The Long Game 112: Protein Intake, Unhappiness, Taste, Hard Work, The Network State
The Long Game 112: Protein Intake, Unhappiness, Taste, Hard Work, The Network State💊 A Male Birth Control Pill, Cities and Ambition, Beliefs are Fashion, Status as a Service, Greg App, 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: 💌📱 We’re inviting more and more people to Vital. Do you own an Apple Watch, a Garmin, an Oura ring, or something else? Let me know 👇 In this episode, we explore:
Let’s dive in! 🥑 Health🍽 Reassessing Protein IntakeI found this episode to be a great reminder of how much protein you should be consuming. Quantity of protein:
Timing:
Source:
Why this matters more than you think:
🌱 Wellness😞 Unhappiness after CovidI came across these graphs last week, which paint a picture I’ve seen in many other places: unhappiness is skyrocketing, especially in the previous two years. It seems that the numbers are highly dependent on social groups:
It left me wondering: what is causing this? I got some interesting responses, including:
What else do you think could be the reason? Let me know! 🧠 Better Thinking🖼 Notes on TasteI greatly enjoyed this article on taste. It manages to explain an idea that’s usually very hard to explain.
⚡️ Startup Stuff⛏ On Hard WorkI’ve covered the topic of hard work a few times in the newsletter, but every couple of months, the subject comes back on Twitter, and I’m always surprised that working hard has become controversial. This week, Ryan Selkis was the instigator: “Work smart, not hard.”
Ok, but 99.99% of 22 year olds don’t know how to work smart. They need to put in 60+ hours because 50% of the hours are dead ends or training.
The very top tier 20 somethings will get to 30 hours of “smart” work per week. Usually bc they do 60+ overall. What I see is that there are a lot of people trying to convince themselves that working hard isn’t necessary. I couldn’t disagree more. It’s not a sexy answer, but it’s the reality. Don’t take it from me; listen to the founding teams of all the greatest, generational products you use daily. I liked Kevin Systrom’s framing around smart work vs. hard work (I highly recommend watching it (from 1:49:00 to 1:58:00.) He explains that it’s very “cocky” to believe you know what “working smart” is. Many people are pretty smart. Assuming you can win by simply outsmarting people is pretentious, in his opinion. Hard work is a competitive advantage. And even the belief that hard work is a competitive advantage is itself now a competitive advantage. People don’t want this to be true, but it’s almost universally correct.
There are a few other, often lucky, paths. But mostly it’s brute force at the beginning Ryan Selkis 📖 🖊🔑 @twobitidiot If you won't work nights and weekends in your 20s, you won't have a successful career. Sorry.Finally, this isn’t to say everyone has to work hard. It’s simply to say that your intensity should be aligned with your ambition. @twobitidiot Very true. I was quite inefficient looking back, and worked super hard partially to overcome that. I’m much more efficient now, but sometimes you can’t find an efficient way and just need to power through. 📚 What I Read🌐 The Network State: How To Start a New Country, by Balaji S. SrinivasanThe long-awaited book is finally here. I just started it today.
🌇 Cities and AmbitionA great piece on how cities can shape your ambition:
☠️ The Perils of Audience Capture`On how influencers become brainwashed by their audiences:
👙 Beliefs are FashionAn excellent piece on “luxury beliefs.”
🍭 Brain Food🗽 Status as a ServiceYour monthly dose of Eugene Wei’s articles. I’m re-reading them continuously as they’re the bible for our work on social media at Vital. Here he warns about the potential vicious cycle a social network can enter in, once it stops being the “hot new app.” This is another reason why utility-based social networks are so powerful (they’re built on a backbone of utility — there is a single-player mode that adds a significant utility to your life, and it’s not only about other cool people being on it.)
🎥 What I’m Watching💊 “We NEED a Male Birth Control Pill”This was an excellent breakdown of the idea of a male birth control pill by MPMD. TL; DW, it’s impossible to get such a pill without almost castrating a man and bringing his Testosterone levels so low that it wouldn’t make any sense. It’s also an important video to understand the side effect of the female birth control pill. It can potentially be way more detrimental than most people realize. A comment I liked:
🏋️♀️ On OvertrainingA recent tweet from my friend Jeddi pushed me to cover overtraining here: It's crazy how quick people are to call "overtraining"
The vast majority of people aren't overtraining but either undertraining or managing nutrition/sleep/volume poorly
It's absolutely possible to train every day Jeddi ⟠ @antinertia going to the gym 6/7 per week i'm getting some momentum with good energy, metabolism changing fast etc but i'm fucking broken, pain in each muscle, everyday.. i know sleep is the best recovery any additional advice on what to use for faster recovery?Here are a few videos for you: The bottom line is that it’s very, very rare to actually be overtraining, and saying “training more 3/4 times per week is overtraining” is nonsensical. 🔧 The Tool of the Week🌿 Greg — Take Care of your PlantsContinuing my exploration of vertical social networks this week, I played a bit with Greg, a utility-based social network focused on growing plants. It’s a well-done product. In the words of Rex Woodbury:
🪐 Quote I’m Pondering
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. Until next week, Mehdi Yacoubi If you liked this post from The Long Game by Mehdi Yacoubi, why not share it? |
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