#67 | Climate Summit, Longevity, TV Shows, AI Skills & Lowering the Bar

My irregular newsletter on work and play. Unsubscribe at the bottom. LinkedIn

It’s been over 3 months since the last one, quite a bit to unpack!

MENU

1. WORK: Climate Summit, Asia Tour
2. EXPERIENCES: Longevity, Coding
3. CULTURE: Clarkson Farm, Fisk, K-Pop, Emily?
4. THOUGHTS: A.I. skills, Lowering the Bar

---

1. WORK

Climate Summit

The new fund is closed with $306M! My attention is now on our annual Climate Tech Summit (large virtual and free event taking place in October). Click here to register (3,500+ signups as of today).

We are running another VC/Founder virtual matchmaking event. Those have worked surprisingly well. It has a separate registration here (already 700+ signups).

Asia Tour

I’ll be in Singapore, HK, Seoul and Tokyo late October / early November to run investors-focused climate tech events. It’s been a year!

2. EXPERIENCES

Longevity Conference

Over the past 25 years I can count on one hand the events where I felt at the cutting edge of an emerging domain. I had that feeling at the recent Longevity State Conference.

During 2 days, about 100 participants (researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, activists) shared and connected on the topic of longevity. While SOSV has invested in a handful of companies that would fit the definition, it was a rather new angle for me.

Definitions vary but in short, there are:

• Those who want to live healthy until they die (= ideally with the body and mind of a young adult),

• Those who want to “defeat aging” / “kill death” or, in the words of Bryan Johnson (who spoke remotely at the event), “don’t die”.

While the conference did not dive into technicalities (there was a follow-up event for that) - here are some high-level approaches:

• prevent

• repair

• replace (ever heard of ‘full body replacement’?)

• if nothing works, freeze (cryo)

While there are already close to 200 startups at work globally, the main complain was the lack of money going into longevity, which would require moonshot-level budgets. Longevity would not only be a benefit for individuals, but also for nations facing population collapse and costing a fortune as they age (e.g. due to low birthrate - South Korea is at 0.72 — population replacement is at 2.1).

Some speakers discussed the policy aspect - how to enable faster trials and go-to-market. Or maybe establish new “independent states” with more favorable regulations (e.g. Vitalia, based in the special economic zone of Honduras).

It was also the first conference where I was offered drips and blood banking.

Back to Coding

To refresh and improve, I completed the Harvard CS50 Python course on EdX, which I recommend. I gave a shot to their AI course but found it way harder - from recursive algorithms to Bayesian Networks and Markov Models. Still, I’m keen on skilling up as having more tools in the tool belt helps creativity.

To give an example: after a discussion about whale songs — which are partly infrasound (below 20Hz) and thus not audible by humans — I wondered about how to embed voice or text (like a URL) in sound using ultrasound (around 20kHz), something a machine could still hear but a human would not. It led me to experiments with text-to-speech, speech to text, FFT, morse code, NATO alphabet (“alpha tango…”) and eventually opting for some kind of “what-three-words” addressing system.

Thanks to ChatGPT and python the whole thing took just a few hours. AI is really enabling creativity by reducing friction between idea and execution, and lowering the cost (in both money and time) of experiments.

3. CULTURE

SHOWS

Clarkson Farm***
I never watched Top Gear but Amazon Prime promoted Clarkson's Farm, a documentary series about Jeremy Clarkson’s (of Top Gear fame) attempt at running his 1,000-acre (400 ha) farm in the UK. It turns out to be both entertaining (he’s trying many business lines from sheep to bees) and educative (the economics are tough, and the weather!).

Fisk***
A kind of British The Office in a low-key law firm in Australia. It opens as a new female lawyer (who has just been fired from her previous job) joins the firm. Fewer characters but solid acting. The main character (and co-author) is great.

Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE***
Legendary labels Geffen and Korean K-Pop company HYBE (mothership of K-Pop legends BTS) get together to found a girls group that can be the nexts Spice Girls by adapting the K-Pop talent selection and training methods to the West. I’m not a fan of the music but it’s an interesting glimpse into what it takes to perform at that level

Emily In Paris Season 4**
It’s almost embarrassing to admit… I’ll blame my watching on the nostalgia of living in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, and on the appeal of watching the train wreck of Emily’s relationships as she basically keeps betraying everyone around her. Also, great outfits.

MOVIES

Rushmmore**** (HBO Max)
Oddly I hadn’t heard of this sweet early movie by Wes Anderson. A Young Jason Schwartzman plays an oddball student in a private middle school, surrounded by a coterie of whimsical characters. I am yet to watch his first, Bottle Rocket, that even Bill Murray claims to have not watched yet!

Memento***
I re-watched this 2000 Christopher Nolan movie. Still a masterpiece in confusionism. Both frustrating and enjoyable. Is there a word for that feeling? (maybe in German? or Japanese… ira-tanoshii?)

Kinds of Kindness***
I was planning to watch Inside Out 2 but did not book and this movie was playing almost at the same time. I knew nothing about it going in, aside from the fact that the director had done The Lobster, which I liked. I almost walked out half-way because the situations were so dark and upsetting, but somehow the movie took a bit of a different vibe and I eventually liked it. Quite a miracle!

