#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

#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