The Re-engineered You

Jim Rohn famously said “We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.” - So how do we find the highest caliber people to fill those spots in our entourage?

Sports heroes have them. Movie stars travel with them. And rappers use them as accessories like handbags or purses. Entourages are more than a symbol of fame, or a group of friends to to hit the clubs with. In a practical business sense, entourages are your mentors, your personal evaluators, your advisors, and your private think-tank. A good entourage will go out to dinner with you, listen to your business startup plan, and help shore up the weak spots. On today’s episode we want to clarify the role of an entourage in a practical day-to-day sense, and we want to talk about how to find good entourage members without having to shell out big bucks. We’ll even look into the science of how good teams work together. Why the structure of how friends interact with each other looks like a chemical compound. And how you can become the information broker of multiple entourages.

We’ll also look at the exploits of the ultimate entourage: Captain Eugene Fluckey and the crew of The Barb. A submarine in WWII that broke all the records (and the rules) about sub warfare, thanks to her captain and officers. Not only did The Barb smash records, re-write the book on submarine operation, and earn the interest of Franklin Delano Roosevelt...it was also the only submarine to ever torpedo a freight train. A little trick that wouldn’t have been possible, if Captain Fluckey hadn’t recruited the brightest, most talented, craziest officers to his side.

History Links:

https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2011/march/sailor-who-torpedoed-train

https://www.historynet.com/hell-and-high-water-the-uss-barb.htm

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/893889.Thunder_Below_

https://books.google.com/books?id=to2aBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT29&lpg=PT29&dq=Kitojima+Sanji&source=bl&ots=Ohj64oYBIr&sig=ACfU3U0LHE6J6iEVECu4nmGlr0HcF9P4qw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjk7JuPj-ntAhVNjp4KHdEoBPIQ6AEwBHoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=Kito&f=false

Science Links:

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/06/study-if-you-want-to-succeed-dont-work-with-your-friends/258626/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/learnvest/2013/06/26/friends-in-business-together-4-success-stories/?sh=582eaf052a92

https://www.fastcompany.com/3023424/why-successful-people-have-so-many-groups-of-friends

Everyone tells themselves a story about how they got to be where they are. So what do successful people “mythologize” about themselves, and why don’t we?

Some self-mythologies are clearly delusional. When Jeff Bezos tried to rebrand himself as a space-faring test pilot during his Blue Origin phase, or when Mark Zuckerberg declared he would only eat meat he personally hunted and slaughtered, becoming a more primal male (a resolution he has since relaxed) the attempts to re-brand themselves came off as disingenuous. This is similar to when Michael Jordan told the world he had always been “the underdog” in his youth, when in reality his coaches and mentors attested to the opposite; that the up-and-coming basketball phenom had received a privileged amount of attention and extra coaching.

In short, we all make up mythologies about ourselves in our own mind: where we came from, what we had to overcome, what we’re all about at our core. So why does it seem so many rich and famous people end up with such delusional mythologies about themselves? Would we be better off, or at least wealthier, if we made up grandiose self-mythologies?

In this episode we’ll weigh some of the pros and cons of re-imagining our own stories to make ourselves heroic. We’ll talk about societal heroes like nurses, soldiers, and police, who actually deserve their heroic myth, and compare their self-stories to the realities of the job. We’ll talk about celebrities who have taken self-mythologizing from profitable to self-delusional. And we’ll compare the self-mythologies of Al Capone, a gangster who believed he was a good man with a bad temper, to his eldest brother, who was of all things a boy scout and award-winning law enforcement agent.

Whose self-mythology is the most profitable? The person who tells themselves a story and everyone else agrees? Or the person who lies to themselves, and it makes them rich and famous?

Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Two-Gun-Hart-Long-Lost-Brother/dp/1506124631

https://todayinhistory.blog/2022/05/19/march-28-1892-two-gun-hart-prohibition-cowboy-2/

https://www.historynet.com/two-gun-hart-the-prohibition-cowboy/

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a32439185/al-capone-dementia-syphilis-treasure-true-story/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/smarts/200901/on-the-value-of-mythologizing-yourself

Guilt, fear, and social obligation...these are the tools of the manipulator. So how do we spot skilled manipulators, and where do they hone their skills in the first place?

