The Long Game 95: Mindfulness Apps, Nutritional Epidemiology, Hustle Culture, Shock Cycle
The Long Game 95: Mindfulness Apps, Nutritional Epidemiology, Hustle Culture, Shock Cycle📱 Vertical Social Networks, Ukraine, Russia, Goody, Hiring Young Talents, Engineering Victory, 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🥗 Nutritional EpidemiologyHow can this still be possible? 🍳 isn’t it wild how we can send probes to mars, but haven’t yet figured out if eggs are “good for us”? The reason is that nutritional epidemiology is extremely bad today and needs reform. This article explains some specific steps that could make nutritional studies more rigorous. Here’s the TL;DR:
🌱 Wellness🧘♀️ Shockingly, Mindfulness Apps Really WorkThis new research paper is an encouraging step for tech-enabled health & wellness products. Here’s the abstract:
Of course, this result should be confirmed by other similar experiments, but in this context of increasing mental health problems, this is a promising result. Shockingly, mindfulness apps really work. This randomized controlled trial on the Headspace app finds it reduces anxiety and depression by a huge .44 standard deviations after 4 weeks - in the same range as drug treatment & cognitive behavioral therapy. adviksh.com/files/in_progr… 🧠 Better Thinking🤯 The Shock CycleMorgan Housel is often one of the best writers to put critical ideas and concepts into words. I found his tweet about the shock cycle so good that I thought about it all week. It seems to be happening for all the important events, and COVID might be the single best example of this. First, deny that a pandemic is coming, and make fun of tech bros calling for “no handshakes.” Then keep ignoring it when it spreads to Italy, then panic once they finally understand that it’s going global. After that comes the acceptance of the situation, and later we enter in denial mode when good news arrives. Examples of this are that Omicron was not as deadly, masks aren’t essential outside and for kids at school. The shock cycle:
- Assume good news is permanent.
- Oblivious to bad news.
- Ignore bad news.
- Deny bad news.
- Panic at bad news.
- Accept bad news.
- Ignore good news.
- Deny good news.
- Accept good news.
- Assume good news is permanent. What’s the best way to avoid this shock cycle? It’s to practice meta-rationality. In the words of Tyler Cowen:
In practice, the best way to do so is to avoid watching mainstream news at all costs; they are either wrong or late. Instead, find smart and knowledgeable people on Twitter. They’ll provide much more signal and less noise. Here are a few Twitter lists to help you do so: ⚡️ Startup Stuff📱 Vertical Social NetworksWhat will be the next big generation of social products? I believe that they will be vertical social networks. This is what led us to pivot the product at Vital a few months ago. Verticalized social is the next generation of social:
• Matter: social x reading
• Public: social x investing
• Saturn: social x calendar
• Strava: social x running/cycling
• @joinvital: social x health optimization Although some vertical social networks already exist and are very popular (Strava, Public, Saturn, for example), many people aren’t familiar with this concept. That’s why I liked this article explaining why vertical social networks are the future of social.
Here are the five keys for success in vertical social networks:
The author points to something very interesting at the end of the article: expect new social networks to develop alongside new device capabilities. New device capabilities enable new types of sharable content, which leads to new social networks:
• Camera → Instagram/Snap
• Geoloc → Zenly/Strava
• Airpods → Clubhouse/Callin
• Apple Watch → @joinvital 📚 What I Read🧗♂️ On Hustle CultureExcellent piece on hard work and how it got out of style in today’s obsession over self-care:
Pair with: Hire People Who Give a Sh*t It would be convenient if you could do great work by working only moderately hard. Maybe there are some people who can. But I can't think of any. 🏁 On Becoming a Landing Spot for Entrepreneurial Young Talent Before they Start SomethingRamp’s CTO Karim Atiyeh on hiring young talented individuals:
🎙 Podcast Episodes of the WeekThis week in podcasts:
🍭 Brain Food☢️ Nuclear RiskIf you’re a long-time The Long Game reader, you know my concerns regarding existential risk, especially nuclear risk. I covered this many, many times in previous editions. Unfortunately, the threat has never been as high as today in 27,969 days (August 9, 1945). I know it feels better to think this could never happen, but when the outcome is so catastrophic, even a low probability should be enough to raise significant concerns. Unfortunately, a nuclear conflict is totally different from regular warfare and would change life on Earth for many decades. Here are some resources on the topic if you’re interested: 🎥 What I’m Watching🇷🇺 Why Russia is Invading UkraineA good explanation of what Russia wants in Ukraine. 🇺🇦 The Failed Logistics of Russia’s Invasion of UkraineLearn why Russia is having logistical troubles in Ukraine. 🤝🇺🇦 Here is a crowd-sourced list of resources to help Ukraine. 🔧 The Tool of the Week🎁 Goody — Send the Perfect GiftI found Goody to be a very well-done product. It will help you if you want to send a present to someone. 🪐 Quote I’m Pondering
― Alan Watts 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? |
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The Long Game 94: Behavior Change Through Wearables, Predicting Future Trends, Exercising for Depression
Monday, February 28, 2022
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The Long Game 93: New Theses on Sleep, Behavioral Activation, Going Back to the Fundamentals
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🎥 Kanye West, Germany & Ukraine, Strength Standards, Love, Tim Urban, Beautiful Neighbourhoods, and Much More!
The Long Game 92: Managing People, Surrogate Endpoints, Complaining, Heuristics
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📦 Drone Delivery, Good Climate News, Writing, North Pole, TikTok & Teens, AskAnything, and Much More!
The Long Game 91: Fitness but Free, Loneliness Epidemic, Optimism, No Filter
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🐐 Michael Jordan, Old Music, Taiwan, Turkey, New Social Apps, Panama, International Sanctions, and Much More!
The Long Game 90: Improving HRV, Moving in Sync, Wanting, Early-Stage Lessons
Monday, January 31, 2022
🧬 Software in Life Sciences, Russia/Ukraine, Carbon Tax, Online Privacy, South Korea, and Much More!
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