Month: November 2024

Every strength or good trait has a dark side when overused.

There is no shadow without light, and vice versa.

I wrote my first ever cover letter in my first semester of college. I remember acknowledging that, while I didn’t have too many skills, I did have bouncebackability.

The person who interviewed me asked whether that was a real word – I explained that it was made up. But it summed up what I knew I would do. I will fall – but you can count on me to bounce back.

I think that prediction definitely held true.

It remains a skill I look for to this day – in others and in myself. Falling is a given even with experience. Experience just reduces the frequency of falls.

The key is bouncebackability – regardless of the conditions.

Failure isn’t the falling down, it is the staying down.

Casey Means’ book, at a high level, was all about 3 lessons:

(1) The conventional medical system is good at dealing with any acute issue that requires urgent attention. For anything chronic, it is useless.

(2) It is useless because it focuses on treating symptoms in silos rather than understanding the body as a whole. Dr Means makes the case that most chronic issues have the same underlying cause – metabolic dysfunction. When our metabolism works well, our cells are able to process all the energy we ingest and produce “Good Energy.” When it doesn’t, it leads to “Bad Energy” and this shows up with all sorts of chronic ailments and longer-term issues like diabetes.

(3) To clean up our act, we need to do 3 things.

First, we need to eat stuff that results in good energy. In simple terms, this means staying away from anything processed and eating a diverse collection of foods.

Second, it means respecting our biological clock. Sleeping well, respecting our circadian rhythms by getting enough sunlight and eating timely meals so our digestive system has time to do its work.

Third, it means doing things that modern lifestyles have taken away – movement, exposure to varying temperatures, and non-toxic living. Our bodies do better when they’re exposed to varying temperatures and, of course, the less toxins/more organic materials we use, the better.

While this is the high-level summary, I think Casey Means’ book excels in the detail. For all fellow fans of Peter Attia’s Outlive, I think this book is a great complement that outdoes Outlive in a few respects.

The single biggest takeaway from Outlive is the importance of exercise. Specifically, focusing on stability/mobility, then more time in Zone 2, then improving our grip strength, and growing our V02 Max by working out at high intensity. This takeaway alone has had a profound impact on my life.

Next, it emphasized the importance of protein and sleep. Those changed how I approached things too.

My only gripe with the book was that Peter Attia often recommended expensive scans and rushed to treatment (e.g., strong recommendations for statins) the moment he saw a symptom trending in the wrong direction.

Casey Means, on the other hand, takes an approach that feels closer to first principles. She focuses on lifestyle changes first. That resonated.

Since reading this book, I’ve been on a mission to “clean up my act.” Here are a few changes I’m working on:

(1) Sleep: I haven’t needed any convincing on the importance of sleep and generally sleep 7-8 hours daily, and longer on weekends. However, I still did a 6 hour day once every 2 weeks. I’ve been doing a better job at holding the line at 7 hours minimum.

(2) Movement: Casey Means did a good job explaining the importance of movement throughout the day. One small change has been targeting 7000 steps every day. I notice I don’t hit this when I’m working from home – so there’s more work to do here.

I’ve been more religious about the morning run once the sun rises to get light. And I’m working on adding 20 push ups every day.

(3) Nutrition: My morning protein shake used to have spinach and fruits. I incorporated seeds (Flax, hemp, chia) recently. I’ve added a scoop each of plant protein and whey as well.

I’ve become more disciplined about salad, nuts, and such during the day. And I’ve switched from white rice to (traditional) red rice and have reduced quantities over time. I’ve grown up as a rice eater – so this is a big change.

(4) Meal timing: The next big change is eating closer to 2 hours before bed. This is a no-brainer move – and way better than my previous average of 15 minutes. The other related change is going for a 15 minute walk after dinner most days to aid digestion.

(5) Next on the roadmap: I plan to go back to trying a CGM/continuous glucose monitor in the new year. I’d first tried one a few years ago and didn’t make the most of it. I know better now and I’m excited to try it and then follow it up with a few blood tests to see if these changes are taking effect.

(6) What I don’t intend to do: It is also worth calling out what I don’t intend to do. First on that list is cold water/ice baths. I’m all for naturally exposing my body to varying temperatures. But this feels like punishment I’d love to avoid unless absolutely necessary.

Second, Casey Means is a proponent of removing all grain/rice altogether from my diet. One idea I’ve applied as I’ve made changes is to ensure I’m ensuring there is a feeling of joy vs. punishment. I love rice. I’ve come to realize I can eat a lot less of it and I can also switch to low glycemic index/more nutritious varieties easily. I plan to do that.

