HEALTH
Dopamine: Dopamine's main role in the brain and body is to drive motivation, craving, and pursuit
"It is not the molecule of pleasure, it is the molecule of drive. It is lifeforce."
- Dr. Andrew Huberman
Reward prediction error: If you anticipate a reward and it comes, you get some dopamine. If you don't anticipate a reward and it comes, you get more dopamine from the same reward. If you anticipate a reward and it doesn't come, your dopamine will drop below baseline
-Dr. Andrew Huberman
The Best Part of Waking Up is Folgers In Your Cup... 90 Minutes Later:
Delay the intake of caffeine by 60-90 minutes after waking up. This allows your Adenosine to effectively clear out.
- Dr. Andrew Huberman
Earn Your Pleasure: The cycle used to be: effort -> dopamine -> relaxation -> repeat. But today, you can get enough dopamine without effort."High levels of dopamine achieved without effort will destroy a person". If you put effort in front of pleasure and respect the oscillating systems of pursuit and relaxation, you can completely control the trajectory of your life
- Dr. Andrew Huberman
Longevity: Exercising for longevity is different than training to win a marathon – all out training is often past the point of optimizing longevity returns and can actually be diminishing. Find physical tasks associated with the goals you have for your 100 year old self – goblet squat (picking up and carrying a grandkid), overhead press (lifting suitcase above head) -
Dr. Peter Attia
Strength is Health: Some studies show 2-4% strength loss per year – if you want to be a healthy 85 year old, you can’t sit around when you’re 50. There is an increase in mortality with reduction in grip strength and loss of quad muscle
-
Dr. Peter Attia
Why Deadlift? Super functional movement – you want to be able to safely pick things up from the floor, including yourself
-
Dr. Peter Attia
What to Watch for in Deadlift: right amount of thoracic extension, right curve in lumbar, activation of glutes, activation of hamstrings, wedging correctly -
Dr. Peter Attia
VO2 max: The size of your engine; it tells you how fast you can take oxygen from the air and into lungs for use in metabolic processes you can use -
Dr. Peter Attia
Aggression: Testosterone in and of itself does not trigger aggression – testosterone aromatized into estrogen within the brain and binding to estrogen receptors in area of the brain that leads to aggression -
Dr. Andrew Huberman
Tools to Manage Aggression: -
Dr. Andrew Huberman
- Omega-3 can reduce impulsivity and aggression for predisposed individuals by modulating hormone systems. Omega-3 dose: 1g or more per day
- Get sunlight in your eyes early in the day
- Hot baths and sauna can reduce cortisol (20 minutes)
- Ashwagandha may reduce cortisol – but cycle about 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off
- L carnitine can reduce aggressive tendencies – and can be supplemented or found in food but isn’t very bioavailable; you can find injectable L carnitine – try 500mg-1g per day
WISDOM
Near-Death Experiences Are Not Death: “Near-death experience is maybe a reflection of the stuff that happens to your brain while you’re in the process of dying, but it is not in fact, dying.”
– Dennis McKenna
The Default Mode Network (“ordinary” consciousness): We live in an artificial world reality created by our brain (reality hallucination). This world is a combination of filtered sensory input linked to associations and memories. While this version of reality is true to some extent, it is not sufficient because our brain filters out a lot of environmental stimuli. Otherwise, it would just be a blooming, buzzing confusion you wouldn’t be able to navigate. Psychedelics disable this default mode mechanism. This be very beneficial in terms of helping us get outside of our reference frame
– Dennis McKenna
Don't Spoil Your Kids: Due to overexposure to monoculture and struggle-free lifestyle, “we have a surplus of a$$holes coming down the pike right now”
– Chris Sacca
Leadership: “Once you have children, the art of being a good parent and the art of being a good leader are the same”. Patience & Listening: You must be able to suppress your first reaction and think about the outcome you want to create
– Ian Siegel
Micromanaging: Micromanagement is a poor strategy in both leadership and parenting. You want to model behaviors rather than enforcing behaviors
. – Chris Sacca
Go Beyond The Classics: Grimes constantly forces herself to listen to new music. It’s a great exercise that everyone should do to encourage brain plasticity
- Grimes
Art is Durable: “There’s all this stuff that seems more important than art because it helps us to function and survive, but when all this is gone, the only thing that’s gonna be left is the art. The technology will be obsolete.”
– Grimes
We're All Techno-Homo Sapiens Now: Since the integration of the iPhone, we are becoming cyborgs; our brains are fundamentally changed. There is a definite lack of adequate education on how technology is fundamentally changing the physical structure of our brains. “If we choose correctly and wisely, consciousness could exist for a very long time and integration with AI could be extremely positive and I don’t think enough people are focusing on this specific situation.”
– Grimes