Inside Out 2**
Cute enough. I found a bit bizarre that all the new emotions starting during teenage years seem quite negative (anxiety, envy, embarrassment, ennui). There is surely more to it!

The Big Sick** (Prime)
A semi-fictional biopic of Kumail Nanjiani of HBO’s Silicon Valley fame. Between pressure from his traditional Pakistani family and aspiring standup comedy career. Starts slow but picks up nicely in the middle.

Wrong**
A surrealist movie by Quentin Dupieux of Flat Eric fame. Entertaining. I am yet to watch Rubber, the story of an evil tire.

PODCASTS / YOUTUBE

Zeihan on Geopolitics*** (YouTube)
While he is certainly not always right, Peter Zeihan is well-informed on many aspects of geopolitics.

Prof G Markets*** (YouTube)
Scott Galloway’s entertaining take on markets.

In French:

Piano Jazz Concept***
Analysis and commentary on music, including pieces on OSTs in movies, animation and video games. In short: kids animation music is getting worse, while major video games music is now on par with movie productions! Technicalities are the fun part.

C’est ca la Science***
A course on science with a biology angle, from Professor Didier Raoult, France’s most cited microbiologists. It’s unfortunate there is no English version.

GAMES

I tried the board game Everdell which, despite its cute look, has solid mechanics. It has similarities to Wingspan with less of the feeling of playing “in parallel” due to limited player interactions. I ended up downloading it on mobile, where it offered a handful of challenges. After enjoying it quite a bit, I deleted it 3 times and it’s now off my phone.

4. THOUGHTS

On A.I.

Jensen Huang from Nvidia said that coding is going to be mostly AI and recommends to young people that they consider careers in biology, manufacturing and farming. The real economy, some might say!

For AI usage, I think there will be a few layers of AI ability:

• Level 0: People totally unaware of AI tools,

• Level 1: People who are simply end users (chatGPT in the browser, etc.)

• Level 2: Those who can use it to program a bit using APIs or integrating it in custom programs. They will have a big productivity advantage. I recommend starting with Python and the quick Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, which gets you started quickly.

• Level 3: Those who can contribute to AI projects. The typical AI engineer, who will have a very comfortable income.

• Level 4: Those building new AI companies. Success could reach the stars.

• Level 5: Those who create novel algorithms. A very very tiny minority of super-brainy researchers, who will likely be paid less than Level 3 and 4, but will create new fundamental technologies.

Lowering the Bar

Should you have high or low standards? With new skills or activities, setting a high bar can be discouraging for taking the first step, while a low bar can make it more accessible.

I verified that recently during a karaoke session at an event. Nobody wanted to sing. I volunteered and butchered a version of Don’t Stop Me Now (it was my first attempt ever). Then after my dismal performance people started lining up to sing! I might have redeemed myself later with Counting Stars. So remember: lower the bar to get started!

Over and out.
— Ben

#66 | $306M Fund, Miami, PWB, Curb, Crowd Work, Ed Sheeran

My irregular newsletter on work and play. Unsubscribe at the bottom. LinkedIn

Back from a few business trips. Here’s what’s new with me.

MENU

1. WORK: $306M, Virtual Events
2. EXPERIENCES: Miami
3. CULTURE: Waller-Bridge, Curb, Crowd work, Ed Sheeran
4. THOUGHTS: A.I., Future Sports, Art & Music

---

1. WORK

New Fund

It’s done. $306M focused on early stage planetary and human health.

Virtual Events

• Both the Health Tech and Climate Tech virtual (and free) matchmaking events are a wrap. In total they attracted about 1,200 investors and 1,500 startups, generating thousands of meetings. I haven’t seen other virtual event come close to those numbers. Have you? Click here to pre-register for upcoming ones (it’s free!).

• We held a series of 8 online talks during “Earth Week” with great founders and investors. Videos are here. I used some code and AI to produce podcasts here.

Conferences

• I spoke at Hello Tomorrow (deep tech), ChangeNOW (sustainability) in Paris and SIM (tech) in Porto.

• I participated for the first time in the VC Platform event held in Miami, which was a nice surprise with lots of talks on operations, content, comms and automation. I ran a well-attended workshop talking about automation and was surprised to be the only one who could code! (here is an example of podcasts produced with AI from a virtual event)

• SOSV also held a deep tech meetup in Boston, joined TechCrunch Early Stage, and held demo days for its HAX hard tech program.

2. EXPERIENCES

Miami

I extended my stay after the conference to visit a bit. Here is what I came across:

• I had a bit of a 80’s scifi moment stumbling upon dingy pink delivery robots on the sidewalk. They looked both modern and beat up. Apparently remote controlled and offering a lower fee to merchants than Uber Eats, and supported by ads.

• I saw a car advertising free self driving rides and gave it a go. There was a driver “car-sitting” and taking over for some manoeuvers, as they were still testing out the technology and customer experience. The driver was a musician who simply answered a vague ad about driving and tech. He wasn’t allowed to have his phone in the car and was reading the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy during his extensive downtime.

• I swung by the Miami History Museum and learned about its business of cigars, the rise and fall of the sponge industry, slaves and more. It also finally became clear to me that Miami’s aesthetics are deeply associated with the Art Deco movement.

