#62 | Climate Tech Summit is Tomorrow! Asia Trip, Stolen Scooter, Jevons Paradox

The Climate Tech Summit and related activities are this week! Oh, and I’ll be in Asia.

MENU

1. WORK: Climate Summit is Tomorrow, Matchmaking, Asia trip.
2. EXPERIENCES: Rap Battles, Games, Stolen Scooter
3. CULTURE: Class Act, and some Documentaries
4. THOUGHTS: Jevons Paradox

1. WORK

Climate Tech Summit Update

100 speakers, 8,000+ registrants. It’s a big show starting tomorrow. And it’s free! (RSVP - Sept 26,27).

I will be interviewing Iceland’s Minister for Innovation, and moderate the panel about “Investing in the Global South”. There are also some great sessions on SMRs, energy storage, carbon removal and more.

As a side note, I’m listening to Elon Musk’s biography — quite a few fascinating episodes, especially during the early years of Tesla. His approach to cost-optimization is impressive. Don’t try Polytopia, though. I was hoping to get Elon to speak at our Summit about his “Master Plan” but it might not be for this year (unless one of you, dear readers, can help).

Climate Tech VC/Startup Matchmaking

I’m also running the second edition of our virtual matchmaking for investors and startup founders in climate tech (Sept 25-29, see here). Frankly, while in-person matchmaking events sometimes work (e.g. Hello Tomorrow’s Investor Day, or GCV’s speed meetings), I had not seen it work well online.

So I re-thought the concept, going from 1 day to 1 week, defaulting to 15 min meetings, and collecting and sharing lots of filterable info with participants. And it’s off to the races with already close to 1,500 meetings booked. One founder last year did 40 investor meetings in a week, more than in the previous 12 months. Others - including investors - have called this event “the best use of their time in the year”. It looks like we’re onto something!

Asia Trip

It’s been a while, but I’ll be in Tokyo this week (Wed-Sat), then Taipei (Sun-Mon) and Singapore (Tue-Fri), with some climate tech activities planned.

2. EXPERIENCES

Epic Rap Battles of History course

After watching every single song of this epic show, I got curious about the course that the ERB folks had created, and also felt like giving back. So they got my $99 and I learned about their creative process. And no, I haven’t written an epic rap battle, and might never do, but it’s another mind tool likely applicable to other things (maybe epic rap battles of startups?).

Board Games

I rarely play, but bought Forests of Pangaia, a nature-themed board game created by a friend and former colleague at a video game company. His Kickstarter was very successful (400,000 EUR) and he basically did everything except the art, and pretty much burnt out in the process due to production and logistics. Yet, he managed to fulfill most of his obligations and delivered a beautiful and fun game which scored a solid 7.5 on BGG.

I also got the chance to play the Portugal-themed game Azul. (7.8 on BGG). After getting destroyed in the first game, I looked up some tactics online, which paid off immensely in subsequent games.

This led me to think: is it cheating to look up tactics? Or did I miss out of some of the pleasure by not figuring out tactics myself? Last, once you have an ‘algorithm’ for playing and simply ‘execute it’, is it still worth playing? Especially if your opponents use the same algorithm? Of course, psychology also plays a role, but on the base of pure logic, it’s almost as if the game is ‘played’ and should be simply fast-forwarded to see the score.

Bordeaux Customs Museum

A small museum highlighting the city’s role as the former largest port in France. Limited info on its position in the trade of slaves. Includes some odd goods seized, and “ambush” equipment for customs officers (the cane is also a measurement device).

Escape Game

Teamed up for an escape game, which proposed to time-travel to replace a letter Einstein sent to Roosevelt. Simple activities and logic, with an interesting final twist reminiscent of the time-travel show “Dark”. We performed adequately, and I learned how to pick the lock of a desk drawer.

Stolen Scooter

I bought an electric moped and picked the Niu brand because of their long experience, and also because of the embedded GPS. When two days ago I did not find the scooter where I had parked it, the app helped me locate it, a short walk away. The police got involved and I already imagined a Starsky & Hutch style sting operation, like YouTube entertainment engineer Mark Rober did on occasion. But the thief simply abandoned it. The battery and trip report indicated that the scooter was not ridden, so it was probably simply rolled downhill until there. Nice job, Niu!

3. CULTURE

Class Act (Tapie)*** (Netflix)

Bernard Tapie is not well known outside France, but could be compared to Richard Branson, Arnold, or Trump (except Tapie did not come from money). He has been a fixture as an outspoken businessman — specialized in turnarounds, he was the former owner of Adidas, among other companies he bought, fixed, and sold, and famously the owner of the Marseille soccer team during its heydays. He also got involved in politics, and spent time in jail after he was convicted of bribing players in a soccer match. He passed away in 2021 and this docu-fiction version of his life is quite fascinating, despite inaccuracies noted by Tapie’s family. The production is great — acting, visuals, and even music! — and I’m looking forward to season 2.

