trip, courage, etc.),

• Moral regrets (ethics),

• Connection regrets (stay in touch, say goodbye…)

The key is to figure out if a situation matters enough to fall into an important category. And if it doesn’t, no need to fret. There is a longer interview here.

Jevons Paradox

What would happen if energy was much cheaper? One potential answer, according to the Jevons Paradox (improving the efficiency of the use of a resource leading to increased usage) is that we might just use more of it. This is the term I was looking for when looking into how better fertilizers caused the world’s population to grow even larger, instead of feeding better a smaller number. Complementing with policies might work, maybe?

Asymmetrical Opportunities

In the wake of an angel investment becoming a unicorn, I have been thinking about other types of investment opportunities. I call them asymmetrical because they have limited downside and potential high upside. For instance:

• Some startups, though the most interesting ones are often either hard to access, not obvious, high risk, or drowned in an ocean of opportunities (e.g. did you know the humble meeting booking app Calendly is now a $3B company?),

• Early crypto or NFTs

• Some stocks when Covid was first spotted outside China,

• Maybe Urkaine-related stocks today. Energy? Critical materials? Defense?

One challenge is also to time the opportunity, and stomach the potential ups and downs. I recently listened to a Tim Ferriss interview of Morgan Housel, author of The Psychology of Money, who said something that stuck with me: the drops are the fees (material or psychological) you pay for the longer term opportunity. This was quite a zen idea in the middle of the current stock market turmoil.

TED Comedy

If you combine the evolution of the Overton window (acceptable topics) and ‘Netflix specials’, it might start to feel like standup comedy shows are looking more and more like TED talks, with their social message and production value. Fortunately, it is still possible to find old school comedy in clubs — like I saw recently in Lisbon. I find those shows a great way to plug into the local culture and taboos, and I’ve now seen shows in US, Ireland, Singapore, Malaysia, China, India, Australia, France, Germany and more. I did not always laugh, I always learned something. As Jerry Seinfeld shares in this very thoughtful interview with Tim Ferriss, it is a difficult craft.

And since you read all the way to here, a little treat:

When I first saw Bill Burr, I found him loud and angry (he is), but he’s still become one of my favorites. His story about a gorilla learning sign language is magnificent (note: the gorilla is real). Burr also has several shows on Netflix. Ali Wong also has a new Netflix special with good observations and solid delivery.

On this note, see you next time!
— Ben

#55 | 2021 Recap, Japanese & French Things for 2022

Ben’s irregular newsletter mixes work and play. Unsubscribe at the bottom / Sign up here Find me: Twitter - LinkedIn - Medium - Website - Podcast

A quick recap of my main events in 2021, and the usual updates.

MENU

0. RECAP OF 2021: Summit, Unicorn, Investing, Coding, BJJ
1. WORK: Deep Tech Events, Meat the Future
2. EXPERIENCES: Blue Belt Bruises
3. CULTURE: Japanese Shows, French Stuff, and a few more things
4. THOUGHTS: Next time!

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0. RECAP OF 2021

A nice improvement over 2020, overall. A few notable things:

• Co-produced the solid SOSV Climate Tech Summit featuring Bill Gates and many more amazing entrepreneurs and investors.

• Had a first unicorn (Opentrons, a lab automation and diagnostics startup)

• Angel invested in 2 more startups (total: 18).

• Ramped up some coding knowledge (Python for automation, computer vision, NLP and some ML, mostly from Udemy).

• Received a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (more below).

1. WORK

Deep Tech Events

The Hello Tomorrow Global Summit — a top global Deep Tech conference in Paris — took place as planned despite the Omicron scare. SOSV was represented strongly including by SOSV’s founder Sean O’Sullivan, speaking on deep tech investment and climate tech.

• Sean’s talk on ‘Lessons Learned from 400 Deep Tech Investments’ is available here.

• I moderated a panel on Climate Tech with 4 investors including Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital and the newly created World Fund. It might get published later on the Hello Tomorrow youtube channel.