• The Rubell Museum (modern art) was pretty good, but while Rubell had more famous artists, I liked better the Istanbul MoMA.

• Strolled on Miami Beach - saw 3 pelicans in formation fly over.

• World Erotic Art Museum. A surprisingly interesting collection there, including pieces from children book author Tomi Ungerer, a drawing by Cocteau and many more.

The Art of the Brick

Visited this LEGO show created by a lawyer turned creator. Some interesting pieces. Lots of tedious work!

3. CULTURE

SHOWS

Fleabag**** & Crashing**
I rewatched Fleabag - truly an exceptional show. My take is that under its guise of depicting the struggles of a young British woman, it’s a story of redemption / self-forgiveness, with a couple of Christic characters. Phoebe Waller-Bridge created it based on her standup show, and the TV version is - interestingly - vastly superior. Out of curiosity I watched her earlier show “Crashing”. It’s about a girl crashing a community of young adults living in an abandoned hospital, but not as good — clearly an early work. I look forward to PWB’s future creations!

Curb Your Enthusiasm Final Season****
A great ending for the 12th season of this show. Larry David’s outrageability is unmatched.

Phil Hanley*** (YouTube)
I came across this standup comic who has a knack for crowd work. I later found an old interview where he describes how his skills grew by accident as he was filling in between bands in Canada, and only realized later crowd work was also comedy. There is some echo with Ed Sheeran’s story (see below).

Dungeon Meals** (Netflix)
A Japanese fantasy animation depicting a team of broke adventurers who decide to “live off the land” (= monsters) in a dungeon.

MOVIES

Dune 2**
A pretty good job. Oddly, I prefer the charm of the David Lynch version (despite its flaws and lower production value).

Président*** and Second Tour**
Two movies 20 years apart by/featuring French director/actor Albert Dupontel as the republic’s president. I liked both though the older one better.

White men can't jump**
An oldie with Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson as basketball hustlers. Not amazing but still a pretty good time. There is a modern remake but I didn’t finish watching it.

DOCUMENTARIES

Ed Sheeran*** (Disney+)
I finished my Disney+ subscription with a documentary on Ed Sheeran. It was very interesting to see how young he decided to become a music guy and the kind of work and hustle he put into it. Some notes:

• He stuttered following some facial laser to remove a birthmark near one eye, which he solved unintentionally (?) by singing rap songs he liked slowly at first.

• He doesn't read and write music. A very common trait of modern musicians. It makes you wonder what music education does aside from producing concert players and disgruntled music students.

• He thought that success would come from simply outworking others. Funny enough, singer/songwriter stages didn’t really welcome him so he went to rap stages, jazz scenes, anywhere they would have him. He played 3 times per night. This reminded me of what serious standup comics do: move to a city with a big scene to get more stage time. As I heard before, he “figured out the price and paid it”. Quite similar to what I heard about Lady Gaga’s debut.

• He is very selective with the songs he puts out as he has to “live with them”. Quite different from some musicians “filling the album” around the one hit song.

4. THOUGHTS

On A.I.

Amazon/Audible now has 40,000 titles using virtual voices. And it’s good enough. A.I. is coming for many, many jobs — better learn how to use it, or and up like portrait painters when photography took off!

21st Century Sports

Now we’re talking.

• Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League: “10,000 spectators and 600,000 online viewers witnessed history as eight AI-powered cars battled for a $2.25M prize.”

• Enhanced Games: “Sport is safer without drug testing.” Coming soon.

• As a side note, I am waiting for the Mike Tyson / Jake Paul match. Apparently an exhibition match with 16 ounces gloves, 2min rounds. Maybe not the best design for a quick K.O. by Tyson, but maybe protecting the fighters better? I root for Tyson (bets seem to favor him slightly).

Art or Not

“Art” today often feels like a sacred cow. While it has many functions (read The Artistic Ape), its production used to be mostly considered the domain of craftspeople. So there is the idea, the craft then the audience. How to rate the idea and craft of the following artworks?

• I asked a guy who was painting a cool mural how he did it. He (1) staged a photoshoot with a friend (2) used photoshop to clean it then “posterize” a version (reducing the number of colors used) (3) projected it onto the wall to trace it (he sometimes used a grid instead) (4) painted while looking at the printed versions of the 2 images. He added an imaginary background as well. The painting part took him about 20 hours over 2 days. Where is the creative part? The photo staging and a bit the background. The rest is all '“busy work” without real difficulty. My rating: Idea: ** Craft: ** (because tedious)

• The art nouveau Czech painter and illustrator Alfons Mucha is known for his dreamy posters and product packages. Turns out he took loads of photos around 1900 as source material for his illustrations. Not that different from the painter above. My rating: Idea: *** (more elaborate photo staging) Craft: *** (decoration + color sense)

• Visiting the studio of a graffiti artist, who sells black&white graffiti on canvases. I found it fun to realize that he (1) didn’t steal the paint cans (2) painted indoor (3) painted on canvases (4) sold the paintings. Quite a departure from OG street art. My rating: Idea: **, Craft: ** (though I don’t really know how to evaluate this…)

• An early Jeff Koons piece featuring neon tubes and a vacuum cleaner - like an updated ready-made from Duchamp. My rating: Idea: *, Craft: * (marketing: ****).

