The Long Game 140: Blueprint, Luxury Beliefs, Pleasure, Angel Investors, Duolingo
The Long Game 140: Blueprint, Luxury Beliefs, Pleasure, Angel Investors, Duolingo👨👩👧👦 Remote Work, The Next Wave of Social, CrossFit & PEDs, Anxiously Attached, Sexual loneliness, 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♾ BlueprintBryan Johnson’s Blueprint has repeatedly made the news over the last months. We covered it here when it was just released, but it’s interesting to talk a bit more about it as it’s gaining popularity. Last week this article was published on Bloomberg: How to Be 18 Years Old Again for Only $2 Million a Year.
In the eyes of most, Bryan’s approach is extreme.
I like Bryan’s dedication to radical life extension, but for some reason, I’m always conflicted when reading his experiments. Maybe it comes from the fact that I never felt better than when not obsessing over my health, so I’m biased into thinking that health obsession itself undermines my long-term health goals. Still, I think that Bryan’s rigorous self-experiments could really provide a Blueprint for future longevity-promoting lifestyles. He’s a guinea pig of that extreme health optimization, and we’ll all benefit from his experiments as he shares them. Many people reject this outright, but I believe we should resist this even if we aren’t a fan of it. Some of the rejection comes from scientists in the field, while other forms of rejection come from everyday people, and I believe that a lot of this is motivated by people who don’t want to feel that there might be a future where optimal health would require much more work on the side of the individual. I reckon a good portion of the backlash that @bryan_johnson has been getting over Blueprint is because it made them feel as if there’s a pressure for them to do more healthwise.
people react this way when they see others strive against things they themselves feel resigned to On a personal level, I’m not doing any extreme health experimentation anytime soon. Still, I believe that pioneers like Bryan could accelerate the era of complete health optimization with radically better outcomes than today. I’ll keep it simple for a few more years and master the basics (build a large and healthy family, train hard and become an athlete, sleep, and eat correctly.) A last point worth mentioning is the life stage Bryan is at. He’s already extremely wealthy. That’s a point covered in this episode with Lex on the merit of an all-in approach early on in life vs. an over-optimized routine. It is very likely (certain in my opinion) that Bryan wouldn’t have had the success he’s had with Venmo if so much of his mental bandwidth was taken by his nutrition, sleep, hundred of blood tests, etc. Pair with: The Rejuvenation Olympics 🌱 Wellness🧘♀️ Pure Pleasure Isn't What You WantI found this piece on jhānas (jhānas are bliss states that can be accessed by meditators with a bit of practice) very interesting:
Pair with: Nick Cammarata On Jhana 🧠 Better Thinking👑 On Luxury beliefsAnother great piece on luxury beliefs, a concept that will help you understand many things in society.
In many ways, it’s not about absolute metrics but relative ones:
Lastly, a note on why luxury beliefs are dangerous:
⚡️ Startup Stuff🏦 How I got 50 high-profile angel investors to join our seed roundThis an interesting & useful piece on getting angel investors to your round.
3 years ago, Lawtrades was about to go bankrupt.
We failed to raise a Series A.
Nobody wanted to invest.
This month, we closed $6M in funding ($80M valuation) from 100+ customers and investors using a link and no meetings.
Here’s how it happened, step by step.
🧵👇 📚 What I Read📚 Anxiously AttachedThis is a perfect read after This is How Your Marriage Ends to understand better common relationship patterns.
🔮 Social’s Next WaveAs a social app founder, I was very interested in this piece.
🃏 The App Store is becoming the Game StoreThis a great piece on Duoliongo’s gamification strategy.
👨👩👧👦 Remote work is the best thing to happen to families in decadesYet commentators and politicians keep missing it:
👤 Sexual loneliness: A neglected public health problem?New black pill just dropped:
Pair with: Wheat Waffles x Chris Willx 🍭 Brain Food🏍 The safest — and deadliest — ways to travelThis is an important reminder of the best ways to travel. It’s incredible how much more dangerous motorbikes are than all the other options.
It really seems smart to switch to a safer option if using a motorbike is part of your daily routine. It might be inconvenient for a few weeks, but metrics like the ones below don’t lie, and we all—unfortunately—know too many people who left too soon because of a motorcycle accident. This isn’t to say cars are incredibly safe, but they are orders of magnitude safer than motorbikes. On top of that, if you never drink & drive, invest in a safe car, don’t speed, don’t text while driving, and avoid bad weather, it will make it even safer. Interestingly, planes that often frighten many people are by very far the safest option. Pair with: The killer(s) on the road: reducing your risk of automotive death 🎥 What I’m Watching💉 "CrossFit Athletes Are Natural" - CrossFit Coach🎤 Ex Gang Member interview-Johnny🔧 The Tool of the Week🎒 Baby CarrierI wanted to start rucking this year, but I skipped the RuckSack and bought this instead 😂 Loving it so far. 🪐 Quote I’m Pondering
— James Dyson 👋 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 The Long Game by Mehdi Yacoubi is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell The Long Game by Mehdi Yacoubi that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won't be charged unless they enable payments. |
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