Won a grant, favourite words
Favourite Words: liminal, playwright. Happy Moon festival. Why is Zurich rich? Climate: IEA report, Hannah Ritchie TED talk. Education: Children at play (Peter Grey) I won a grant.
Favourite Words: liminal, playwright
Happy Moon festival
Brief Zurich observations: why is Zurich rich?
Climate: IEA report
Climate: Hannah Ritchie TED talk
Education: Children at play
Home Education: I Won a grant
Links: more AI, postive masculinity?, social pressures of 13 year old girls, exotic pets in Florida, confessions of a Mckinsey whistle blower. Bach.
My son had a project on favourite words. Anoushka chose liminal. I chose playwright. Liminal for the sound and look of the word, for the spaces in between, for where things meet.
Playwright is one of my chosen hats. Play itself is a multi meaning word with many connotations I value. Wright has the connotations of craft, of spending time and skill making and shaping.
I was invited to a moon festival party. My gift was the picture above. The festival goes back over 3000 years and is celebrated by over 1 billion people across China and Asia. The festival's origins can be traced back to ancient China's agrarian society. The festival was initially a harvest celebration, as the full moon symbolized completeness and reunion. Farmers gave thanks to the moon for the harvest and prayed for a bountiful yield in the coming year. Connection to the Moon Goddess, Chang'e: One of the most popular legends associated with the festival is the story of Chang'e, the Moon Goddess. According to the legend, Chang'e was the wife of the archer Hou Yi. Hou Yi was granted an elixir of immortality by the gods for shooting down nine of the ten suns that were scorching the earth. However, instead of consuming it immediately, he kept it at home. Chang'e, fearing that a wicked person would force her husband to hand over the elixir, drank it herself and ascended to the moon. Hou Yi was devastated and began to offer sacrifices to the moon in memory of his wife, thus starting the tradition of moon worship. That’s the story (or a variation) behind my picture.
In part, I reflected this week that these are the the types of ideas, the flourishing of humans, or creativity and our art that I think to defend and nurture when I wear another hat in terms of thinking about sustainable investment.
It’s also an important challenge for strict or naive utiltarians. Human flourishing is seemingly more than a number of countable matters.
I had a short trip to Zurich. Regrettable, mostly due to cost, I could not make it by train. Still, if I reflected that my recent trip to Brussels made me think Brussels was wealthy. Zurich is another step up and is one of the richest regions in the world per capita.
I had a think about why this in particular. What made Zurich rich? Can we learn lessons for other countries? What would an economic historian think… My surface reading and thinking was:
Trade/Geography. In the Middle Ages, Zurich was an important stopover on the north-south trade routes across the Alps. Its location gave it a strategic advantage, facilitating trade and crafts. This went back to Roman times and before. The Romans established a customs post called "Turicum" around 15 BC on the Limmat River's western bank. The importance of the river even today seemed obvious. This transport infrastructure seems to have had lasting importance.
Reformation and Governance: The Reformation, led by figures like Huldrych Zwingli in the 16th century, had profound effects on Zurich. The resulting emphasis on literacy, education, and a certain moral rigor could have contributed to the city's future economic culture.
Banking: Switzerland's long tradition of banking dates back centuries, but the specific emergence of banking secrecy in the early 20th century made the country, and Zurich in particular, a global banking hub. The historical development of this reputation for discretion and security laid the groundwork for its modern financial industry.
Neutrality and Wars: Switzerland's neutrality, especially during the two World Wars, meant that while much of Europe faced devastation, Zurich and Switzerland remained relatively untouched. This allowed Switzerland to become a safe haven for assets during tumultuous times.
Which plays into…
Institutional Stability: Over centuries, Zurich, and Switzerland as a whole, developed a reputation for stability, rule of law, and efficient governance. These institutional strengths, evolving over a long historical timeline, contributed significantly to economic prosperity.
Alongside:
Innovation and Education: The establishment of institutions like ETH Zurich in the 19th century underscore the city's long-standing emphasis on education and research, which plays a role in its modern economic strength.
So geography, plus institutional stability plus low taxes and finance (and insurance) agglomeration, and political neutrality, plus transport infrastructure seems to have combined. It struck me that these were difficult conditions to replicate but the transport infrastructure point really seemed to hit home again.
Lots of cheap, reliable trains. Must have been a historical path dependency due to UK tunnels and loading gauges, but I’d have loved double decker trains in the UK.
