The Long Game 65: Polygenic Embryo Screening, Cognitive Improvement, The Measure & Improve Paradox
The Long Game 65: Polygenic Embryo Screening, Cognitive Improvement, The Measure & Improve Paradox🌒 Seeing on the Far Side of the Moon, The Dissident, North Korea, Earth’s Most Wanted Hacker, 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 are hiring at Vital, help us build the “Strava for Health.” In this episode, we explore:
Let’s dive in! 🥑 Health🐣 Polygenic Embryo ScreeningWe talked about Polygenically Screened Babies a few weeks ago. I thought this article was a good follow-up on this critical discussion. The author explores two papers (Carmi et al. and Visscher et al.) Here’s what the author concludes:
The medical part of risk reduction is very interesting. Still, the ethical side of things is perhaps even more interesting, and above all, should be a discussion we have in society:
🌱 Wellness🚶♀️ A Simple Way to Feel BetterNothing fancy here, just walking around your neighborhood listening to a good podcast. Try it. It does wonders. 🧠 Better Thinking🗯 13 Steps to Cognitive “Perfection”I discovered Bryan Johnson through this interview, and I liked his way of thinking. I already talked about him in the newsletter, and this week I read his article about seeking cognitive improvement.
Inspired by Ben Franklin's quest for moral perfection, Bryan details his 13 steps for cognitive perfection. The idea is then to take one week for each of these and focus on improving it.
Here are some of my favorites:
A good quote to re-read often:
— Daniel Kahneman ⚡️ Startup Stuff🛠 Building Something no One Else Can MeasureSriram Krishnan has a great piece about building something that’s hard to measure. Often, companies fall into the trap of optimizing for what can easily be measured and end up in a problematic situation because picking the metric can distort the long-term goal. You enter the Measure & Improve Paradox: "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it." — Drucker's maxim "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." — Goodheart's law
The reason pushing big companies to pick a metric is that it’s tough to quantify things without metrics to measure and track.
Sriram explains that this could be your chance to compete with the big tech companies as an outsider. If you try an approach that the incumbent can go after easily, you’ll have an opportunity to beat them. Of course, this is easier said than done:
📚 What I Read📱 The Social Media TrapSocial media is fundamentally changing how people think and what they allow themselves to experiment with because we are constantly watched and observed:
🌍 After Climate AlarmismThe war on climate denial has been won. And that’s not the only good news:
🔨 Entrepreneurship is contagiousExposure to entrepreneurs (mostly) encourages entrepreneurship. 🎙 Podcast Episode of the WeekAs I had no access to a gym (where I usually listen to music), I listened to a lot of great episodes this week:
🍭 Brain Food🌘 Seeing on the Far Side of the MoonI found this piece making a case for building telescopes on the far side of the Moon to be fascinating:
🎥 What I’m Watching☠️ The DissidentI really enjoyed this documentary about the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. I loved Bryan Fogel's previous documentary Icarus about the Russian doping scandal, and this one is as good. Here’s a short clip of Bryan Fogel on the Mystery Behind the Death of Jamal Khashoggi. 💻 Earth’s Most Wanted HackerAn excellent video about one of the best hackers ever. 🔧 The Tool of the Week📚 Read Something GreatI do my best to share the best of what I read, listen to, and watch on The Long Game. If you need an additional place to find great content, Read Something Great is a place where you’ll discover high-signal, low-noise content. 🪐 Quote I'm Pondering
— John Reed 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. Podcast reviews are also gratefully received. You can also “like” this newsletter by clicking the heart just below this, which helps me get visibility on Substack. Feel free to email me or find me on Twitter if you have any feedback or questions. Until next week, Mehdi Yacoubi PS: Lots of newsletters get stuck in Gmail’s Promotions tab. If you find it in 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? |
Older messages
The Long Game 64: Longevity Moonshot, Positive People, Awkwardness Principle, Product Thinking
Monday, August 2, 2021
🥶 Cryonics, Thiel Fellowship, Productivity, Plastic, Strava, Cancer Screening, and Much More!
The Long Game 63: Fraudulent Health Research, Social Media Use & Wellbeing, Other-Optimizing, Alchemy
Sunday, July 25, 2021
⌛ Timelapse of the Future, Prepping, Buddhism, Blas, Victimhood, Disunited Nations vs. Dawn of Eurasia, and Much More!
The Long Game 62: US Army & Longevity, Good Strategy Bad Strategy, Happiness vs. Comfort
Sunday, July 18, 2021
🏦 Billionaires, Drawing Cities, Going First, Oura Ring, The Myth of Panic, Dark Triad, and Much More!
The Long Game 61: Changing Your Mind, Non-Sleep Deep Rest, No Rules Rules, Alan Watts
Sunday, July 11, 2021
🌌 The Edges of Our Universe, Efficiency vs. Resilience, Rat-Race, Building in Public, Terraforming Venus, and Much More!
📩 Welcome to The Long Game!
Saturday, July 10, 2021
Thank you for signing up for The Long Game by Mehdi Yacoubi
You Might Also Like
Learn to Code, in 1 Hour, For Free
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Learn to code In 1 hour For free (this email keeps getting better, right?) Take this 1 hour course and see what it's like to code in sheets. coupon code: D79DA29F5CFF3755560F code expires in 3
🤝 What do biz buyers like to ask biz owners?
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Plus: 6 NEW things we're hearing on Main Street, how to retain employees, and more... Hey Biz-Buyers, This is where we share some of the best insights, tips, and stories from Main Street and our
Best CMS for SEO: 10 Platforms Compared
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Discover the top 10 CMS of 2024 reviewed and tested for flawless SEO experience Hi Reader, Want to run your site on a CMS like WordPress or Shopify? I've got some hints to help you make a choice.
Celebrate World Book Day 🎉 Free • KU • Paperback Book Deals • Fiction & Non-fiction
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Today is World Book Day, traditionally a great time to find new books. Fiction and Non-fiction
The Invisible Wall Around Most of Manhattan
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
It's an "eruv"
🧙♂️ New mic I travel with
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
gunna take over the world now
Death of Followers Leads to Good Business
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Who cares about followers? Entrepreneurs don't need to.
🍀 time to forage for inspiration?
Monday, April 22, 2024
How + why to find inspiration when it's been lacking. View in browser The first single from my new album, Patas de Problemas (Troublepaws) is out now! 😻 🎧 Check it out! Hi Reader, When inspiration
Under $10M to $80M per year
Monday, April 22, 2024
AppSumo's story How did Dropbox get to 100million users? How Dollar Shave Club went from $4million to $250million ARR in 4 years? How did Medium turn around Brand their brand reputation? How
When Show Business Met Monkey Business
Monday, April 22, 2024
Or, when morning TV went bananas