• The art market is also a bit of a mystery, with a few tastemakers deciding the value of pieces, often quite unrelated - IMO - to either the idea or the craft. I visited annual drawing fair in Paris and found a good half of the pieces lacking in both…

• Eventually, it’s up to each of us to decide what each piece is worth to us.

Music For All

Before you could have 10 million songs streamed on your smartwatch, music used to be only heard when performed live. And before cities, it was in small groups, and likely much more participatory.

I remarked previously how modern musicians often do not have formal music education. I came across yet another example: Michael Jackson used to sing whole compositions into a recorder for musicians to copy later as he could not play well any instrument nor read/write sheet music.

More to come in the next newsletter!
— Ben

#65 | 100s of VCs, 100 Biomarkers, Thoughts on Motivation

My irregular newsletter on work and play. Unsubscribe at the bottom. LinkedIn - X

Spring is coming!

MENU

1. WORK: Matchmaking, Conferences, Fund
2. EXPERIENCES: Istanbul, Med Tourist, VR
3. CULTURE: Jeff Schaffer, Bank of Dave, Wenders
4. THOUGHTS: AI Kills the On-Ramp, Entrepreneurship, Motivation

---

1. WORK

Matchmaking Events

I am starting the year with a couple of virtual and free matchmaking events for investors and founders.

• The first one was focused on #HealthTech and welcomed 400+ investors and 650+ startups - likely one of the largest of its kind out there (we also published our yearly Top 100 Health Tech Portfolio List).

• The next one will be on #ClimateTech. Over 800 investors and 800 startups joined last year. Pre-registration is here (it’s free).

Conference Season

I was invited to speak at the Hello Tomorrow deep tech conference in Istanbul, and now in Paris for the larger Hello Tomorrow Global Summit (I am a regular), followed by ChangeNOW (first time). In April I’ll then be in Miami for the VC Platform conference and in Boston for TechCrunch Early Stage.

Fund Closing

We’re getting close to the final close of our next fund - continuing our focus on early stage deep tech for human and planetary health.

2. EXPERIENCES

Istanbul

I extended my stay after the conference to visit a bit.

• I tried my usual trifecta of body/mind/soul with BJJ + museum + standup comedy, but missed the English comedy date.

• I visited the Modern Art and the Naval museums. The former was interesting — this despite my frequent disappointment with modern art (where skill is often questionable, and the result a matter of taste) — the latter less so but still ok. My favorite maritime museums are in HK and Lisbon so far.

• I had some conversations about what it means to live with >50% annual inflation. It sounded quite intense: salary reviews all the time, can’t keep cash, looking for investment schemes (real estate, foreign currencies, crypto). The system seems to work because Turkey controls its currency and exchange rates (vs. Greece), and spends lots of government projects that employs many (despite corruption). Still, the price of real estate is skyrocketing and the gap between haves and have nots is widening. Can this end well?

Health Checks

I hadn’t had a physical for a long time and Turkey is a hot spot for medical tourism so I gave it a go. I got about 100 biomarkers tested to baseline my health. The experience was smooth - including filling the 12 blood vials required - and the price (±$2k) affordable (about 1/1000th of Bryan Johnson’s bill).

Following the tests (nothing alarming), I googled, then tried to ChatGPT the analysis, but ChatGPT vehemently rejected all my attempts. Claude, however, was happy to oblige. To check with a real doctor I used an app from the Philippines, where doctors are available for remote consultations on short notice, for $10-$20. I’m not recommending freestyling health, but I found it very useful to get an informed opinion.

Bonus: if you’re interested in investing in a smart breastfeeding bra (part of the SOSV portfolio), head over here.

VR

Still using VR (and demo-ing to friends), mostly to play the Battle Royale game Population:ONE after I reached Expert mode on my favorite Beatsaber songs (I can’t clear Expert+ yet). I also tested Racket Club, a VR-first twist on padel. Unfortunately I couldn’t try the workout game Supernatural due to geo restrictions.

3. CULTURE

SHOWS

Curb Your Enthusiasm Final Season***
My favorite disgruntled funny old guy is back from what might be the last season of this show. I like the show.

Dave**
Lil’Dicky is a Jewish comedy rapper, and wrote this show chronicling his unstoppable rise to fame. It has an odd charm coming from a form of honesty, and the third season had quite a wild and fun ending. The co-writer and executive producer is Jeff Schaffer, who also does Curb.

MOVIES

Bank of Dave**** (Netflix)
A remarkable movie / documentary about a British businessman who decides to open a new bank in the UK focused on lending to small, local businesses. The UK had apparently not issued new licenses for 150 years. Very good.

Perfect Days***
I finally got to see the latest Wim Wenders (of Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire fame), starring Yakusho Koji (of Shall we dance? and Tampopo fame). I enjoyed the contemplative aspect of it, and some of its goofiness. Some see it as a movie about appreciating the moment — I rather imagined a complex backstory, and some hints that the main character is not as enlightened as he appears. SPOILER: I think he’s a former alcoholic, likely from a rich family, and possibly suffered some tragic loss that led him to go for a simpler, anonymous and laconic life (maybe Unagi-like), which probably only started a few years prior.

Paint**
A Bob Ross-esque TV painter played by Owen Wilson loses his top spot to a young gun. Reasonably entertaining.