Some of the challenges in Zurich remain the same. One of my conversations was around the rise of Swiss healthcare costs. Switzerland is considered one of the best health systems (everyone has to pay insurance, but the insurance money and health spend is managed by non-state companies to give a basic minimum healthcare access) and still it has challenges.
The IEA international energy agency is out with its updated report on a net zero pathway. They write:
“Tripling global installed renewables capacity to 11 000 gigawatts by 2030 provides the largest emissions reductions to 2030 in the NZE Scenario. Renewable electricity sources, in particular solar PV and wind, are widely available, well understood, and often rapidly deployable and cost effective. Current policy settings already put advanced economies and China on track to achieve 85% of their contribution to this global goal, but stronger policies and international support are required in other emerging market and developing economies.
and
Doubling the annual rate of energy intensity improvement by 2030 in the NZE Scenario saves the energy equivalent of all oil consumption in road transport today, reduces emissions, boosts energy security and improves affordability. Although the mix of priorities will differ by country, at the global level energy intensity improvements stem from three equally important actions: improving the technical efficiency of equipment such as electric motors and air conditioners; switching to more efficient fuels, in particular electricity, and clean cooking solutions in low-income countries; and using energy and materials more efficiently.
Link to report on my linkedin.
Hannah Ritchie Argues:
“…I'm a data scientist, and after years poring over the data on how far humanity's come and how quickly things are now moving, my perspective on this has changed. I think we've got this framing upside down. Far from being the last generation, I think we will be the first generation: the first generation to be sustainable…”
I am tempted to call this way of thinking, this tribe “techno-realism” (not quite techno-optimism in my view though some might see it as that) and on quite a few days is probably where I end up. But I am not a fully faithful or stable member of any of the climate tribes these days.
Still a good talk in the TED style with a lovely Scots accent. It is a similar thesis to what Bill Gates proposes. Make the green choices better, and, or cheaper and then you will transition. Sustainability as opportunity.
This chart has been doing the rounds on twitter.
But I think this is a more important counter point. Peter Grey broadly fits within the self-directed learning movement, which I find myself very sympathetic towards.
Grey has recently argued:
“Our thesis is that a primary cause of the rise in mental disorders is a decline over decades in opportunities for children and teens to play, roam, and engage in other activities independent of direct oversight and control by adults.”
We develop the thesis by summarizing evidence for, respectively, (1) a large decline over decades in children’s op- portunities for independent activity; (2) a large decline over the same decades in young people’s mental health; (3) effects of independent activity on children’s immediate happiness; and (4) effects of independent activity in building long- term psychological resilience. Then, we discuss the relation of independent activity to well-being from the perspectives of self-determination theory and evolutionary mismatch.
So, I’d mention again:
I’ve won a grant from Tyler Cowen’s Emergent Ventures to organise an UnConference on Home Education and Education otherwise (all non-mainstream education). I’m interested in exploring all types of education ideas. If this might be your thing from general interest to active engagement then please message me or leave a comment. Thanks. Details of other winners on the Marginal revolution blog. https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2023/09/emergent-ventures-winners-29th-cohort.html
Other long reads I picked up:
Tony P, quintessential D.C. bachelor, lives his D.C. life on Instagram. Is this the new positive masculinity ? Is this the “ordinary life” ? (WaPo)
https://x.com/benyeohben/status/1708174671714099686?s=20
Social pressures of a 13 year old (US tilted). NYT report.
https://x.com/benyeohben/status/1708175182110589041?s=20
Why all these exotic pets have been released in Florida. Why does Florida have so many invasive species? The non-native animals often released from being “exotic pets”.
https://x.com/benyeohben/status/1708175513657741784?s=20
Also: confessions of a McKinsey whistle blower… https://x.com/benyeohben/status/1708176224512508351?s=20
I did not get to go to hear Olafsson as he came to play Bach’s Goldberg variations recently in London; I’m told it was quite the experience. Olafsson sees colours in music and is considered one of best pianists around today. I have poor music skils. I tend to feel music on a much more visceral level (as I posted on before when I heard Isserlis on the cello; trained musicians intellectually understand more than me I am sure).
Still, this Bach piece I have loved since around the age of 12 or so. Some argue it’s one of the greatest if not the greatest works for keyboard (which I hadn’t realised picking it up as a child).
Thanks for reading and feel free to hit reply and be in touch.