Conference: Find Your Epic

The greatest of meet-ups change you. Then you go on to change the world.

Occasionally, a snowflake falls on the mountainside and an avalanche occurs.

The best meet-ups are an avalanche of ideas and a meeting of minds.

Again, I’ve been challenged by the observation that life is messy. Yet what unites and binds us as humans still remains greater than our divisions.

For all the polarization in the world, there are still places to meet. Respect. Life. Chaos. Arguments. Hugs.

I heard about an  extraordinary range of commitments to long-term social and environmental value. From the country and city level – particularly the cities – but at all levels. And as we argue I hear the importance of discourse of conversation.

I heard reflections on the state of the UK union. There are real chances it might split in the future, but whatever the outcome how do can still heal and come together.

I heard very moving stories of the “Troubles”. A joke on how the people could only underplay the loss and conflict that threads through human lives. To be a “mixed marriage” is to be from two communities from different religious backgrounds. Fathers and sons died. Mothers and daughters died. Families grieved. There was a healing, a tentative wound closure – and that in the hurtling crisis that is Brexit the social cost in Belfast could well be tremendous. Sad on where we’ve arrived. Moved on how we lost and healed. Hopeful slithers as good people continue to try for peace. 

I witnessed an astonishing evening of music. A classical rap fusion, led by Dessa - a female vocalist of sublime word-smith, voice and heart. It’s genre-crossing live music between a rapper and the  BBC National Orchestra of Wales.  Dessa reflected it’s not often you can wear a fancy cape out and about. I think it’s even rarer to bear witness to such an unusual music fusion. Took me to a place musically I’ve never been and like all sublime art, leaves you changed when you emerge. (A track from Dessa below).

A conference is part content. A conference is all people. The greatest meetups have the greatest people. It’s not our individual heights but our collective complexity.

I heard about how to run hospital groups in America and the pros/cons of a Medicare for all.

What it’s like to be a Burner at Burning Man and how not to die.

How to make classic rum. The  freshness of sugar cane. The art of distillery. How to age gin.

What being a First Assistant Film Director is like – the person who runs the set onsite.

What it means to protect your synagogue. How Jews feel under threat.

What filming stories for Instagram Stories is all about. 

What intermittent fasting is like

What it means, and how you can get to adopt in the US. And a picture of adoption and story to make me cry.

What Cities are doing, what power grids and doing, what endowments are doing in the fight in the climate emergency.

I learnt about the neuroscience of poverty, the challenges in protecting children online, what the international development community are attempting to do; the latest advances in dementia and brain research.

I discovered a community theatre practice centered around rural life in America. The hopes, dreams and challenges of farmers and the like.

I heard about book writing and Hollywood film making.

The challenges of UK special education and the ethics of Downs syndrome testing.

I ended up abseiling down the side of a hotel for charity as part of giving back. (See above)

I heard about what can make our brains better (altitude and high intensity training).

I heard about Goalball. A sport geared to those with disabilities.

… and through all of this the music, dance, food, drink, conversation of life.

The constructive clashing of life – when we humans meet in these activities they are the concentrated renewable energy that fuel our discussions - our debates - our loves - our passions - our fights - our peaces.

We argue, but we stand together.

So – it’s messy – there are questions without answers. Lines are crossed. Redrawn. Fudged. Drawn again.  It’s gloriously messy and absolutely worth saving.

I know. We know. In an age where matters may seem divisive. Good people and still meeting, still connecting; listening and exchanging.

As we joke….Let it BAP. There won’t be an answer, so let it BAP.

(Do sign up to my monthly newsletter below, if you’d like to keep in touch).

My Asian Granny

Rotis and curry, soup rice noodles, fried egg noodles, coconut rice, curry noodles - the sheer variety of packed flavours and textures in various Asian breakfasts make the “English” and “American” breakfasts seem somewhat one dimensional. I’ve discussed with Asian tourists their sheer disbelief at British breakfasts.

What you haven’t experienced or haven’t met can be hard to fathom. The complexities of the durian fruit defies simple words. Many Asians will glibly end up saying “Ai-Ya ‘they’ don’t know how to eat that” ! That’s always sounded odd to my ear. Eating it is easy to know, pick it up, put it in your mouth, chew and swallow. Appreciating the complex flavours, that’s the part that many seem to fail at.

Writers have a long history attempting to reconcile the universal and the particular, the global and the local. As cultural philosopher Appiah has suggested “universality plus difference”.

