Joan’s Index

I write a bi-weekly newsletter, featuring essays on tech, humans and economics.

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Joan Westenberg is a seasoned writer focused on tech and economics. She was honoured as one of the top 100 innovators by the Australian. Joan has written for Wired, The Australian Financial Review, the SF Chronicle, The Saturday Paper, Chainsaw, Yahoo,  TIME, Inc, the ABC, Crikey and others. Beyond her writing, Joan is an advisor to Culture Vault and MODA DAO, fusing her technological expertise with her passion for cultural innovation. Joan has spoken at SXSW, NFTfest, Microsoft Ignite, Web Summit etc.

Joan Westenberg

Chasing Financial Equality For Humanity @ Maslow. Ex Child, Ex Boyfriend, multiple exits from awkward conversations. I’m neurodiverse, queer and tend to offend the ‘not all men’ crowd 🫣

I'm a human who's done stuff and could do more stuff in the future. Some of that stuff is the kind of stuff others put in their bios as if any of us care. We don't. We care about our families, and feeling safe, and the things that make us grin from ear to ear like we're children. That's who I am. Just as it's who you are. We are same. 

I'm committed to systems change in the largest industry on earth because it's the largest lever we can pull to improve life for billions of people. Changing who the finance industry benefits will lead to conversations humanity is currently not equipped to have today - the conversations needed if we're going to be here in 200 years time. 

Things I've learned: 
As a Cleaner - People are messy but expect others to be clean. 
As a Waiter - Human interaction is the joy in life. 
As a Paramedic - People need healthcare, but first need society to care.
Volunteering  - People with disabilities are often holistically more able than the able bodied.
Cooking for others - Those without food are the most generous people.
Training as an Army Officer - Good leaders make themselves redundant.
Studying Psychology - people's 'why' is everything. 
Studying Law - Two wrongs can’t make a right. 
Running a Managed Fund - the finance industry is fu*ked. 
When I was poor - I learned that happiness comes from within.
As a Queer Autistic Jew - my existence offends many people.
As an anti-zionist Jew - Jewish people are some of the worst affronts to Jewish Culture. 

Social media is not a place where any person has an obligation to respond to the comments of others. If you disagree with me, do so with respect and you'll receive bucketloads in return.  If I block you it's because you've been dishonest, abusive, threatening, or otherwise suggested you lack respect for others. It will have been because you placed your opinion above someone else's humanity.

Kane Jackson

A century ago, Australia built its national capital in the middle of nowhere. It was sheep grazing land 🐑 They even had to dig the lake the city is now built around 🪏

At the time, it was sensible. It helped people in Sydney and Melbourne accept an outcome that advanced us all. 

A century later, it means billions of dollars in flights for people flying in and out in both the public and private sector, a population that disappears during holidays, and everyone bailing for the airport on Friday afternoon as if someone in the city dropped a horrid fart. 

The cost, alone, of the forgone agglomeration (clustering of government, finance and industry), adds an estimated $1.5 billion to the government’s (ie… taxpayers) annual consulting bill!! 

Canberra is still just the 8th largest city in Australia, after Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Gold Coast and Newcastle-Maitland. 

It’s existence adds expense and complexity to national governance, and adds friction to private/government collaboration. And, if people loved living there it wouldn’t be 8th. 

Not to mention the sheep got….fleeced! 🫣😜

It’s a great prelude to my journey today…. 

I’m headed there to hangout with Katherine Trebeck from the Wellbeing Economy Alliance - WEAll. 

Katherine’s one of the many people rewriting what we think “the economy” is for other than growth and profit, and asking ‘could changing it advance us all?’ Could doing so advance Australia fair, like Canberra once did?

Canberra reminds us that the choices we make as a society trying to do its best can make perfect sense at the time, only to cost us dearly when things change later and the decision’s informing circumstances have changed. 

Economies and systems are no different …

What seemed right a long long long time ago - prioritising GDP growth above all else - no longer works for most of society, because it doesn’t work for our wellbeing. 

We have rising, unprecedented inequality (which fuels the harmful division we can all feel), climate and nature breakdown from ‘growth at all costs’, and, a mental health crisis because people are miserable - all trending worse, all accelerating. 

We have the data now to see it clearly: higher GDP doesn’t guarantee higher life satisfaction. Countries who’ve taken steps to shift towards a wellbeing Economy, like New Zealand, Finland, Wales, Iceland and Scotland - know this all too well. 

Yesterdays decisions look different today, and today’s will look different tomorrow — and that’s a good thing. What’s right 50 years ago cannot be right today. That’s inarguable. We aren’t 50 years ago. 

We can choose systems - economies - that measure and support the only things that matter to us all: health, community, purpose and happiness. We just have to be honest with ourselves.

I love being able to share space with people and their stories. I love it even more when their stories that fill me with hope ❤️

#WellbeingEconomy #SystemsChange #EconomicsForPeople

Chasing Financial Equality, Economic Justice & Systems Change. 🌎 Former child, ex-boyfriend, multiple exits (from conversations). 💪🏽 Big fan of the world not ending 🥰 (🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🧠🌶️🫶🏻)

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It’s been a tough few months for many, and times aren’t getting easier. That’s why it’s more important than ever to find the quality goop that fills our cups. 

My few days in Canberra has done that. 

It’s reminded me that fighting for values that are costly to hold is always seen by some, even when it’s attacked by many. 

It’s reminded me that there are so many people fighting this good fight; as much with what’s inside us all than anything outside us. 

We are all a product of this world, and all of us are on the same journey. But, I’m finding more people who are much further along than I ever have before and it sparks so much hope! 

I spent yesterday with Katherine Trebeck, speaking about the humane future we want for society, and the thriving and happiness we believe can be provided in a way that makes all our cups overflow. 

It was incredible to be in the presence of such a well known humane economy advocate in Australia who will put it all on the line for a better future for society - and not just for their immediate family (even if both are now inextricably linked, for better and worse). 

This morning I met one of Maslow®’s shareholders for the first time, Careen Matthews. And wow, what a gift she gave me - the unbridled support of a good human who sees the work and the values and pushes both forward without condition or pause. 

Careen doesn’t have a cup, she’s got a bucket, and it’s filled to the brim with hope and warmth and it was a privilege to take a sip :) 

Never yet on my travels have I met another human being who doesn’t want the same future I want. Even the ones who work and speak against my work want exactly the same thing I want. 

Nobody wants to hate, to be afraid, or to fear the future more than they hope for it. That makes us the worst of ourselves and we know that. when we give in, strongmen and bad actors use us to enrich themselves and their agendas, oblivious to the futility of it now. 

Then I got to the airport and discovered a book which gave me an overwhelming feeling of exasperated relief. 

I’ve been grappling with this question every day for the past 2 years and I’ve been desperate for company in that space. Especially as - like the author - I’ve lost friends for holding my values and been attacked for standing firm against the hatred Jews know so well. 

We live in a world of pain right now, and in that place we can treat others so poorly. But, I believe if we are brave and stay the course we can find a future where nobody grows up or lives    with the belief that for them to have, others must not, or that happiness could ever lie in the securement of ‘more’. 

Most of us are fighting the wrong things because that’s the way the world has shaped us.

We can shape it back. And we must. Because all our comfort and peaceful hearts are under attack from what we become when we give in to the fear that losing them causes us to feel at our core. 

We all want love, comfort and a peaceful heart. 

We are all same.

In August last year I embarked on a life-changing trip through America's Deep South. This piece, detailing my journey, why I was there and what I found has taken me a long time to write. It needed to be worthy of the stories there.

In my words you will find truth that has not made it to the comfortable living rooms of white life in Australia, or even to many parts of America. 

It's a story about the narrative of erasure, and the fallacy of racial difference; about how the past is no where near past enough, about how the shadows of yesterday survive because we didn't tear down the structures that cast them.

If you think you know the truth about Civil Rights in America..... I might suggest a trip down south, where, if you're anything like me, you'll realise just how wrong you were.

You may laugh, you may cry, you may feel sick. But I promise you this is a journey worth taking for anyone who values their human. 

So please, as you set the pace for the year ahead, I invite you to find a quiet place beneath a tree, planted by someone who never knew its shade, and join me, and Jholdy, as we drive from Atlanta, to Montgomery, Selma, Jackson, down beside the Mississippi river to Baton Rouge and New Orleans, where they cover fried batter in icing sugar, play jazz that makes you heart sing, and dance in the street the way people do when its all that they have. 

If you asked me to describe America as just one thing, I’d resist. But if you pressed me, I’d tell you about the Sullivan Street Bakery and the horrifying contrast of life lived either side its manufactured divide. 

And so, that is where I start this story....

If you value this piece, please let me know ❤️

Substack: https://lnkd.in/g-B7bCKR

Medium: https://lnkd.in/g69jHXK3

Note: Substack is not a platform I am thrilled to support, but I concede that principles too firmly held can cost outcomes you value most.

“Steven Bartlett is a very rich young man”
“When people tell you who they are….” 

What I love about these statements from Gillian Marcelle, PhD - in the way I have interpreted them - is that she left out the moral judgement of wealth. That allows for a true consideration of perspective without forcing a reader to pick a side before thinking critically. 

Gillian implies that people’s perspective and lenses matter, and that we must name that in our observations and interpretations of sources if we’re to consider things more objectively. 

I don’t think we speak enough publicly about the incentives and motivations of people. 

“Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome” is the only thing I can quote Charlie Munger saying (even if I remember his wonderful sense of humour in saying many other things). 

I remember this quote because it is the best synthesis of what I’ve learned about people on my journey; leading them in the army, studying psychology, emergency health and law, raising money from people numerous times, as a paramedic responding to those most harmed by the incentives of our society, and, telling people’s stories. Not to mention in my studies and readings on history - which is one of my passion areas. 

If altruistic positive social impact mattered more to Steven than money he wouldn’t be a very rich young man. That’s a simple fact. 

I’m not saying wealth prohibits caring about others, I’m simply saying if caring about others mattered more to Steven than money he might have chosen social work, or medicine, or a care-giving role in life, before he chose to make and talk about making more amounts of money than any person needs to live a healthy, happy and fulfilled life. 

Again… it’s not that Steven is or isn’t “bad” or “lesser” because he has money…. It’s that we need to be honest about the incentives that likely influence him very differently to the incentives of, say, a nurse, or a teacher.

That isn’t wrong. 

That diversity is vital in our society. 

But we mustn’t be afraid to name it. Nor should we feel attacked when others name it in us. 

The role incentives and lenses play in what people do and say is the most important factor in choosing who we listen to in a post-truth world.

Steven wants attention because that’s what makes a podcast money. 

If the podcast didn’t make him money he wouldn’t do it - because everything he’s famous for has always been about making money. 

None of this is an indictment. It’s just truth. 

It’s not scary. Or bad. 

It is only what it is and we should be intellectually rigorous and honest enough to name it. 

All this said, I’ve been wrong in my synthesis of Gillian’s intent before, and she’ll soon let me know if I’m wrong here. But Gillian understands, very well, the role perspective plays in people’s interpretation of what they observe and if / when she corrects me I know that she’ll have considered that. 

That’s not common these days.

CEO and Founder, Resilience Capital Ventures LLC

When People Tell You Who They Are 

Steven Bartlett is a very rich young man 

periodt.

all the folks hanging on to his every word, wanting to appear on his show, not applying any judgement when trying to understand his appeal and influence are doing less work that an AI bot when it comes to critical thinking.

podcast hosting is a new line of business in the celebrity ecosystem.  

Interviewing business people does not automatically make you great at leading businesses.  Having a social media marketing success story does not necessarily mean that you can advise businesses in the real economy.

it seems that we used to be better at making the distinction between entertainment, visual appeal, polish and substance.  

maybe this celebrity spoof will do the work for me 

https://lnkd.in/eAeeFkVZ



https://lnkd.in/eZMAWVdG.

Open article: Rishi Sunak is only politician I’d interview, Diary of a CEO podcast host says by telegraph.co.uk

Rishi Sunak is only politician I’d interview, Diary of a CEO podcast host says

People tell me I'm bad at celebrating achievements. But I don't value them. I value stories. That's why this morning was special. My work lead me to meet with Bryan Stevenson!! An achievement AND one of the most important stories I've ever heard.

I'm going to celebrate by telling you a tiny part of Bryan's Story. 

If you ask google 'who is the best known living civil rights attorney in America?' it will tell you about Benjamin Crump, and then Bryan Stevenson. 

His story, and book, about overturning the wrongful conviction of innocent death-row inmate Walter McMillian was turned into the 2019 Warner Brothers film, Just Mercy, where Bryan, a young attorney fresh out of Harvard Law, was played by Michael B. Jordan, alongside Jamie Foxx. The film was the 4th highest grossing film in its first weekend of wide-release, unexplainably losing out to Bad Boys for Life....but.... whatcha gonna do 😉

Bryan founded the Equal Justice Initiative, which has overturned 140+ death row convictions, including the complete exoneration of many African American citizens who were the victims of systemic racism, hatred ad injustice.

In August last year I visited the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, in Montgomery Alabama - built because of the efforts of Bryan and the EJI, along with supporters of their work. 

I wrote about that - one of the most significant experiences of my life - yesterday in my first substack piece titled 'My Reckoning with America's South: Where Selma Rusts and Plantations Shine'. 

It was after that trip when I learned at the Byron Fellowship that my mentor knew Bryan. Because of him, and the kind introduction of Priscilla Perkins, daughter of the legendary civil rights activist and author John Perkins, I had the privilege of being able to ask Bryan about his journey and what he had learned about the intersection of racial, economic and social justice. 

I can't think of anything I want to celebrate more than the story of Bryan Stevenson and the life he chooses to live. He is the embodiment of a purposeful life lived in service of something greater than oneself. 

You can learn more about the Equal Justice Initiative here: https://eji.org/

You can read the piece on my trip through America's Deep South here: https://lnkd.in/g-B7bCKR

There are many things you can watch and read about Bryan's work, but I'll leave you with this CBN segment, that speaks to the film and interviews Bryan about his life and work. 

https://lnkd.in/gjZARaZe

Thanks to everyone involved, and thanks to Bryan for waking up each day and choosing to walk the path that is right, not easy. 

I celebrate being able to call this my work 🥰

Open video: Helping Wrongly Convicted Prisoners Receive 'Just Mercy': Lawyer's True Story Told in New Movie on youtube.com

Helping Wrongly Convicted Prisoners Receive 'Just Mercy': Lawyer's True Story Told in New Movie

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