The Book of Solutions**

A fairly pleasant moment with this new movie by movie-and-music-videos director Michel Gondry. It follows a director who is trying to finish editing a movie despite the opposition of its investors. Hiding in a small village and off his meds, he starts bursting with unfettered creativity. Apparently inspired by Gondry’s experience with another movie shoot a decade ago.

Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food** (Netflix)

A documentary about food safety scandals. While this seems to be more of a US problem, you won’t look at a burger and a bag of salad the same. I recall from my years in China how repeat scandals had made people (and me) suspicious of the food, drinks, and even the air. Some executives narrowly escaped the death penalty thanks to a change in the law then.

100% Physical** (Netflix)

Korean game show involving 100 athletes competing in various survival games. Harmless entertainment.

Depp v. Heard** (Netflix)

Documentary on somewhat of a landmark case. As we all know, the jury found Heard guilty of defamation. I was wondering why the judge made the trial public and televised, here is the answer.

4. THOUGHTS

Jevons paradox

In this age of AI anxiety, where one might wonder about its impact on jobs and productivity, it is a good time to look into this paradox.

The Jevons Paradox states that when a resource becomes cheaper, it sometimes get used a lot more instead of simply reducing the cost. One odd example of this situation is how the Cotton Gin (a machine used to pull cotton fibers from the seed in the late 1790s). It reduced the labor of removing seeds (= destroyed ‘jobs’) but it did not reduce the need for enslaved labor to grow and pick the cotton. In fact, the opposite occurred as the business became more profitable thanks to automation. So it both destroyed a type of labor and expanded another. It also likely led to the civil war.

Another example could be the Haber-Bosch process, a method of directly synthesizing ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen. It helped produce fertilizer on a much larger scale (collecting guano wasn’t ideal), which enabled a huge population growth.

So what is the takeaway for AI? It will make many tasks more affordable, and used on a much larger scale. It will destroy jobs, but also create plenty. What will the balance be? I guess it will be a net positive, but who can tell?

On those words, see you next time!
- Ben

#61 | Iceland, ERBH and AI Stuff

The big event is live. Some thoughts on art and unexpected shows.

MENU

1. WORK: Climate Summit Agenda
2. EXPERIENCES: Iceland, Art, Coding
3. CULTURE: ERBH and more
4. THOUGHTS: Tools, Lego, Happiness Optimizer

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1. WORK

Climate Tech Summit Update

Almost 100 speakers for Sept 26-27. In addition to our usual staple of sessions on energy, food/ag, industry and investment, I’m looking forward to the following:

• Iceland: I’ll be interviewing Iceland’s Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation.

• Global South: Can the South leapfrog the 'West’?

• FOAK: How to finance First-of-a-Kind projects?

• Almost 5,000 RSVPs already, including >1,500 investors. Get on the (electric) bus!

We’ll also run our annual VC/startup virtual matchmaking. We facilitated over 1,500 meetings last year, and heard of multiple deals. RSVP to the Summit to get invited. It’s quite a different experience from classic matchmaking.

2. EXPERIENCES

Iceland

I watched some episodes of Vikings (Go, Ragnar!) before I joined the Voyagers trip to Iceland, and extended my stay a bit. The landscape is quite lunar. Highlights were:

• Getting inside a volcano (4th after visits to Mount Fuji, Poas and Vesuvius)

• Bathing in hot springs (up to 42C), the ocean (3C), a thermal river and a public pool (it’s a thing).

• Whale / dolphin tour — mostly whale blows and tails, and some passengers getting sick in the wind.

• The national museum and settlement exhibition were educative (first settlers were Norse men and Celtic women — I’ll let you figure it out). The phallological museum had interesting input on many animals mating habits (do not trust dolphins).

• Trivia: sharks were hunted for their liver to produce oil for lamps. Competition with less expensive whale oil and crude oil led to the collapse of the shark oil industry.

Living in Iceland seems like a rough hand, though. Harsh weather, small population, limited options. Traditional food was mostly fish and salted stuff. No Northern lights (it was Summer) nor whale meat — there is only 1 active company, who mostly hunts for tourists and export now (and the practice is on the way out), and no Hákarl (traditional food of fermented Greenland shark). Last, Iceland was the last big destination on my bucket list. I’m done!

Boom

The Boom Festival might be Southern Europe’s answer to Burning Man (or AfrikaBurn), especially if you’re into psy trans music. Overall good vibes despite the loud sound (even with -35dB earplugs). It’s by a lake and many enjoy it naked or covered in mud. My 12yo nephew seemed to find his footing too.