Lazy writing ignores studied observation and fails to make imaginative leaps. Poor characterisation does similar by ignoring the complex humanity that underlies our lives. Unauthentic work doesn’t comprehend the variety of Asian breakfasts, let alone the depth of the Asian culture and people. Then again it is hard to fathom what you haven’t met or haven’t experienced.

Everyone’s grannies in the universal are extraordinary. They are complex and nuanced in the local. Mine brought up 5 children. She sewed, she cooked, she upholstered, she hustled - an entrepreneur before we thought of entrepreneurs - cooking feasts for local embassies, making cakes for occasions - pineapple tarts were a favourite -  she wore a gold belt which was traded up and down in size as her personal savings and investment account. She came to help look after me when I was young. She had this exaggerated sniff of you, which you couldn’t escape from, and she held your scent like she had the measure of you, now and always. Complex, fierce, funny.  Far from bacon and eggs and a cup of tea.

Links: VC, Creativity, Gulag, 80000 hours

Links of the week

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

Have I Been Pwned: Check if your email has been compromised in a data breach

Have I Been Pwned allows you to search across multiple data breaches to see if your email address has been compromised

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jan/20/action-not-words-needed-over-biggest-public-health-failure-of-our-time-pneumonia-davos-2019

the Guardian

Action not words needed over biggest public health failure of our time: pneumonia | Larry Elliott

Me: I think that antibiotic resistance and use, as well as basic hygiene (toilets etc. cf Gates Foundation) are bigger health failures, but the idea is worth a thought.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/jan/19/luke-jennings-what-i-learned-in-13-years-as-observer-dance-critic-leaps-and-bounds

the Guardian

Leaps and bounds: what I learned in 13 years as the Observer's dance critic

After filing his final dance review last month, Luke Jennings reflects on the transcendent highs and excruciating lows, and his hopes for the future of the art form.

Me: I missed many of these (caught the Pina Bausch). Unsuccessful dance is perhaps even more painful than see unsuccessful theatre, but successful dance is transcendent in ways which often defies words.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-investor-seth-klarman-in-a-rare-interview-offers-a-warning-davos-should-listen

The New Yorker

The Investor Seth Klarman, in a Rare Interview, Offers a Warning. Davos Should Listen

Klarman, a low-key but highly influential investor, believes that shortsighted business practices are imperilling public confidence in capitalism.

Me: Klarman gives interviews rarely and is considered an influential value investor. His warnings chime with some other managers of late eg Ray Dalio (though not some others eg Paulson).

The Paris Review  | Forty-Five Things I Learned in the Gulag

Varlam Shalamov claimed not to have learned anything from the Gulag except how to wheel a loaded barrow. But one of his fragmentary writings, dated 1961, tells us more.

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/06/12/forty-five-things-i-learned-in-the-gulag/

Y Combinator

Why Should I Start a Startup?

A lot of people ask themselves why they should start a startup. My answer to why you should start a startup is simple: there is a certain type of person who only works at their peak capacity when there is no predictable path to follow, the odds of success are low, and they have to take personal responsibility…

https://blog.ycombinator.com/why-should-i-start-a-startup/

https://80000hours.org/

80,000 Hours

80,000 Hours: How to make a difference with your career

You have 80,000 hours in your career. How can you use them to make a difference?

Poem post fall of Berlin Wall, when I was a teenager

I caught up with a new mingler (sustainability accountant!), she grew up in Berlin and later that day it sparked my recollection of going to Berlin as a young teenager, not long after the fall of the wall.  There was such a happiness and optimism about the future. This is mostly missing from what I observe in the world now (except when your football team is winning). I’m unsure what will bring it back, but maybe it starts with connections and mingles.

Yes, I did go to a Berlin night club, not long after the fall of the wall…. And maybe I thought saying I was 16 when I was 14, was such a daring thing.

When I was 14

After the fall

of the Berlin Wall

I found myself

in a Potsdam club

the city sizzled

with the joy of lost

unexpectedly found wounds

healing - that the best times still

ahead ahead ahead - I singing

impossible beats beat

heady on Green Forest cocktails

dancing with an impossibly

ancient 21 year old

Ach so young little one

lets dance lets dance

dance dance dance

….It might not be so clear as to whether the 21 year was commenting on the fizz of a 14 year old asking her to dance… or the young outlook of the world to be so full of hope….

Maybe it went (in night club broken German)

-Want to dance

-How old are you?

-16 (inflated age)

-So young!

-Dance?

-OK, let’s dance.