Manipulation comes in different flavors, and different sizes. The child who threatens a screaming fit in a crowded store if they don’t get a toy, is a manipulator. But so is the tyrant who demands love from the people, while simultaneously shutting down the news media. On today’s episode we’re going to define true manipulation - that is, getting something out of you without directly asking for it. And we’re going to explore the styles of manipulation, how to spot them, and how to beat the manipulators at their own game. Then we’ll ask the question: Is lying a manipulation? Is gossip? And is there anything inherently negative in spreading gossip or lies?

For our historical example we’ll look at one of history’s most prolific and successful manipulators, Napoleon Bonaparte. Whose greatest manipulation had nothing to do with his height (which was perfectly normal for his era!) Instead we’ll focus on the most clever manipulations ever devised by a benevolent tyrant. Like how Napoleon literally painted himself to be the hero of several of his early battles. How Napoleon attacked and eventually shut down the majority of printing presses in Paris. And how he won the hearts and minds of the people by flooding their homes with art and pamphlets of himself. Truly historic levels of manipulation.

Can you change your genetics through diet and discipline? What about your stress level? Your IQ? Your earning potential?

In this episode we continue our talk about the field epigenetics, and attempt to bust the top three claims being made by epigenetic researchers. Health, wealth, and longevity are supposedly malleable and changeable, to a degree, thanks to practices that reverse DNA methylation (aging). But how firm is the science of changing our bodies and minds? Are there any proven cases of people living longer, thanks to adopting a DNA-friendly diet? Or is this another case of self-help brands disguising themselves as cutting edge data?

First we discuss conscientiousness - the Big Five trait that’s been proven to make more money - and we look at the Universities claiming to have isolated the genes linked to conscientious attitudes and behaviors. Then we’ll move on to metabolic health, immune function, and longevity, aka the plumbing inside the Fountain of Youth. We’ll talk about the very real, very early studies that have been proven to extend human life by several years. Through which we’ll introduce Steve Horvath, the doctor leading the Genetic Clock Project, and we’ll explain why he can tell your age, and life expectancy, with just a drop of your blood.

Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuQKXux8UlE&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15220929/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/analysis-how-poverty-can-drive-down-intelligence

https://www.sciencealert.com/epigenetic-changes-striatum-dopamine-receptors-affect-general-intelligence

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/basics/conscientiousness

https://www.businessinsider.com/tips-tricks-longevity-expert-reduced-longevity-2023-10

Epigenetics is a newborn field of science which claims we can change our genome…sort of. So how much can we actually alter?

Epigenetics as a field emerged from a collection of now-disproven frog studies, some musty church records in starving Swedish towns, and laboratories that conducted cruel studies on mice and their pups. However, by carving away the earliest claims about the potential boons of epigenetics, scientists have finally managed to unveil the seeds of truth about methylation - that is, the “rust” that accumulates on our DNA as we age - and what they’ve discovered is astonishing.

In Part One of our epigenetic series, Todd and Joe will talk about the Överkalix starvation records, and explain how hungry Swedish grandparents accidentally bred a generation of children who were virtually immune to heart disease. Then we’ll begin a conga-line of debunking all the factors that we can, and what we can’t change as humans, in our own genetic code. Trauma, nature vs nurture, stress responses, and IQ levels are the first facts we’re going to tackle. We’ll discuss the rodent studies that proved that nurturing mothers can produce normal children, even if those children are genetically “bad seeds.” We’ll also talk about why garbage food and stress hormones can age your genes faster than what’s natural. And we’ll explain why brilliant Einstein-level smart genes can’t replace a good learning environment, and how the American system is failing young geniuses by cutting away support systems and creating high-pressure, high-stress environments.

Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuQKXux8UlE&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15220929/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/analysis-how-poverty-can-drive-down-intelligence

https://www.sciencealert.com/epigenetic-changes-striatum-dopamine-receptors-affect-general-intelligence

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/basics/conscientiousness

https://www.businessinsider.com/tips-tricks-longevity-expert-reduced-longevity-2023-10

Jeff Bezos has stepped down as the CEO of Amazon! But what legacy will he leave behind? Or, more importantly, what precedence has his company set for wages in America?

