How to Think Clearly In The Era Of AI: Full Course (5 Hours)

0:00So this video is 5 hours long and by the

0:03end of it you will understand how to

0:05think clearly in a world that explicitly

0:08profits out of you not doing so. I'm not

0:12a big productivity guy. I am a business

0:14owner who shares what I've learned on

0:15the internet. Uh I've made over a

0:17million dollars a year in profit for the

0:19last 3 years and I've made almost $5

0:21million in the last 12 months. I say all

0:24of this because I firmly believe that

0:26once you figure out how to think

0:28clearly, you will learn as well how to

0:30act clearly. And so it is the thinking

0:33clearly that is the foundation behind

0:36being effective in a lot of real world

0:38settings. In my case, you know,

0:39entrepreneurship, but in your case,

0:41maybe something else. So in my view,

0:43over the course of the last maybe 2 or 3

0:44years, AI and other algorithms have

0:47negatively impacted our ability to think

0:49for ourselves. One of the goals of my

0:51course as somebody that talks a lot

0:53about AI is to help people take some of

0:55their ability to think back from these

0:57models and hopefully get to a place

0:59where you can both think deeply for

1:01yourself and achieve the myriad gains

1:04that thinking deeply gives you while

1:06also being able to utilize this

1:07technology effectively because I believe

1:09it does have the promise to be used very

1:11effectively. Now you guys won't know

1:12this if you watch my channel often but

1:14before I went into business I actually

1:16studied behavioral neuroscience for

1:17around 5 years at a research university.

1:19And during this time I worked in a

1:21variety of labs. We performed

1:23experiments on animals to determine how

1:26various things affected their ability to

1:28literally think. In the literature, this

1:30is referred to as their cognition. Uh I

1:32changed stuff like their eating

1:34schedules. I changed who they got to

1:36hang out with. I changed the lighting in

1:38their cages. I changed how they were

1:40trained and so on and so forth. And so a

1:42lot of the principles that I'm going to

1:43be talking about in this course are

1:45taken directly from my time back in

1:47university. Lastly, before we get into

1:49the course, I want to make it clear that

1:50this is not AI slop. Um, I wrote all of

1:52this myself using the same principles

1:54that I'm going to share with you. I had

1:56Claude Fable generate diagrams based on

1:58the data, but all the words are mine and

2:00I poured many, many hours into this

2:02because I frankly think it is probably

2:04one of the most valuable things that I

2:05could share with you. So, without

2:06further ado, let me show you how to

2:08think clearly. First, a lot of these

2:09terms will probably seem kind of

2:11senseless to you at face value, and I'll

2:13do my best to explain them, but you're

2:14going to learn them later on in the

2:16course. There's no way that you can't.

2:18I'm planning on going in depth into both

2:20research and then practical applications

2:22of all this stuff. The whole idea being

2:24that you walk away with both deep

2:26underlying theory which will allow you

2:27to categorize problems in real life into

2:29the bins that I provide you, but also

2:32actionables aka real strategies and

2:34immediately implementable techniques

2:36that you guys could take immediately

2:37after this course to go and solve

2:38problems that you're struggling with.

2:40What I'm going to do is frontload with

2:42the hardware sections of the course and

2:44then finally we'll chat software before

2:46running you guys through those

2:47immediately actionable skills. So here

2:49is the outline of our course. I'm going

2:52to start with the biological basis of

2:53cognition. Then we'll talk about

2:55scientifically defining self-control.

2:57Afterwards we'll talk a concept called

2:59choice architecture. Then I'll discuss

3:02friction in action and behavior.

3:04Afterwards we'll start optimizing our

3:06biology. Then we'll optimize our

3:09environment, our workspace, our virtual

3:11environment, and so on. Then I'll cover

3:13a concept the ancient Greeks talked

3:14about called accasia, which is where you

3:16know something but you cannot do it and

3:18how to solve that. We'll then run

3:20through expected value methodology and

3:22how to use it to accomplish tasks. I'll

3:25then cover local and global maxim, which

3:27is a mental model handed to me by

3:29calculus and optimization math.