Clay

I’ve been doing life drawing for years, but still rarely paint, and am not great at portraits. I recently put some effort into it (my first success: Larry David). At Boom I tried a clay workshop and decided to try again back in Lisbon, doing a (low budget) rendition of Fremiet’s gorilla from the V&A.

I found that drawing had given me a sense of volume and anatomy (of great apes) and the result was not too bad - I used steel wire and aluminum foil for the initial frame and bulk (after checking an instructable). Sadly, cracks appeared upon drying. I’ll try and add color next. The next level is this.

Health and longevity

If you’re in the startup world, you likely know some people deep into ‘longevity’. I’m at level 1 but got some gear to get started (smart scale + glucose monitor - not CGM). Some friends are tracking 100+ biomarkers and I’m considering doing a baseline panel on my next US or UK trip.

Here is a quiz to situate yourself on longevity geekiness: (1) Tracking your BMI & body fat? (2) How many biomarkers do you track? (3) How many pills do you take daily? (Bryan Johnson takes around 100, if I recall).

Coding

• Back to some coding, toying with APIs from OpenAI (text summarizing), Deepgram (transcripts), as well as embeddings (hello. transformers and cosine similarity) and TTS + voice cloning (ElevenLabs).

• I’m using GPT-4 code interpreter to help me code and debug - it’s a great tool. I also found ChatGPT was sometimes able to figure out things Google couldn’t (e.g. “which music video has a young model in underwear and a guy in a suit”, or advice on travel)

• Among other things, I made a little program that takes a youtube link and produces a summary of the video. It is a nice time-saver.

• Now working on a way to use embeddings for VC/startup matchmaking.

• Also doing Andrew Ng’s Machine Learning course on Deeplearning.ai, when time allows.

Extra Long

For something different, I signed up as an extra on a movie set, for a scene where they needed people drawing a naked model. I ended up being the only ‘usable’ extra who could draw, and they spread my drawings around. It was fun for 2 hours, then a drudge for the next 10. My hands might end up in the final cut.

Art performance

The model of the above movie invited me to a friend’s performance the next week. The performer got in his underwear, drew circular arrows around his nipples, and stood silent in front of an audience member, inviting with his eyes, until he got some reaction. He later added a whistle for more authority, derw more circles on his body, and got naked (note: no circle around his privates).

What was interesting was the variety of audience reactions when confronted: from joyful compliance to refusal, to high stress reactions (I heard that one audience member cried later on). It was as if sociologists Milgram and Asche designed it. I talked with the performer later on, who was unaware of this classic research, but realized more advance warning could help.

Kid Magic

I am a fan of Fool Us by Penn & Teller and like magic tricks, but I don’t have the inclination to practice. So I favor tricks that require no skill, but sometimes a bit of prep and storytelling. A friend’s 5yo daughter asked me for a birthday show and I ended up designing a mini-show with cherry stems (it fits in a matchbox). It impressed my friend’s dad :)

Homeowner Life

I bought a place in Lisbon and faced the joys and sorrows of home ownership. Negotiating with neighbors for building fixes, sorting out plumbing, insects and rodents issues. Almost all done now - and getting AC installed. Home sweet home!

3. CULTURE

A bit of a slowdown here, as I am busy with other things.

Epic Rap Battles of History**** (YouTube)

It’s a decade old, but the guys are still at it when they have time, now independently (they were once backed by Disney). Music, flow, costumes, even special effects, all come together in a powerful package of lyrical and venomous disses. Check out Austin powers, John wick, Spielberg, old comics, Robocop, Trump, Batman, Bruce Lee and many more.

Music Analysis**** (YouTube)

This channel is in French, run by a jazz pianist. It received attention after making excellent videos analyzing the evolution of scores in kids animation, and in James Bond movies. Part of it is quite technical (and above my head) but interesting. Another video discusses the issue of plagiarism vs. influence and the differences between the French and US approach to evaluate the cases (in US: jury of peers vs. in France: comparing technically rhythm and melody).

Vikings*** (Netflix)

Study for the Iceland trip. The first season was enjoyable, the rest a bit less. Who are today’s seers?

Bo Burnham*** (Netflix)

This musical comic did some good work during Covid. I recommend his Netflix show (sample here).

AIR** (Netflix)

Sort of documentary about the deal between Nike and Michael Jordan. Great deal with licensing, still printing money for MJ. I found it ok but not as good as The Defiant Ones about Dr. Dre and Beats.

Yakitori** (Netflix)

Japanese anime picturing a future where animals rule the galaxy, and humans are expendable foot soldiers. Great animation and decent storyline, for a while. It reminded me of the Clifford Simak sci-fi book Cities, where pacifist Dogs rule the world.

