A Letter to Nabil (Pt. 4)
I often find myself going back to the first letter I sent and all that has changed in the years since. I remember having John Legend’s Start on repeat as I wrote that letter, without the slightest hint that it was indeed a start of something meaningful, a journey that would enrich both our lives in more ways than one.
“…We don’t know how the winds will blow
And we won’t know
We won’t go unless we start.”
— John Legend, Start
While I wrote of our lingering mortality and temporary highs becoming memories to the ones we leave behind, I had no idea it would be so relevant to the lives we have lived, this year. As with then, this year has the makings of a start — for all of us — of something we do not yet fully understand.
Some days ago, I went down a rabbit-hole. It started with me searching for Michael Mauboussin’s WACC paper and after various twists and turns, with several stops along the way, I somehow landed on a Harvard Gazette tribute to Alberto Alesina, renowned pioneer and Professor of Political Economics, who passed away earlier this year. Two statements by Alesina’s colleagues stuck with me long after I’d returned to my more immediate concerns, one by Jeffry Frieden and the other by Dani Rodrik. Frieden remarked that “the hallmark of Alberto Alesina is that he asked extraordinarily interesting questions about just about everything, and he came up with really interesting answers and opened up whole fields.” Rodrik opined that “what made (Alesina) a great friend as well as a scholar was that the childish wonder he had for the world and how it worked (or didn’t) never left him.”
These got me thinking about just how many of us retain that sense of childish wonder and how that feeds into our ability to imagine new worlds, or to be more practical (that darned word!), new ways of doing things. While Alesina’s work started with economics, its impact spread as he found meeting points for different, seemingly unrelated ideas in economics, political science and sociology. Alesina was human — he wasn’t perfect — but he never stopped asking new questions where the answers to old ones had failed to suffice, and these questions influenced researchers and governments, at scale. There’s a note-to-self somewhere in there and there’s a note to you, my friend. Alesina reminds me so much of you: economics, his questioning spirit and his heart.
“What made (Alesina) a great friend as well as a scholar was that the childish wonder he had for the world and how it worked (or didn’t) never left him.”
How have you been, my friend? I trust that you have been well. Believe me when I say you do cross upon my mind often and I make a mental note to call, which I never do. I know that you have been having your series of exams for the new position. I recall you saying they would culminate in an interview sometime at the tail-end of January. As always, I wish you the best and I trust that all your hard work would pay off. Perhaps, we could share a cup of coffee sometime after that.
While reading your last letter, the word ‘fairy” repeatedly came to mind. You have a unique mind, at least amongst the folks in my broader circle, you do. You believe in people’s intrinsic goodness and your constant advocacy for gentle communication, compassionate governance and active citizenship is inspiring. I sometimes wonder if you would survive in a government role, given how tough local politics in Lahore can be. Maybe that’s my inner cynic talking. Perhaps what is needed is someone like you to change that reality rather than adapt to it. I have unwavering faith in your abilities, Nabil, but you already know that.
While reading Alesina’s tribute, a few questions arose which may interest you: how much of the widespread poverty in both our countries is due to structural flaws — inefficiencies — in the economy, what are these flaws, by how much can they be influenced or alleviated by policy-making and how long would it take for any meaningful change to be achieved? The questions are in the context of how local culture, tribal affiliations, religion and politics affect the extent to which policy changes can bring about actual improvements in people’s lives. So, yes, in terms of large-scale improvements, maybe we can borrow learnings from, say, China or Thailand, but how can we adapt them to the socio-politico-cultural contexts of both our countries?
You are the trained economist here, so I’d mostly leave those for you to figure out. If we are to make significant progress, we have to figure stuff out on a deeply contextual level and make economies (alongside politics) work for everyone, as tall an order as that is. Still, it is inevitable that there would be those who would fall through the cracks. If there are any lessons 2020 has taught us, they are that nothing is ever just black or white and we never really know how much time we have got. In the end, a difference between success and failure is imagination (or the lack thereof). What sort of world can we imagine, for ourselves? What sort of world would the next generation be left with and how can we contribute to creating or at least shaping it?
“If there are any lessons 2020 has taught us, they are that nothing is ever just black or white and we never really know how much time we have got.”
Something that has become clear with time is that the questions would always outnumber the answers and it is the search for answers that gets us up, each day. In a sense, the chase is the prize. You know, I am exceptionally lucky to be alive; we both are. I met a dog, Zoe, whose life and passing reinforced that message for me. We are here today and gone tomorrow, often without any forewarning. There is an easy temptation to fall into a false sense of safety, a thought that it would not “happen to me”, a thought I hope 2020 has rid us of. I do not ever want to take the gift of life for granted.
I have to stop here now. It is Christmas Day! May the cheer of the season brighten your life and the coming year be one in which we continue to live intentional lives, lives decorated with love and friendship, purpose and presence.
Pura vida!
P.S. If you would like to read them, you can find the previous letters here, here and here.
