Party. ESG as Negotiation.
Nuances of ESG (Jerome Tagger). Investing week: Antibiotics, China Zero-COVID, obesity. Party! Unconferences and why hold events. UK Arts funding week.
This week listen/read Jerome Tagger and me talk about some of the nuanced and tricky questions around Environment Social and Governance (ESG). We have more questions than answers which is what much of the frontier of thinking is about. Thanks to everyone signed up to the party, Nov 23: Welcome if you’ve come to my eclectic letter that way.
Investing week: Antibiotics, China Zero-COVID, obesity
Jerome Tagger: Nuances of ESG
Party! Unconferences and why hold events
Big week for UK Arts
ThenDoBetter Grant Winner: Byran Kam
Links (end): Mystery of Zebras ⦿ History of financial mistakes ⦿ Low US river levels ⦿ Cormac McCarthy and Sante Fe Institute (complexity and mavericks) ⦿ Human led maths? Is it over? ⦿ Chris Stark on Climate ⦿ Innovations in biology ⦿ Mega-structure ⦿ How to sack people. Stripe edition ⦿
This week UK Arts had its major funder (the government, via Arts Council England) decide many of its medium term funding announcements (typically the next 3 years funding). It is arguably the single most important decision for the majority of UK arts. A big shout-out to everyone involved. I share sadness for all those who didn’t make it through and happiness for those who have. It’s pretty niche for most people in the world but if you consider that UK arts is one of the major cultural forces in the world then the decisions are big news. There is a question of how much state arts funding there should be (cf the US which in some ways has less or Germany which in some ways has more) and with other cost of living pressures there will definitely be on-going pressure here.
Losers include: London (as government directs ACE to move money away from London) including ENO, Coney, Barbican, Hampstead and Donmar.
In investing week, I noted positive trials for a new antibiotic.
I consider antibiotics resistance as one of the large under-rated threats to human wealth, health and progress.
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.
As a result of drug resistance, antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines become ineffective and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat.
….WHO has declared that AMR is one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity.
I also listened to how an obesity drug launch is going in the US and so much results news… much of it negative either due to China zero COVID policies, supply chain challenges or consumers/businesses acting like it’s a recession and cutting back.
I’m holding a party. I regularly hold mingle/meet-ups. I advocate for “UnConferences” and I’ve helped Chatham House host two on sustainability themes.
I’ve been asked why? Part of the answer lies in my belief in the value of being pro-social and the value of “weak social ties”. And in recent times, in particular the power of UnConference events.
…I recommend Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross’ book on Talent. I’m still sifting through my notes as the book applies to both how I think about people I collaborate with in my theatre making as well as my Angel investing, microgrant making and my main job of global equity investing.
I wanted to pull out one idea which is almost an aside in the book. The holding of an unstructured event/meet-up/conference. The unstructured part is important. They write:
Send Them to an Event (or Create an Event) One advantage of an event is that it may expose the attendee to top achievers and performers and help make those trajectories vivid alternatives. In those regards the event is similar to a travel grant, except you are sending them to a location that is important only temporarily. But event attendance may serve other purposes as well. An event may convince the attendee that a social or tech movement is real, or that it is benevolent, or that it is popular and desirable to belong to, or that it is not crazy. Events make that knowledge vivid in a way that reading about a movement does not: “Look, here are all the other people interested in nuclear fusion!”—or cryptocurrency, or venture capital. For exactly the same reason, events are risky, as they may scare some people off (“Hey, those people are crazy!”). Usually, though, the scared-off individuals were not going to make major contributions to that cause anyway, and so event attendance speeds up their possible reallocation to another cause or venture, one that might prove a better match. Or maybe those people really are crazy; if so, it’s better to find that out sooner rather than later. Events are an accelerated test of cultural fit. Creating your own event is costly in terms of time and money, but it can be an ideal way of raising the aspirations of those you consider talented. You get to control everything, from the invitees to the program to what they will eat for breakfast. Daniel has organized successful events for Pioneer winners, and Tyler has done the same for Emergent Ventures. But here is the important thing to understand about organizing your own event: the group has to gel. You can raise their aspirations a bit, but the group itself creates most of its own dynamic and its own theater. The members of the group will raise each other’s aspirations, at least if you have selected well and structured your event to give them enough interaction with each other. When the leader (you) and the peers are pushing in a common direction—the raising of aspirations—the effect can be very powerful indeed. But you will need to give them the freedom of letting them contribute to defining what the group is all about. [BY: my emphasis]
When I went to check out the Effective Altruism, EAG conference, there was an element of this, EA were raising each other’s aspirations but I don’t think the main structure of the EAG I went to is quite the best. (I am told UnConference formats happen in their smaller events).
Much better, in my view are forms of “UnConference”. Tyler Cowen hosts one for Emergent Venture winners very much in this model. Kyle writes about the EV 2021 UnConference here.
I have co-hosted with my Chatham House Sustainability Accelerator friends now two Unconferences with sustainability themes. Here is Nina Klose on coming to my UnConference. Attendees who have been both to Tyler’s and my UnConferences report there are differences (I used a moderator to help people along) but the vibe and principles work similar. People found much value in the events and much more fun than a “standard” conference. I also host even less structured mingle/parties.
I have several reasons for this. First, I think there is much (under-rated) value in “weak social ties” (here is the wiki on the work, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpersonal_ties). These connections are valuable to everyone.
