Conference: Find Your Epic

November 11, 2019 Ben Yeoh

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).

Visit to remote semi-Nomadic Wana Tribe

August 3, 2019 Ben Yeoh

Young Ben posing with blow pipe, (C) B Yeoh

Once upon a time I went to visit one of the most remote people on this planet. These people were called the Wana tribe.

Today, they are a semi nomadic hunter gatherer tribe who are transitioning to some forms of agriculture.

The tribe I visited lived deep in primary rainforest jungle in the middle of an island called Sulawesi, part of what we call Indonesia.

Map showing Sulawesi part of Indonesia. Shapes a little like a starfish.

That visit and my previous visits to India and Borneo and northern Thailand caused me to reflect on several (mis)conceptions that I still observe today.

We (being richer, dominant, more educated) know better. We believe people make “poor” decisions because they are not really “rational”. (What’s the point of a pension if you are likely to die before 65?)

That certain of our cultural myths and standards should apply to others. That the standards of the present apply backwards to the standards of the past.

That many of us really have not much of an idea of what it might be to live in extreme poverty with no running water, no toilets, no secure food, no secure housing.

What a “romantic” view of an indigenous people might look like that: although their land use is more harmonious, it’s a hard life even if it’s much less dense in land use.

It was a long time ago, now, over 20 years for me. This reflection is based on notes from my journal.

I remember that it was hot. Humid sticky and hot.

I had only a few days ago come from a culture of ritual buffalo sacrifices and great summer festivals. (Another story).

It was 1998, in the middle of my third Asian adventure (after Borneo in 1995, India in 1997) and before the fall of President Suharto.

There were mild simmering tensions between the racial Chinese and the non-Chinese, mostly Muslim, but nothing had yet exploded. Sulawesi’s population had mixed heritage. There were influences from the Dutch colonialists of over 300 years ago and Christian missionaries.

Sulawesi is home to a lost civilisation. A few stone idols reminiscent of those in Easter Island all that remains of an ancient culture older and unconnected to the one sitting on those lands today.

All of this is mostly divorced from the Wana. The Wana tribe have lived their own lives in the jungle with only the occasional trade of resin with the outside world.

We had to go and meet them in their territory.

We had a Guide. This was more than vital as within a few minutes the jungle absorbed us and we had no idea where we might be.

Manuel our guide. Note new Swiss watch on wrist. (c) B Yeoh

Our guide was Manuel. We thought he used to be a ranger, at least part time, and had helped establish some trading. The Wana supposedly had always traded resin from the jungle but until recently hadn’t settled. Supposedly, only a few years ago the tribe had worn bark clothing and little from outside although that had changed.

We brought useful tradeable items to exchange for our stay with the tribe. Aspirin, clothes, foods (instant noodles were storable, quick to cook and seemed tasty) were more treasured than “money”. The Indonesia Rupiah was a new myth for them and brought no value.

Money was of use to Manuel and we bore a tradeable item. We had an unwanted Swiss watch, I forget the brand, but it was mid-priced of the type you might receive as an unwanted 17th birthday present (can be seen in picture). A relatively unique item for the area, we part-traded it for his services. Extolling the brand and reputational values of Switzerland, which we pointed out on a map.

Cultural exchange was common. Everything took a while to do - at the shops, at the bus, walking down the street - are you Japanese? Chinese ? You live in England ? You born there ? What is Princess Diana like ? Have you met the Queen ? (The British Royalty being pretty much the only export to Sulawesi the UK had in 1998). What do you eat ? What is London like ? What do you think of (insert place) ?

Luckily, basic Indonesian is an easy language to pick up. My brain still had enough fluid intelligence to pick up enough to have decent conversations and a dictionary (these days were the early days of the internet and while Internet cafes existed they were rare).

We readied our wares and headed out to the Morowali park entrance.

The initial part was by boat. We skimmed across the water. No humans in sight. Mangroves. Water. Sky. Jungle.

A bamboo crossing. Yes, I was a little scared crossing on it. Note the flip flops of our guide.