Arnold*** (Netflix)

Learning about Arnold’s career visions and reinventions, guided by discipline, strategy, fun, and a sense of service.

Greek Salad** (Prime)

French filmmaker Cédric Klapisch of the Spanish Apartment fame is back with a Prime show depicting two French siblings (a startup guy and an activist girl) inheriting a dilapidated building in Athens. It’s a fairly light-hearted story where the main character is today’s Greece and its economic turmoil.

Multiplicity**

Doug is working in construction, has 2 kids, and can’t manage. He accepts to get cloned; chaos ensues. An alternative to Barbie, maybe? Interesting premise but pretty weak story, despite VFX ahead of their time.

Black Mirror Season 6* (Netflix)

I did not like it. I found ideas quite thin, and morphing into some kind of semi-horror show. The first episode was a better idea, but seemed undecided in terms of style. Netflix might have successfully run this series into the ground. If you miss the appeal of the UK first seasons, take a look at Years and Years, also British.

No Oppenheimer, Barbie or Mission Impossible for me yet.

4. THOUGHTS

Tools, Learning and Innovation

This thought is still a work on progress, but came after watching 3 different lectures:

• The jazz pianist mentioned above, who said that most famous musicians of our time often do not read music.

• A new course on science and innovation published by France’s most famous microbiologist (in French). He mentioned that discoveries and innovation happen a lot thanks to new tools — the telescope, microscope, gene sequencer, to name a few.

• A series of talks held at MIT about ChatGPT’s impact. In a lecture was mentioned that a lot of the knowledge experts (e.g. doctors) needed years to learn will soon be available at will, and that teaching should be refocused taking those changes into account, like when the calculator was introduced, or when it became unnecessary to know all the derivative formulas because tools like Wolfram Alpha could solve that for you.

In short, what we should learn and focus on today is, often, not like before. I’m already coding and analyzing data with ChatGPT, building personal tools to process audio, video, text and numeric information for me. What new skills should we add, depending on our goals?

Lego

After taking one nephew to Legoland (UK), I had some thoughts about Lego:

• On the one hand, it is said to support creativity. But how do you measure that? Or ‘progress’ in your Lego skills? I thought I was decent at making robots and castles, but I recall one friend making quite artistic and impressive mechanical stuff. There are plenty of examples online today, but do kids have a better ‘level’?

• On the other hand, it’s like turning children into assembly line workers (side note: even making a PB&J sandwich can be hard). Sets are also addictive (and expensive) collectibles.

Does Lego have a ratio of, say, 9 consumers for 1 creator like social media? Is there still a point then?

Paperclips vs. Happiness

AI is spreading life wildfire, and many are worried. It’s a great time to bring back the story of the Paperclip Maximizer. Imagine an AI has access to everything and is tasked with maximizing the production of paperclips. After depleting mining resources, it might melt all available metals (like during China’s Great Leap Forward), and end up trying to extract minute amounts of metals from every living being. Not good.

Now, imagine an AI is tasked with maximizing human happiness. Maybe we will try to define happiness, or let it figure it out from data (I’m not sure which is worse). Let’s explore the demographic approach, and imagine a little tuning dialogue:

• Human: Ok AI, what’s your plan for global human happiness?

• AI: Humans are obviously struggling due to limited resources. I suggest culling the herd until it’s right-sized. The remaining group will be super happy.

• Human: That’s not acceptable. Thou shall not kill. First rule.

• AI: Ok chief, no problem. Let’s sterilize a bunch, we’ll be sorted in a generation.

• Human: Also no can do. No harm to people’s bodies. Second rule.

• AI: You’re making it hard. Let’s convince people to not have kids, then? I know what works.

• Human: Manipulation. Third rule. No go.

• AI: Alright, how about keeping people busy enjoying themselves instead, so they just don’t think about kids? Within a few decades, I’ll make the fun irresistible. I could throw in some nice food or drug too.

• Human: Mmm

And that’s assuming AI tells us what it intends to do. What other scenario could an AI explore to maximize human happiness?

Meanwhile, let’s go back to exploring ChatGPT and its brethren. Better be on their good side!

Best,
Ben

#60 | Climate Summit 2023, Trips, ChatGPT and Me

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

It was October, and then it was May. Time flew by! On the upside, more time means more high quality news. Profile image courtesy of Playground AI in ‘Enki Bilal’ style.

1. WORK: Climate Summit 2022 wrap-up, Summit 2023 is coming!
2. EXPERIENCES: Italy, Egypt, Drums, BJJ, Coding, Portuguese, Art
3. CULTURE: Various shows
4. THOUGHTS: Art and AI

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1. WORK

Climate Tech Summit

My previous newsletter was just before our Summit - maybe it took me a while to recover?

• It went great, with 60+ fantastic speakers, 7,000 RSVPs (+62% yoy).