Blinded by the Light**
A feel-good movie about two British South Asian youths who find their soul mate in Bruce Springsteen. Predictably ok.

Bobcat Moretti*
I thought it would be a kind. of Million Dollar Baby movie. Boy was I wrong.

The Boy and The Heron*
I am generally a great client for anything Ghibli (esp. Miyazaki’s works) but I could not finish watching this one. Something about the pace and silence throughout.

DOCUMENTARIES

Light and Magic**** (Disney+)
A great documentary about the history and technologies at ILM that made Star Wars and many other movies stand out. It covers the evolution from practical effects to digital, which echoes the current impact of A.I. — I was impressed by the stop-motion work, and how this expertise became critical to animate digital models too.

Raël: The Alien Prophet*** (Netflix)
This French creator named Claude Vorilhon aka Raël has been quite successful with a new religion: he has spread his faith across various countries.

BOOKS

Material World***
The materials we need for the world to work, their sources, economics, supply chains, etc.

4. THOUGHTS

Will A.I. Kill On-Ramp?

After text, images and videos by the usual suspects, I have been impressed by the music generation app suno.ai, which can be combined with kits.ai to replace a voice. Some ideas:

• Will those tools put (less than great) musicians out of work?

• Will they help musicians produce more and better work?

• Will it destroy the on-ramp for newcomers, or facilitate it?

One thing for sure, music creation in the future is likely to look quite different from today! And AI will eat into many more tasks, and possibly entire jobs, while creating possibly much less new jobs (how many “prompt engineers” for 100 call center jobs?).

No School for Entrepreneurship?

I stumbled upon the thought that entrepreneurs:

• Don’t wait to be told what to do

• Do their best

• Don’t expect praise

Which is in most cases the opposite of what schools trains students to do:

• Do what you’re told

• Do just enough to get by

• Expect some reward or praise (at school or at home)

With this setup, only resilient students with a “disagreeable” trait (as in the Big Five) are well suited to entrepreneurship, provided they survive their schooling ordeal ;p

It’s a bit of an over-generalization, but it also somehow connects to what Jensen Huang, Mr. Nvidia, shared in recent talks with students.

On those thoughts, Spring is coming!

Motivation

In a previous letter I WROTE about the importance of a growth mindset, and the fact that it needed to be combined with grit (to last) and curiosity (to start). But how to instill those?

For the latter, I read this quote from Cus D’Amato (trainer Mike Tyson and other champions): “A boy comes to me with a spark of interest. I feed the spark and it becomes a flame. I feed the flame and it becomes a fire.”

But how did he feed the spark and flame?

Once results come, it helps build confidence and generalize the concept (e.g. see the Arnold documentary).

On those thoughts, enjoy your Spring!
— Ben

#64 | Adventures in VR, Comedy, Art and Education Hacks

My irregular newsletter on work and play. Unsubscribe at the bottom. LinkedIn - X

It’s 2024! I hope your year is starting strong. I’ve gotten myself a new toy (pictured below) and look back at what was done in 2023, what’s coming in 2024, and some recent things.

MENU

1. WORK: Recap, upcoming
2. EXPERIENCES: VR Adventures, More Gadgets
3. CULTURE: Mostly Comedy
4. THOUGHTS: Art, Pirates and Exams

---

1. WORK

2023 Recap

• The SOSV Climate Tech Summit attracted close to 10,000 participants.

• Our 3 virtual VC/Startup matchmaking events on Health / Climate / Industry were very successful, leading to a cumulative ±5,000 meetings.

• Here is a link you’d like to pre-register for future events (it’s free).

2. EXPERIENCES

VR Adventures

I bought the new AR/VR device from Meta and I like it.

The VR image is crisp, the sound pretty good, and the AR (using passthrough with cameras) is pixellated but interesting. The most impressive moments were the room scanning (it’s really smooth), and the navigation with hands only.

My favorites apps so far:

• Beatsaber**** A hit VR music game, where you swing lightsabers in synch with music. Owned by Meta since 2019.

• SuperHot**** Action game where you have to move slowly and precisely to avoid attacks and dispatch enemies made of glass. I feel like Neo in The Matrix.

• Population: One*** Also from Meta. Battle Royale with guns and all (you can even climb and glide). Very immersive and fluid. Populated by adults and 12-year-olds.

• First encounters*** By Meta. Small AR game shooting alien balls. To play once.

• Epic Roller Coasters*** Fun thing to try. A friend’s 6yo loved it.

• Thrill of the Fight*** A boxing game. Graphics are so-so but it is quite a (stressful) workout.

• Active Shooter Survival** It’s a serious simulator, where you are in an office under attack. Not fund but educative. Nobody wanted to try it.

• Mondly** A language learning app putting you in various 3D scenarios. Still a bit clunky but showing promise. Not European Portuguese, unfortunately.

• Xponential+ AR gym app with barre, yoga and more to come. I haven’t played it but I know a fan. The advantages over a video on TV or mobile is that the instructor is in the room with you, wherever you look, which seems to bring higher engagement.

• I tried several more: VR movies, comics, Chat… but less to report there. Nature stuff were nice.

