Not Boring by Packy McCormick - Weekly Dose of Optimism #25
Weekly Dose of Optimism #25Not Boring Capital Fund III, Alzheimer's Accelerated Approval, Cancer Mortality Rates, Beiruti Solar, Quicklime, Direct Air Capture, Shot of OptimismHi friends 👋, Happy Friday and welcome back to our 25th Weekly Dose of Optimism. After taking a few weeks off for the holidays we’re ready to kick things off with a big ole' Shot of Optimism. This year is off to a strong start. Let’s get to it. The Weekly Dose is brought to you by… Composer You know Composer, I love Composer — the investing app that helps you achieve superior returns with logic and data. Since founding its algorithmic trading platform in 2020, Composer has helped over 20,000 customers trade 100s of millions of dollars. I’m one of them — my Composer portfolio is actually up since I started using it last year, which is incredible because the portfolio of individual stocks I own is … not. Here’s what I like about using Composer:
(1) Announcing Not Boring Capital Fund III Packy McCormick for Not Boring
There’s not much to add to what Packy wrote in the Fund III announcement (he’s not one who generally leaves words on the table), but if you haven’t had the chance to read it already, I encourage you to do so. On the surface, it’s a fund investment thesis. At it’s core, it’s just another manifestation of Packy’s general worldview. The world is on a long, upward sloping path towards progress and we should be optimistic, despite the inevitable obstacles, about that trajectory. Here’s how I’ve started to view the Not Boring Flywheel, and the Weekly Dose of Optimism’s place within it:
Let’s keep this flywheel spinnin’! (2) FDA Grants Accelerated Approval for Alzheimer’s Disease Treatment From the FDA
We’ve written at length as to why Alzheimer’s treatments are important to us — it runs in our family, it impacts tens of millions of families world wide, and it’s generally just one of the shittier disease to experience, first or second hand. Packy’s fear of Alzheimer’s is what drove him to start writing in the first place. The FDA recently approved Leqempi, a promising Alzheimer’s treatment, for Accelerated Approval. And while the approval was not met without criticism — look what happened with Aduhelm, it’s too expensive, it doesn’t help all Alzhiemer’s patients, more data is needed — we are generally supportive of common sense accelerated approvals on treatments that could have a meaningful impact on quality of life, especially when the alternative is “no alternative.” (3) Risk of Dying from Cancer Continues to Drop at an Accelerated Pace From The American Cancer Society
Packy and I spoke to a founder on Wednesday that surprised us when he said, “There is already a cure for cancer. It’s early detection.” While there’s no silver bullet, early detection has been one of the leading drivers of declining cancer death rates over the last 30 years. According to a new report published by the American Cancer Society, during the last 30 years there’s been a 32% decrease in cancer mortality rates which have resulted in an estimated 3.5 million fewer cancer deaths. What that means in practice is that a handful of people that you know haven’t died from cancer that would have in earlier generations. This decline is largely due to a combination of less smoking, earlier detection, and improved therapeutics. (4) In Lebanon, Solar Power Is Booming. Why? Kristin V. Monroe for Sapiens
At a macro-level, we’ve written extensively about the plummeting cost of solar (solar kWh from $0.42 in 2009 to $0.05 in 2021) due to learning curves. This is one of the more important stories in energy, and therefore in the world, of the last few years. So it’s cool to see the impact of solar at the more micro-level, as we are seeing in Lebanon. Lebanon’s economy is struggling, the currency has lost 90% of its value in three years, there is a devastating energy shortage, and, or course, political turmoil — and against this backdrop, individuals are left to power (literally) their own lives. Some have turned to generators and others, increasingly commonly, have turned towards solar. As the writer notes, it’s tempting to view this as an optimistic story. The Beiruti people are resilient and, perhaps, even super environmentally conscious. But below the surface, the story is a bit darker — it’s a story of what happens when a state fails to provide basic utilities like electricity. If nothing else, it shows that decentralized solutions can work when the centralized one falls short. People are resilient. (5) Riddle solved: Why was Roman concrete so durable? David L. Chandler for MIT News
