How Ancient Medicine Informs My Investment Thesis
In my final semester at Baylor, I chose to take “History of Medicine” with Dr. Matthews, out of selfish ambition to continue my relationship/mentorship with him, yet the content of the course has already challenged my outlook in other areas of life.
My principle takeaway thus far is how important posture is when approaching new knowledge, and in the context of this piece, investment. I deliberately choose the word posture as opposed to perspective. To me, changing perspective literally implies the turning of the head towards a new idea, while the torso may stay oriented toward the past. The following words will illustrate how those who drive innovation and successfully allocate capital at the highest level change more than just their perspective, they change their entire posture when change arrives.
When we only change perspective and give new ideas a shot we are infinitely slower to capitalize on paradigm shifts than those who embrace change and orient their posture toward the future.
The piece of text that drove this realization for me was the following from Erwin Ackerknecht’s book entitled “A Short History of Medicine”.
“The anatomical knowledge of primitives, for instance, is notoriously poor, in spite of the fact that some of them open a great number of human and animal bodies. Anatomical knowledge cannot be acquired by people who are not primarily interested in natural causes in connection with disease.” (pg 10).
The value of this excerpt goes far beyond how the ancients were staring right at knowledge yet weren’t acquiring it. It has forced me to analyze my primary intention regarding investments and intellectually challenging concepts as a whole. In what ways am I only turning my head when I should be entirely re-orienting my posture toward a sector, idea, or data point?
Digital Real Estate Posture
This framework was illustrated for me during a conversation with peers about digital real estate. The main argument of the group was to downplay the growth/validity of digital real estate and consequently the “Metaverse” given ideas like the fact that there is no scarcity to digital real estate. It is not proper to view digital real estate in the same posture let alone perspective as physical real estate. While the unambiguous value and long-term use cases of digital real estate remain unclear, the fact that they don’t fit established models should encourage change in posture not perspective. To assess digital real estate through change in perspective leaves theoretical blind spots, that are only addressed and capitalized on by those who re-oriente their posture. To be clear, those who capitalize on paradigm shifts do so before clarity exists.
Psychedelic Posture
In the psychedelic community the term “psychedelics 2.0” is used in a variety of contexts, whether that be how psychedelics of the future will be manufactured or how they will be licensed. However, psychedelics 2.0 is merely an articulation of how psychedelics will be viewed in the future, as an equal form of medicine to any other pharmacological treatment. The lack of interest in the sector from institutions and investors is a signal of perspective shifts and not posture shifts.
Psychedelics in the perspective framework appear to be a tool for hippies to escape reality, and at best allow users to get high to ease the pain
Psychedelics in the posture framework represents untapped “non-linear relationships between the serotonin, dopamine, and NDMA receptors that will unlock therapies outside of the typical “psychedelics for mental health model” as Empath Ventures believes. They fill a white space that can only be seen when we re-oriente ourselves toward acceptance/utilization, and capital allocation allows clarity to come about in this white space.
Conclusion
When the greatest paradigm shifts in the world are viewed in retrospect, its easy to ask “how could I have missed that”. I would posit that those who miss these chasmic shifts in society and don’t capitalize are quick to alter perspective but rarely are willing to alter their posture. It is easy to scan the world with different perspectives. It is challenging and taxing across many facets to continually consider and then willingly re-orient your posture to the unknown and unproven.
Yet those who change their posture don’t have to ask why they missed those paradigm shifts, they create them.