My friend Adam sent me a version of this picture the other weekend and it really resonated with me this week. My job as a polymer chemist doing product development is also within the Profession portion of the diagram, maybe also part of my Ikigai. When I write this newsletter I think I am within the Mission section of the diagram, but ideally I’d like to have this newsletter be part of my Ikigai, which means I need to get paid for it eventually.
I’ve been thinking about how to do this while keeping as much of the newsletter free to everyone. I was primarily thinking about a combination of sponsorship and reader supported revenue. If you’ve got any good ideas I’d love to hear them. Reply to this email or DM me on Twitter @tpolymerist
What I’m Writing
Missing My Deadline
I was out traveling last weekend and a combination of not being able to write as much as I usually do and waiting on some fact checking from my subjects meant that the second part of my clothing waste series was not going to get released on time. I’m not sure it will be released this Tuesday either. It only took me about 2-3 hours to write Externalizing The Costs Of Our Modern Lives so maybe something similar will appear soon?
April Specialty Chemicals Issue
These issues of the newsletter are much easier to write because I am relying on the skills of reporters. This month I focused on the rise of polyurethanes which has been happening for awhile, but now they are gaining traction in the world of composites. Also, superglue is getting some attention now from Arkema, which I think is a good indication of some new life for an older polymer.
What I’m Reading
Closed-loop recycling of polyethylene-like materials
by Manuel Häußler and coworkers for Nature
Interesting work on inserting functional groups into polyethylene backbones that can enable solvolysis of a polymer back into something more manageable. I did something similar with epoxy resins back in graduate school, but I was never able to get the properties to be equivalent to the incumbent BPA based epoxy resins. Definitely worth reading if you’ve got a subscription to Nature.
Cities As A Survival Mechanism
by Kim Stanley Robinson for Bloomberg City Lab
Wow, this is a cool article. I get some Bloomberg newsletters and this one was via CityLab I think. Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer, but he proposes some ideas here that I think are exactly what we need to think about as a society. I definitely believe that cities are our future and if we can get manufacturing, waste management, residential costs, and food production localized to a city we have a chance at making a shift from a car dependent society to one where we can bike, walk, or take mass transit to our jobs and recreational activities.
What I’m Watching
I’m not a hunter, but many in my family do hunt and I’ve enjoyed the game meats as a result. I enjoy watching Steven Rinella at times and I think this exchange he has with a Vegan from a few years ago is worth watching and thinking about. If you want an ally in your quest for stopping climate change and preserving large tracts of land I think hunters are an important ally in that quest. I also view hunting for your own meat as the most ethical way to be a meat eater.
I love this YouTube channel called Never Too Small. The small well designed spaces where the architect explains their design reasoning with great before/after examples of renovations calms me down. The idea that people can live in such small spaces in cities should encourage more population density and lower housing costs. Yes, I know being in a small apartment during a pandemic sounds miserable, but so does a planet wrecked by climate change. Hopefully, we have learned from our mistakes during this pandemic so to be prepared for the next.
Talk to you Tuesday,
Agree re Rinella. He did a couple of Tim Ferris podcast interviews — they are great too.