The Long Game 116: Electrolytes & Hydration, Digital Sabbath, Productivity Tools, Being Positive
The Long Game 116: Electrolytes & Hydration, Digital Sabbath, Productivity Tools, Being Positive🤖 Reject the Algorithm, The Nova Effect, LMNT, Reading Ourselves to Death, Homework, 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🧂 Electrolytes & HydrationAfter seeing the topic of electrolytes and hydration from afar for months, I decided to dive in a learn a bit about it. This was motivated by the extreme heat in Europe and my thinking that my hydration was far from optimal. A brand that kept coming back in my research was LMNT, and they have some great blog posts explaining everything you need to know on the topic. I particularly like this one. Why you need electrolytes
Here’s LMNT’s founder protocol when it comes to hydration:
Pair with: Using Salt to Optimize Mental & Physical Performance | Huberman Lab Podcast #63 🌱 Wellness🚫 Digital Sabbath: the Partially Offline SocietyI really liked the idea of a Digital Sabbath in The Network State. I think this is the future.
🧠 Better Thinking🛠 On Productivity ToolsIf you’re on Twitter, you might have seen a productivity backlash happening: It started with this meme: If you’re a long-time reader of The Long Game, you know I had my “productivity phase.” I tried and used most apps at the center of the bell curve (and others), and I still use some productivity apps. I’m not relying entirely on Apple Notes (yet?). However, I totally agree with the general sentiment of this meme. A ‘productivity porn’ era was started a few years ago by some Youtubers and people selling courses on how to create a second brain and optimize your note-taking. I think that at first, watching a few videos like this does no wrong. Still, for some mysterious reasons, many people seem to get caught up in trying to constantly have a perfectly optimized note-taking, personal knowledge management system. Paradoxically, people who get the most things done don’t seem to think about this problem nearly as much as the growing productivity niche. Why is that? I think it’s because, for the most part, focusing on productivity is the perfect procrastination. It feels good, it feels like progress, it feels like you’ll be able to unlock a superpower once your Roam graph is all filled with knowledge, but this just isn’t the reality. I’m not against note-taking and productivity per se. I just can’t ignore that this isn’t the key to outstanding output and insights. It’s just an irresistible trap, at least at first. Right now, I’m way less focused on the tools I use and always ask myself, “isn’t this new tool a form of procrastination?” whenever I’m about to fall into the trap again. In the words of Sam Altman:
every mid guy on the internet seems to have a custom built note taking stack several layers deep with some charlie day conspiracy theory level of interlinking meanwhile every high powered tech ceo i meet seems to be using iphone notes app ⚡️ Startup Stuff📱 Musical.ly's Alex Zhu on Igniting Viral Growth and Building a User CommunityI came across this great interview with Alex Zhu on how they built a viral machine at Musically (the older name of TikTok.) Here are some notes:
Pair with:
📚 What I Read🤖 Reject the AlgorithmI find the Twitter feed has changed for the words lately, promoting way too many useless, growth-hacky threads. This article is good at explaining why you shouldn't play this game and focus instead on the long game:
☠️ Reading Ourselves to DeathA thought-provoking piece on reading too much:
👍 How to Talk to People: Econ vs. PsychOn being positive:
In addition to the standard criteria like intelligence, drive, and conscientiousness, I put a premium on happiness, optimism/positivity, and "collective self-belief" in hiring decisions.
Makes a surprising difference to the collective output of an organization. 🍭 Brain Food📝 Fewer students are benefiting from doing their homeworkNo one really liked doing their homework, but it used to be clear that doing them would help you become better. It’s still the case, but we should specify doing them without copying the internet… Here’s an interesting paper:
🎥 What I’m Watching📣 The case against woke culture | Brian Armstrong and Lex FridmanBrian goes into detail to explain his Coinbase is a mission focused company piece. Pair with: Shopify is a sports team, not a family. 🃏 The Nova Effect II - The Blessing of Bad Luck🔧 The Tool of the Week🧂🍉 LMNTI started taking an LMNT stick right after waking up, and just before training, I can already feel the effect of it. It had a strong taste at first, but I’m already used to it. I like the watermelon flavor. 🪐 Quote I’m Pondering
👋 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, which helps me get visibility on Substack. 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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