The Weekly Distillation No.69
Climate Tech; Optimism; Israel; Putin; Hearts; Crypto Research; Stress Reduction; Family
This newsletter is written for entrepreneurial leaders who want to learn about the moment we are living in but don’t have time to read broadly; who want to grasp the key themes; and who want to create better ways of advancing their mission. The Weekly Distillation covers a broad range of topics with the intent to curate the key narratives of the week, how they fit the broader themes of society and to pose questions that help you to think deeper on the application in your context. You can read more about the key themes I see here.
People once said…….
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I’ve been on holiday/vacation for the last week, enjoying time with family in rural Scotland. I intentionally left all of my devices at home and so my newsletter reading has been restricted this week. The articles below are what caught my eye this evening, whilst persusing the 450 messages & emails I was sent in 4 days. It’s amazing what going off-grid does for your humility - it turns out that you’re never quite as essential as you thought you were!
I’ve long held a view that climate change will be tacked mostly through invention, not demand reduction, or subsidies. Another great example is a startup that is engineering trees to consume more carbon. Let’s see more of these sort of inventions and flow the capital that way instead of into subsidising proven technologies.
Andreesen Horowitz, one of the smartest and largest VC funds around, is seeking to differentiate itself again. Not content with having raised large crypto / web3 focused funds, it is now launching a research arm. This is both a late-cycle signal but also a good indicator of how early VCs and accelerators are having to go to win investment opportunities.
I’d strongly argue for vacations and also for regular and extended screen-free time as two of the best ways of looking after your wellbeing. HBR is focusing in on breathing as one of the best ways the body can reduce stress. Time for a breathing coach anyone?
Foreign Policy dives into how Putin is not just reshaping Ukraine but also reshaping the Global Order. I’m currently listening to a great podcast by FDD which also discusses how views of anti US involvement in Ukraine come from the far left (America is capitalistic and evil and shouldn’t project dominance over the world, as imperialist empires did), the far-right (Putin might be right, he’s the defender of family rights, the orthodox faith, the truth and is anti-woke), and the slightly less far-right (America is so woke that when it spreads its wings, it is creating an empire of woke-dom and that is bad for the world). The FDD podcast asserts that none of these are realistic positions and the US needs to be able to project force to allow Europe to have less spend on defence and greater spend on social programmes. Slightly simplistic but I have some sympathy with the point. Worth a listen.
I’ve talked for a couple of years about the rise of geopolitical tensions and the impact that will have on the world. We’ve seen this in Ukraine this year and we may yet see it in North Korea and Taiwan. However, Israel is probably the biggest source of concerns near term. I haven’t yet found a good summary in a stand-alone article but this post from Dispatch gives good coverage of what is happening (scrolll about half way through the post). ISIS, Hamas, Israel, Easter, Holy Sites, Orthodox Jews, weak governments - what might go wrong? Israel is one of the nations that could be a negotiator in the end of the Ukraine war. If Israel goes to war with Hamas, what happens to the normalisation of relationships across the Middle East? How does that play out when the certain food riots come across N Africa and the Middle East?
Packy McCormick, who has grown his Not Boring Newsletter in 2 years to over 100,000 readers as well as launched a VC fund from it, wrote this week about optimism and why even in the face of many reasons to be pessimistic, the free markets will ensure capital gets directed to the biggest opportunities - and yes, there will be bubbles, but the long-term impact will be positive. A refreshing read in the face of all the negativity currently.
Hearts beat Hibs since I last wrote, to reach the Scottish Cup Final in May (in the most stressful game I think I have attended), ensured a 3rd place ‘best of the rest’ finish in the League and will have European football next season until Christmas at least. Not bad for the largest fan-owned club in the UK.
Thanks for reading. This last week reminded me of the importance of family and how the big things often come from the small things. I spent a lot of time this week thinking about my mum who died in 2017. It’s worth taking that time to make a call, write a letter, have a coffee - and don’t let urgent drive out important. In the words of the country music song “Til you can’t”,
“So take that phone call from your momma and just talk away
'Cause you'll never know how bad you wanna 'til you can't someday
Don't wait on tomorrow 'cause tomorrow may not show
Say your sorries, your I-love-yous, 'cause man you never know”