Meat The Future

You probably heard of ‘cultured meat’ (meat made from growing animal muscle cells). SOSV has been backing several pioneers in this space. A daring filmmaker is releasing a documentary called Meat The Future, in which she followed for over five years the rise of Upside Foods (fka Memphis Meats) and its founder, with narration from Jane Goodall and music from Moby! We held a private screening recently and had a very interesting panel discussion with the film director, the startup founder and the colleague who heads our biology program IndieBio. It is well worth a listen — history in the making! You can read Churchill’s essay ‘Fifty Years Hence’ as a complement.

“We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium.” — Churchill

2. EXPERIENCES

Blue Belt Bruises

It took about 3 years but I now have a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Covid didn’t help but as the saying goes: “a black belt is a white belt who didn’t give up”.

• After a friendly whipping to celebrate new grads (like that), the higher belts told us they won’t go easy on us anymore.

• It happened right when I was considering competing: so instead of being an experienced white belt, I would now be beginner blue belt…

• The girl who started just a year ago and trained twice a day (!) also got promoted. She had won over half a dozen tournaments before graduating. She’s about 165cm and 55kg… and a full time medical doctor.

3. CULTURE

For unexplained reasons, this edition is heavy on Japanese things.

MOVIES

Asakusa Kid*** (Netflix)
Takeshi Kitano’s movies were part of the reason I studied Japanese. In France, he is mostly known as a quirky / artsy filmmaker and actor for his movies ‘Hanabi’ and ‘The Summer of Kikujiro’. Few know that in Japan he’s mostly known as a comic and TV slapstick comedy show host. This movie is based on his biopic and centers on his early years. It starts with learning from his mentor Senzaburo Fukami, then breaking into standup (a duo form called manzai), inspired by the bold style of Lenny Bruce. I always find interesting how ideas cross borders, and I suppose many comics would find echo in Takeshi’s journey. Lots of なんでやねん (nandeyanen = nonsense!) and aggressive この野郎 (konoyaro = dumbass, etc.). Overall it was an enjoyable movie, with great performance from the two leads (I hadn’t recognized Yuya Yagira, the kid from ‘Nobody Knows’ — he was the youngest and first Japanese to be awarded as Best Actor in Cannes). It made me curious about the 2002 version.

Parallel Mothers***
They had me at ‘Almodovar’. As usual: strong female characters, beautiful photography, Penelope Cruz. I enjoyed it.

The Power of the Dog*** (Netflix)
Jane Campion directs a dark Western with Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst. Solid job. The oppressive vibe is not designed to cheer people up.

Matrix Resurrections**
I loved the first movie, but not quite as much the later ones, including this one. I quite liked the idea that Neo (spoiler!) might not be ‘the one’ (he never thought so himself, apparently), but I felt the story was a bit Disneyfied. Maybe I missed something or it’s just not for me (though ‘if you’re watching it, it’s for you’).

Clear History**
If you haven’t had enough of Larry David in Curb, here is a movie where he plays the angry and impoverished co-founder of a Tesla-like startup. Jon Hamm as the CEO foreshadows the great parts he will have in Curb about a decade later.

Don’t Look Up** (Netflix)
This movie had so many stars it looked perfect for a space-related movie. Sadly it bored me quickly and I stopped watching… then some friends said they loved it, so I went back to finish it and found it tolerable.

SHOWS

Japan Sinks: People of Hope**** (Netflix)
So now Japan is sinking. Any suggestion on how to get other countries to open their doors to 120 million refugees?

Japan Sinks 2020*** (Netflix)
This is an anime version based on the same novel. This version focuses on a family trying to survive as the country sinks. I was surprised that many characters died abruptly, and on occasion by an unusual animation style: it was indeed from Masaaki Yuasa, the director of Mind Game (an amazing experimental/surreal film that only animation could do (here is a quick primer). Note: Apparently Yuasa was impressed by Bill Plympton’s Your Face a while ago (play with sound). This might explain that.