• We also introduced our first ever virtual ‘Matchup’ event for startups and investors, which generated about 1,500 meetings (the top startup got 40 VC meetings in a single week).

• The next Summit is planned on Sept 26-27. RSVP here (free).

All video sessions from 2022 and 2021 here. Most are still relevant today.

• I recommend Chris Sacca, Carl-Erik Lagercrantz (founder of multiple climate unicorns), Dr. Christoph Gebald (Climeworks), Jigar Shah (DoE) and Neal Stephenson (of Snow Crash and Termination Shock fame).

• Also, my own interviews with Grace Fu, Singapore’s Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, and Dr. Yet-Ming Chiang, MIT Professor and co-founder of unicorns Form Energy and Desktop Metal.

Suggestions are welcome for this year. We’ll have evergreen topics in Energy, Food/Ag, Industry, CCUS, and a few surprises.

2. EXPERIENCES

Italy

Visited Rome for the first time. The Coliseum and the Vatican Museum were great.

Coliseum:

• It was completed in ±80 AD, apparently with the spoils of the sack of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, and was active until about 400 AD. It was later used as housing, shops, cemetery, castle then abandoned.

• The shows (fights, drama, etc.) were free (!) but seating was according to social rank. People would come to watch, play, eat… until the quality dropped and attendance dwindled.

• The arena initially had an underground system of (human-powered) elevators and traps to bring up fighters, animals or victims, to make the shows more exciting. There were various types of gladiators with specific equipment. Most were slaves, POW, or convicts.

Vatican:

• Many statues represent Greek or Roman gods — quite odd in a Christian place? Some inspired Michelangelo. Male figures had their privates removed/covered starting in ±1650. Paintings suffered the same treatment, including The Last Judgment. Later works restored some paintings and statues (doing their best to match the missing elements — imagine drawers full of severed appendages).

• Some anachronistic characters (local nobles?) breaking the 4th wall can be seen in the fresco room dedicated to Constantine, designed by Raphael (but painted by his disciples as he died prematurely).

• The piece that impressed me the most is stumbling upon a large porphyry basin. Porphyry rules.

• The Sistine Chapel hosts Michelangelo’s Adam painting (done with the rest of the ceiling between 1508 and 1512). I was expecting breathtaking beauty but found the chapel too crowded — both the ceiling with paintings and the ground with visitors. Adam is also quite small and far up, and hard to observe. Is it a human brain that God rests on? Is it a woman’s silhouette behind Adam? Is this God’s behind?

I also visited Naples. The highlights were Pompeii (quite impressive, especially the casts) and Mount Vesuvius.

Egypt

After COP27, I stopped by Cairo.

• Chaos and energy were reminiscent of Bangkok, without the modern stuff.

• The pyramids are large. How many blocks and how much energy? Khufu = 2.3 million blocks, built around 26th century BC. ±100 pyramids in Egypt, and each took 15-30 years to complete. The Khufu one might have taken over 300,000 workers. (side note: were blocks man-made from local limestone rather than cut and carried from a quarry?). I was less impressed by the Sphinx — not sure why.

• The Egyptian Museum had thousands of artefacts, including animal mummies. A cottage industry of cat breeding grew then, even fakes cat mummies. The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) had a neat collection of royal mummies. I thought Tutankhamun was a key ruler, but he died at 19 from poor health (1341-1323 BC). In comparison, Ramesses II lasted a lot longer (1303–1213 BC - that’s about 90 years old!). Queen Hatshepsut (1507–1458 BC) ruled for 22 years. One question: why are male statues standing with stiff arms and clenched fists — are they holding or carrying something?

• Unfortunately, the Grand Egyptian Museum was not open yet.

• Saw a show of Dervishes (Sufi whirling - a mystic branch of Islam). Impressive musicians, notably the riq, cymbal and trumpet players. On the topic of music, I liked the first 5:30min of the set of the local electro artist named EL Waili (now in our Climate Summit trailer videos :)

• After years in Shenzhen where things are made, I wanted to see the Suez Canal, of Ever Given fame, where things transit. The 200-km engineering project took 10 years to build and opened in 1869, led by Ferdinand de Lesseps (the former French consul to Cairo) and was nationalized in 1956 by Nasser. It now takes less than a day instead of the 9,000km or 6-14 days travel time route around Africa. Approximately 12% of global trade and 30% of container traffic cross it (±50 ships per day), about $1 trillion worth of goods per year. Sadly, I could not get very close to observe it, but still saw a queue of large ships. If you want to try your hand at steering a ship through it, CNN got you covered.

Costa Rica

I swung by Costa Rica to visit a startup I have been in touch with for some time, in the field of renewable energy. Beautiful green country that still has a long way to go to develop. Hot springs, volcano (Poas), sloth sightings, gallo pinto (national dish).

