My birthday, I will die if I want to.

(I don't die). Barcelona, responsible investing conference. Letter to my son. Chat AI has had another improved step change. My Bigly performance, 12 Jan.

Dec 04, 2022

Chat AI now pretty good
Haiku and my death performance piece
Overheard thoughts from responsible investing conference
Letter to my son on exam absurdities

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. Back by popular demand I’m performing Thinking Bigly: How We Die on 12 Jan 2023.

What’s the best way for Ben to die? Help Ben with death admin. Shape his story. Plan his funeral. An interactive performance where you help Ben have his best death*. (*Ben doesn’t die in the show).

Time: 7pm, 12 Jan 2023.
Venue: Theatre Deli, Leadenhall Street, London

Book - pay what you like - at this link here.

There will be an after party if you like - or if you can’t make the 7pm slot or have been before, 8.15pm onward. RSVP for party here.

If you’d like to answer and check out the pre-show survey, see link here: https://forms.gle/2u71yj9rFgtHBa297

An audience member:

"I'm writing this from my father's bedside as he sleeps. He is now in palliative care having declined rapidly overnight following a hip operation last week. He probably has at most 48 hours left according to the doctors. Your play on death has been helpful to me in reflecting ahead of time on what to expect and what represents a good death. As a result I'm less shocked by the whole thing than I might've been. Death was as you’d described and I was glad of that knowledge."

A new section this time will be on death haiku. Here is a haiku from Issa on facing his daughter’s death.

露の世は露の世ながらさりながら Tsuyu no yo wa/ Tsuyu no yo nagara/ Sari nagara

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The dewdrop world
is the dewdrop world
yet it is

Or, as Chie Mitsui writes:

I know that the world of dew is fragile because it is the world of dew, but it is too absurd.

And the AI art interpretation of the haiku….

Benjamin Yeoh @benyeohben

露の世は露の世ながらさりながら Tsuyu no yo wa/ Tsuyu no yo nagara/ Sari nagara The dewdrop world is the dewdrop world yet it is (Issa on facing his daughter's death). Image AIart.

I should note that one of the most dramatic happenings at the moment has come from the release of new AI language models, hot on the release of new AI art models. The AI language model from OpenAI’s ChatGPT is impressive.

If you’ve not tried it out, you should do so. Here is part of a limerick it made for me on ESG…

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There once was a world full of woe
Where people just cared about dough
But then came ESG
A new way to see
A better world for all, don't you know!

Link to try it out is here.

Or… on exams…

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With the pressure to perform and excel
And the fear of failing, it's quite hell
Exams can be stressful
And leave us less able
To truly show what we know, it's not swell

So let's all reject exams, we say
And find a better way to assess, okay?
With more creativity
And less anxiety
We can show what we know in a better way.

My son has been prepping for exams (as I advocate writing as a gift… see previous blogs) this is part of what I wrote to him:

Benjamin Yeoh @benyeohben

A letter to my son. Riffing on the absurdity of exams.

These are the results from last week’s poll (so not too many of knew about conflict minerals…):

This week I have a poll running on LinkedIn on whether you thought the PRI in-person conference content was above/below expectations. That poll link is here.

I also wonder, do you have any worries about any negative aspects in the advance of AI? (bias, rogue AGI etc.)

I still think “being sustainable” mostly has an image and friction challenge (I wrote about this last week). I managed after 5 failed bids to buy a replacement phone for the one my son has filled. (Sort of) this has saved/avoided 61kg CO2e this is about 70% of the amount of a flight London-Barcelona (google model, discussed in my previous blog). Or it would have been about 10% of my targeted carbon budget of about 6 t C02 this year (Typical UK person has a footprint of about 8 to 12 tCO2).

Barcelona observations at the largest “Responsible Investing” Conference. At LinkedIn I am also running a poll on how people felt the content was above/below average.

I once was in love and in Barcelona. This was not long after the Olympics. With rose tinted memory, I recall bird flying high overlooking the high diving pool, iconic, and a blend of landscape, nature and human,
I once was in love again, the final and lasting time, and in Barcelona. The sea, the food, the design, the architecture, the culture and more make Barcelona a lovely place for love.

Memories tend to be coloured. They are tinted bright or dark. Seldom do they accurately reflect the shapes and shadows of the present moments.

PRI (Principles for Responsible Investment) has come a long way over the decades (founded in 2005). We can probably recall the lowlights and highlights, it’s harder to remember the messy middle of the moment where there is limited consensus and many actors aiming broadly in the same direction (although with disagreement of that too) but disagreement about how to travel there.