Star Wars: Visions** to **** (Disney+)
The rabbit hole took me further into the works of Science SARU (Yuasa’s studio), who participated in this anthology of creative shorts set in the Star Wars universe (like The Animatrix, but I found this set better). My favorites are: episode 1 (with its gritty Vagabond syle), episode 6 (a blend with Astro Boy) and 8-9. I felt the others had more conventional stories and/or design.

Succession***
If you like seeing people walk up and down private jets and scream on phonecalls, this is for you. The family and business shenanigans are entertaining, the acting is great, the sets and photography are gorgeous but I eventually lost interest.

Space Force** (Netflix)
It was fun to see John Malkovich play a scientist after seeing him as Pope in The New Pope (I liked more The Young Pope with Jude Law). Steve Carell does what he does and it makes for good entertainment, but I could probably have skipped this one.

The Orbital Children (Netflix)**
I got excited when I saw that Mitsuo Iso, the director of Den-noh Coil (the best animation series about the future of AR, now also on Netflix) had a new near-future show, focused on space tourism, advanced A.I., social media, and global government (UN2.1). It had some interesting bits, a few references to Google, Elon Musk and some emerging tech but I wasn't blown away.

And Just Like That*
I had watched and mostly enjoyed Sex And The City back in the day, but I could not get past beyond the first episode of this new show. I suppose I’m not the target audience, yet I wonder who is…

THEATRE

The Golden Island**** (theatre, in French)
This show would deserve a global stage but is only in Paris (and in French). Its director Ariane Mnouchkine has been an avant-garde theatre pioneer of extraordinary creativity since the early 1960’s (she’s now 82). Her latest play does not disappoint, taking the audience to a dream-like visit of a Japanese town preparing for a theatre festival (Mnouchkine first backpacked there for months in 1963, seeing kabuki, noh, bunraku — maybe butoh too?). The entire theatre has been redesigned for the occasion, the traits of actors are blurred using tights-like covers similar to bank robbers, and they speak using a Japanese-like grammar, giving an eery atmosphere. The play is a bit of a pot-pourri of ideas as it blends with humor a lot of social commentary (including references to Xi Jinping, Hong Kong, Trump, and more). The only issue I had was its length: at about 3 hours, it was either twice too long, or half too short (if the audience could come and go).

BOOKS

Annihilate**
By French best-selling author Michel Houellebecq
Not his best, but the writing is always solid, and it is a somewhat interesting exploration of the intermingling of politics, distributed terrorism and finance, on the backdrop of the 2027 French presidential election (in this alternative reality, France's economy is booming, driven by its automotive sector and trade barriers). The story takes a left turn in its last part to focus on the declining health of a character. Overall, Houellebecq is an astute observer of society's ills. Many years ago at a conference he gave, I asked him whether he could offer some solutions too, but he said that solutions were not his strength...

4. THOUGHTS

I usually share a few more thoughts here, but I’m already late for posting this, so I’ll keep them for next time.

My best wishes for 2022!
—Ben

#54 | Climate Tech Wisdom, Lisbon, Climate Fiction, Industrial History

Ben’s irregular newsletter mixes work and play. Unsubscribe at the bottom / Sign up here Find me: Twitter - LinkedIn - Medium - Website - Podcast

The Climate Tech Summit is now behind us - it was quite a show! A shorter update.

MENU

1. WORK: Climate Tech Summit Summary, Hello Tomorrow
2. EXPERIENCES: Lisbon
3. CULTURE: French Dispatch, Japan Sinks, Ted Lasso + Graphic Novels
4. THOUGHTS: Industrial History

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1. WORK

Climate Tech Summit

It was quite a bit of work to produce an event with 60+ speakers with a high ratio of “insights per minute” (h/t Azeem Azhar) but the event I co-organized featuring Bill Gates, Vinod Khosla, Tony Fadell (iPhone & Nest inventor), Bill Gross and many more was a big success! We had over 2000 participants online and received a rating of 9 out of 10 (and over 60% NPS).

• Here are the slides (download the pdf). I also wrote a summary for Techcrunch.

