Markets are designed to allocate resources where they expect highest returns, and those returns tend to show up where capital and talent already are, so the best infrastructure gets built in the places that already have it. That’s why regions like Latin America and Africa have a hard time attracting resources. Markets route around them toward higher returns to be made elsewhere.
To make a difference in these regions, you have to change what you‘re optimizing for, and aim at the highest need instead of the highest return. That is a difficult thing to do. It means worse odds and longer timelines.
The monetary payoff isn’t the same, either. But it’s worth it if you want your work to have a high impact in the world. Opportunity is shaped as much by circumstance as by talent, and most people run up against the limits of where they were born long before they run up against the limits of their own ability.
I care about this partly because I have second and third cousins who are effectively stuck in refugee camps. They were born in the Korean peninsula, 50 miles on the wrong side of a border, and nothing about their intelligence, work ethic or ambition differs meaningfully from mine or yours. I see versions of my family everywhere.
People waiting for access to systems the rest of us never think about, their potential held in place by conditions they didn't choose. Markets are very good at operating within those conditions, but they don’t necessarily correct them, so deliberate efforts are needed to expand opportunity. It’s not especially fashionable to try to have the greatest impact.
The archetype I grew up around was the smart Stanford person who wants to build AI tools or consumer products like TikTok, and I understand the appeal. Entrepreneurs naturally gravitate toward problems that are exciting or lucrative. But those are usually not the problems with the greatest societal importance.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