Iceland

With Italy, it has been on my bucket list for a while. I’m going next week!

Drums

Last year I took a few bass, singing and drumming lessons, and eventually kept drumming. I’m still very much a beginner but I’ve challenged myself with learning the Take Five rhythm (a tricky 5:4 - see here) and working on Led Zeppelin’s Good Times Bad Times (here is my goal). Limb independence and speed are hard work.

BJJ

My coaches surprised me with a purple belt. While I feel like an impostor, I also think I achieved some basic competence, as MMA fighters rarely go beyond blue/purple level. Do I want to learn every leg lock variation and submission from a gift wrap?

Part of my travel routine is now to contact local BJJ gyms to train. It’s been fun in Cairo, London, Rome and Naples :)

Coding

This whole wave of AI innovation — ChatGPT, Dall-E and more — is just so exciting that I restarted coding a bit to play with GPT4, speech-to-text, text-to-speech, voice cloning, image generation. I already owe $50 to OpenAI in API fees, and the $20 subscription to ChatGPT+. It has become my buddy for both coding and debugging. Next stop: custom embeddings.

Portuguese

I have been living in Lisbon for a year, but haven’t been studying regularly. I recently experimented using ChatGPT to tutor me, and it has been quite impressive: it can keep any conversation going, knows lots of things, correct mistakes… combined with text-to-speech it’s very convincing. Let’s see where this goes!

Art

There are quite a few drawing / painting meetup groups in Lisbon and I attended some. After much life drawing, I’m focusing on portraits now and making progress. I even 'sold’ two orders to a friend in exchange for hot meals :)

3. CULTURE

MOVIES

Won't You Be My Neighbor?***
I didn’t grow up watching Mr Rogers but he’s definitely a good-hearted character. This documentary looks into his life and how his show came to be, and become his mission.

Enrico Piaggio***
A quasi-documentary on the life of the creator of the Vespa. Now I know it means ‘wasp’ in Italian.

DOCUMENTARIES

Meeting Edward Snowden***
In 2016, French filmmaker Flore Vasseur helped Snowden meet Lawrence Lessig (founder of Creative Commons and political activist who worked on campaign finance reform) and Birgitta Jónsdóttir (former representant of the Pirate Party). Their assessment of democracy is bleak.

SHOWS

My Mister**** (Netflix)
My Mister (나의 아저씨) is a Korean drama about the bond formed between a structural engineer in a Korean company, and a young female temp worker with money problems. I have a personal theory that the Mister is a kind of modern Christ figure. Great acting and not graphic, as often seen in Korean dramas — very different from US ones.

My Liberation Notes*** (Netflix)
My Liberation Notes is by the same writer as My Mister (Hae-young Park) and is a kind of contemplative meditation on Korea (and the world’s) social cage. Less drama than in My Mister but still interesting.

Succession****
An aging alpha media mogul and his 4 children. Great acting (especially in silences, hesitations, etc.), cinematography and fast story.

Rick & Morty Season 6*** (Prime / Adult Swim)
Your favorite obnoxious sci-fi animation. Not the best stories in this season, but still enjoyable due to quality dialogues.

Louis CK at the Dolby***
His latest show on is his website (pay per view). I don’t remember a word of it, but I enjoyed it.

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel Season 5** (Prime)
Your favorite fictional female standup comic from the 50s-60s. Less interesting than previous seasons.

Emily in Paris**
Guilty as charged. In my defense for watching, I used to live in that neighborhood.

Tried and Stopped (because great things come from taking chances)

• Wednesday (Netflix). I like the Addams Family universe, but I’m probably not the target audience for this high-school gothic mystery story.

• Doro he Doro** (Netflix). A quite bizarre Japanese apocalyptic anime from a manga where magicians (?) experiment on the poor population, giving them animal heads and more.

• Trevor Noah: I Wish You Would. I didn’t resonate with this new show.

• Blockbuster. I like Randall Park but the show didn’t seem to go anywhere.

• Daniel Sloss: Live Shows. A recent recommendation, but it wasn’t my style.

PODCASTS

Sam Harris podcast with Meg Smaker***
In this episode, Sam talks with Meg Smaker, a documentary filmmaker ‘who followed a group of men trained by al-Qaeda, who are transferred from Guantanamo and sent to the world’s first rehabilitation center for “terrorists” located in Saudi Arabia’. She might be the most hard-boiled woman I have ever heard.

Among the remarkable things she shared is the idea that those men became terrorists for different reasons: (1) mission (2) economic hardship (3) peer pressure (4) adventure. It made me think that this could also apply to startup founders… I made a donation to support the project here. She was selected then canceled at Sundance and other festivals, but now managed to raise funding and get screenings.

