For The Better - Email 10/31

For the Better comes to you bi-weekly with ideas about how and why to build companies focused on human flourishing and stories of the people who are doing it. Other enthusiasms may occasionally appear.

Reading this post about Zyn, the nicotine pouches currently sending Phillip Morris’s revenue and stock price up and to the right, I had one immediate thought: We’re confused about where growth comes from.  In our “degenerate economy” as @howardlindzon calls it, we’ve forgotten that the true source of growth and value creation is making people’s lives better. No matter how it’s classified in our current system, a company isn’t a growth company if it makes a product that kills people. (Even by conventional standards, this growth is temporary since the product itself is going to have a short lifespan. Eventually, consumers will catch on and the numbers will head in the opposite direction.) A company raking in money by producing a deadly product classified as “reduced risk” because it kills less quickly than its original product would be a great metaphor for our economy. Sadly, it’s the reality, and it’s being fueled by investors who are only interested in the short-term. There are far too many people who are more than happy to throw their money into the Phillip Morris pot and then get it out before the crash they know is inevitable comes. They might as well be timing the market. Even if Zyn takes longer to damage lives than cigarettes, that’s ultimately what it will do. And yet, it’s wildly profitable for now – at least for shareholders. But is anything that doesn’t take into account the value of human life actually profitable – and thus a source of true growth? Long-term investors aren’t fooled by the window dressing on a deeply compromised company that looks away from the human suffering built into their product. Just because a liability is deferred doesn’t mean it’s not damaging. 

Things I’ve Enjoyed Lately 

🔵 “The relationships between democratic experience, adult health, and cause-specific mortality in 170 countries between 1980 and 2016: an observational analysis”

Good governance isn’t just good for companies. This is a fascinating study of the relationship between democracy, autocracy, and health. The effects also stretch beyond borders, as “International health agencies and donors might increasingly need to consider the implications of regime type in their efforts to maximize health gains.”

Athena:

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🔵 Arithmetic is an underrated world-modeling technology This is a really fun piece about the power of math. “‘The magic,’ its author notes, ‘lives in a thing called ‘units’”. It’s got chimps, boulders, solar panels and nutrition. 🔵 Private Markets: A Post-Pandemic Reset  A very useful summary of the current moment as presented by Thomas Laffont of Coatue the recent All-In Summit in LA (a link to the whole talk plus other related materials are also here).