Conflict and Compromise
subtle insights from LA LA LAND
I watched a movie on my way back from a conference. Can you guess which one? Movie, not conference to be clear.
First go at LA LA LAND I was entertained but not enamored. Perhaps I was in a different headspace now or perhaps relieved that Emma Stone wasn’t frolicking around with her naughty bits on display (If you have seen Poor Things—you get it). I really really liked it.
It takes me a minute to return to normal after speaking at conferences. The town of Canmore in Alberta Canada is spectacular. The North51 Conference is a gem. My role was to facilitate the overall event and I loved weaving the insights together through storytelling and genuine curiosity.
I also like discipline and the ability to follow a strict routine—made easy in a beautiful hotel like the Malcolm.
Turn on the lights and read at 4 a.m.? Yes please.
Go to the gym or head out for a run in the wee hours? Absolutely.
What. can I say? I thrive with a plan.
Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling’s characters in LA LA LAND have professional plans to achieve their goals and with the exception of a minor dalliance they do not compromise them. This is more my type of movie than when the heroine decides to live in the perpetual shadow because she is in love and doesn’t care who knows it.
Geospatial conferences can feel like LA LA LAND in two ways. One, is there is a high likelihood that you meet many folks with similar drive and commitment. Don’t get me wrong there is a small subset of ‘bruh culture’ and to be honest — there isn’t anything wrong with that. It would be rare to kumbaya your way into ridiculous wealth. And the mostly male energy around grow, grow, grow profits at all costs exists everywhere.
Second, we have limited capacity to have our mind’s changed in a meaningful and often rewarding way. I don’t like seeing monetization and outside investment create shareholder loyalty at the expense of the biosphere. I mean — who has more invested in good decision making than the entire ecosystem of our planet.
Coincidentally though, we all have blood on our hands. Our economy has perverse incentives that manipulate our behavior. Invest huge amounts of money in fiat* currency to make more money, grow GDP and continue to drive it all with finite oil reserves at an exponential pace.
*Following the collapse of Brenton-Woods the dollar no longer had convertibility into a mineral or reserve asset. It has value based on abstraction and quite often debasement.
Not as much of an oversimplification as you might think but the debt skyrockets astronomically as banks create money out of thin air and then manipulate or debase the value in synchrony with global markets. If you ever wondered why GDP needs to grow imagine the amount of GDP growth that is simply needed to cover the interest on the debt as it climbs.
But who am I to judge? I have a mobile phone and once had a Prius. These make nice virtue signals but the minerals and components of these allegedly environmentally conscious behaviors don’t dig themselves out of the ground. Mines are profitable. They are destroying ecosystems, impoverishing artisanal mine workers and hastening their poor health. Am I less culpable because the harms are outsourced to the other side of the world?
Mia (Emma Stone) singing from LA LA LAND:
And here's to the fools who dream / Crazy as they may seem. / Here's to the hearts that break. / Here's to the mess we make.