Jeff Bezos is stepping down as Amazon’s CEO, but his empire remains intact. Or, to quote Percy Bysshe Shelly; “Look upon my works ye mighty, and despair!”On today’s episode we take a look at the $15-an-hour model that’s allowed Bezo’s empire to conquer the shopping world, and we’ll compare Amazon’s warehouses to other big-name businesses that have gone to court over wage theft and shady labor practices in the last few years. We’ll also discuss minimum wage in general, why the president is pushing for $15 a federal minimum wage, and how $15-an-hour (or less) became a business standard for half of America’s workforce. We’ll ask the all-important question: how did business in America get here, and how do we convince corporations to raise their pay?

Special Note: As of this January, Elon Musk is technically the richest man in the world, surpassing Jeff Bezos. But for the sake of argument we’ll be using Bezos and Amazon as our model for modern Pharaohs.

History Links:

https://logicmag.io/bodies/surviving-amazon/

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/supreme-court-case-shows-how-amazon-legally-cheats-workers/

https://www.cnet.com/features/amazon-fired-these-7-pregnant-workers-then-came-the-lawsuits/

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/05/amazon-workers-protest-unsafe-grueling-conditions-warehouse

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/08/24/thousands-amazon-workers-receive-food-stamps-now-bernie-sanders-wants-amazon-pay-up/

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/26/minimum-wage-workers-cannot-afford-2-bedroom-rental-anywhere-in-the-us.html#:~:text=But%20a%20new%20report%20finds,30%25%20of%20a%20renter's%20budget.

https://prospect.org/power/wage-theft-real-national-emergency/

Science Links:

https://www.epi.org/publication/employers-steal-billions-from-workers-paychecks-each-year/

https://www.publicjustice.net/a-victory-against-wage-theft-and-for-class-actions-in-braun-v-walmart/

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/71-flsa-internships

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-09-27/ab5-independent-contractors-how-businesses-are-responding

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/19/uk-supreme-court-rul

Jeff Bezos has stepped down as the CEO of Amazon! But what legacy will he leave behind? Or, more importantly, what precedence has his company set for wages in America?

Jeff Bezos is stepping down as Amazon’s CEO, but his empire remains intact. Or, to quote Percy Bysshe Shelly; “Look upon my works ye mighty, and despair!”On today’s episode we take a look at the $15-an-hour model that’s allowed Bezo’s empire to conquer the shopping world, and we’ll compare Amazon’s warehouses to other big-name businesses that have gone to court over wage theft and shady labor practices in the last few years. We’ll also discuss minimum wage in general, why the president is pushing for $15 a federal minimum wage, and how $15-an-hour (or less) became a business standard for half of America’s workforce. We’ll ask the all-important question: how did business in America get here, and how do we convince corporations to raise their pay?

Special Note: As of this January, Elon Musk is technically the richest man in the world, surpassing Jeff Bezos. But for the sake of argument we’ll be using Bezos and Amazon as our model for modern Pharaohs.

History Links:

https://logicmag.io/bodies/surviving-amazon/

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/supreme-court-case-shows-how-amazon-legally-cheats-workers/

https://www.cnet.com/features/amazon-fired-these-7-pregnant-workers-then-came-the-lawsuits/

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/05/amazon-workers-protest-unsafe-grueling-conditions-warehouse

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/08/24/thousands-amazon-workers-receive-food-stamps-now-bernie-sanders-wants-amazon-pay-up/

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/26/minimum-wage-workers-cannot-afford-2-bedroom-rental-anywhere-in-the-us.html#:~:text=But%20a%20new%20report%20finds,30%25%20of%20a%20renter's%20budget.

https://prospect.org/power/wage-theft-real-national-emergency/

Science Links:

https://www.epi.org/publication/employers-steal-billions-from-workers-paychecks-each-year/

https://www.publicjustice.net/a-victory-against-wage-theft-and-for-class-actions-in-braun-v-walmart/

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/71-flsa-internships

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-09-27/ab5-independent-contractors-how-businesses-are-responding

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/19/uk-supreme-court-rul

Blue Zone communities eat vegan, practice faith, and attend garden parties, and it keeps them youthful into their nineties. But…what if Blue Zones were a lie?