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The current Arts blog, cross-over, the current Investing blog.  Cross fertilise, some thoughts on autism.  Discover what the last arts/business mingle was all about (sign up for invites to the next event in the list below).

My Op-Ed in the Financial Times  (My Financial Times opinion article) about asking long-term questions surrounding sustainability and ESG.

Current highlights:

A thought on how to die well and Mortality

Some writing tips and thoughts from Zadie Smith

How to live a life, well lived. Thoughts from a dying man. On play and playing games.

A provoking read on how to raise a feminist child.

Some popular posts:  the commencement address;  by NassimTaleb (Black Swan author, risk management philosopher),  Neil Gaiman on making wonderful, fabulous, brilliant mistakes;  JK Rowling on the benefits of failure.  Charlie Munger on always inverting;  Sheryl Sandberg on grief, resilience and gratitude.

Buy my play, Yellow Gentlemen, (amazon link) - all profits to charity

Reflections on San Francisco

A city of contradictions. SF is a beautiful city on a bluesky day. It’s one the first places I travelled to by myself when I was 14. I took the Cal train in from Palo Alto about 25 years ago and wandered. I only have impressions of the vibe from so long ago, but it remains similar.

Glorious feats of engineering from bridges, sky scrapers and now rooftop floating parks. You’d be lucky to be born here. It’s not without obvious problems. Homelessness is rife.

Two images: a homeless person napping in the midday sun with Bose headphones and Nike trainers.

A suited man stepping round a homeless person coming out of an Uber.

When I first came to SF, the company Salesforce had not even been created. It now has over $8 billion in revenue and has created one of the tallest buildings on the west coast of the US.

As part of this building, salesforce has created a public park. It seems to me part of how some see the American way. Open markets, creative entrepreneurs creating enormous wealth, and as part of that creation giving back to the place and community that helped create them.

In SalesForce Park, SF (C) B Yeoh

I wonder how strong this type of social contract still is - or ever was.  The tower rises like a glimmering shard, the park all new bursting with plants, toddler areas, free art and reading. Is this enough to hold the fabric of America?

Willfully turning away from the beggars, the vibrant, diverse life is still present. Boys and boys, girls and girls, boys and girls. A smattering of colour. Old fashioned cable cars trundle alongside electric low emission buses. The waiters are mainly white and cute. The bussing folk are mainly coloured and invisible along with the maids and other worker bees.

You can get free wifi almost everywhere.

I’m here too fleetingly to see much else of the city, but note an awkward clash between some environmental awareness and still a huge amount of waste, plastic and limited nudging of individual choice.

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Here’s one partial critique of the Responsible Investing gathering. In attending this conference, I skipped two (and there were many more) mainstream investment conference focused on healthcare.  

The two health conferences had a few hundred companies, and a couple of thousand investment and corporate professionals between them.

There was a flagship Asian and Emerging market conference also running and many more.

Every company at the healthcare conference could easily claim alignment with several SDGs particularly the health one - SDG 7 and hundreds of investors are trying to allocate billions of capital to good ideas and good companies.

The PRI conference had a bare handful of portfolio manager risk takers. Critics could argue was a silo echo chamber for sustainability people to tell each other how right they are.  

I wonder if sustainability could cross the divide, break the silo and go and present at one of the other conferences and make the case.  Here continue some reflections more sustainability based.

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In SF, there are two intersectional conferences on climate change and the PRI responsible investing conference. Some more personal fragmentary observations.

Physical climate risk is reaching up the agenda. We are starting to see it and feel it.

Much of the “mainstream” is not really here. Lots of policy, engagement, stewardship and ESG (environment social governance) teams. Very few portfolio managers, the risk takes who buy or sell billions in assets of stocks and debt and direct assets.  Arguably, this is not hopeful.

Those I observe in SF are committed and passionate. They are bringing people along in a journey. Arguably this is hopeful.

But I recall two comments, Paul Polman (CEO, Unilever, retiring soon) - “I’m an asset creator” and Nassim Taleb - I paraphrase, if you want to change the world, don’t join an NGO, but go create a business.

The committed folk hope to mobilise and nudge capital, but I wonder more and more of late of the demand side of the equation.

The majority of large asset managers can now a credible narrative around ESG (Environment Social Governance). But, see also above “the mainstream is not here”.

The intersectionality problems are complex, often opaque. A Marriott staff employee spoke about how declining housekeeping makes her unemployed. It’s not only automation that takes away jobs. But is less housekeeping, and less washing, better for the environment, and profit margin? But not the humans.

I observe. Most waiters and waitresses are white with Gap Ad looks. The bus folk, those who clear the dishes. They are almost all coloured. Not allowed to take orders, barely likely to hold your eye - smiles are not at them.

Where mainstream PMs and analysts meet material ESG world, they do convert but I wonder about the silos.

I hear little on the demand side of the equation. The Global Climate Action Summit is also taking place. It comes across as disorganised and diffuse. But seemingly more focus on the “real economy”, Green tech entrepreneurs are about, although I don’t find them.

Still, parsing through, I sense managing food waste and sustainabilty could be a major unlock. Any ideas here, do shout.

The demand side could be a huge unlock. But, I’m unsure if I’m hearing ideas here. The single-use, the consumption it’s again and again - so hard to imagine it declining away. I’m hoping clever peeps are working on it. This to me will need cross silo thinking.

But, if I had to be - and I do - we are going to go through 2 deg warming. We will need to account for the cost of physical infrastructure loss and forced migration.

We, humans, weigh near term convenience so heavily, it seems to me we are unlikely to reach critical mass for changing behaviour until we are in crisis.

Although talking about crisis, given we’ve not changed significantly since the last financial crisis, I’m uncertain how it plays out.

But, humans have continually come out of crisis in better shape - and many other trends are in positive land. I try not to forget that.

I hold a lift for a man scurrying. That man turns out to be Paul Polman (Unilever, CEO, retiring soon).  Maybe it’s the little things and connections that will save us.

Selfie with Paul Polman, (C) B Yeoh

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A poem reflecting on my conversation with a SF Modern Art staff - all coloured vs the visitors mainly all white.

A look at what some of the art in SF MOMA is saying to me.

Smile, Staff at San Francisco Musuem of Modern Art

At the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art most of the staff

Are people of colour

Few of the visitors show such a display of colour

On show in staff or in the Gideon Richter

I smile. 

A smile back. 

Where are you from? An indication at my hair. 

I’m from London but my father was from Malaysia and my mother from Singapore. 

I’m from the Philippines. My friend is in London. 

Do you like it here?  A pause. 

There are jobs. I’ve been here 4 years. 

I’m -

I’m Ben.

A gesture. A thankful gesture. Her hand swirls around taking in the gallery and the people. 

Thank you for talking with me. 

(shall we take a selfie?)  (art on art on art on art)

Pablo hands me my bag with exquisite courtesy.

And the viewers come and go, come and go. 

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How to live a life, well lived. Thoughts from a dying man. On play and playing games.

A reflection on some art in the SF MOMA.

Another poem, about an artist losing her memory, and the mum of a dear friend.

Back to School

Waiting in a line outside Vincent Square, with my parent hat on, it is a discombobulating experience to go back to your old school of over 30 years ago.  

What makes great schools, great? Why is it perceived that it is so hard to replicate what great schools do?*

How much influence do parents and teachers really have on children as compared to all the other forces cajoling, buffering and nurturing our children? 

The qualities of curiosity, empathy and creativity - qualities I value in myself and others.     How are they nourished in schools ?

How do you shape girls and boys into good women and good men?

I don’t have answers but I do have a few observations and some hope.

On the elite side, my grandfather went to Cambridge presumably as a partial recompense and apology for colonial rule in Malaysia. My father went to Cambridge due to nepotism and a polite letter my grandfather wrote to the Master of the college.  I went to Cambridge as I was gifted, worked hard and had extraordinary teachers and educational institutions.  I came out with the top first in my year and a scholarship to Harvard. I then learned some of the craft of play writing and poetry, and have ended up a writer and a fund manager.

As a scholar to my school, you can see my name in the 1992 section. 

Although the power of elite networks remains strong, I would not have made it to Cambridge on the word of my father.  While challenges remain, meritocracy has arguably partially developed. Like the late Hans Rosling’s point in Factfulness large challenges remain but today is better than the past. 

I have now toured 3 elite prep schools and continue to interview pupils from elite private schools. I have experience across the spectrum into state and learning disabled education.  

I remain hopeful.

In the 1960s,  if you studied languages at O-level (16 years old) you would achieve great grammar but you could hardly speak much and would not be able to converse in Paris. 

Similarly, for maths your geometry would be great you might know Euclid but you would know nothing of statistics.  

Today, the ability to converse and to understand statistics is - rightly in my view – prioritized although the joys of Euclidean geometry are mainly untaught now. Education has evolved. 

While walking round these schools listening to teachers and senior staff; hearing the children - seeing the classes – looking at the messages three items stuck me:

Everyone is learning about notions of sustainability

Everyone considers diversity important

An articulation of values and “growth mind set”… learning from failure, happiness before success,  with ability comes responsibility…

All these ideas were strongly expressed (whether in state or private) to an extent that I do not recall 30 years ago.

Education has moved on, and it’s for the younger generations to evolve and reject those of them before them (which is why the voter turnout for aged 18-25 in recent local elections, general elections and Brexit are somewhat disappointing)

And so to… with ability comes responsibility…

I do think matters might be very different, if those in the upper tiers of society, and for instance under one measure that would include everyone earning more then £30,000 a year and about 40% of the country did give back a more substantial portion to those in the bottom 60%.

I’m not thinking money. I’m thinking more about time, experience, learnings. Perhaps, we’ve always been so – I haven’t examined closely – but we’re so concerned with the near-by day-to-day, the grind of life, it seems like we struggle to reach out and cross divides.  It’s one of the small ideas behind the mingle. If that top 40% gave back 2 hours of time a week to something other than themselves, I wonder what our world would look like.

Source: Factfulness, Rosling (2018) quoting UNESCO

Diving back to education and away from Level 4 rich country concerns, I also see hope in Level 1 country concerns.  Look at the rates of literacy, and of children who finish some school. It’s been incredibly positive. Still a lot of work to do, but every reason to think that those trends will continue as basic educational teacher practice start to be embedded in Level 1 countries (alongside basic health practice, electricity, hygiene.)

Dipping back to Level 4 London concerns, I am syncretic over many ideas. I simultaneously hold ideas about educating an elite (and we can see every generation a handful of boys and girls who go on to be country and company leaders trained through this system – which I am a product of) and a comprehensive system. I also have a lot of time for a “home school” ideology  , and a “technical-vocational-mastercraftsman-system”. All of these systems have run in parallel with pros/cons for decades and will likely run for decades more (the decline of the UK Mastercraftsman technical system being of detriment, in my view, versus the German continued investment in that system).

Still, watching these young boys and girls, it does feel hopeful. I’m unsure how I feel that there’s no space for Spike here in these institutions. There’s barely a Spike-shaped space anywhere in the world.  But, do I see an Oscar space shape with a gentle, quirky boy?
 

Over 30 years ago, I was 6 years old going on 7 as I started at WUS. Small and not super sporty, I found a second home in the pottery studio. I remember Miss B – her deft kindness in letting a shy quirky thoughtful boy while away break times with some clay (below is one, now somewhat currently broken I made 30 or so years ago) but also her emotional insightful intelligence in when to nudge such a boy into outdoors action.

Many an autumn day,  30 years ago, I would chase leaves falling from this exact tree and try and catch them. 

This creative thread remains with me today (see clay play post).

A pot I coiled and made about 30 years ago, now ready to be repaired.

Still she is on my list of teachers and mentors I have a lot to be thankful for (Gideon Lester here plus a few others,  Adrienne Kennedy here).

I guess this system believes that if you run with the swift, you run faster. Certainly, some fall, and I see, some to never recover. But at least with the cohort I knew and am in touch with, I see they’ve grown from little boys into great men.

Compassion, kindness and honesty. 

Curiosity, empathy and creativity.

Service, openness and love.

These  - along with independent critical thinking - have been taught to me and I’d wish to teach my children.

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*Part of what makes certain schools great are the external speakers and visitors who come. These people can't go everywhere and are often draw to schools in easy to reach places and with strong historic reputations. This is not an easy thing to scale or replicate.

Source: Children's Commissioner (2011), Children and young people's views of education policy.

One concerning systemic note is whether we - adults - are listening enough to what children want from their education. One slowly increasingly positive note over the last decades is the importance of the child but it arguably still lags.

If you consider companies now use customer net promoter scores and via Amazon in level 4 countries we know the 5 star rating of every product... then the rating children give British schools is not brilliant.

Only 1 / 2 enjoy lessons...

Source: Children's Commissioner (2011), Children and young people's views of education policy.

And most children can tell when teachers are poor...

This would suggest a simple teacher Net Promoter Score as reported by children could be a useful measure to note and perhaps to incentivise on ?

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More thoughts: My Financial Times opinion article on long-term investing and how to engage with companies.

How to live a life, well lived. Thoughts from a dying man. On play and playing games.

If you'd like to feel inspired by commencement addresses and life lessons try:  Neil Gaiman on making wonderful, fabulous, brilliant mistakes; or Nassim Taleb's commencement address; or JK Rowling on the benefits of failure.  Or Charlie Munger on always inverting;  Sheryl Sandberg on grief, resilience and gratitude.

