Professionally, I focus on creating social benefit startups. In my Saturday morning emails I share what I’m learning and thinking. Topics range from better living and parenting to business and philosophy.
Never Enough. I read Andrew Wilkinson’s (founder of Tiny) autobiography expecting a business story. Instead, the focus of Never Enough is on his relationship with money and how to use it. Wilkinson shares candid tales of spending money on consumption and trying to shield himself from uncertainty and disconnection. A significant driver for him is the desire to outperform his father professionally. One intriguing aspect is his insight on peer comparison. Seeing others buy boats or watches, he found himself following suit. This led him to ponder a crucial question: how do you know what you truly want? One of his answers is through a Munger-style inversion. Instead of focusing on what you want, list what you don’t want or enjoy, and work to avoid those. It reminded me of Conscious Leadership Group’s energy audit where you review your previous calendar to identify the types of activities that bring you energy (joy, excitement, flow, etc) and work to remove the ones that don’t. The more time freedom you have the easier that is to do, of course. A theme in the book is the hedonic treadmill and the escalating nature of desire which reminded me of the book Why Buddhism is True. I hope it doesn’t ruin the ending of Never Enough to tell you he discovers the power of simplicity and giving.
A Franklin Circle. I recently listened to the Benjamin Franklin episode on the How to Take Over the World podcast with one of our kids. The conversations afterwards reminded me of Franklin’s Leather Apron Club which met regularly to work on self-improvement and civic-improvement. I’m inspired to do something similar. I found a group online promoting the concept. Curious if you know of anyone who has done something like this? Lessons learned to share? If I did it, I probably would emphasize a different list of virtues than Franklin’s Thirteen although it is a good start. What would be on your list?
Solar Power’s Future. When I think about the room for improvements in hardware efficiency or soft costs of solar energy, or I look at the growth of solar installs, I’m optimistic. The cost of solar has come down yet stalled recently. Interest rates being higher is one driver. If I look at the share of energy in the world generated by renewable sources I see a 4% shift in a decade and that doesn’t seem like a lot. How should I think about the future of solar?
Until next time,
Miles