The Fourth World (8/23/20)
Hey Friends,
Welcome back, I’m excited to get into another few lessons this week. It’s hard for me to know which topics resonate most with all of you, so if you feel inclined, let me know what you like. I had some positive feedback from last week and thought that those topics were just thrown together, so you never really know!
This week I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about jobs, careers, and the process of actually finding a job you like. The systems we currently have are a little convoluted and frustrating for the vast majority of people. It’s fun to think about how hiring could have the potential to be disrupted the same way other industries would be. So far, companies have only made the process of finding opportunities easier with things like LinkedIn, Indeed, and others, but what if someone were able to scrap the whole system and replace it with something entirely new?
Just that thought sounds really weird and really makes no sense, but isn’t that the nature of disruptive industries? Just 10-20 years ago the entire Wall Street establishment would have thought commission-free trades sounded ridiculous, but here we are with Robinhood and an army of bros on r/wallstreetbets.
Let’s get to the lessons for this week. *queue iconic image*
Homeroom
My Essay: Getting Your Ego Out of Your Career
I finally got around to publishing another essay this week. I’ll be transparent here, this is not one of my favorite essays. It’s decently personal and shares some lessons I’ve learned over the past few years about how egos and jobs are related. It’s a relevant topic for this moment in time when so many are looking for new starts.
My lasting lesson is that if your ego and your job end up getting too cozy it can be a major hindrance for you in moving forward. Some people have what might be viewed as simple jobs with no prestige associated with them, but that has zero impact on the level of happiness in a career.
I also published this tiny article in LinkedIn late last week and want to share, because it’s based on our first lesson for the week…
Advanced Innovation Studies…with Alcohol
I came across an interesting study from Havard exploring how alcohol and innovation intersect. In itself, that’s an interesting topic, but the main takeaway may catch you off-guard.
Here are some of the key points:
Counties that banned alcohol during Prohibition produced 8-18% fewer patents than other counties in the same state that did not.
Innovation alone doesn't lead to more patents or new ideas. The social element of bars and gathering places play a role as a hub for the sharing and expansion of those innovative thoughts.
The decline of innovation was largest during the three years following Prohibition. Once Prohibition normalized, people adapted to new social gathering norms and innovation rose as gatherings reconvened.
The findings of this research effectively state that alcohol isn't the key ingredient in innovation (I know...some of you are disappointed), a gathering is. It’s the social acts associated with bars and restaurants that facilitates increased casual interaction, which apparently facilitates more innovation.
In hindsight, all of this makes complete sense, but for some reason, it was not the findings I expected from that research.
My thought on this as applied to 2020: There may be equally as much innovation resulting from people not going to bars or social settings. The forced confinement of quarantine has likely sparked innovation born out of boredom or desire for independent income. Harvard, this is your next study!
Human Living Conditions
You’ve heard of third world countries. We picture these as typically Asian or African nations with poor economics, likely corrupt governments, and unfathomably terrible living conditions.
But, have you heard of fourth world?
One of my favorite writers, Venkatesh Rao, came up with this visionary idea in this essay. Take a look at this visual and the definitions below from Rao on how he defines each “world” of living conditions.
First world: Small, rich European countries. Islands of gentrified urbanism in the US.
Second world: Suburban/small-town America, parts of larger European countries, small Asian countries, parts of the Soviet Union before it collapsed, parts of China today.
Third world: Countries in global south that began modernizing a century later than Europe, and still have relatively intact pre-modern societal structures to backstop the shortcomings of incomplete industrial development.
Fourth world: Parts of the developed world that have collapsed past third-world conditions because industrial safety nets have simultaneously withered from neglect/underfunding, and are being overwhelmed by demand, but where pre-modern societal structures don’t exist as backstops anymore.
So what is the key difference? It’s the existence of pre-modern societal backstops.
Take America for example. Our society has long advanced out of pre-technology practices and uses. Because of this, most of those elements of our society have completely disappeared. In third world countries, many of these pre-modern practices still exist and can keep conditions from completely bottoming out (although still admittedly terrible).
Another key element of fourth world conditions is that they are born out of first/second world conditions whereas third world simply doesn’t develop into higher levels. Because of this there are elements of first/second world conditions, such as drugs, that make fourth world conditions that much worse.
Fourth world comes into play when there is a societal dependency on non-dependable systems.
I’d never thought about this fact before reading Rao’s essay, but there are quite a few people in our country living in conditions equal to or worse than we picture as only possible in under-developed nations. The blessings of abundance also contribute to the conditions on the other end of the spectrum. It’s a completely surprising relationship.
Aquatic Logistics
One thing I recently learned by reading this absolute doozy of an article (seriously if anybody reads this whole thing you have to tell me and we’ll talk about it, however, I guarantee no one will read it) about the geopolitics of the United States, is something I’d never considered about the cost of shipping on land vs. by water.
It is significantly cheaper to ship on water vs. on land. This is why the river systems of the US have been so traditionally important.
To be honest, this axis data in this graph is quite confusing, but just take a look at the visual difference.
In the end, it’s about 10 to 30 times cheaper to ship by water vs. on land. The interesting result is that it makes countries with a robust maritime structure extremely capital-rich when you compare them to countries with land-only shipping options. This is a surprisingly significant factor when you think of the success and economic power of countries like the US, Japan, Germany, the UK, and France.
Basic Math
I know we’ll all appreciate this. Here is a fantastic visual representing the timeline of learning math that most of us have experienced.
Photo of the Week
This photo is from an island in the Philippines named Batasan. It’s a really tiny island that was flooded around 2013 due to an earthquake. The locals actually don’t want to leave, they don’t mind the flooding. It’s become a part of their life. During high tide, for about 4 hours a day, around 130 days a year, this happens in the village.
The interesting thing is how clear the water is.
Quote of the Week
"You could try to pound your head against the wall and think of original ideas or you can cheat by reading them in books.” - Patrick Collison
That’s all for this week, thanks for attending!
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See you all next week!
-Ryan