Podcast Notes Playlist: Latest Episodes

• The only two interventions that really seem to offer longevity benefits are rapamycin supplementation and some degree of fasting
  • They both suppress mTOR (mechanistic target of rapamycin) and in turn increase autophagy
    • Autophagy is the process by which cells eat themselves – the dysfunctional cells (like cancer cells) tend to be “eaten” first
• It’s currently impossible to measure the level of autophagy taking place in the body 
• Fasting
  • Fasting is the single most potent tool in our toolbox of nutrition
  • Peter estimates that around day 3 of a prolonged water-only fast autophagy starts taking place
  • The fasting function:
    • F (x,y,z) (AKA fasting is a function of x, y, and z)
      • x = the amount you restrict calories (100% = full calorie restriction)
      • y = the duration of the fast
      • z = the frequency at which the fast is repeated
    • For example, Peter does a 7-day fast once per quarter = F (100%, 7 days, 90 days)
  • There are TONS of different fasting regimens
    • But because we can’t measure autophagy – “Anyone who says theirs is the best is either delusional or incapably of understand combinatorial mathematics”
  • During his prolonged fasts, Peter tries to lift as heavy as possible every day (to stimulate mTOR in the muscle – to prevent muscle loss)
• What does/doesn’t break a fast largely depends on the reason you’re fasting in the first place
  • If the purpose of your fast is caloric restriction and weight loss:
    • Coffee and even eating celery wouldn’t technically break it
  • If the purpose of your fast is gut rest:
    • Coffee breaks the fast
  • If the purpose of your fast is to increase autophagy:
    • We don’t know if something like coffee would break the fast (since we can’t measure autophagy)
• Oral NR (nicotinamide riboside) (it’s a NAD+ precursor) supplementation and intravenous NAD+ administration are probably useless
• “If there was one disease state that seems to benefit more from a ketogenic diet than any of the others it’s type 2 diabetes”

Peter Attia, MD, is one of the leading thought leaders in the field of enhancing lifespan through dietary changes, intermittent fasting (IF) and exercise.

In this show, we discuss a range of exciting topics with a focus on enhancing autophagy and inhibiting mTOR through nutrition, fasting and pharmacology.

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Link to video version, research and show notes: https://highintensityhealth.com/267

Justin Kan is the exceptionally talented Silicon Valley founder and investor that’s co-founded companies like Twitch, SocialCam, Exec, and Atrium (with over $1bn in exits). He is also a former partner of the famed accelerator Y Combinator and a personal investor in dozens more startups.  Today’s conversation covers everything from his near death experience that shaped his life to how to increase your baseline happiness (heads up: it has nothing to do with selling your company).  

Email James questions at [email protected] Follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC.

• Great leaders share these 3 traits:
  • They’re open to growing and learning
  • They help everyone around them succeed in their role
    
  • They make sure their team is working on great ideas/projects
• Advice for the workplace:
  • When beginning a new project, first answer the following questions:
    • What is the objective of the project?
    • What is the success criteria?
    • What are we trying to solve?
  • Create a post-mortem report for every project (ones that fail AND ones that succeed) – ask your team:
    • What went well?
      
    • What didn’t go well?
      
    • Given those things, what can we do better next time?
• Be careful about trusting your intuition – very often you have have a few biases you’re not immediately aware of
• Career advice:
  • Either go really deep into a single discipline that’s in demand or combine two different disciplines (i.e., become someone who’s really knowledgeable about finance and also really good at public speaking)
  • If you have a particular set of skills that the market really desires, you can demand a better salary or more benefits

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

#315: Gabriel Weinberg - Using Mental Models To Make Better Decisions

Full show notes can be found at www.LearningLeader.com

Gabriel Weinberg is the CEO & Founder of DuckDuckGo, the Internet privacy company that empowers you to seamlessly take control of your personal information online, without any tradeoffs.He co-authored Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth and co-wrote, Super Thinking. Gabriel holds a B.S. with honors from MIT in Physics and an M.S. from the MIT Technology and Policy Program. He has been profiled in The Washington Post and Fast Company, and is routinely quoted in leading print publications such as The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Weinberg is also a frequent TV commentator, appearing on CNN, CNBC, and CBS This Morning, among others.