Manuel didn’t have a back pack. The ubiquitous piece of equipment that marked out the foreign traveller. He carried our equipment by bamboo carrier. He had impressively flimsy foot wear - faded flip flops. This proved to be one above the Wana, when we found them, who were mostly barefoot.

Images of jungles evoked wonder. An alien otherness full of tactile shining greeness, the pictures hypnotised us.

The reality was visceral but remarkably different. Hot, baking hot. Humid, an immediate sweat-inducing drenching dampness.

The rainforest was noisy. An intermittent cacophony of sounds, to my ear there was a background layer of insects, so wide a variety they would always remain unknown.

This was punctured by the percussive movement of larger creatures and the swishing interaction with the vegetation which seemed to grow before our eyes.

It was fascinating and alien to a city dweller yet soon turned to intermittent boredom.

The vegetation swiped at you from underfoot from overhead from left and right, forwards and backwards. The heat and noise were omnipresent.

Everything was curious and worth examining. Several species lived there and no where else. I could have stayed a whole day in a 50 metre radius and not have been bored. Stopping was not an option for us. We needed to make progress, tramping on so it became a form of endurance and the banal pattern of foot-in-front-of-foot only broken by yet another quasi-spectacular sight: a large poop from a jungle cat (pretty rare), a complex spider web; vines you could cut water from (Manuel pointed this out in case of emergency; stay by a water source and hope the rangers come and find us); poisonous things, spiky things; enormous ants.

That’s pretty much why I have few-to-none pictures of the jungle depths. I was carrying black and white film. I wasnt going to waste any film on greenery. I think I have a handful on a contact sheet somewhere, but I haven’t managed to pull them into a digital archive. Not until recently has the technology been cheap and swift to scan at enough detail, and my negatives are sitting in a show box somewhere.

This is a glimpse of someone else’s trek in that same jungle (pict)

Five hours in, we came across two Wana fishermen, right in time for lunch. We had a meal with them. Looking back, I wonder how strange it might seem, these complete strangers emerging from the jungle to share a meal. I don’t know what Manuel would have said and I haven’t noted that we spoke. Even if I had the words, a place like London would be challenging to describe. We ate freshly smoked fish both barbequed and in a stew. It was delicious.

We set off for more walking.

We make it to site. There were no Wana. I noted in my journal: “Nomads! Darn, Wana”

The Wana are semi-nomadic. They up and leave when they feel they have taken enough from their site. (Typically every 3 years or so). Although the tribe I visited was possibly transistioning to a more permanent village structure - I had the impression when meeting them later that maybe they hadn’t fully decided.

Manuel wasn’t worried. He gave the impression that this site was still used by hunters from time to time and it was quite possible we wouldn’t see any Wana here but it was too far to make it to the main village site in one day.

I recall being moderately concerned as I wasn’t sure this was the deal he originally suggested, but I suspect we were never going to get to the village in one day.

Manuel took his machete and cut down segments of nearby bamboo. You could fit an apple in the cut out segments. Manuel showed us how they made a makeshift pot to boil water in.

We had water-purifying tablets with us. We used them and boiled water for several minutes to be sure. Water illness could kill or hospitalise us. We brought instant noodles (chicken flavour I think, a little yellow paste of mono sodium glutamate and flavourings) which after hours of walking tasted somehow amazing. The bamboo made chop sticks for eating and my respect for this fast growing renewable resource has remained high ever since.

Regular chores and activities were laborious. Toileting, finding a suitable place, covering; making fire, cleaning, washing - all these functions taken for granted at home take significant time and effort.

There is a notion that in the quest to raise living standards by developed nations standards, we are destroying nature and traditional ways of living, to the detriment of affected cultures. Part of this narrative is true, in the sense that our destruction of trees and forests continues and that European nations, at first contact, brought much death, disease and destruction (for instance, in Australia and in places like Indonesia). The Wana way of living is in one sense less intense and more harmonious with their environment. The Wana have stories and shamans, they play in leisure time, they wake with the sun and sleep after its setting. Despite all that, Wana life struck me as hard. There is food, but they worked hard for it. Items and chores we take for granted, they spent a great deal of time and effort on.

We borrowed the raised huts for a roof and we had our sleeping bags but there was no running water. Buzzing insects and the night time noise of the jungle - often more noisy than the day started from sun down around 6.30pm. I played a game of hang man by candlelight, my first proposed word was “lynx”. I’ve always played to win.

The sun rose and rose us. There was not much changing, I prefered to sleep in long clothes to reduce mosquito attacks. There was a routine for toileting but who would bother with make-up and tooth brushing?

It was a few hours more to the village and we travelled what Manuel saw as a path, but I saw as simply jungle.

We arrived. The Wana are unsurprised and cautiously welcome. They indicated that they see a handful of tourists a month and there was a routine of sorts for treating us. We spent the rest of the day and the next half day hanging out at the village.

The man on the left is an elder, the women are preparing the bitter local root. (C)

The routine for tourists (or maybe we deserve the more authentic sounding title of “traveller” as we had brought items to trade and stories) started invariably with the blow pipe (see picture top).

After dinner, dishes are cleared and the family sleeps in the same space.

The Wana still used this very skilfully to hunt. A hapless tourist stood a slim chance of hitting any target and only a moderate chance of shooting a dart out properly at all. Still, I dutifully attempted a shot and posed like a well-behaved tourist.

The Wana had started cultivating some fruit and vegetables although hunting and gathering were still a large part of their diet and day. I asked to try the local food. The women were hard at work preparing it and the translation was that it was a type of root vegetable like cassava.

It was deeply bitter and fairly disgusting. My face revealed this to much amusement from the women. With chatterings of “we told you you wouldn’t like it”. There was only simple conversation in English/Indonesian as Wana linguistics were tough.

I tried to ask whether anyone from the Wana would leave and I think I received a reply along the lines of “where would we go?”

Cigarettes both clove and western had already been brought to the village and were valued by children and adults alike. The girl on the right wasn’t part of the boy gang.

The children were at turns shy and curious playing a peeking hide and gawp. The boys more assertive and keeping to themselves more. Smoking was a cool behaviour. One boy was making a toy.

After finishing the food preparation of a couple of hours, there was lazing about and mild gossiping waiting for men to arrive for the meal.

The maleo egg. Sunny Side up. Note the very large yolk. (c)

As an honoured guest having brought useful gifts, I was offered one of the local foods. This giant birds egg. The size of a small melon or grapefruit. It was served in a sunny-side up type of way and for an egg lover like myself, it was delicious: yolky, creamy, sweet.

Later, I found out this was the egg of a maleo bird. A rare bird that only lives in the Indonesian jungle with perhaps around 10,000 birds left. (I note collecting eggs in some parts of Indonesia was only banned in 2004).

The maleo buries its eggs in the warm sand by the river banks. It thinks to fool predators by digging many false holes. This work fails to trick Wana who simply watch until the real egg is laid. The egg is so large with a sizeable yolk such that a baby maleo bird can almost fly from shortly after birth to help it escape predators. I think it’s likely I remain in a small group of only a handful of humans who’ve ever eaten a maleo egg.

Despite the hardships, I don’t think I would have said the Wana were much unhappier than many peoples I have met.
Although, what happiness? (Eudomonia fufilment, or hedonistic joy?)

Did the Wana work more or less hard than a city dweller? I’m unsure. There certainly was much hard work associated with daily living and I couldn’t say for sure on the work/leisure split.

Accidents and health problems, I could see were very dangerous. Small injuries could be fatal. Diets and food supply were not secure. Sanitation was open. Clothing was not well supplied (I was told then that until recently it was mostly made from bark) although the weather meant plenty of clothes were not necessary.

(To me the observations on food insecurity anecdotally back up the “gorging gene” theory. Supposedly, our hunter-gatherer forebears opportunistically bloated themselves on sugars or fats as food supply was insecure. I could see that would be a good idea for the semi-nomadic Wana, particularly pre-tourism)

The Wana had few artefacts and items. The blowpipe was noticeable. The huts had pots and the like but nothing like you’d see away from the jungle. It’s a stark contrast to our consumer and material world. Wana stories are still told orally. There’s no schooling and I don’t think the village was literate. I didn’t see a single book.

The Wana children were curious about my pens and pencils and one child drew a circle in my journal. I tore out several pages to give to the children. I made a flapping origami bird (useful travelling party trick) that was a delight.

I could see that privacy, as we know it, was rare. Families and extended families slept together. Manuel our guide slept with a Wana family and we had one of the only spare outlying stilted huts.

Children would sleep with parents until they were going to move out. As speculation, I wonder if perhaps part of this is more hardwired today than we might imagine – like the gorging gene. It would seem to me that if hunter-gatherer bands were always this intimate, the instincts of some children to want to sleep with their whole family for some time may be built-in. (The extremes of co-sleeping are laughed about in Western society now, but it is commonplace in many other cultures and countries).

The Wana had skills and knowledge that surpass city-dwellers in many respects. I could see that most acutely through the blowpipe but even in their knowledge of the area, the gathering and hunting techniques, and the like. There was enough resource for Wana to typically stay in an area for a few years before moving on.

I believe there is debate on what ancient humans may have done, when we were all mostly hunter-gatherers. Some tribes probably roamed constantly. Some like the Wana were likely semi-nomadic. I didn’t hear the Wana origin stories – I have since looked a few up, there are not many anthropological studies on the Wana – but they have their own tales.

Knowing what we do about various societies and cultures today, it strikes me that there must have been thousands and thousands to hundreds and thousands to maybe millions of complex cultures like the Wana. I’m inclining towards what Harari (and others) suggests in Sapiens that Empire and Religion and Money have been substantial unifying forces – and I could see that in the way the Wana have mostly avoided all three of these forces.

They had their own culture. Money was not useful to them, trade and barter was better and the empires of the Dutch etc. had passed them by.

Now there is a small tourist trade and I believe a battle over land rights with the Indonesian government.

These people would likely be classified as deep poor although until recently money would have been mostly meaningless to them. I can see how some benefits of secure food and health would be very valuable. A literacy to record their stories would I think be useful – although maybe that’s my perspective. Many of the items of a western life, they could continue to do without and certainly not at the cost of a loss of their habitat.

I had a wash in the river. This was the only running water. I reflect now on the amazing infrastructure we have for clean-to-drink water. A piece of life we take for granted.

We trek out the next day. This fleeting visit would hardly be remembered by the Wana. We were moderately welcome interlopers. Our trade gifts useful, my origami paper bird a novelty that probably lasted longer than the memories of us. Did I give as much as I took ? In terms of experience, I took much more – a view on life and a way of being which is on the way out – a set of impressions that have lingered – an insight into what it might mean to be human – how I might relate to this remote and hardly touched tribe of humans – to try and understand what it might be to be human – to be understanding of how others might live – to not take the challenges or achievements of humanity – at least for a small moment – for granted.

More photos below, including their tough feet and babies in their carriers.

Read about one of my only experiences of racism here: https://www.thendobetter.com/blog/2019/3/30/racism-pressed-duck-and-a-family-tradition

Or, a few lessons that autism has taught me:

https://www.thendobetter.com/blog/2017/7/15/autism-lessons-taught-me

Extel 2003 to 2018, for SRI, Responsible Investing.

June 15, 2019 Ben Yeoh

This is the 2018 IRRI Survey results - published by Extel Surveys and SRI-CONNECT. I snuck in at 20 for “most positive contribution to sustainable investment and corporate governance in 2018”

This survey has its origins in the Extel survey, where the first survey was done in 2003. I won the no. 1 slot back in 2003 for best sector analyst for integrated SRI analyst.

Now that RI, ESG, Sustainability and its adjacent areas such as green finance and the like, has on the face of it taken off I reflect that we’ve achieved some things, but not as much as we might have hoped for.

Trip to Brown University

March 16, 2019 Ben Yeoh

Back to School! I give a guest lecture at Cary Krosinsky’s Brown University class on Sustainable Investing. Great questions from a curious class. The next generation are building on the generations before.

It was my first time to Providence. On a snowy blue sky day, it held a beauty of a place apart.

The train ride between Boston and Providence is conflictingly beautiful in the snow. Industrial complexes turned a clean white. Blue skies, painted wooden houses. Dilapidated factories. Cars and cars and cars. A glimpse of the American Dream.

On the train between Boston and Providence to guest lecture on Sustainable Investing. pic.twitter.com/DSwnAz8f5f
— Benjamin Yeoh (@benyeohben) March 16, 2019

In the art school, good to know students still grappling with “is it art?

Still an air of active hope. That’s probably a good thing.

Greta Thunberg | Climate Activism | Autism

January 27, 2019 Ben Yeoh

I was given the opportunity to speak at a lunch in Davos today... On the panel was Bono, Christiana Figueres, Jane Goodall, https://t.co/0SsuJbW9SN and Kengo Sakurada. #wef pic.twitter.com/PpUwQwTotf
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) January 24, 2019

Not everyone can be Martin Luther King, Tyler Cowen posits in his recent philosophy book, Stubborn Attachments, but hints that those who can be will make a huge difference. How to know what to do… There’s a common sense morality that many of use that implies we do the best we can for our families and friends and acquaintances but, for instance, we don’t divert all of our time and resources to helping the extreme poor or to fighting climate change.

One trait that autistic thinking seems to have more than typical thinking is a stubborn focus. This focus borders on what typicals would find too difficult. It can manifest on an insistence on only doing something one way, for instance only drinking out of a certain cup but also an insistence on, say, fighting for the truth.

Autistic thinking can sometimes have a concrete consistent logic that defies the niceties of typical thinking - either social niceties or the (wilful) blindness that typicals exhibit - a tendency to tell the truth as they see it - for example “you are fat” as statement of fact or “we are destroying the planet”

Typicals obviously can display these traits, but I find it notable in the atypical population.

Perhaps, it is unsurprising to note Greta Thunberg, 16 years old is on the autistic spectrum (Asperger’s diagnosis) and is a climate activist.

She finds the lack of progress by the Davos’ elites as bewildering and the use of airplanes (and meat eating) by those professing to be combating climate change as inconsistent.

Thus displaying a consistent concrete logic by travelling by train, activist campaigns and turning her parents vegan. And with a disregard for Davos social niceties.

A recent CNN article on her advocacy at Davos:

“"Some people say that the climate crisis is something that we will have created, but that is not true, because if everyone is guilty then no one is to blame. And someone is to blame," Thunberg said flatly. "Some people, some companies, some decision-makers in particular, have known exactly what priceless values they have been sacrificing to continue making unimaginable amounts of money. And I think many of you here today belong to that group of people."

(see above)

There was a short pause in the room before Bono started clapping.” (Full text here: https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/25/our-house-is-on-fire-greta-thunberg16-urges-leaders-to-act-on-climate

Article here:

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/25/europe/greta-thunberg-davos-world-economic-forum-intl/index.html

Her recent Washington post Op-ed

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/theworldpost/wp/2019/01/23/davos/

And her previous UN COP24 speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFkQSGyeCWg

My blog on Tyler Cowen’s Stubborn Attachments

https://www.thendobetter.com/investing/2018/11/21/tyler-cowen-vision-of-free-prosperous-and-responsible-individuals

My blog on Nassim Taleb on Climate risk:

https://www.thendobetter.com/investing/2017/9/18/nassim-taleb-climate-change-risk

A short hought on learnings form autism

https://www.thendobetter.com/blog/2017/7/15/autism-lessons-taught-me

Testing Lime ebike in London

January 5, 2019 Ben Yeoh

Me testing a Lime electric bicycle (e-bike) in London.

