The Long Game 106: Nootropics, Rituals & Purpose, Not Taking Things Personally, Build, Genetic Variants
The Long Game 106: Nootropics, Rituals & Purpose, Not Taking Things Personally, Build, Genetic Variants📸 How the Intention to Share Can Undermine Enjoyment, Reversion to the Mean, Talent, Food Catastrophe, Taiwan, and Much More!Hi there, it’s Mehdi Yacoubi, co-founder at Vital, and this is The Long Game Newsletter. To receive it in your inbox each week, subscribe here: In this episode, we explore:
Let’s dive in! 🥑 Health🔂 Rituals & Purpose: How to Make a Daily HabitA crucial part of what we’re building at Vital is that we believe the best way to get and maintain optimal health is to make health & wellness a part of your everyday life. The problem is that it never lasts if this part isn’t something you find fun or learn to enjoy. If you want to join our private beta and help us build the first health optimization social network, please fill out this form (2 minutes!) On this topic of building rituals and purpose around health and wellness, I liked this piece:
🌱 Wellness📸 How the Intention to Share Can Undermine Enjoyment: Photo-Taking Goals and Evaluation of ExperiencesWe’ve all wondered whether taking pictures of a place or an event fundamentally changes how we enjoy that event or location. These days, most of us seem contaminated by the same bad habits: That’s why I enjoyed reading this research paper asking this very question. Abstract:
We’re building a social network at Vital, so it’s naturally a question I pay a lot of attention to. As a health & wellness vertical social network, we want to maximize the health & wellness of our users. This paper is an excellent preliminary result, but I believe social networks celebrating authenticity (BeReal, Snap, Zenly) would score much better on this front than social networks that are about claiming to have a perfect life, aka Instagram. 🧠 Better Thinking👍 Not Taking Things PersonallyI’m a firm believer that working on developing the right mindset about things is the most powerful thing you can do. The most important thing you can work on is your mindset, it’s upstream of literally everything else. Sounds like pop psych bs but this is the truth For this week, let’s talk mindset and not taking things personally. The tweet below is critical, and its idea is underrated. It’s very easy to take things personally, especially when you’re so passionate and intense about your pursuits. Yet, we have to remember that people have many things going on at once, and even if taking things personally can be a powerful weapon, it’s not always the best idea. No one has an obligation to help you
This was hard for me to accept early on when I went to my past colleagues, mentors & friends for money, advice or time
Many helped, but many didn’t
It’s not personal tho, everyone has things going on. Your most important thing is not theirs I found this article helpful; it gives ten useful patterns to help you nurture more generous interpretations — and get to the root of the issue faster.
⚡️ Startup Stuff📚 Build & TalentAfter a month of pause, I restarted reading new books. I picked up Build by Tony Fadell and Talent by Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross. I haven’t fully digested them yet, so I won’t comment on them this week. Instead, here’s Rob Henderson’s review of Talent as an introduction:
And here’s a podcast conversation with the two authors of Talent if you’re not a big reader:
Lastly, the tweet below underlines a recurring theme in startup success: the willingness to have the hard conversations. Tony Fadell also mentions this in Build. Success in startups is directly proportional to the number of hard conversations you are willing to have. 📚 What I Read📉 Reversion to the mean: the real long COVIDThe pandemic may be over, but so is tech exuberance.
Pair with: E81: All-In Summit: Bill Gurley & Brad Gerstner on markets, downturns & investment cycles
Plus: Advice from David Sacks Startups: Instead of thinking about whether you are “default alive” vs “default dead”, think about whether you are “default investable” vs “default uninvestable.” 🧵 🧬 Describing genetic variantsThe excellent Elliot Hershberg on genetic variants:
📈 Why Pessimism Sounds SmartPessimists sound smart. Optimists make money.
🍭 Brain Food🍞 The coming Food CatastropheA few months ago, Friedberg already rang the alarm bells on the global food situation. This piece from The Economist paints a dangerous picture:
Pair with: Oh great, we're gonna starve. 🎥 What I’m Watching🇹🇼 Why Taiwan is Not UkraineI read more and more voices alarming that China is getting ready to invade Taiwan on Twitter in the last few days. This video helps differentiate the cases of Taiwan and Ukraine. Pair with: China Insists Party Elites Shed Overseas Assets, Eyeing Western Sanctions on Russia 💊 Can Supplements Really Make You Smarter?A great video about nootropics. Also, the perfect complement to the “tool of the week!” 🔧 The Tool of the Week🧠 Nootroflix
Ever wondered what nootropic could work for you? Nootroflix helps you answer this exact question. 🪐 Quote I’m Pondering
― John E. Sarno Ps: If you’re suffering from chronic pain, do yourself a favor and read this. If you enjoyed this newsletter, make sure to subscribe if you haven’t 👇 👋 EndNoteThanks for reading! If you like The Long Game, please share it on social media or forward this email to someone who might enjoy it. You can also “like” this newsletter by clicking the ❤️ just below this, which helps me get visibility on Substack. Until next week, Mehdi Yacoubi PS: Lots of newsletters get stuck in Gmail’s Promotions tab. If you find it there, please help train the algorithm by dragging it to Primary. It makes a big difference. If you liked this post from The Long Game by Mehdi Yacoubi, why not share it? |
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