For the last two decades Blue Zones have been hailed as medical paradises. These are pocket communities where faithful vegans can expect to see their hundredth birthday, and drinking wine every day keeps them young and spry. For twenty years these Blue Zone books and Blue Zone lifestyles have been touted on Ted Talks, Oprah, Netflix, and magazines. Except, what if the data behind the original Blue Zone studies were cherry-picked to promote one man’s self-help tour? What if Blue Zone living was the original grift health brand, and nobody bothered digging deeper?

On this episode, Todd and Joe talk about the author of the Blue Zones studies, Dan Buettner, and how his career as a celebrity fundraiser and lifestyle promoter may have influenced his choice to publish Blue Zones scientific paper. We’ll also review the work of other demographers, census takers, and scientists, who have attempted throughout the years to highlight the flaws in Buettner's work (and why many of his findings haven’t been replicated). Then we’ll take a look at actual lifespan scientists, whose work has been replicated successfully. This includes Steven Horvath, inventor of the Grim Age Prediction Model, which can take a sample of your blood and tell you how old you are and approximately how long you have left. We’ll also report on the diet and exercise routine that has been proven, in multiple laboratories and across various continents, to extend human lifespan, based on tracking human DNA methylation. AKA: science might have cracked the true secret to long life, and it has less to do with veganism or faith than you might think.

Original Blue Zones Publications:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff40YiMmVkU&ab_channel=TED-Ed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x66MMnJ7wYs&ab_channel=TruthIsLife7

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6125071/

Science Links:

https://slate.com/technology/2023/11/centenarian-blue-zone-health-long-life-netflix.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuQKXux8UlE&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

https://www.businessinsider.com/tips-tricks-longevity-expert-reduced-longevity-2023-10

Todd and Joe have both stumbled through publishing in very different ways. Today they share horror stories about writing, and talk about the current state of publishing.

Publishing is, to put it nicely, a minefield. Older generations remember when being a published author meant you were successful and financially secure. Younger generations will know that self-publishing is a way to put your name on a book...which will get ignored in the Amazon bookstore, lost among the literal millions of self-published titles that come out each year.

On this episode of The Re-Engineered You we walk you through the process of writing your first book - and how to guarantee that it has personal meaning to you. We’ll also talk about what not to do when you’re ready to get published. And we’ll draw on national publishing statistics, quotes from professional publishers, scam stories from experts, and cringy anecdotes from Joe and Todd’s own experiences in writing and publishing. Spoiler: we went down very different publishing roads, yet we both found all the mines we could possibly step on.

History Links:

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/848294-by-the-time-i-was-fourteen-the-nail-in-my

Resources:

https://ideas.bkconnection.com/10-awful-truths-about-publishing?redirected=true

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/10-point-guide-to-dodging-publishing-pitfalls/2011808.article

https://www.wiseinkblog.com/self-publishing-2/8-signs-your-publisher-is-a-scam/

https://www.markinblog.com/book-sales-statistics/

https://bookadreport.com/book-market-overview-authors-statistics-facts/

Conservatives are claiming he was a liberal operative. Liberals are claiming he was a registered republican who got fed up. Here’s what both sides are glossing over…

This weekend a young man named Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate presidential candidate Donald Trump at a political rally. And while both parties are trying to find ways to blame the other side, nobody seems to be talking about the simple demographics of modern shooters. That is, Thomas Matthew Crooks fits the exact profile of every other 20-something mass shooter we’ve already seen this year. Maybe, just maybe, this isn’t a political issue, so much as an issue of youth despair and lack of hope.

In this episode we explore the motivations and characteristics of political shooters, present and throughout history, and we examine the similarities between Crooks and other would-be American assassins. We also talk about non-political factors like mental health issues, isolation, and a desire for recognition. Then we address the elephant in the room: the tendency for mainstream media to immediately assign blame to the opposing political side.

Links:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3gw58wv4e9o

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2024/07/14/trump-assassination-lincoln-kennedy/

https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/public-mass-shootings-database-amasses-details-half-century-us-mass-shootings

https://rockinst.org/gun-violence/mass-shooting-factsheet/