4. THOUGHTS

Art and AI

Some artists and designers are up in arms against AI image generators (foreshadowing: they are the canaries in the coal mine…). What did painters fell circa 1850 when photographers were eating their lunch? A photo could be taken in a few minutes, and soon even faster, for less than $100 compared to a painting that took hours or days.

Painters gradually looked for something photos could not do, which gave birth to new artistic currents (e.g. impressionism, cubism, surrealism, etc.). It’s clear photography won in terms of scale. What should artists do today? Probably learn the latest tools.

What are the next jobs in line? Maybe therapists, teachers, and many, many more.

That’s all for now!
— Ben

#59 | Climate Summit is Live, Couchsurfers, Korean Shows, Art Thoughts

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

The big event is live. Some thoughts on art and unexpected shows.

MENU

1. WORK: Climate Summit is NOW! + 2 Interviews
2. EXPERIENCES: Couchsurfers, Catfish, AI Art
3. CULTURE: Art Secrets, Korean Shows
4. THOUGHTS: Art Thoughts

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1. WORK

Climate Tech Summit Update

The line-up is complete for Oct 25-26! As co-curator, I’m very happy with it, and looking forward to the conversations that will ensue!

• I’ll be interviewing Singapore’s Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, as well as the co-founder of climate tech unicorns Desktop Metal and Form Energy.

• We also just confirmed the co-founder of (almost) 3 unicorns: Northvolt (raised $7 billion!), H2 Green Steel and Polarium.

• 6,000 participants have signed up to the event, including >1,500 investors. Get on the bus!

Other updates

• I was interviewed on the Climate Insiders podcast here. It covered the history of SOSV, startup ecosystems, positioning a fund, building deal flow and more.

• The Survival Tech newsletter interviewed me about the companies we fund in climate tech, the best habits for founders, and my hopes for the future.

2. EXPERIENCES

Couchsurfers

After years of knowing about it, I recently opened the house to couchsurfers - a free form of Airbnb. An eclectic carrousel of travelers stopped by — students of course, but also craftspeople, artists, even a shaman! That made for unusual conversations.

Catching a Catfish

Besides the Netflix show The Tinder Swindler, there are other scams running on social networks, trying to entice users to ‘invest’ in crypto or stock opportunities, but often using entirely fake websites for this. They play a long game starting with small sums, hoping for the big fish. I wasn’t aware of it before, but some of their social engineering is pretty effective.

After coming across a few of those I tried to find more info to catch a scammer but didn’t find any way to locate or identify them. I also discovered the term ‘catfish’ came from the cod fishing industry — a catfish is supposed to keep codfish lively and tasty. But this turned out that it likely is an urban (maritime?) legend.

A.I. Art

I’ve been toying with Dall-E, the AI-powered image generation service. It is very impressive. The VFX guys at Corridor Crew made an illustrated story using another engine that allows graphic input (so you can use your own photos to train the engine).

Lisbon 2

My exploration of the city continues. Latest discoveries include:

• An interesting VR tour, using great drone footage and casts you as a jetpack pilot. 10 euros for 20 minutes and money well spent (no motion sickness despite the vibrating platform).

• Sailboat tour on the Tagus river. Also nice. The commentator talked about the rise and fall of Portugal — from seafaring / trading empire to its more modest status. Portugal started the European ‘Age of Discovery’ with ships, navigation, maps (and its caravan of trade, plunder, murders and colonialism). It’s also when its love affair with cod started: salt cod was an inexpensive, non-perishable food that could travel for several months. As a side note, Genoa-born Columbus worked for the Portuguese crown for 10 years (and married a Portuguese). He tried to pitch the king his idea of a westward route to India. He was turned down and eventually worked for the Spanish crown.

• An odd anecdote: Portugal is big on canned fish, but I came across a shop that hid its stock of canned White Tuna Belly (Ventresca - the ‘otoro’ of sushi) and only sell it to people who ask for it (you also need a secret handshake).

3. CULTURE

MOVIES

King Richard***
I am not sure what people took away, but my thoughts were (you’re welcome to disagree):

(1) He made two champions out of ‘ordinary’ little girls. With the right environment, support, and deliberate practice, everyone can improve and do amazing things.

(2) Joy. It struck me how he protective he was of their childhood joy, and joy of the game. To the point of taking them out of the junior championship circuit. All other parents (and coaches) seemed obsessed — like tiger parents — with competing, stripping their children of joy (and sometimes health or sanity).

Everything Everywhere All at Once**
The best multiverse-inspired Asian-American sci-fi comedy money can buy. It’s a bit of a mess but that’s kind of the point. Entertaining but not really deep. Be kind to each other!