A provoking read on how to raise a feminist child.

Cross fertilise. Read about the autistic mind here.

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What do you SEE on a bus and train trip

What do I typically see when on a bus? I don't think I uses to SEE or observe much with any intensity or thought.

S observes certain detail intensely.  A chime or rhythm slightly misplaced is logged as wierd, funny, wrong or amazing.   

With easy portal photography, he can train that eye and snapshot it.  The captured images give you a sense of the world through his lens. 

It's a perspective so very different from mine.  So very different from many "typicals" that it astonishes. 

Every bus and train ride has 10 to 20 captured snapshots if S has his way.  

Below are a sample from the last few.  

Note the  capture of signs, lettering and logos.   People are incidental.  

Patterns, colour and shapes.  

What I take as granted as everyday is elevated to the most important.   

Evening Standard. Don’t touch her hair.

How unthinking, uninformed and unwoke can the Evening Standard Magazine be to airbrush the crown of braids from an artist famous for her work - don’t touch my hair. 

The headline even: Owning my body is really important to me.   

So ES airbrushes her hair.  

Gulp.  

“Braiding is an act of beauty... and an act of tradition - it is its own art form”  

So go ahead censor her life and art.  

Want a lively informative conversation ask a black woman about her hair, what she thinks about it and how it’s been represented over the last 50 years.  

But don’t touch it.  

Read more about the black American experience here as told by Ta-Nehisi Coates. 

Or interested in Arts or Investing.

Jonathan Meth, Conversation, Two

First part of my conversation with Jonathan Meth. This is the second, mainly about Fenc.

We spoke about his work with Fence. It struck me that Fence sounded like a family of artists, connected and challenging - as families can be. We discussed the idea as a playwright as a public artist, bring together other artists and thinkers to make work, be a part of work.

This project  All our tomorrows: Ireland has struck oil! - will it be Norway or Nigeria?  is one expression of this.  It’s happening on 19 Oct in London, and I’m hoping to go.

“Ireland has struck oil – but will be it Norway or Nigeria? is a performance project from The Fence network of international playwrights and theatre makers in partnership with King’s. It will stage and audio record performance and discussion for a live audience on an imagined future scenario, mapping a moment of crisis in Europe from creative, journalistic and academic perspectives.

This performance will explore the urgent questions thrown up by Ireland’s reversal of fortunes and its new oil-rich future, particularly in relation to its Celtic Tiger past and the fall-out from the Credit Crunch, but also in relation to big brother – the British state and its expertise in matters of oil… Where and what are the borders between Irish and British interests? What does Ireland imagine for itself? What can be learnt from experience in Nigeria and in Norway with the challenges of oil?

As the first of the planned All Our Tomorrows series of live performance and audio recordings, this event is developed by Irish-Nigerian playwright Gabriel Gbadamosi as creative editor with a professional radio producer and cross disciplinary academics as pundits. It is produced on behalf of The Fence network of international playwrights and cultural operators by Jonathan Meth.”

This multi-discipline approach appeals to me. Yes, playwrights write plays, and theatres with a bunch of professionals and performers put them on. But there’s more.  What I’m finding with the mingle, what I’ve always known in my investment work, is that different disciplines, different thinkers coming together can create new brilliant ways of seeing, different answers to complex questions; or complex answers to deceptively simple questions. Or just have a fun time together.

Time for more?  Here’s a short post on 5 things autism has taught me.  Here is   JK Rowling on the benefits of failure.

New York. I heart you. But.

New York. New York. I heart you.

The easy to find sushi on a Sunday night.

But what's with all the nail bars? The white-teeth-mani-pedi thing? And the subtle or not so subtle split between the clients and the staff.

And your metro is deteriorating. I thought London had somewhat lost the plot with its infrastructure arguments. But Cross rail is almost done, and the Tube has at least stood still if not progressed. I still think London is sub-par in its long term infrastructure thinking especially vs China, Asian cities.  But New York seems a notch behind; the traffic, the subway, the trains - very very creaky to me...

Its art heart still beating strong though, like London. And your new libraries put London to shame.  

Jonathan Meth. A conversation, one.

Elegant, flowing, beautiful hands. Chatting with Jonathan Meth, I was struck by how eloquent his hands were.

Social decorum crimped me and I felt I couldn’t interject to say - wow your hands wonderfully mesmerize me. Social media strips decorum, so I can say that now.

My writing threads go back to when Jonathan ran writernet which harks back almost 20 years ago now. Now, I’m stepping back into a writing practice or perhaps a playwright as a multi-disciplinary arts-investing person, a some time mingler - which I’m told is a form of covening. It’s amazing to re-connect and hear how artists’ work have developed.

Jonathan has kept an international network of artists through Fence, which seems to me an evolution from the dramaturgical work of writernet (I will split the post and write about Fence in another section). He has also developed a practice in disability arts - and our shared interest in autism crosses over here. There’s a lot to Jonathan’s practice.

Across time and space, we end up on a warm New York autumn evening drinking a bar tender’s choice of drink, 10 over years since we last met.

The disability practice is described in this 2015 Guardian article and on his own site here. What I took away is that there is a strong disability arts practice in various countries, often forging on with limited support, but creating a long history or astonishing art. Three of them are partnered in Crossing the Line (not to be confused with the project that Gideon Lester and others are involved with): Crossing The Line (EU) is a project of the co-operative partnership of 3 European theatre companies: all leaders in the field of working with learning disabled artists. The partners are Moomsteatern in Malmo, Sweden; Compagnie de L’Oiseau Mouche in Roubaix, France and Mind The Gap in Bradford, UK. Jonathan is project dramaturg, and is hoping to expand the partnership to many more countries.

We also intersect on Ambitious about Autism. This is an ABA led group in the UK on ASD special education needs; but Ambitious acknowledges that the tent is larger than ABA and so pushes forward across a range of ASD advocacy; as child-centric and child-led practise informs much of good SEN (and typical) practice today, whatever techniques you find that work (and research is still relatively poor).

Drawing this part together, it was apparent to me that Jonathan speaks many languages. The language of art in its many dialects, the language of SEN, the language of policy makers and funders.

It dawned on me, I speak several of these languages too, and that we need more of us in today’s word. More than ever.

Jonathan spoke of Isaiah Berlin’s Fox (after Greek poet Archilochus) who ‘know many little things’.  As Jonathan writes: “They react to challenge by drawing on a pattern of general, pragmatic understanding, often making mistakes but seldom committing themselves to a potentially catastrophic grand strategy.” As opposed to the hedgehog, which knows one big thing.   It reminded me of this Nassim Taleb conversation with philosopher Constantine Sandis  -  Taleb argues a cousin piece of thinking:

“I do not consider myself a hedgehog, but a fox: I warn against focusing (‘anchoring’) on a single possible rare event. Rather, be prepared for the fact that the next large surprise, technological or historical, will not resemble what you have in mind (big surprises are what some people call ‘unknown unknowns’). In other words, learn to be abstract, and think in second order effects rather than being anecdotal – which I show to be against human nature. And crucially, rare events in Extremistan are more consequential by their very nature: the once-every-hundred-year flood is more damaging than the 10 year one, and less frequent.”

Being open minded, being open to possibilities when they happen, intertwining chance - taking those chances  - those challenges are absorbing them to make you stronger (anti-fragile, even more than resilient)

Looping back to Spike, that chimes with some of what I hope for him, that we can expose him to enough small and varied challenges and opportunities that he find enough to think, and be, and to find purpose. It’s hard for Spike to do that within an institution. We will find a way.

This last few days in New York has felt a little like that - throwing out the the threads - listening - thinking - being - meeting: from the chance meetings (triggered by the Empty Space), the semi-chance meetings like Jonathan; the near misses (Gideon, I’m still hoping); the re-connections;

Mixed in with the latest in pharmaceutical, medical technology and consumer genetic thinking.

And, I am thankful for that. Part two of conversation here.

Time for more?  Here’s a short post on 5 things autism has taught me.  Here is   JK Rowling on the benefits of failure.

Bus tips. Mindfulness. Stoics.

Short tips on waiting for buses. Practising the mindfulness of a samurai. Everyday Stoicism in action. A chance for galaxies to collide.

I'm firmly a public transport person. Through my son, I'd even venture to say I'm a reluctant enthusiast or a moderate fan, I've moved through the purely functional to where function meets form or more.

Tiles and mosaics, photographed by me as we wander in rail song. Some of the designs are based on the original Edwardian designs by Leslie Green.  An interesting account of the balancing forces involved in "conserving" / replacing  / updating  the Underground tiles can be read here.

I've not learnt to drive. I've lived most of my life in London. Given London's Tube started in the 1850s I think the transport system has managed to play the cards it has been dealt. It's emphasis on design and art is stimulating if you pay attention; more simply a spot of sunshine on a regular heads down day.