One of the central tenets of this blog is “to learn and not to do is not to learn.” Outside of shaping my synthesis on diet and metabolism, the number of changes I’m working on is testament to how it has inspired a profound learning experience. It is among the most impactful I’ve ever read.

And for that, I’m grateful.

In 2019, Xi Jinping restricted video game usage for minors in China. Barwick et al used the opportunity to study the impact of these restrictions in college. They found 3 things to be true:

(1) One standard deviation increase in app usage reduces GPAs by 36% and eventual wages by 2.3%

(2) App usage is contagious. A roommate’s app usage has both direct (noise and disruptions) and indirect effects (behavior spills over).

(3) Using high-frequency GPS data, they identified one underlying cause: high app usage crowds out time in study halls and increases late arrivals at and absences from lectures.

If sitting is the new smoking, cell phone usage for kids is the new cocaine.

A side-effect of leveling up on our fitness is to embrace soreness as a part of our life.

That soreness is also a metaphor for the discomfort inherent in the process of learning and leveling up.

The essence of perspective is not waiting for something to be taken away to appreciate it.

Vorfreude, in German, means “the pleasure of anticipation.”

There is a lot of pleasure in the anticipation – of big things and small.

Here’s to channeling more Vorfreude in our lives.

H/T: Sketchplanations

HBO is working on a 7 season Harry Potter TV series. Why? The obvious answer is that there’s money in the franchise and in a reboot.

But perhaps more importantly because the movies were not great.

The movies got a collection of casting decisions right – Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall, Hermione Granger, the first Albus Dumbledore, Bellatrix Lestrange among a few others. They got a bunch of others pretty wrong.

While John Williams’ score was epic, they messed up a fair number of storylines and some epic scenes (e.g., Harry and Voldemort’s last duel) didn’t capture the greatness of the books.

In contrast, the three Lord of the Rings movies, for example, were exceptionally well done. The casting was great, the cinematography was excellent, the storytelling was superb, and the soundtrack was exceptional. It’ll take a brave soul to attempt a reboot of that storyline.

Similarly, despite the trainwreck that was season 8 of Game of Thrones, seasons 1-7 were arguably amongst the greatest TV series seasons of all time. Again, it was an exceptional mix of casting, storytelling, cinematography, and music.

As a result, work on both these franchises have focused on alternate storylines.

It is a good lesson on any kind of work. If it needs to be redone, it wasn’t great work in the first place.

It is very hard to say. We had a collection of people who made many discoveries and kept improving on previous ideas. It is hard to point to one person – whether it is Alan Turing or John Von Neuman or Grace Hopper or even the OGs Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace – and call them the inventor of the computer.

This is the case with many great inventions. Even inventions like the radio or the telephone don’t have one clear inventor. Even if individuals like Alexander Graham Bell and Guglielmo Marconi have gotten the credit, the reality is that they simply bested somebody else from filing the invention in the patent office first.

This is what is intriguing about inventions in general. At some point, all the prevailing science makes an invention possible. Very few inventions – if any – wouldn’t have happened if the “sole inventor” who got the credit wasn’t around. There are always a series of people who are pushing the frontiers of science and inventing the future. The idea of the single inventor is nothing but a myth.

Then again, invention alone does little to drive positive impact. The many minds who compete and collaborate to commercialize an invention and drive widespread adoption deserve just as much credit (if not more in some cases).

“Who invented the computer?” is thus a question that doesn’t matter. If we seek to celebrate innovations, we must celebrate the many unsung heroes who made it possible.

If we seek to innovate ourselves, our goal must be to simply obsess about a problem and keep using the tools available to create the best possible solutions.

In time, good things follow.

Here are 2 lessons I’ve learnt about buying sneakers –

(1) We often think of foot size as the key variable when we buy sneakers. In reality, there are 4 variables that are important to consider when we buy sneakers –

• Foot size (this is the obvious one everyone checks)
• Foot width – understanding if your feet are wide or narrow
• Foot arch – understanding if you have low, medium, or high arches
• Pronation – understanding if we have mild or high pronation

Once we understand these, it becomes much easier to understand which sneakers will work best for us.

(2) If you wear sneakers all day, it is critical to rotate them. A sneaker’s foam needs time to recover. So, if you wear sneakers three days a week for example, you’ll need two pairs so you can alternate. Else you’ll find foam comfort and support deteriorating within ~6-9 months.

PS: I’m grateful for two patient and knowledgeable ladies at our local REI and Sports Basement for sharing all this sneaker wisdom.