Neck Coolers

On my last Japan trip I noticed electronics stores sold this odd device. A neck cooling (and sometimes heating) device using a Peltier module. Apparently a best seller. There are also “cooling neck rings” without electronics (using paraffin). Local solutions to climate change? Along those lines, most housing in Portugal do not have central heating and are not well insulated. I discovered the joy of electric blankets - game changers!

Keluak Nuts

I was in Singapore after Japan and decided to look for keluak nuts, the black diamond of the peranakan food culture (Chinese & Indonesian/Malay heritage). Said to be poisonous if not prepared correctly, I had those twice in restaurants. Worth trying! (I’m still alive)

Sewer Chestnuts

Walking at night in Paris I came across an unmarked manhole open on the walkway. The staff of the shop in front of it told me that street sellers making crepes or roasting chestnuts often stored their material (and ingredients) under manholes. Apparently the cover of this one had fallen at the bottom of the ladder… No more street crepes for me.

Underground Karaoke

In Asia you can find Japanese-style “karaoke rooms” where you can sing with friends in a private room fitted with a big TV and mics (sometimes fancy lights and tambourines too).

In Lisbon I only found a few “karaoke bars”. A Chinese friend told me some unlicensed karaoke rooms were run by Chinese but tjat they did no do business with foreigners. I reminded him I’m from Beijing and decided to try.

This started a quest in a remote Asian commercial center (“the type where they take your organs” said a friend), until finding a door ajar in the back of a parking lot, that lead to over a dozen fancy rooms. The English song selection was limited but all went well, for 10 euros per hour.

My friend told me that better catalogs could be found at “business karaokes” but cost hundreds.

Death of the Raven

An ex military hospital in Lisbon has been turned into a 1920’s mansion for an immersive and wordless theatre play. The show casts Edgar Poe trying to murder Fernando Pessoa, Portugal’s famous poet and Poe translator. Decors, costumes, actors and sound effects were great. It’s still playing in Lisbon. I made an attempt at writing a Rap Battle then recalled out Poe had already been covered.

Polytopia

This mobile strategy game is mentioned in the Elon Musk biography. Apparently Elon was (is?) fairly addicted to it, and even convinced some friends to play. I confirm it’s addictive — I managed to delete it… three times (third time’s the charm).

BJJ

After receiving my purple belt in 2023 I slowed down a bit but pace is picking up again in the new year. Study, sparring, feedback loops.

3. CULTURE

MOVIES

Broadcast News****
I heard of it in an interview of Gary Gulman by fellow comedian Mike Birbiglia. Who will the dynamic female producer chose among the ethical reporter or the charming anchor? It has a similar vibe to the movie Network (1976, 4 stars in my book) though less complex storyline. Both are equally dystopian… and prescient. My questions (spoiler alert): is the anchor the devil? Was he nice or not to “help” the other guy?

Side note: I asked ChatGPT to explain why the reporter asked the anchor a particular question. Upon reading the response(s) I had to tell ChatGPT three times that I knew it was making its answer up, until it finally used its browsing tool and admitted “I should have used this tool earlier to ensure the accuracy and relevance of the information provided.”. Beware!

Leo****
I thought it was a Pixar movie, but it’s not: it’s a project from Adam Sandler that took years to get done. The two leads (Sandler and Burr) are great but the rest (secondary characters, backgrounds) is not as a high quality. Adam Sandler and Bill Burr’s voices are great. It was a charming and funny story I ended up watching twice.

Idiocracy****
Rewatched. Still accurate. Still has electrolytes.

The Animal Kingdom (Le Règne Animal)***
A new French movie where an epidemic (?) turns more and more people into (large) animals. Can the protagonist save his wife? Can his son handle the situation? A very nice job, with humor, surprises and subtle emotions.

The Revenant***
Great acting indeed (and special effects), but somewhat light screenplay.

Old Dads (Netflix)***
The first movie from Bill Burr, on late fatherhood (and generational clash with younger parents, the education system, etc.). It’s not as fun as his standup, but watchable.

Ordinary Men***
Exploring how some regular Germans did awful things as part Nazi police squads. A good reminder that, in similar circumstances, most of us would likely be somewhere on the horror spectrum.

Coup de Chance**
The latest opus by Woody Allen. I am generally keen on his work, but walked away disappointed, the story and characters were not interesting to me, and I left with the impression that the dialogues had been translated from English into French. We’re far from the Midnight in Paris fairy tale.

Elemental**
Latest Pixar. I gave it a shot on a long flight. It was ok.

Barbie**
Another flight movie. The leads and sets are Hollywood-level, but I found the whole thing quite forgettable.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny**
Same flight. Good job with de-aging and overall production, but the story fell short for me. On the upside: Disney stock is cheap!

Champions**
Final flight movie. Moody Woody Harrelson coaches a young basketball team with learning disabilities. Predictable.

Oliver Twist*
In an attempt to watch old classics, I really wanted to like this one from 1948. Unfortunately I generally dislike musicals, and find the over-acting in older movies often did not age well.

COMEDY

Here is a nice selection to start 2024 :)

Dave Chapelle: The Dreamer*** (Netflix)
A fun show. “Welcome to our watery grave!” :)

Flight of the Conchords Live in London***
A very enjoyable comedy concert by New Zealand's 4th Most Popular Parody Duo. It took a while but I’m glad that Murray found them a good gig!

