What a year, friends. If you’re reading this, we’ve survived annus horribilis … just about.
2020 brought the rupture event I thought was at least 5 years down the road, if I were being generous.
Don’t @ me, but I feel grateful to be living in and through such a pivotal moment in human history, this inexorable resurrection of one power to challenge the incumbent. History is in the making and for the taking, if we can stop for a moment to take stock of all that’s swirling around us.
We all knew the pandemic fast-tracked many things (vaccines amongst them), but one not unexpected outcome is the CEBR’s timeline revision of when China will surpass the US as the world’s biggest economy. Looks like Covid-19 shaved 5 years from their prediction, so now we’re looking at 2028 instead of 2033. Interesting times ahead!
Here are 20 things in 2020 that I either learned or found interesting. I’ll refrain from making any sort of trend predictions as that sort of activity is shaping up to be a fool’s errand. I’m just hanging along for the ride, and I thank you for joining me in my little corner of the newsletter world. I’ll see you on the 4th of January, 2021 for the new year’s first Monday briefing — let’s hope it’s an uneventful one.
- Epidemic outbreaks are not a figment of apocalyptic fiction.
- Collective action trumps individualistic survivalism, unless you want to live on a deserted island.
- Governments could have had financial reserves to distribute to their citizens instead of focusing on creative ways to restructure their debts.
- Assets can be a liability.
- We’re not a monolith.
- Freedom means squat if you have no health (or life) to enjoy it.
- The Lutherans have such a knack for grand orchestral Christmas music, and I hope that we all manage to claw back some joy from this season after such a wretched year — „preiset die Tage!”
- Optionality is the painful lesson that 2020 drove home. To start understanding this concept, I recommend Richard Meadows’s eponymous book.
- No pandemic would be complete without a conspiracy theory or two. Or five, in 2020’s case.
- Could you imagine the US Congress treating FAANG thus? No, neither could I.
- The East Asian bow and South Asian namaste seem purpose-built for pandemic socialisation.
- I’ve been pondering, of late, the remarkable ability of certain individuals / organisations to extract funding with no discernible impact, governance or oversight. This could even be characterised as a class of professional grifters. As much as accumulated wealth can and should be redistributed, it has to be done fairly, equitably and without falling prey to self-righteousness. Philanthropy has to be culturally contextual and relevant.
- If monetising email newsletters into MRR / ARR is the next big thing, will I move to Letterhead, or will I go Stripe + ConvertKit + Landen? I’d love to hear your thoughts. (The irony of using Substack to solicit such ideas is not lost on me, but the frugal Asian in me cringes at the thought of 10% fees.)
- Perhaps several hundred years too late, countries have closed their borders to the British. Karmic justice? Seems petty, but given the callous horrors of the Bengal Famine, the Amritsar Massacre, the appropriation of natural resources and cultural artefacts, one could be forgiven for cracking a dark joke or two.
- I’ve not raved enough about Netflix’s Over the Moon, an animated feature that paid far more tribute to traditional Chinese culture in modern times than Disney’s limp, anachronistic live-action Mulan.
- Most of us had it in the back of our minds that the global supply chain was an essential but generally unsung component of our modern infrastructure. Apart from essential workers in healthcare and pharmaceutical research, hardly anyone would argue that logistics startups do not deserve the funding they’ve managed to acquire. がんばって！
- The single biggest source of random information I discovered in 2020 is the Today I Learned channel on Telegram. Ad-free, r/todayilearned if you don’t want or use Telegram.
- It seems rather contrarian of me to NOT rave about The Queen’s Gambit, chiefly because I favour Wai-kei / Go / Baduk for its 19x19 vs 8x8 complexity.
- Whilst 2020’s M&A spree cannot and should not be understated, it is the consolidations and collaborations in the Indo-Pacific region that provide a template for possibly more equitable expansion and growth.
- “What’s love got to do with it?” Everything, perhaps. Love came to me in the most unexpected way in 2020, and whilst it’s fair to say it was a dumpster fire of a year in every respect, it certainly wasn’t when it came to relationships and love.
Originally published at https://noeticnotions.substack.com.