Art on the Underground have commissioned some great works in the last 14 years.  The labyrinth project (see pictures below) by artist Mark Wallinger has each station with have an enamel panel measuring 60cm by 60cm with a different labyrinth on it. All 270 are numbered them according to the route taken on the 2009 record breaking Tube Challenge.    

‘Diamonds and Circles’ works ‘in situ’ is the first permanent public commission in the UK by the acclaimed French artist, Daniel Buren. The artwork transforms Tottenham Court Road station with Buren’s signature geometric patterns across the vast central ticket hall and multiple station entrances. Buren’s designs play with simple concepts; shapes, colours and stripes.

Labyrinth images. (cc) Mike Quin - see http://www.geograph.org.uk/snippet/15547    More information on Daniel Buren and his art at Tottenham Court Road, here https://art.tfl.gov.uk/projects/permanent-commission-by-daniel-buren/

Still of late, I've done my fair share of waiting for buses and here are my tips.

So first the obvious... In London, TFL through the internet can give you a very good sense of when a bus is arriving. Google maps, citymapper and the like can also help.

If those are down, or you want to go old school, then you want to check how many people are waiting at the bus stop as you approach. More people the higher chance a bus is coming. A very large crowd might indicate a broken bus or another larger problem.

You might also want to check if walking on to another nearby stop might give you a larger variety of buses to choose from.

If it looks like a long wait and you want to walk on, you can do so but you need to mentally commit - maybe make it into a game. You need to commit in your head, because there is anguish if while walking, the bus you want passes you by.

You need to borrow from the samurai.

“The rain is a teacher. If you are caught in a down pour, do not run down the road attempting to stay dry. You will still become soaked. Accept that from the beginning and go steadily on your way. You still be wet, but you won’t suffer any distress from the rain. Apply this lesson in all things.”

Due to the mental pain of the needed bus passing you, I suggest if in doubt just wait. If you end up waiting a long time, chances increase that many buses arrive together! Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

This is an occasion to practise stoic thinking and mindfulness.

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.”

— Seneca

Seneca wrote that about 2000 years ago. He was not thinking about waiting for buses. Given the amount of waiting I know do, and the complex patterns of transport (today only Night Tube train routes), I find I enjoy myself letting go to an autistic pattern not of my understanding. To do this, I need to relax from "an anxious dependence upon the future" and then the journey is often remarkable.

My last tip is to strike up a conversation. The two classic openers would be to ask how long they have been waiting or a comment about the weather. From there conversations could meander down any path. It does take two to dance, but an open mind and a strong lead can take you anywhere.

Bear in mind - everybody is somebody's weirdo. Trains are not conducive to random conversation. People feel too trapped to risk it. Unless "otherness" intervenes and cuts across our bubble. An autist in the zone of rail song will do this for a carriage. If you don't have such a company, then it can be tough to start conversation.

Bus stops are easier. There's more space. There's a slower pace. It's a great area for serendipity and conversation to strike. Don't ask why? Think why not?

“You see things, and say, why? I dream things that never were, and say, why not?”

— After George Bernard Shaw

Where different galaxies collide, the most interesting matter can be created.

Cross fertilise. Read about the autistic mind here and ideas on the arts here. On investing try a thought on stock valuations. 

Clay play aphorism

Clay was an early love of mine. The physical. Working in three dimensons. Four dimensions if you account for how time interacts. Perhaps, there is even a fifth if you create collaboratively or along side others.

Writing is mainly solitary. Those who are pained by aloneness have solace in writing groups, but still it is rare to write in groups, it is not communal.

Artists also tend to paint alone, as do potters. However, some potters do share studios and there are studios who work together in making clay ware.

There is a quality, there is a timbre to work when you are working along side others. There is a conversation. That conversation can be a fifth dimension to work, whether intentional or simply fun!

I've dug out this clay I've had sitting around for several years now (maybe 6 years, I'm unsure). We've had a couple of sessions shaping clay. One with a couple of friends. In our chat, we happened upon a discussion on the nature of things.

Oscar suggested (in playful language rather than philosophy):

"Essence and evidence are brothers."

And in talking about how art was some times about trying to capture the essence of something or someone rather than the representational reality of a person's image.

We also decided:

"The essence of time. I've had it. I've lost it. We've had it. We've lost it."

Cross fertilise. Read about the autistic mind here and ideas on the arts here. On investing try a thought on stock valuations.