Category: Everything else

“Where the rats get in is not where they chew.” | Anonymous

When something happens, it is natural to look in the vicinity of the event.

But it is highly likely that we’re missing the learning that matters. We all know we need to avoid the careless mistake. We know we need to pay more attention or react a bit better under stress.

It is far more interesting to dig into the conditions that led to the mistake.

Or put differently, we must understand the conditions that would help us switch to a better habit.

To find gold, we must look upstream.

Where the rats chew isn’t where they got in.

Many love the idea of learning. They love the positive associations – growth, great teachers, and the like.

A small percentage of the many appreciate it once they realize learning is just a nice descriptor for signing up for uncomfortable experiences that stretch us, reflecting deeply on all the moments of pain, and synthesizing those reflections into changes in how we’ll operate.

No surprise – after that realization, fewer still make it a point to habitually seek it.

Learning is always easier said than done.

The British Cycling team were a mediocre cycling team for over a century coming into the early 2000s. Then they hired Dave Brailsford as their Performance Director.

Dave Brailsford had learnt about “The Aggregation of Marginal Gains” during his time in business school and believed in the idea that small gains would compound to create large impact.

So, Brailsford and his team began looking for small 1% improvements that included-

• Redesigned bike seats that were more comfortable
• Alcohol rubbed tires for a better grip.
• Electrically heated overshorts to maintain ideal muscle temperature while riding
• Biofeedback sensors to monitor how each athlete responded to a particular workout.
• Lighter/more aerodynamic fabrics
• Better massage gels for faster recovery
• Took their own pillows and mattresses to events to ensure the best night’s sleep
• Painted the inside of the team truck white – helping them spot little bits of dust that would normally slip by unnoticed but could degrade the performance of the finely tuned bikes.
• Hiring a surgeon who taught riders how to wash their hands and avoid illness

Each of these changes were small. But the compound impact of all of this led to the British team dominating the Tour de France and Olympic cycling events for a decade.

Compounding small changes -> Incredible results.

Never underestimate the power of aggregating marginal gains.

3 reflections from the year that went by –

(1) Show me the incentives and I’ll show you the outcome. I’d read versions of this quote before – but this was the year I began internalizing it. As is the case with lessons like this, they bed in after reflecting on experiences that brought intense pain. There was no dearth of that.

On the flip side, once I did understand this, it changed how I operated. Instead of focusing on fighting constraints individually, my focus turned to changing incentives. It is a significantly higher leverage strategy.

It was also the year where I saw this play out in the macro – the many elections included. There’s a great line – it is impossible for a person to understand what they’re paid not to understand. I have deeper appreciation for the wisdom of that line now.

(2) Habit momentum is real – the most important thing is to just get started. I started this year inspired by Outlive’s focus on exercise. This included near daily workouts, personal training twice a week (a gamechanger), and a weekly game of soccer.

But it snowballed into so much more. The workouts kept getting more consistent and elaborate. Then came Casey Means’ Good Energy and it is hard to overstate how these changes have continued to snowball.

Looking back 12 months, my habits and diet have changed a tremendous amount. And they will continue to evolve – now inspired by the Starretts’ Built to Move.

Habit momentum is a powerful force because habits build on each other and compound in incredible ways. The most important thing is to just get started.

(3) Design for memories. Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate how time blurs most things. All we’re left with are a collection of memories. Best to design those moments intentionally.

This means planning as many lovely moments as possible with people that matter. All of them won’t pan out exactly as we expect. But many will.

And those will be the ones we remember.

The sea squirt is a marine invertebrate that starts out with a primitive brain and nervous system. When young, the animal swims freely around the ocean, but eventually it finds a suitable rock, attaches itself, and stays there for the rest of its life.

Once it is settled, the sea squirt ingests its brain and nervous system. It does so because it is inefficient to maintain a brain and nervous system now that it is completely sedentary.

Columbia University neuroscientist Daniel Wolpert uses this example to drive home a simple point – directing movement is the most important function of the brain.

In other words, we are built to move.

(H/T: Built to Move by Kelly Starrett and Juliet Starrett – also H/T Hassan for the recommendation)

“Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es” / “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are.” | Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

One of the biggest themes from 2024 has been a heightened focus on health. It started with a focus on exercise inspired by Peter Attia’s Outlive. It is ending with a focus on diet and metabolism inspired by Casey Means’ Good Energy.

I hope to have a better answer to Monsieur Brillat-Savarin in 2025.