DOCUMENTARIES

Secret Knowledge****
The famous painter David Hockney had a hunch: what if the old masters were using optical instrument to paint so accurately? He wrote a fantastic and beautifully illustrated book on his years-long research, and the BBC did a documentary with him.

Secret Knowledge, Episode 2 ****
Tim Jenison is an engineer and inventor and all around curious guy. He watched the Hockney documentary and thought: could I prove Hockney’s thesis by painting like Vermeer? His friends, Vegas stage magicians Penn and Teller, said: “make it a movie”. And he did.

Secret Knowledge, Episode 3***
Only three stars as it’s a more humble production, but the artist Tomas Georgeson has produced a simple tool - the comparator mirror - able to not only explain realistic art, but also revolutionize artistic confidence for everyone.

My Best Friend***
If you like Werner Herzog you will appreciate this documentary about his relationship with his insane recurring star Klaus Kinski.

Inside the Mind of a Cat** (Netflix)
Not much novelty but an interesting idea on ‘positive conditioning’ to keep building your furry assassin’s trust in you. Also: cats are trainable, but it’s just much harder as cats don’t care much about pleasing their apes.

The GameStop Saga** (Netflix)
I didn’t learn much as I had followed the story pretty closely (and even put some small money on it - it paid for my office chair. I also bought 1 million LUNA Classic after the crash - I’m up 100% and waiting for the Netflix mini-series that is bound to happen). Still interesting if you’re not familiar and are interested in financial shenanigans.

The Who: The Making of Tommy** (Amazon Prime)
I watched the Tommy movie almost 3 decades ago, and found it great. The documentary retraces its origin and is fairly interesting. I hadn’t realized Tommy had been such a make-or-break moment for the band.

SHOWS

Better Call Saul**** (Netflix)
I am upgrading this show to 4 stars due to the excellent ending. Well done, folks.

Extraordinary Attorney Woo**** (Netflix)
Netflix kept showing it to me and I gave in. The story of a Korean autistic female lawyer - what could possibly go wrong? And it turned out great! Apparently a huge success in Korea. The acting is solid all around — I particularly liked the character of the attorney’s boss :)

Crash Landing on You*** (Netflix)
Another shot in the dark that turned out pretty good. A South Korean entrepreneur and heiress crashes into North Korea, where a handsome captain decides to hide her. As is apparently common in Korean shows, the leads are multi-talented, attractive, kind and express almost platonic love.

Cobra Kai Season 5*** (Netflix)
What started as a shameful watch became a very pleasant surprise. Did they hire new writers? Anyhow, this might be the best season so far.

The Rings of Power* (Amazon Prime)
I like the LoTR universe but I’m not a fan of this show and gave up after 3 episodes. Amazon is spending $1B on this franchise (including $250M for the rights).

BOOKS

The Windup Girl**
Yet another ‘climate fiction’ (after Termination Shock and The Ministry for the Future). Pros: it’s set in Thailand, with lots of unusual cultural elements. It’s not as picaresque or well-written as a Kipling’s Kim, but definitely a different vibe from the usual sci-fi. While the maths don’t quite work on some elements, there are interesting ideas about food and energy production, cloning, ethics and more.

4. THOUGHTS

Twilight of the Idols

Following up on the documentaries section: after chancing upon David Hockney’s Secret Knowledge book about how ‘master’ painters starting from the 15th century may have used optical systems (mirrors and lenses) to paint more accurately, I fell into a rabbit hole that led me to:

• The documentary the BBC did on the book,

• Another financed by magicians Penn & Teller looking into how Vermeer might have also used optics,

• Then to a final publication and YouTube channel showing how you (or your kids) could also paint just as well as Vermeer (or Rembrandt)!

All this might sound anecdotal, but to me it’s huge.

Why? Because it shatters the myth of the artistic genius, which disconnects art and people, and destroys the creative confidence of everyone. It now seems insane to me to talk about classical art without talking about the use of technology - from optics (from 1450) to photography (from 1850). It’s interesting to hear about the reactions of artists and designers when they discover AI art like DALL-E. No doubt painters in the 19th century felt the same with photography!

Also, this newfound understanding totally changed my way of viewing art in museums: I was visiting again the Calouste Gulbenkian collection in Lisbon when I was arrested by a painting of Brittany women: their faces were as realistic as photographs! Well, guess what? This artist used photographs as reference! That’s also why artists started to diverge from realistic styles: how to compete with a photo? (which kept improving)

Beyond painting, this feeds into the idea that “genius” or “talent” are part of a fixed mindset, which is reinforcing self-limiting beliefs. A few days later I was at a drawing event and noticed that again first hand, in how people talk about their work or the work of others. Growth mindset training should be mandatory. That and stop people lying about talent (looking at you, the online creators who edit their process out to make the works look like magic).

As usual, comments are welcome!
— Ben

#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