• Videos are here (15-30 min each, watchable at 2x speed)

My personal favorites were:

• Bill Gross - an amazing innovator in solar and energy storage

• Tony Fadell - the iPhone and Nest inventor's outlook on climate tech

• Form Energy - low-cost, multi-day battery tech

• Amazon Climate Pledge Fund - Amazon will be an important frontrunner in decarbonization of all kinds

• Late stage VC panel - to get the big picture on fundability

• We also had Stan Chen, a sci-fi writer who just co-authored 10 well-researched stories about our A.I. future called AI 2041.

Next Event: Hello Tomorrow

I’ll be moderating a climate tech panel at the Hello Tomorrow Global Summit (the best deep tech event I know of — it’s in Paris on Dec 1-2-3). The Founder and Managing Partner of SOSV, Sean O’Sullivan, will also be speaking there in a rare appearance. If you’d like to sign up here is a 50% discount code: SOSV50 (the ‘Investor Day’ only has a few spots left).

2. EXPERIENCES

Lisbon

I went to my first WebSummit in Lisbon. The main focus is ‘digital’ so less relevant to our 'deep tech’ focus but it’s still a large and well-produced show. It was a good chance to catch up with contacts and meet new people. Lisbon itself was a pleasant surprise. Half the prices of Paris, better weather and an open and international vibe.

Aside from a few strolls, I stumbled upon an expo on Tintin’s creator, Herge (Georges Remi = RG). I learned how he started by doing ads and Tintin comic strips before deciding to develop longer stories and take his Tintin character more seriously. Herge apparently thought his drawing skills were not great, and worked hard to improve over the years. Eventually he also hired 4-5 assistants to draw backgrounds, mechanical things (cars, etc.), colors… a bit like some Japanese manga artists (read Bakuman for more on this).

In later years he dabbled in painting. Some of his works were exhibited and looked like imitations of his popular artist friends. Eventually, Herge felt he would not be able to be good at both Tintin and painting and treated the latter as a hobby.

I felt the show was a good reminder that doing is half the battle, the other half is taking one’s craft seriously.

3. CULTURE

MOVIES & SHOWS

The French Dispatch***
They had me at ‘Wes Anderson’. A succession of vignettes about life in a small fictional French town from dispatched fictional American writers, liberally inspired by famous ones. It’s not his best in terms of story and use of actors (I liked The Life Aquatic and Grand Budapest Hotel better), but the visuals are gorgeous, and it’s always nice to visit the Andersonian universe. Some of the art is from this Spanish artist.

Japan Sinks: People of Hope*** (Netflix)
A ‘climate fiction’ drama set in 2023 where rifts caused by climate change cause the country to sink. It is based on a novel from 1973 (50 years already!), which had multiple adaptations including an anime series. This drama shows the interplay of:

• Science (pitting a maverick discoverer against a ‘Dr. Zaius’ type from the establishment, who denies the risks),

• Politics (is saving the economy more important than saving lives? or one’s career?),

• Businesses (should they get privileged info?)

• Journalism (should they inform the public at all costs? what if they create a panic?).

The acting is quite good, and some of the images of Japan sinking are quite convincing CGI. It made me wonder what would be the response of other countries in comparable situations… If the response to Covid provides any clue, I’m not too optimistic for most countries.

Blue Period*** (Netflix)
In this anime adapted from a manga, a smart, handsome, but poor and aimless high-school student decides to become an artist after an aesthetic shock. He tries to learn fast, to prepare the entrance exam for Japan’s top public art school (also the cheapest). As an amateur, I found the description of the dynamics around art creation and critique interesting.

Ted Lasso***
I heard about it (indirectly) from Emma Watson who seems to be a fan. This show casts a coach of American football called to help a weak British Premier League team. This show is pretty entertaining especially thanks to the folksy and upbeat character of coach Lasso, the female club owner, and a few supporting characters. Rather than football, it deals mostly with management and personal issues.

Curb Your Enthusiasm** (season 11)
The comically antisocial Larry David and his gang are back for a new season. Not his best so far, and fairly disconnected from global issues, but his antics and life as an old rich white man remain entertaining.