#OurWorldIsAwesome – Edition 7

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I’ve heard Sir David Attenborough describe many wondrous places in documentaries over the years. But if I had to pick the place I’ve heard him describe most often, it would undoubtedly be Serengeti National Park. As I entered the park, I could almost hear his soothing voice describe “a hot day in the Serengeti” or a pride of lions waiting for the Great Migration.

Let’s first start with the awe-inspiring size of this park. At 15000 sq km or 5700 sq miles, it is 19 times the size of New York or 11 times the size of Los Angeles. It is massive. The Serengeti extends into Kenya for another 1500 sq km – this section of the park is called The Maasai Mara.

The Serengeti has a diverse set of landscapes – from savannahs to woodlands to wetlands. All of this supports an impressive array of wildlife – including over 4000 lions, over 1000 leopards, 500+ bird species. In one word – it is legendary.

These two parks play host to The Great Migration – the largest overland mammal migration in the world. Between 1.5 to 2 million wildebeest and zebras take an 800km round trip around these parks. This is often described as “the greatest show on earth” as it involves some spectacular interactions between predator and prey.

When you encounter the migration, they take over entire hills…

…and roads.

These passing herds are a special treat for all the predators.. and the incredible clean up crew.

This was a mom watching over her cubs…

.. who stayed still as a poisonous Green Mamba went on her and then slithered away.

Lion prides are formidable. Very few animals can survive an attack – here’s a hippo that did.

Tree-climbing lions are a rare sight.

Predators aren’t just big cats. Here’s a large owl.

A typical sighting of a leopard – as solitary cats, they spend a lot of time on trees.

Cheetah brothers figuring out where to go next. Cheetah tend to love the tall grasses of the savannah – they’re perfect camouflage.

To me, time spent in the Serengeti was a reminder that we were in the kingdom of the big cats. We spent many hours driving through rugged territory. But we forgot all those hours of driving when we finally caught a glimpse of a majestic cat. Time stood still.

It also reminded me of the magic of ecosystems. Every part of the ecosystem matters. The prey eat the grass and create space for new grass. The predators eat the prey. The scavengers clean up the caracasses and ensure no diseases are spread. And so on.

As Mufasa beautifully put it in the Lion King, “when we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so, we are all connected in the great Circle of Life.“

We are indeed.

Chef Marco Pierre White was one of London’s top chefs through the 1980s and 1990s. He was an intense and controversial character – known for his hot temper and high standards.

As is often the case with folks with maniacal intensity, there are many sides to his story. He was one of the first celebrity chefs – the youngest chef to be awarded the coveted three Michelin stars. He also created an intense and unpredictable work environment for his staff. And he also trained a collection of chefs – including Gordon Ramsay – who went onto earn multiple Michelin stars.

However, he decided to retire at the age of 38. Although he worked with incredible intensity to achieve what he wanted in his career, he found it to be less fulfilling than he’d hoped. In his words –

“I was being judged by people who had less knowledge than me, so what was it truly worth? I gave Michelin inspectors too much respect, and I belittled myself. I had three options: I could be a prisoner of my world and continue to work six days a week, I could live a lie and charge high prices and not be behind the stove or I could give my stars back, spend time with my children and re-invent myself.“

No amount of external validation can solve a lack of internal validation.

It is why the relationship between extreme success and happiness is so fascinating. The more we understand extreme success, the more we realize how often it is caused by an absence of satisfaction, peace, or happiness.

Azeem, on his Exponential View blog, had an insightful post about how energy is transitioning from a commodity to a technology. This table summarizes the difference between the two.

We see these play out in commodity prices over time. Even as supply has gone up (more extraction), oil is concentrated in the hands of a few who set prices.

On the flip side, the cost curves of batteries and solar continue to head downward.

This is happening because both these technologies have learning rates of 20%. This means every doubling of production reduces costs by 20%.

And while we started with rare-earth metal, we’re increasingly seeing more mainstream materials being used to develop batteries.

This movement from energy as commodity to energy as technology has profound consequences. A few examples –

• Electricity replaces oil as the currency. Dollars per megawatt hour instead of Dollars per barrel. We already see this begin to play out as investments in datacenter technology continue to go up. No one is powering new datacenters with oil.
• 14% of countries control all the oil. With renewable sources, over 90% of countries will have the energy they need. Consider this – all our energy needs can be met if we simply used all the solar power we get from the sun for 3 minutes.
• Seasons could dictate consumption patterns. With the amount of excess solar in summer, for example, energy intensive processes could become viable.

These are just a few examples. Financing and regulation will both need to adapt as renewables have an upfront investment need that pays off for the next decades.

The implications of all of these changes will be profound. It is an exciting time for humanity.