The Sunday Review
The week in review
Hey there,
I hope your Sunday is going well. Last week I saw a lot of raw material shortages and people I know are scrambling for alternate material substitutions. I was complaining about this on Twitter and @Arrheinous replied with the following picture on Supply Chain Redundancy:
This picture made my week and also seems to be an accurate description at times of raw material supply chains in chemicals. I am feeling the effects of the shutdowns in Texas last month. You might be too. Always refer back to the Supply Chain Redundancy Schematic when times get tough.
Tuesday. Policy Position: Presidential Plastic Action Plan
Maybe I was feeling feisty or attending that AAAS STPF meet and greet over Zoom really stuck with me, but this was my first foray into writing about plastics and public policy. I offer my take here on a policy plan that is being pushed toward President Biden and I also offer my suggestions on how plastics public policy could be better. I think the only way to fix the plastic waste problem is with good fundamental polymer chemistry, capitalism, and some careful public policy as an accelerate.
Friday. Shareholders Want Decarbonization
This month’s green chemistry and circular plastics economy issue focused a bit more on how shareholders are finally realizing how decarbonization can be good for stock growth while also being good for the world. We will likely see more investment into green chemistry and circular plastics technologies through the formation of private companies and the SPACs/IPOs/Direct Listings of existing companies. I also write about Novomer Inc. here for the first time and the interesting things they are doing around PHAs.
Some Interesting Things I Read Last Week:
Derek Lowe writing for his blog In The Pipeline writes about something I can relate to the chemistry of smells or in this case Vetiver. I do not often read Derek Lowe since it is primarily about medicinal and more organic synthesis, but I especially enjoyed this blog post. At one point in time I thought I was going to do a side hustle involving scented candles. Does anyone need some essential oils?
Ava (@noampomsky) writes a excellent newsletter called Bookbear Express that I follow and she recently wrote On Sticking With It. Ava’s essay hit me in a lot of places I didn’t know existed. She writes with an immense amount of clarity and grace. This passage stood out to me:
As someone who likes visible progress, I always want things to be perfect and I’m invariably disappointed. I want everything I write to be the best thing I’ve ever written; I want every day at the gym to be the best day at the gym. Sometimes it is, but often it isn’t. I’ve been trying to teach myself to be okay with plateaus, with taking short breaks, with not feeling it.
We’re fed this cultural narrative that doing the right thing should be accompanied by a feeling. But most of the time all you get is ambivalence. You want to believe but you’re not sure if you should. Certainty often appears only in retrospect.
So how do you keep going? How do you know if you should keep going?
I’ve often felt this way in graduate school, my first job out of graduate school, every job since then, and every side project I’ve started and eventually abandoned. This is probably my longest running and most consistent writing project. I spend a lot of time here and I would gladly do it with 20, 200, 2000, or 20,000+ readers. I am a polymer chemist at heart and I am The Polymerist newsletter.
What I Really Enjoyed Watching:
Bon Appétit has an excellent start of a wine series on YouTube with Sommelier André Mack where he tries different wines that cost less than $15/bottle. You can find more of André over on Twitter @MaisonNoirWines. Watching the video below on white wines makes me think about sitting outside in the warm sun with a chill glass of wine and some shrimp on the barbeque. I’ll be attempting to find the perfect bottle starting now.
(I know all about the Bon Appétit situation, but support André Mack if you can)
Next week I’ll be publishing the second part of my conversation with BPS Agriculture on navigating a career in chemicals and advice to younger versions of themselves. Friday will be about specialty chemicals. My company is bringing back everyone to R&D full time too. Hopefully I don’t get Covid-19.
Talk to you Tuesday,
Tony
The views here are my own and do not represent those of my employer nor should they be considered investment advice.
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