more than a feeling | arielle lok

27112023 - more than a feeling

today, i started a new job! i was originally going to say “today, i started working again” but that’s just not true. i feel like ive been working over the last few months: polishing skills, learning entirely new domains, and creating new lifelong friendships with some of the most brilliant people ive been fortunate to meet. life is so good. gahhh!!!!!!

boston feels pretty awesome. a good friend told me that boston made her smarter. something about being in the proximity of so many schools and cold weather will do that to most people. im excited to cozy up and read a frankly disgusting amount of words in the year ahead.

all the friends i have in boston are friends ive made within the last month which is a bit terrifying but also just incredibly exciting. it’s not often that people get fresh starts like this and i plan to find new boroughs to bundle in. im curious about how my little gaming communities will look like here, the dinner parties ill attend, coworking sessions ill host, book clubs ill crash… i wonder who my new friends will be in a few months!

most of all, im just plain excited about the work im doing. people say it couldn’t be done but i have accomplished it over and over: I LOVE WORK!!!

there were a few things i was looking for in my pursuit of employment:

must be in climate
optional: agriculture adjacent would be especially neat
must be early, low existing clarity, high-impact
if starting a company: the above holds
if joining a company: the founder must be extremely seasoned/well-versed, but moreso an advocate of mentorship and team building. peko was my first startup and it certainly will not be my last - but i want to learn to make and build on a grandiose scale.
hard optional: something to do with innovative financial tools/techniques; this was a whimsy pt from my early uni days of wanting to start an unorthodox fintech but has transformed into the beauty of AMCs and other market-shaping financial incentives

and who would’ve thought (i say this but everyone believed in me) that i would manage to find a role that ticks every single one of these boxes - even the optional ones!

to cut to the chase… i’m incredibly excited to be joining cascade climate, a market-shaping organization focused on open system climate interventions. if you’re piqued to learn more (and you should be!) here’s a small primer with some deeper links:

reducing emissions is key for any semblance of a future earth like today (or better!), but we’ll also need to remove gigatons of carbon to 1. bring existing atmospheric carbon levels down and 2. account for “necessary” emissions that are currently difficult to reduce
open system CDR pathways represent one of the most promising, scalable ways forward
market shapers are needed with these gargantuan problems that seem to lie on nobody’s and everybody’s plate to coordinate the necessary activities across all sides of the market, orchestrating the execution of said future

in addition: the CDR primer is soooo fire if you are interested in learning more about the state of the world and all of the different CDR pathways that are being explored. i also really recommend speed and scale for a holistic, action-oriented way of thinking about all the different levers that connect to climate. there is so much to look forward to and so much great work to be done! if you are interested in ERW specifically, we have a bunch of blogs that are live here around OSCI, ERW, and discounting uncertainty.

the cascade team is CRACKED in more ways than just their work ethic and brains. this may be the first time i’ve had a work-team dinner where it truly felt like hanging out with the homies. everyone is so humble and open and it just! shows! on more than one occasion during my first night at weathering heights (the name of our house… isn’t this the best name ever? i feel so at home), we all laughed so hard that we had to take a pause. i would be friends with every person in this house even out of context of work - but what a bonus that we’re all passionate about carbon. this is the best timeline.

so yes! ill be in boston/cambridge/somerville for the next little while… im looking for spaces of warm gatherings, silly conversations, and whiteboarding aplenty. so… hit me up if you are near - you know where to find me!!!!!

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