Second, in particular for UnConferences you have these benefits:
Advantages
(Easier) Discovery of people with similar project interests
More inclusive, less hierarchical
Opportunity for everyone to share ideas
Higher use of agency
Although there can still be disadvantages… Disadvantages : Can be harder for introverts, can still be dominated by extrovert characters and less well known norms can leave people uncertain on how to react.
Which, if you are trying to solve problems by creating more social capital and ideas, is a much better form of conference. There is much more interaction and the interaction is with like-minded peers who have typically selected themselves for a similar broad purpose.
Lastly, there is the point on talent that Cowen and Gross are making. These forms of unstructured meet-ups are an excellent way of gaining a sense of whether you might have a talent fit if you are looking to hire or collaborate with new people. (I found a recent hire this way, or perhaps, a recent hire found me this way as well - as the process is two way.)
Many more soft skills, characteristics and a much broader and deeper sense of understanding about someone is discovered in these types of events. They synergise well with information you will glean from an interview but I suggest they will be much more revealing. UnConferences are also much much more fun.
Just like my parties. If you want to come to the next one in London, November 2023 that’s my next party or, unstructured meet-up event!
I awarded a microgrant to Bryan Kam, he writes:
I am developing a methodology for healthy philosophical inquiry, which aims to provide better strategies for thinking about problems at an individual and collective level. This approach will identify warning signs in thinking and discourse. I’ll propose strategies which have worked historically to prevent us from doing either too much abstraction without testing, or too much action without reflection.
Philosophy must be contextual and alive. It is just as dangerous to leave intellectuals in an insulated realm of abstractions as it is to encourage unwise action by those with no understanding of history and theoretical context.
I think of this approach as “neither pure theory nor pure action, but both at once” or Neither/Nor for short. We need both strategies to thrive.
The current consensus is that truth is something objective and static, and that the scientific method is the only way to unveil this truth. This narrow conception of truth, which restricts how science must be practiced and communicated (“scientism”) impedes us rather than empowering us and is preventing the experimentation we need for progress. Thus, rather than something static we uncover, we should be aiming for a practical methodology for inquiry.
I do not oppose science but I believe that a narrow vision of it will limit our ability to understand the problems we face. However, I also oppose relativism and resist the modern tendency to dichotomize which makes it easy to leap to the conclusion that if there is no objective truth, then the only alternative is the opposite extreme: “everything is equal.”
As the first part of this project, I am working on an article, which will become a chapter in a book that I’m writing, about how a better understanding of philosophy and history can help innovation. This is a project I’ve been working on for the past two years (self-funding), but I’m now out of savings, just as I near the first public milestone. As part of writing the article, I plan to record podcasts and video lectures.
My main goal for this stage and for all my work is to move beyond theoretical formulations. I seek to also test and enact the conceptual framework I am elaborating, through a series of dialogical experiments. In the near future, I will look at how conceptions of selfhood have changed over time, and what impact this has had on society. I will question when a commitment to abstract truth might contribute to technological and scientific progress, and when such a commitment might impede progress. I’m also planning a practical guide to the technique of Buddhist “dependent origination,” which promises to end suffering through an analytical method. These would appear in a series of lectures, podcasts, and gatherings.
As part of this effort, I’m drafting video lectures on YouTube. You can also see a 2 minute summary of one of the main ideas here.
The microgrant has allowed me more time to make progress on this writing and the conversations that will support it.
If any of this sounds exciting, I’m searching for collaborators, so please reach out.
This is summary of my chat with Jérôme Tagger. I am still thinking on it as it has more questions than answers but it’s very stimulating thinking on the edge of what is happening in ESG world…
Jérôme Tagger is CEO of Preventable Surprises. Jérôme is a thinker on long term ESG trends (a catch-all phrase for extra-financial environment, social and governance) and systemic risks. He was a Director at the Global Impact Investing Network, the founding COO of the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment, Head of Research at Eurosif and Chief Revenue Officer at ImpactAlpha. He co-hosts a podcast with Alison Taylor, the Breaking Fever.
We chat about the differing roles of companies, civil society and government. What Jérôme thinks about the most important levers and theories of change.
Why ESG could be thought of as a form of negotiation.
Whether we have an idea on what the neglected issues or under rated ESG challenges are.
What you should be thinking of as the chief exec of a think tank start-up. How we should think about building institutional capital. The importance of relationships and “social capital”.
Whether we should consider “less democracy, technocractics rather than democratic decision making.
What Jérôme thinks about billionaire philanthropy.
What Jérôme is hearing about views on regulation on greenwashing and, in particular, on SFDR (Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, EU).
“...I haven't talked to a single person whether on the finance side, on the NGO side, civil society or otherwise that is happy with this regulation.”
Jérôme ends with advice and current projects.
Podcast available wherever you get podcasts, or below.
PODCAST INFO
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3gJTSuo
Spotify: https://sptfy.com/benyeoh
Anchor: https://anchor.fm/benjamin-yeoh
Links:
Mystery of Zebras
Do we learn from the history of financial mistakes? Seems like we don't.
Low river levels
Cormac McCarthy and his relationship with Sante Fe Institute
Human led maths? Is it over?
Chris Stark on Climate
The innovations in biology
VC Billionaire, Marc Andreessen on recommended books:
How to sack people. Stripe edition. Plus reflection on mistakes.
Mega-structures: