A Bad Company you've never heard of

• The most evil company you’ve never heard of

• How more energy consumption could relieve poverty

• Why Mark Zuckerberg wins gold in Nerd Olympics.

• Why you should shut up more often

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Articles

After a Rocky Year, Zuckerberg Lays Out Meta’s Road Map to Employees

Zuckerberg is the top ranked Nerd in the world… and it isn’t close. He built the worlds most effective data collection and processing machine (ethically questionable), is building his version of virtual reality (not that great), open sourcing AI models (really cool), and does Jiu Jitsu (now he’s a hero).

After a two year period where Meta was mercilessly attacked by Apple. First by removing data tracking on iOS and Apple’s new AR Headset. Now, Zuck is coming back with vengence. He is buying in completely to Open Source, evidenced by the Llama models and the rumored Twitter competitor, which will use open protocols.

All this is to say is that Zuckerberg is the greatest nerd of all time. Reply if you think you have a better Nerd GOAT.

Why the World Still Needs Trade

Some smart people say globalisation is good. Others say it is bad. The people that really know that it is neither… however, it is. Director of the World Trade Organisation Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is of the mindset that trade is crucial to global development.

Talk of deglobalisation is just that, talk. US and China trade reached all time highs at almost $700 billion… 25% higher than 2019.

While reducing trade sounds like a good and equitable idea, it’s not. Global Trade enabled a quick COVID response, and gives less economically developed parts of the world the opportunity to take advantage of whatever resources they have.

That being said, we do need to “reglobalise.” By prioritising the trade of alternative fuels like green hydrogen (Latin America will be a big winner), we put the world in a better position to succeed in the coming decades. Economies of scale will still be the biggest tool to combat climate change.

Solar power due to overtake oil production investment for first time, IEA says

The good guys are finally starting to win. More money will be invested into Solar power than oil this year. What’s interesting to note is that almost all energy spending comes from Advanced economies and China. For every dollar invested into fossil fuels, $1.7 is invested into clean energy.

Over time it has become more clear that solar energy will be the most important contributor to the clean energy transition. It is the most effective, and scalable of all the clean energy methods.

What else is interesting to see, is the correlation between GDP per capita and energy consumption. Countries with larger GDP / capita use more energy than countries with lower GDP / capita. This totally makes sense, if you can use more energy you can be more productive. That means that more energy consumption will elevate lower and middle income countries. The question is all about how you get to that end.

Company - Corteva

This week I read Corteva’s annual report, and man that sucked.

It’s brutal to see a sector we are all so reliant on have so many bad actors in it. Corteva is a company that sells seeds and plant protection to many of the worlds farmers. Without them we’d be f**ed.

Corteva does about 5 billion in annual sales, mainly to farmers in North America and Europe. They sit on a cash pile of $1.6 billion and are projecting $600 million in profit this quarter. . At the same time, they are being sued by many of their former clients.

One of the suits is for damages up to $4 billion for PFAS exposure. These can cause cancer and many other difficult diseases. Another suit is for exposure to chlorpyrifos, another carcinogen. The FTC is suing them for anti competitive practices and they are going to pay $235 million for one of their settlements.

Each quarter Corteva earmarks between $250 million and $600 million for payments for law suits.

Meanwhile each of us are reliant on them for our food supply. At the end of the day regenerative agriculture may be a bit of a pipedream, but there must be a better solution than having companies like this running our food supply

Lessons

Persistence is persuasive
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s shocking how true this is. I am reading the General and the Genius, which is a book about the production of the Atom Bomb. The main project leader is General Groves, who known to get stuff done. His strategy? Bang his head against whatever obstacle happens to be in front of him in that moment.

It was amazing to see what doors opened for him once he put his mind to what he was going to do.

Sometimes it’s better to shut up.
Everyone talks… probably too much. Not many listen. Often times people don’t want answers, instead they want to feel heard. It’s smarter just to shut up and try to understand, rather than try to solve.