Easter, work, life has kept me busy. I was updating my chapter for the CFA ESG course. Thanks to everyone who sent in suggestions.1
I am due to podcast with Jennifer Doleac, an economist who has looked at crime, poverty, drug abuse prevention and the like. Let me know any questions.
I’m also due to podcast with Betsy Wheaton who has gone to work on the Neom sustainability project in Saudi.
And, David Ruebain who has worked on disability rights and is now pro-vice Chancellor at Sussex. Let us know if you have questions.
I’ve enjoyed dipping into Nick Cave’s letters from time to time. Cave has confronted and addressed some of the deep challenges of humanity such as grief, losing a child, the creative processes (at deep levels). Cave has created the Red Hand Files since 2018 as a direct response to letters he receives.
What is Cave’s main work?
"With the Bad Seeds, Cave continued to explore his obsessions with religion, death, love, America, and violence with a bizarre, sometimes self-consciously eclectic hybrid of blues, gospel, rock, and arty post-punk." (Critics in 2009)
Still - I find music of serious importance to the human condition. I believe music making - like many artistic human endeavours - has been with us for a very long time, possibly at the dawn of humanity and grappling with music is to grapple with the human condition in all its conflicting complexity.
I observe Nick Cave to be firmly grappling this. I have many periods of time where I feel like some of what Nick Cave expresses recently - on being in the uncertain radical centre - in what is a profound and intimate series of blogs. He’s also funny. So it starts with raisins.
Daphne writes:
Do you like raisins ?
I have always disliked them. As a character trait, I am not sure of much, and I have few strong opinions about stuff in general. I feel like I can change opinions easily, and I am pretty influenceable, which is not necessarily a bad thing I feel. But I know how I feel about raisins. I am quite sure of it.
I would say they are the least interesting dry fruit there is. Apricots have a nice colour, bananas have crunch. I feel raisins are just not that exciting. Aesthetically speaking too, the wrinkly brownish skin isn’t that great a look. And the texture is underwhelming, it sticks to the teeth and dries the mouth.
[Long paragraph on the use of raisins in cooking]
[Long paragraph on how her sister puts them in sandwiches]
Anyway, I’ve been thinking about this, and how I feel like I don’t ever know what I want or what to think and how I am just always confused about things, and I suppose hating raisins has been a pretty consistent thing in my life and in that sense I guess I should be grateful for it. And maybe try to like them in that way.
[Long paragraph on how she used to hate dates but likes them now]
Cave replies:
Daphne, you seem to hold a position, or rather a non-position, on things that is, in a way, similar to mine. I guess we inhabit a particular space within the world, you and I, somewhere in the midst of things, somewhere in the centre.
Séan O’Hagan, my dear friend, and co-author of the publishing sensation, Faith, Hope and Carnage, said to me this morning, ‘You centrists are the worst. You don’t know where you stand. You’re like fucking leaves in the wind,’ by which I think he meant that I had no conviction, which is to some degree true. It is often the case with us songwriter types because we have found that a more inquiring, more expansive, less-entrenched position serves us better in the pursuit of the illusive but beautiful idea. In the centre we feel freer, less restricted, less dogmatised, less bigoted. We see the world as essentially mysterious, often mystical, and we are humbled by it, in so far as we do not claim to know or fully understand it. We dance nimbly about, following our distinctive desires, our interests, wherever they may take us, with humility, with curiosity, with uncertainty. We feel we don’t need to live within the prescribed imaginations of others. We are open to persuasion, yet forever ourselves. We understand too that the centre is indeed held together by its extremities, and we need the radicals to mark out the boundaries within which we play.
I tried to make my position, such as it is, feel more dangerous and sexy, by describing myself to Séan as alt-centre, but he wasn’t having it. ‘You guys just blow whichever way the wind goes,’ he muttered, gloomily. He was in a dark and defeated mood this morning. ‘Jesus, man, what’s wrong with you?’ I asked, ‘Have you been reading the Guardian?’
Still, Séan, ever astute, was on to something. He understands me well, better than most. At the end of the day, I just don’t really know about anything for sure. I am simply not certain about things, except perhaps this – on those rare occasions when I am irrevocably convinced of my own position and have that surge of righteousness roaring through my raisins, I am often plain wrong.
Mainly, though, I feel I’m just tossed around like that leaf, batted this way and that, by those broad and inquisitive winds, baffled and humbled by the world, curious and mostly awed, with no real port of call but God, Himself.