Norm Macdonald: Nothing special*** (Netflix)
The last show of this folksy comic, shot at his desk during Covid, before he passed away from leukemia. Still delivers, beyond the grave.

Norm Macdonald: Hitler's dog*** (Netflix)
Also good.

Phil Hanley: Ooh la la***
I stumbled upon short clips from this self-branded dyslexic comedian on YouTube, and ended up enjoying his new special. Outstanding crowd work.

Gary Gulman: Born On 3rd Base*** (HBO)
The comedian’s comedian has a new special. He is his usual disarming and articulate self though I found this show less funny than some of his previous works. It’s still a pleasant watch.

NON-FICTION & DOCUMENTARIES

Strict Parents & Supernanny**** (YouTube)
I enjoyed watching several episodes of those reality TV shows, with strict parents from US, South Africa, Kenya, Lebanon hosting difficult teenagers, and the original UK Supernanny. Quite often, the problem is — no surprise — parents. How we are doing with “self-parenting” once adults? Should we have time-outs? Can we “parent” our own positive behavior?

Sly***
After Arnold, Sly. A good watch, and another story of grit and intelligence.

Blackberry***
A documentary about the formerly enormous Canadian smartphone corporation. A few valuable history tidbits, and apparently a whole lot of fiction. Co-founder Doug Fregin left in 2007 and sold his stock when Apple released the iPhone.

Coda**
A documentary on the life of the recently departed Ryuichi Sakamoto of Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence and The Revenant fame. The best bits for me were witnessing his curiosity, and how movie directors throwing challenges at him helped him produce great works.

LKY in his Own Words**
On the flight back from Singapore I watched this documentary about the country’s famous leader. Nothing much I did not know (I read his great From Third World to First).

You Are What You Eat (Netflix)**
A documentary on a Stanford study on the effects of diet (vegetarian vs omnivore). Solid speakers, and it was great to find several SOSV food tech startups quoted as well. I paused and spent minutes on each of the charts shown. The original publication is here.

BOOKS

Thinking in Bets***
Pro poker player Annie Duke explains how life is more like poker (uncertainty, many hands to play) than chess. Among the key takeaways so far for me:

• Nothing is 100% certain (we could live in a simulation ;) so it is useful to shift our mindset to being the “best evaluator of information” rather than being right or wrong. That’s not how most people/media think so it might feel lonely.

• Separate the decision quality from the result quality. A well-thought decision might have a terrible outcome, and a terrible decision can turn out well. Focus on what is in our control to improve decision quality.

• Learn to say no / quit. Pro players only play 10-15% of hands. Live to play the next better hand.

3. THOUGHTS

De-Sacralizing Art

I wrote before about art, and how most people lacked artistic confidence, and think you need “talent” to produce something at least you liked. Art education rarely supports the mere enjoyment of making or appreciating art even for your own sake past the “age of praise” (10yo?).

Well, I found out that most famous musicians these days don’t know music theory. Hans Zimmer and Paul McCartney can't read sheet music, but they can create and enjoy music.

Maybe the goal of art education should be simply to (1) be exposed to a variety of art to find what you like (2) possibly dive into why you like it (3) make art you like. The opposite of that is to train to orchestra-level skill while losing all joy in playing.

Pirates Fashion

• Apparently pirates had eye patches to switch eye and accommodate faster when going to the lower deck.

• The “pom-pom” on sailors hats not only finished the cap (covering the central spot after knitting), but also acted as a cushion / probe to avoid bumping one’s head.

Hacking Exams

How do you get an average high-school student to outperform in an exam? How do you help them choose a final year major?

My friend Y shared how he helped his child prepare for a key high school exam by being strategic and systematic in preparing topics.

• The exam offered a choice between either commentary or essay, so they decided to focus their preparation only on one (essay).

• They covered enough topics (I think about 20?) based on the year’s curriculum to guarantee one would be picked.

• They came up with a kind of template, then even used chatGPT to fill in ideas, quotes, references.

• The child learned it all over a only a few days and scored 18/20 (up from a mere 9/20 during the year).

Later faced with choosing majors during the final year, my friend offered his child a Summer course at a prestigious MBA that was open from 15yo. It wasn’t cheap but she was delighted by the experience of being exposed to real world stuff, taught by outstanding professors, and she picked her majors.

That’s all for now. Wishing everyone good decisions and feedback loops in 2024!
- Ben

#63 | VC/Startup Matching, Asia Trip, Motivation & Energy

Winter is coming! Solid 18C/64F in Lisbon today. Not quite the -40C/-40F contestants reached in Alone, but enough for a sweater.

MENU

1. WORK: Climate Summit Results, Industrial Tech Matchmaking
2. EXPERIENCES: Coding, Asia Trip
3. CULTURE: Nothing too remarkable this time…
4. THOUGHTS: Motivation & Energy

1. WORK

Climate Tech Summit Results

It’s finally done! Results have been great. Here is a quick recap of the activities:

• Online Summit: 100 speakers, 12 hours of content, 10,000 registrants. I interviewed Iceland’s Minister for Innovation, and moderated a panel of emerging markets investors. Other great sessions: nuclear, energy storage, carbon removal and more. Videos are here as well as podcasts (made using some AI).