Notes:

• Commonalities of leaders who have sustained excellence:
  • A desire and openness to grow as a person
  • People want to follow them -- They set up systems for others to succeed
  • They make sure the team is headed in the right direction
• The North Star -- Must always orient yourself towards whatever that is for you
  • Your personal mission statement
  • Maximize impact on the world -- Where do you want to go?  Define what that is for you
• DuckDuckGo is an internet privacy company -- Started in 2008 for private search (a competitor to Google).
  • Gabriel discussed how he was ahead of his time -- The secret is something you know about the world that others don't yet.  Search is the most personal thing on the internet.  Gabriel wanted to create an alternate (private) to Google.
• Mental Model -- A concept for general decision making.  A few hundred concepts that are useful for better decision making
• Become a 'chef' with your thinking -- 1st principles thinking.  Your intuition can be wrong.  Best practices can also be wrong.  You need to focus on being wrong less.
  • 1st Principles = Most intentional way of thinking:  Question assumptions.
• Every project has a scoping template:
  • What is the objective of the project?
  • What is success criteria?
  • What are you trying to solve?
  • Does everyone agree?
    • Discussion with team -- Operationalize 1st principles
• Why the pro/con list is not as helpful as the cost/benefit list:
  • Write down cost over time -- Rate everything vs that
    • Example: Where should we go on vacation?  Rate on a scale 1-10.  Combine cost and benefits.
• Do a post mortem after every project -- It forces critical thinking and analysis
  • What went well?
  • What didn't?
  • Given those things, how can we operationalize to do better?
• Why is it rare to do a "success autopsy?"
  • By default, an after action review will not happen.  It must be built into the process.  Our default setting is to move on to the next project.
• What was it like writing a book with his wife?  Lauren McCann is Gabriel's wife and co-author on Super Thinking
  • "We would walk together every morning and talk about the book."  It became the primary topic of conversation for a long time
• Charlie Munger multi-disciplinary approach:
  • At DuckDuckGo, this is their goal --> Grow people internally.  They work hard to help their team make better decisions
• Structure of DuckDuckGo:
  • 70 team members -- fully distributed all over the world
  • Immense delegation happens daily
• What does Gabriel look when hiring someone to the team?
  • Self starters -- The team is fully distributed.  They have a lot of autonomy and ownership.  People are empowered and must be willing to work without a boss watching them.
  • Question assumptions
  • Great communicator -- There is a lot of written communication when the team is all over the world.  Must be able to write well.
  • Experimental mindset
  • Validate direction -- Run experiments if you have a hunch and then analyze your findings
  • Build trust -- Very key.  There is heavy transparency at DuckDuckGo.  Must be trustworthy.
• How to find candidates who possess these qualities?
  • Do paid projects as part of the hiring process... Get a feel for them actually doing the job before you hire them full time.
• Culture:
  • "We have a 'thank you' culture"
    • "Most respectful interpretation" of every interaction.  Give people the benefit of the doubt.
    • Thoughtful and intentional
• Gabriel's upbringing: His dad was a doctor.  His mom was an artist.
• How to flex your market power?  Combine two particular sets of skills, go deep learning them (eg. be a great finance person  and public speaker.  Look for gaps in the market or within your company, and use your unique skills (like Liam Neeson in Taken) and attack the problem.  Most people just do what they're told.  Don't settle for that.
• Why shouldn't we trust our gut?
  • Availability bias - May not remember all the options
  • Confirmation bias - the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories.
  • Use it as a hypothesis generator, then question it.  Don't fully commit until the necessary work is done.
  • "Thinking gray." --> Delay decisions until they absolutely must be made.
    • Jeff Bezos opens a door, but may come back through it.  "We'll do this now, but we may walk it back."
• How to build trust?
  • Vulnerability speeds up the process of building a trusting environment.
  • "Relationships move at the speed of vulnerability."
• Anders Ericsson -- Deliberate practice.
  • Work at the edge of your comfort zone.  Receive coaching in real time.
    • Hire an executive coach
    • Create a board of advisors
    • Day to day -- check your thinking and explain it (write, give speeches)
• Writing is the best form of thinking critically --> "It's the best way to clarify my thinking"
• Overall life advice:  What is your north star?  What areas do you want to pursue?  What are you current skills?
  • Find your highest leverage point, study those areas

More Resources:

• Read: Super Thinking 
• Follow Gabriel on Twitter: @yegg
• Be part of "Mindful Monday" -- Text LEARNERS to 44222
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Join our Facebook Group: The Learning Leader Community
• To Follow Me on Twitter: @RyanHawk12