PRI brings this year 1700+ responsible/sustainable investors. This encompasses a wide spectrum of types of investors across asset classes, philosophies and the like. Still, it is a movement of sorts - and in that sense I think about what the EA or XR movements are like when they get together.

I can tell you the people I meet are very hard working, really trying to do good, really trying to figure out the answers amongst the constraints we all face (social-political, organisational and the like). In that respect there are similarities to other social change movements.

…So this is the messiness I overheard at Barcelona.

Content was mostly poor. Most of the plenary sessions were poor on content. Almost everyone in the audience had heard this content before. Probably too much influence from sponsors.
Meeting people was great. The conversations and relationships were very valuable. (I have spoken much about conferences and see my own thoughts on UnConferences as being superior).
There is limited consensus on carbon Scope 3. The median view perhaps is: (1) report scope 3 (2) if you have some control, eg consumer products company, then some/higher responsibility (3) if you have limited control of product, eg. gas company, then responsibility is higher for governments and consumers of your product/service.
Regulatory mess. EU SFDR is a mess. Mixed views on UK SDR. Mixed views on SEC “greenwashing” crack down. Median view suggests that the crackdown is having a chilling impact on authentic managers but where data etc. are imperfect. So, broadly, taken together the regulation is not helping the ESG/sustainability movement get better or serve better real world impact. Contra, retail consumers have more information. Contra, contra, this is not helping retail consumers. [SDR while single label might help retail, most funds* are suggesting their holdings are mixed between the label categories and in SDR you can only choose one.] *Again, this is just overheard anecdote from several people.
Regulatory part 2. (Median view) Seems to help passive managers, or rules based, more than active. Debate on how much US anti-ESG politics is a red herring e.g. no litigation on “collusion” is easily possible and dealt with by disclaimer. Contra, the anti-“greenwashing” efforts are chilling.
In mainstream, lots of “hidden Stuart Kirks”. Or, rather, mainstream is paying lip service but not doing too much. ESG people are living in a bubble. Albeit quite a large bubble.
Occasional sympathy for part of Tariq Fancy view (this is minority view, I heard but expressed), that in areas of climate, regulation and policy might be a better answer and corporates/investors are not / cannot do much. Although contra, where is innovation coming from? Not from regulation.
Accounting. How to account for carbon in derivatives, long/short etc. Still unresolved. How “real” are derivatives for the real carbon economy.
Reporting. Is it getting in the way of doing? Actual carbon scope reporting is still very estimated. Strategically, many operators know what to do even if the numbers are not straightforward.
What is govt responsibility re: climate? Vs corporate and consumer? Is the lever for “just transition” via govt ? Can older generations accept they will lose jobs, and skills not transferable. The jobs will be for younger generations?
What about non climate stuff ? Modern slavery, supply chains, health, global developments etc. How much is this being left behind now.
Do we even know what happens to cost of capital re: ESG? Median answer = No, we do not; and we may never know.
Do we even know the proper trade-offs between stakeholders? Can we even acknowledge the trade-offs? Do trade-offs mean investors cannot go too extreme in net zero commitments (cf. Tom Gosling paper).
Social change movements. As they move more extreme, is this more unhelpful than helpful? Median view: they are becoming unhelpful and polarization is worrying.
Sovereign engagement is early days, but it is possible. (eg deforestation and conversations with Ecuador govt).
Much of company reporting in broad indices, or national indices, has estimated carbon reporting still. Eg broad US russell indices majority of data is estimated. This data problem is still a challenge although may not change the strategic answers.
“ESG people are too nice in terms of engagement.” Need to argue the case more forcefully.
Please don’t let us turn into only compliance watch dogs.
Can we make impact via capital allocation and stewardship? Some argue that we can.
GFANZ. Has no one checked out the latest categories for thinking about Net Zero? (Solutions, aligned, aligning, phase out).
Does the E and the S meet on challenges around mining transition metals?
Biodiversity and natural capital, but we are very far away from understand this in terms of investment.
China. We need China on board, both for innovation and mitigation, adaptation, supply chains etc. Geopolitics going to be a big things for decades to come.

Some questions I heard:

What is ESG leadership?
Where there is inefficiency, is there alpha?
How do we do total engagement?
Is there a way of organising ourselves better to lead on systemic risk rather than idiosyncratic ESG risk?
Lots of talk on “real world impact” but do most of us even know how to do that?
Are secondary capital markets so much weaker than primary markets in terms of influencing ESG? Where are the investment banking and advisory teams? Should we focus more on primary capital?
Do we need some corporates in the room?

Feel free to leave comments of respond to me for any more.

Ben Yeoh, Then Do Better

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