Life, Partners and Lessons

your Saturday roundup

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.

1. Origin of Life. The best book I’ve read on the origin of life is the Vital Question. A physicist recommended it to me this week and I was so excited to find a fellow fan. If you haven’t read it, do it! If you have, the next book to read on the topic is Life as No One Knows It by Sara Walker. First she reminds us that we don’t have a good definition of life. Then she proposes that life and information (and maybe evolution) need to become first order concepts in our physics. Her solution is Assembly Theory, which focuses on the physical next possible steps to construct a physical object (like a chemical). Imagine a search space of all possible combinations, or transformations starting from single molecules to more complicated objects. You reach a depth of about 15 to get amino acids. So, one hypothesis is that living objects must be this complex. The search space reminded me of Steven Johnson’s concept of the adjacent possible. But there’s a lot more to it. I may have to read it again to really understand it.

   

2. Bank Partners. The US grants few new bank charters, so the way new entrants create banking products is through partnership with existing banks. We did this at my first company, Higher One. Name a new fintech product and I bet it was created this way. In the last decade or so, more companies have grown to facilitate the business and technology connection between banks and fintech companies. Now that one of these “banking-as-a-service” providers has famously collapsed leaving confusion in its wake, the regulators have increased recordkeeping requirements on banks and required fintechs to make change disclosures about FDIC insurance (is it more or less clear if deposits are insured?). Even with there recent challenges, there are still opportunities for innovation in banking. When I talk to founders about choosing a bank partnership, I share my blog post. Since I wrote this a few years ago, there are some new players. Curious if you have experience with any of them?

3. Dad Lessons. I’m torn. There is so much I want to teach our kids. I know that much of what they learn from me will be by example and explicit instruction works best when they request it. Yet I yearn for them to listen to me. Therefore, I’m trying an experiment. Once a week, I’ve gathered the kids for a 5 minute Dad Lesson of my choosing. We’ve covered: how to get medical help in an emergency and how credit cards work. This week I’m planning the prisoner's dilemma. The Dad’s Lesson topics are mix of practical and philosophical, as you might guess.

Until next time,

Miles