As for raisins, Daphne, I kind of know where you are coming from, they do have a grim, scrotal horribleness, but like all things in this world – you, me and every other little thing – they have their place. Be kind.
It may have started from travelling through many cultures early in life. People I met were so varied in their beliefs and thoughts - mostly they were committed, kind and authentic - if there is so much breadth to humanity so much complexity so much I don’t know and will never know - how can I grip on to some matters so tightly -
Like the leaf blowing in the wind - the grip is often light - especially in matters of the human and in matters of art - these areas matter deeply but in the end I arrive at thinking
I’m a mystical atheist (cf. Reid Hoffman)
I’m a radical agnostic
I’m a conservative anarchist (cf Audrey Tang)
I worry about and admire so many with these stronger convictions - worry because so many of them and up wrong (the road to hell being filled with good intentions) - admire because I often don’t have these convictions and because where they are correct they can progress humanity forward -
Until then we end up - or I end up in this messy area - call it a messy middle - but it’s not a middle really - it’s a place to be in awe of it means to be human and to be in wonder on how to figure it all out and reflect ourselves -
And I think that’s where Nick Cave gets to - with his faith and his music - and on some days - I’m swimming around there too -
I am going to quote this part again:
a more inquiring, more expansive, less-entrenched position serves us better in the pursuit of the illusive but beautiful idea. In the centre we feel freer, less restricted, less dogmatised, less bigoted. We see the world as essentially mysterious, often mystical, and we are humbled by it, in so far as we do not claim to know or fully understand it. We dance nimbly about, following our distinctive desires, our interests, wherever they may take us, with humility, with curiosity, with uncertainty. We feel we don’t need to live within the prescribed imaginations of others. We are open to persuasion, yet forever ourselves. We understand too that the centre is indeed held together by its extremities, and we need the radicals to mark out the boundaries within which we play.
As this resonate - I am forever curious about others - I have my own views always open to be persuaded and I am really certain I do not fully understand much… I understand the radicals and activists make my work possible - but I am not them -
…I am also in many ways on top of my game in terms of the theatre I want to make, the investing I do, the family quests we do together - and take that all together - I am still in wonder and mystified.
Perhaps - that’s why I am also drawn to Katherine Rundell’s echoing cry from John Donne to live in wonder.
But I find it amazing that it took so long for the CEO of Uber to actually try the driver experience.
Many CEOs historically grew up through their companies or founded them and those who didn’t will often try their hand at the front line - super market CEOs stacking shelves or at the counter - internet retailer CEOs working in the warehouse - insurance CEOs doing telesales or customer service.
Empathy - which famously might be lacking in some CEOs in any case - can only get you so far vs doing the work yourself. You do this to understand your business and employee experience.
The other aspect I find extraordinary is how long it took internally to work this through. Uber has a senior manager in charge of the driver experience. She clearly knew the problems. The other senior managers did not take this seriously enough to the extent that she then challenged the CEO to be a driver so that he could understand.
I’m a naturally chatty and curious person. I could have told the Uber CEO many of the challenges that came up and I learned these by asking the Uber drivers. 10 conversations already gives quite a clear picture. But I don’t think you needed to be like me to discover this.
Uber management obviously didn’t fully understand the problem nor that drivers were the scarce resource.
The long time tech analyst, Ben Thompson didn’t appreciate the driver scarcity challenge previously but now does articulate it but he is looking on the outside I find it amazing that Uber took so long to appreciate it.
However it goes to show the strength of the network, agglomeration and other effects that Uber has that seemingly a better focus on the driver experience has enabled Uber to stabilise its business.
It does seem that overall the convenience for users, the ability to be picked up in lower traffic areas, the possible overall net increase of safety for women is giving net consumer benefit and as car fleets go increasingly electric - while walking and bikes will still be best for carbon - electric car fleets might be not too bad either from a carbon PoV.
My overall thought though is to question CEOs now, if they have never spend a day in a life as their employees (or close to them) , do they really know their business?
Within investing world Warren Buffett has a lot to say. Here is almost 3 hours worth in a recent interview. Three items worth noting, how he speaks about his Japan investments and how/why he has sold a lot of bank stock and how railroads should operate on safety.
Essentially: “I like the banking system less” now (after the Silicon Valley Bank issues and the lower trust and faith in US banking)
Greg Abel also comes across as someone who knows alot about the Berkshire businesses (even though he probably has never been an uber driver either).
I have to jump on to a random train quest - so I’m going to leave this Nick Cave song here:
Where does this fit?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTedsdZtzyI