Pepijn Vloemans

• Lives in Amsterdam with one wife, two cats and three kids
• Writes a newsletter on progress and other underrated ideas on Substack
• Startup storyteller. Worked at Fastned and Farmless
• Created a list of the most ambitious European hardware startups
• Likes to visit underrated countries
• Reads books and writes mini reviews
• Founded the Tien Procent Club to popularise the idea of effective giving (traditional charity fundraising is decoupled from actual success of the charity. Charity evaluators are the answer.)
• Maintains a list of beautiful Dutch words
• Official credentials

Things I believe

• The only limits to human progress are the laws of physics
• The world has gotten much, much better over the past centuries for most people
• NOW is the best time to be alive
• Humanity should expand throughout the galaxy
• Napping at work is underrated
• Humans are the only animal with a capacity for morality outside our own kin. We should cultivate this towards other people and animals.
• Moral convictions: (1) the way we treat animals for food, clothing and materials is utterly wrong (2) we should eradicate preventable diseases globally (we know how to do this and it would not cost much) (3) if you want to change something, you should probably start with yourself
• Developing smaller, cheaper, simpler and lower-maintenance tunnel boring capacity is highly underrated
• The ultimate bottleneck for Europe's future is cultivating and attracting ultra-ambitious founders
• Aesthetic minimalism has peaked — beauty and tradition in architecture and design of everyday objects will make a comeback

My modest expectations of the 2030s

• Affordable space tourism. At least low earth orbit, but preferrably the moon
• Mass drivers on the moon
• Huge ass telescopes on the dark side of the moon for 1000X higher resolution imagas of the universe
• First permanently inhabited Marsbase
• Supersonic commercial flight
• Fully electric VTOLs
• Tunneling startups drilling hundreds of kilometres of small-form tunnels per day
• Eradication of all cheaply preventable diseases like malaria and vitamin deficiencies
• Large scale land reclamation of the North Sea
• A majority of global energy generated by solar
• Synthetic fuels (solar power to methane / methanol) outcompete fossil fuels
• Fermented proteins outcompeting animal derived proteins

How to improve conversations

• Ask questions, be genuinely curious above all else
• Say the things you cannot say or that are uncomfortable to say
• Tolerate silence, even if it's mildly uncomfortable
• When you disagree with someone, instead of stating your opinion, ask: what's the best argument against this? Or: how would you summarise your opponent's position as charitably as possible?
• Raise someone's ambitions. It's free, it's underrated and it works.

Some startup insights

• When chosing a startup to join, look for the most obsessed founder
• A startup should be like a cult or a religion with a secret at its core
• Embrace daily doses of pain, confusion and messiness as the price of your freedom
• Ego is the enemy. Make a point of writing down your mistakes to the group.
• Present information starting with the conclusion
• You can just do things, there is no need to ask for permission
• Always question the requirements that are handed to you. Chances are they were made up in ten minutes just before your joined.
• See what happens when you delete parts or processes — humans are hardwired to add, not remove
• Celebrate wins — it signals what you value and shows there is progress despite all the things that go wrong
• Say the difficult or stupid things no one else dares to say
• Be nice and spread joy