A team of researchers recently discovered the secret to ancient Roman structures’ durability, and that secret could be beneficial in the development of more durable, lighter-weight, and ultimately environmentally friendlier concretes today. Without getting too much into the details, what were previously thought to be little white blemishes in ancient concrete are actually the signs of a sophisticated concrete mixing process called “quickliming.” The lead researcher had been confounded that the otherwise meticulous ancient builders would allow for such blemishes, unless they held a deeper purposes — and it turns out, his suspicion was on point. Material science will be increasingly important over the next few decades as we generate and harness more energy, explore foreign terrains, and build increasingly advanced structures. And as this story reminds us, when building for the future, it’s always wise to understand the past. Bonus: Not Boring Founders: Nicholas Chadwick, Mission Zero Technologies Packy sat down with Nicholas Chadwick, founder and CEO of Mission Zero Technologies. MZT is developing direct air capture (DAC) technology that will recover high-purity CO2 from the air while incurring only a fraction of the costs and energy it takes to do so today. We were first put in touch with Nick and the team by Frontier, the Advanced Market Commitment run by Stripe, Shopify, Meta and others. P.S. — We also dropped the world premier of “Shot of Optimism” at the top of this episode. We apologize in advance that it’ll be in your head all day. s/o Yung Spielberg! That’s all for this week. We’ll be back in your inbox 9am EST on Monday morning. Thanks for reading, Dan |
Key phrases
Older messages
Differentiation
Friday, January 20, 2023
Or, why you should be a mutant
Announcing Not Boring Capital Fund III
Tuesday, January 10, 2023
A $30 million Fund to invest in Hard Startups and tell their stories
Blank Page
Monday, December 19, 2022
To 2023 and Beyond
Aleo: Can You Keep a Secret?
Tuesday, December 13, 2022
A Deep Dive Into Zero-Knowledge Proofs and the Future of the Internet
Weekly Dose of Optimism #23
Friday, December 9, 2022
TSMC Factories, Our AI in Data, Nano x AI, The Century of Biology, Malaria Antibodies
You Might Also Like
Videos that drive results
Friday, April 26, 2024
Today's Guide to the Marketing Jungle from Social Media Examiner... Presented by Social Media Marketing World logo It's 🥨 National Pretzel Day, Reader! Do you like them soft or crispy? In
Meet the Man Killing Google Search...
Friday, April 26, 2024
Who is responsible for Google's core product...search? Google's head of search has recently been in the news as he called an all hands on deck meeting to tell Google employees of a new
Reader, your $1,000 discount expires today.
Friday, April 26, 2024
Hey Reader, For our first 2024 EcomCrew Premium launch, we're offering new members 50% off ALL our plans. The offer comes with a 30-day, no-questions-asked money back guarantee, but you should sign
LUC #51: Domain-Driven Design Demystified: Bridging Development and Business Needs
Friday, April 26, 2024
Plus, how elasticsearch works, what makes an API RESTful, and server-sent events explained
Consensys Sues SEC Over Ethereum Classification
Friday, April 26, 2024
Plus FBI Highlights Risks in Crypto Mixing Post-Samourai
Digiday Awards: Join the list of past winners from Carhartt, Adobe, Dentsu and more
Friday, April 26, 2024
One week left to secure the lowest rate on entries
TikTok ban (for real this time?) [Crew Review]
Friday, April 26, 2024
EcomCrew Premium is 50% off until midnight. This is your last chance to grab the offer that comes with a 30-day money back guarantee—no questions asked. Sign up here. Hey Reader, President Biden has
Let AI build your online business by remote control
Friday, April 26, 2024
This helps make success on ClickBank easier than ever before! View in browser ClickBank Yesterday's live training was mindblowing ClickBanker, did you miss it? Bill McIntosh (Our AI Expert
Code yellow, I repeat CODE YELLOW 📢
Friday, April 26, 2024
TGIF. This is the Niche Nugget. A monthly roundup where we bring you SEO and creator news and insights from across the industry. What happened? What's it all mean? We've got you covered.
Influence Weekly #334 - Hot Off The Press: Seasoned Influencers Reveal Their #1 Concern For 2024
Friday, April 26, 2024
Meta's “Twitter Killer” Threads Surges Past Elon Musk's X In Shocking Metric Upset