Cry Macho*
An aged rodeo cow-boy goes to Mexico to retrieve his boss’s estranged teenage son. They had me at ‘Clint Eastwood’, but I have to admit I didn’t find this movie very good, a very long shot from Gran Torino or Million Dollar Baby.

GRAPHIC NOVELS

Highwayman****
A beautiful graphic novel that probably falls into the ‘climate fiction’ category as well. A man cursed with immortality gets to witness our world’s future (increasingly bleak) at different points in time.

The Initiates***
Another graphic novel, or rather graphic documentary, where a comic artist and a wine maker initiate the other to their craft. I don’t know much about wine, but I still found the story enjoyable.

A World Without End (“Un Monde Sans Fin” — in French only for now)****
A graphic lecture (does that exist as a genre?). The award-winning comic artist Christophe Blain teamed up with the most famous French energy expert, Jean-Marc Jancovici, after watching one of his lectures and suggested to make an illustrated version of it.

Jancovici has 167k subs on Youtube, over 24M views, and almost 350k followers on LinkedIn — I watched the entire 20 hours of his course on Energy, and many other talks he gave but a graphic novel is certainly a way to reach many more people. It just came out and I bought several copies as gifts. It is already sold out in some shops. I hope it gets translated soon, as it provides a very practical and well-sourced view of the challenges and solutions ahead!

With Bare Hands*** (in French)
A French graphic novel focused on Suzanne Noel, one of the world’s first plastic surgeons (and first female) during the last 19th and early 20th century. Europe’s first World War provided plenty of work, but she also worked on issues not caused by injuries. The novel mentions Hanaoka Seishū, a Japanese surgeon who mixed and improved Chinese traditional medicine and Western surgical techniques, and who was reportedly the first to perform surgery using general anesthesia.

4. THOUGHTS

Industrial History

We often look at history through the lens of rulers and wars, but rarely through industrial history.

One great example was mentioned during a panel at the Climate Tech Summit mentioned the history of fertilizers and the Haber-Bosch process for nitrogen fixation (invented in 1909) - creating ammonia from air (nitrogen and hydrogen) allowing for the production of fertilizer (and explosives).

• Without this process, the world’s population would have likely partly starved, but also stabilized at a lower level, putting less strain on global resources.

• This made me wonder whether finding new ways to produce food is actually a solution, or just kicking the problem down the road if our population keeps growing, enabled by a larger food supply.

• As a side note: before this process, guano became a popular fertilizer in the 19th century (guano is the accumulated excrement of seabirds and bats, high in nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium - NPK) and guanine, one of the four main nucleobases found in the nucleic acids DNA and RNA, was first isolated from guano in 1844.

Another interesting item is that in the 19th Century, the British parliament “legislated severe sanctions for transferring trade secrets, even prohibiting the emigration of skilled textile workers or machinists”, especially to the US where they were courted by emerging industrialists (see We were pirates, too: Why America was the China of the 19th century on Foreign Policy).

Why did they care so much?

Because tech transfers harmed trade, and because machines help us transform the material world. One reason why the UK’s influence grew during the industrial revolution is because they had machines (generally using fossil fuels) able to perform work equivalent to the muscles of scores of humans.

As a reference and to use a comparison introduced by Jean-Marc Jancovici:

• Over a day of effort, humans can deploy an average of 10W of power with their arms (enough to power a LED light), or 100W with their legs (enough for an incandescent bulb) — so about 100Wh-1kWh for a 10-hour day (a horse is about 10x that), or 36-360kWh per year (10 hours a day, every day). To avoid exhaustion, let’s say 100kWh per year (which is roughly equivalent to a mere 10 liters of gasoline).

• If you consider just the 23 million GWh of electricity the world consumed in 2018, they are thus equivalent to over 200 billion humans doing physical labor. This is not a typo. It means that thanks to machines (and the energy that powers them), our global population of 8 billion has the equivalent of over 100 mechanical servants per person.

Over and out.
—Ben