• Conscious leaders are self-aware enough to identify when they’re above or below the “black line”
  • When you’re above the line, you’re open, curious, trusting, and committed to learning
  • When you’re below the line, you’re defensive and attached to proving you’re right
• To increase your self-awareness:
  • Become more self-reflective – practice pausing, quieting the mind, and turning attention back on itself 
  • Create a feedback-rich environment where you’re constantly getting feedback
• After receiving feedback:
  • Do NOT ask yourself – “Isthis feedback true?”
  • DO ask – “Howis this feedback true?”
• “Underneath these incredibly driven and successful people is a scared little 5-year-old kid who is terrified”
  • For many type As, fear is a driving motivator 
  • Just know – “The antidote to fear is not courage, the antidote to fear is acceptance”
    • Until you can give love and acceptance to the scared 5-year-old inside of you, they won’t stop controlling your life
• Making clear agreements is important for allowing teams and relationships to thrive
  • Each agreement needs to answer the question – Who will do what by when?
  • In addition –Only make agreements that you have a whole body “yes” to
  • “All drama in relationships, personal and professional, is caused by unaligned commitments, or unclear/unkept agreements”
• Many people avoid conflicts in their intimate relationships not out of fear of hurting their partner, but more so because they don’t want to live with the consequences of dong so
• Live in creative consciousness, not victim consciousness
  • Victim consciousness = Living from the belief that life is happening to you (you’re at the effect of people, circumstances, conditions)
  • Creative consciousness = YOU are responsible for your emotions and experiences
• On Emotional Intelligence:
  • If you don’t feed the what you’re feeling with more thoughts, the energy (the feeling) will exit the body in <90 seconds
  • If you don’t allow the feeling to pass through you it calcifies and turns into a mood (i.e., anger turning into bitterness, resentment, and hatred)
• If you spot it, you got it
  • “If you were willing to eat the projection and internalize how the things you’re complaining about in relation to others are true about you, you’d increase your learning agility exponentially”
  • “If you really want to grow in self-awareness, eat your projections”

Jim Dethmer, founder of The Conscious Leadership Group shares practical advice about becoming more self-aware, ditching the victim mindset, and connecting more fully with the people in our lives. 

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For comprehensive show notes on this episode, including a full edited transcript, go to https://fs.blog/podcast/

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• Sleep trackers (like the Oura Ring) are accurate when it comes to determining total time awake vs. time in non-REM sleep vs. time in REM sleep
  • They’re not so accurate when it comes to disguising between light non-REM sleep vs. deep non-REM sleep
• Avoid eating simple carbs too close to bedtime as they tend to raise your core body temperature
  • (In order to fall asleep, you need to drop your core body temperature by 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit)
• For optimal sleep, avoid exercising within two hours of going to bed
• Adequate sleep increases your motivation to exercise, your peak muscle strength, your ability to respire and expel carbon dioxide, your time to physical exhaustion, and your ability to sweat
• Sleep deprivation causes an increase in the hunger hormone (ghrelin) and a suppression of the satiety hormone (leptin)

• Matthew’s TED Talk, and his favorite public speakers [7:45];  
• How good are the current sleep trackers like Oura, Fitbit, etc.? [10:45];
• Is it bad to eat food too close to bedtime? [15:30];
• How does exercise impact sleep? [17:30];
• How is appetite affected by our sleep quality? [21:30];
• Anxiety, cortisol, and weight gain: An awful feedback loop of sleep deprivation [23:30];
• How to optimize your wind down routine: lights, temperature, & relaxation [26:10];
• How alcohol disrupts sleep (and contributes to Alzheimer’s disease) [46:00];
• Sleep’s impact on sex hormones, and romantic relationships [50:00];
• Performance, accuracy, and minimizing the damage of shift work [55:30];
• Bed partners: How to sleep in separate beds and retain a good relationship [59:30];
• Can we use sound machines and electrical stimulation to improve sleep? [1:02:40];
• Will we ever be able to “supercharge” our sleep stages using technology? [1:08:30];
• Why sleep is the best insurance policy for lifespan and healthspan [1:11:45];
• Melatonin: How (and how not) to use it for sleep improvement [1:19:00];
• The dangers of sleeping pills, useful alternatives, and cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia [1:28:30];
• Can CBD and THC be used for sleep? [1:43:30];
• Why haven’t we been able to develop a really effective sleeping aid? [1:50:40];
• Can you get too much sleep? [1:55:50];
• What to do (and not do) immediately following a terrible night of sleep? [2:09:15];
• Why a consistent wake up time is king [2:14:30];
• Does poor sleep speed up the aging process? [2:16:00];
• Can different people be more (or less) resilient to sleep deprivation? [2:22:50];
• Finding your optimal sleep schedule and determining your sleep chronotype [2:27:45];
• Defining sleep efficiency and how to improve it [2:33:25];
• Correcting insomnia: A counterintuitive approach [2:35:45];
• How can parents improve the sleep of their kids? [2:41:30]; and
• More.

Learn more at www.PeterAttiaMD.com
Connect with Peter on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.