• Virtual Matchmaking: a VC/startup virtual matchmaking produced by yours truly. A stunning 1,800+ participants (including 800+ VCs - it’s not a typo). An estimated 3,500 meetings took place and I received feedback like “this event was insanely valuable”. Due to popular demand, we will likely host another in April. Register your interest here.

• Receptions: we hosted 6 VIP events in SF, NY, Newark, London, Tokyo and Singapore. About 1,000 people RSVPs. It’s nice to meet in the flesh once in a while :)

Next up: Industrial Tech Matchup (Dec 4-8, 2023)

• Our virtual VC/startup matchmaking events have done great so we’re adding industrial tech to the list after Climate and Health.

• The event has just been announced and over 200 investors signed up within the first 24 hours!

• If you’re a founder or investor active in that space you’re welcome to sign up as well. Our definition of industrial tech is pretty broad - robotics, chemical industry, IoT, textile, etc.

• Registering early will give you more visibility in our matching system.

WebSummit

• I’m around and speaking at a couple of panels. I’ll also attend some side events. Maybe see you there!

2. EXPERIENCES

Coding

Two of my coding projects went “live” recently. Excited to see what GPT 4 Turbo can do now!

• Recommendation engine for investors
  How to get investors to book more meetings during our virtual matchmaking events? For our Climate Tech matchup I coded a matching system and sent personalized recommendations, which led to more meetings. I will build on this in upcoming events. Note: I initially explored using embeddings and GPT but realized that it wasn’t that great when you already have structured data.

• Podcast generator
  The Summit provided great content but few people watch it on YouTube. So I turned sessions into podcasts. Tech involved: speech to text (Deepgram), gpt-3.5 for summaries (+ human editing), voice cloning and text to speech (ElevenLabs). Each episode took less than 10 minutes to package. The 23 conference sessions are now live. What do you think?

Asia Trip

• I was invited by Japan’s JETRO to coach climate tech startups (some great projects and much improved English fluency, but founding teams often lack international experience).

• It had been a while since my last trip and it was nice to catch up with Tokyo, as well as Taipei and Singapore. Shinjuku - especially kabukicho - had gentrified quite a bit. LVMH next to H&M, etc. The food was great, as always, and my Japanese wasn’t too rusty, outside of karaoke performances.

• I managed to train BJJ in all 3 cities. The guys (Koreans!) in Singapore were the toughest. I did not see standup comedy this time, but stopped at the newly opened and cute-sized Peranakan museum in Singapore, celebrating the hybrid culture from Southern Chinese, Malays, Indians and even Arabs. From it I got recommended a place for peranakan food nearby called True Blue. Great setting and taste. Ok prices.

3. CULTURE

MOVIES

Tampopo***

Juzo Itami is likely my favorite Japanese director. Tampopo is a timeless and charming story about a woman struggling with a ramen store, until two gourmet truckers stop by. On YouTube while it lasts.

Oppenheimer**

The politics were interesting but I was surprised so little was showed of the dynamics between the scientists, and the destruction the bombs caused. One takeaway for me was that nations serve their own changing interests and goals, and do not care too much for the individuals involved. It is also a pity that the bombs have tainted the word “nuclear” for decades. Watch Oliver Stone’s Nuclear Now as a complement.

SHOWS

Bodies** (Netflix)

Netflix told me to check out this British time-travel sci-fi thing. It was quite well produced, with good acting, but as many pointed out, ended up looking like a watered-down version of the German Dark, which was better in many ways. Season 1 was ok but I’m likely not watching Season 2.

Alphonse** (Prime)

In his usual ‘lovable idiot’ persona, French actor Jean Dujardin (watch his OSS 117 series - it’s between James Bond and Austin Powers, with French flair) plays a middle-aged married man who discovers his dad an unusual occupation. Reasonably entertaining.

Rick & Morty, Season 7** (Adult Swim)

One of the show creators, who also voiced the 2 main characters, was dismissed due to accusations that were later… also dismissed (update: new ones came to light). While the new voices are not too far off, I found the writing and storylines were worse than in previous seasons. This might be the last season for me.

Alone, Season 7** (Netflix)

Can the contestants survive alone on a lake shore in Northern Canada for 100 days with 10 items? Prepare for climate change with this show. Some contestants have mad skills, and several were taken out by bad luck rather than incompetence. This show doesn’t have the challenges and team dynamics of Naked and Afraid but it also works when fast-forwarding a fair bit.

4. THOUGHTS

Motivation & Energy

I’ve been working on ways to help youngsters acquire a growth mindset (= the confidence that (1) everything is a skill (2) skills can be learned (3) practice leads to progress). So far my approach has been to expose them to something they did not think they could do, embrace it with a beginner’s mind, and after some practice, realize that there is a path within their reach, then generalize the lesson.

Yet, it does not solve the challenge of finding the initial motivation, and the energy to take action.

For myself, I found that designing the right environment to make the desired action take place with less friction can help a lot (e.g. living less than 10min away from the gym), but the initial impulse remains challenging.

I suppose they can be improved - maybe with better feedback loops? The people I know who score high on those seem to have been wired that way from birth and can’t explain it. Suggestions are welcome!

Until next time!
— Ben