Cons:

More expensive than bus (on this route, £3.10 for 14 min (£1 unlock, £0.15 min) ride vs £1.50 on bus)

Similar door-to-door time to bus (marginal gains), though outside dense routes

Observations:

Fast acceleration

Fairly fast top speed (felt slightly too fast for London at night, in my view; needs careful cycling, not for beginners)

Bike felt OK for 10 minutes but not super comfortable (the TFL bicycles at £2 are slower, heavier, but more comfortable)

Pros:

-Very easy to use app

-Easy payment

-Low carbon footprint

-Exercise

-Easy to unlock and lock

I left my office in the City of London (near Cannon St/Bank) at around 7pm. I checked on the Lime app, and I could see 2 bikes near Notting Hill gate. I arrive at NHG around 7.40pm and both bikes were still there, I head to the nearest one. It’s a short (3 min) walk and standing on the pavement. My first scan attempt fails, but it’s easy to do and try again and in a few seconds the bike has unlocked. I wheel it it to a good place to start, adjust the seat (quick release) and set off.

The back brake is broken but front brake works so I continue as it’s only a 10 or so min ride. The front light is not that bright (the TFL / Santander bike is brighter) but adequate. You feel the bumps in the road. Most noticeably, the acceleration from a standing start is very quick and the top cruising speed seems to almost keep pace with car. On a dark night in London, this feels too fast, and I make sure I don’t accelerate to max. On uncertain roads or for beginner cyclists, this also feels a little unsafe. The pedal bikes (TFL/Santander) are slower and heavier but seem therefore a little safer and better for tourists.

The journey takes 14 minutes. A bus according to City Mapper / Google varies from 16 to 18 mins (door-door), which aligns with my experience and an average 3 min wait. Walking is 26 mins. Uber is 12 mins no wait, typical 15 mins inc wait.

This highlights the problem that Lime may face (and City Mapper taxi as well). For the price, bus is more effective and on reflection this suggests I should be walking this distance more regularly, if exercise and carbon pollution are my aims. Taxis and Uber become effective in 4 people parties (or luggage),

Few other observations, if there was some credit for the carbon saving that would potentially even it out although again this would budge towards walking/running. It would potentially accelerate the move to electric taxis/ubers we are already seeing.

This might work better in zone two, where bus routes are not as concentrated and the TFL bikes do not extend. London is one of the premier leagues of transport so this difficulty is unsurprising. The problem going into Zone two and beyond is the number of bikes needed to make it work effectively would need to grow. It shows to me mobility in London is well served. It also highlights how cheap Uber is for a small party. This seems underpriced and I wonder how sustainable at these input costs.

The effective ride time seems to be 10 to 20 minutes, but that’s going to be in the £2.50 to £5.00 cost zone. That seems too expensive for London vs the competition.

In the US, the cost is in dollars equivalent currently so cheaper. US cities typically have poorer bus and subway density than London. But, perhaps this works in a city like Manchester.

The Ofo pedal bikes are currently typically restricted to the City / Hackney. I now think this is wise as the tube / bus network is not quite as dense in Hackney and the TFL bikes do not extend to deeply so it makes sense to have a supplementary door-door bike network there.

At this price, the economics of the ebike should work in the right place. A new Gtech ebike is £1,000. It should be significantly cheaper for Lime to buy ebikes even with GPS tracking technology, while wear and tear and charging would be significant, I’d estimate £1,500 should run an ebike for a year including capital costs (and that’s a high estimate). Charging is done by “juicers” essentially another gig economy type role, where registered helpers charge bikes for a fee (in the order of £2 to £5 a bike I would think). So that would be 500 - 1000 rides a year, or 2 - 3 rides a day to break even (we know in some US cities, 5 to 10 rides a day on a scooter / bike is average). Of course, there’s the cost of running the app etc. The economics of e-scooters would be even better. So, I can see why VC funding of these companies is strong.

There are about 400 Lime bikes in London at the moment, so it’s a fairly small investment to test out how this market works. I don’t think it’s that competitive but there’s some differentiation - I like having the choice - and I suspect it’s cheap enough to run that they may stay around.

Give it a spin! But I’d go slow and stick to the day time and routes you know for now.

Update: the ride in the morning felt a lot safer in day time. App still working very well. Cost only £2.10 for a shorter trip and the bus route was not as good so more effective.

Reflections on San Francisco

September 16, 2018 Ben Yeoh

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.