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

Sep 04, 2024

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!

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

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