3:31Afterwards, we'll cover what is called

3:33attentional residue. I'll talk about

3:35models like the map versus the

3:37territory. Extremely important. You'll

3:39learn about Ulyses or Adysius contracts

3:41for people here that have seen the

3:42Odyssey recently. I'll then talk power

3:45law. I'll talk the chain law. I'll teach

3:47you guys about opportunity cost.

3:49Incentives, what's called good heart. If

3:51you guys haven't heard of Chesterton's

3:53fence, which is a strong thinking

3:54technique, I'll run you guys through

3:56Chesterton's fence. I'll then talk about

3:58Beijian theorem and Beijian probability

4:00theory in natural frequencies. This is a

4:02very strong way to solve problems.

4:05You'll learn firmmy approximates which

4:06are ways of estimating magnitudes and

4:09sizes. I'll run you guys through hourly

4:11rate and offload rules, planning

4:14fallacies, and how to multiply your way

4:16out of them. I'll cover the explore

4:18exploit trade-off, which is increasingly

4:20relevant with AI agents and models. And

4:22then finally, we'll actually cover these

4:24immediately actionable techniques like

4:25taps, noticing. I'll show you guys how

4:28to run what are called premortems. I'll

4:30then show you guys how to use five

4:32minute timers in a very strategic and

4:34tactical way to solve problems using

4:36structured decision-m and then finally

4:38at the end of this course I'm going to

4:39show you guys how to use AI

4:41intelligently and not be overwhelmed or

4:43destroyed cognitively by these models.

4:45Now, that's obviously a lot of

4:47information and because of that, I

4:48should take a moment to discuss how best

4:50to take this course and actually cram it

4:52in your brain because as you guys will

4:54find the sort of meta planning, even a

4:56few moments of that significantly

4:57improves the ability of your brain to

4:59consolidate this information into

5:01something useful over time. So, how do

5:03you actually take this course? Well, I

5:04would recommend you start by watching or

5:07listening to the course passively at

5:091.5x speed. Now, this will obviously

5:11take you a lot of time, but not as much

5:14time as if you played it at 1x. After

5:16you're done, I would watch the course at

5:181x speed. So, that actually slow it

5:20down. After every section, you guys will

5:22find that I've added these action

5:24questions down to the bottom. Now, I

5:27like to do that because quizzes, short

5:29little questions that you answer, force

5:31you to retrieve information from the

5:33various corners of your mind that we've

5:34just stuffed it in. And what you'll find

5:36is encoding or putting information into

5:38the system is quite different from

5:39retrieval, which is getting information

5:41out of the system. It's important that

5:42you experiment and practice both if you

5:45really want to consolidate concepts. So

5:46I'd recommend after you play it back at

5:481x speed, answer those action questions

5:51if you really want to get the most out

5:52of the material. Finally, this entire

5:55document is available just in the link

5:56in the description. So you guys can

5:57download it and then keep it as a

5:59companion guide uh for the short term,

6:01for the long term, for a study partner

6:03or whatever it is that you want.

6:05So, let's talk about the biological

6:06basis of cognition, shall we? For those

6:09of you guys that don't know, thinking,

6:10it's also referred to as cognition. Uh,

6:12it is a biological process and

6:14understanding that biological process is

6:16very important if you want to learn how

6:18to optimize it. I'm not going to sit

6:20here and then pretend to give you guys,

6:21you know, a biology or a neurobiology

6:23101. So, I'm going to spare you most of

6:25the details and instead I just want to

6:27leave you with probably the most useful

6:28definition I found so far back when I

6:31was pursuing work in a cognitive

6:32sciences lab in university which I I did

6:34not end up getting but this was still

6:36useful nonetheless. Now cognition your

6:39ability to think is composed of three

6:40parts. You have your attention, you have

6:43your working memory and then you have

6:45your executive function. Now put another

6:48way any thought that you have even the

6:50thoughts that you are having right now

6:51as you are watching this course is a

6:53byproduct of three things. The first is

6:55attention itself and a good way of

6:58picturing attention is like a gatekeeper

7:00that lets in a small slice of the

7:03incredible amount of sensory information

7:05that is constantly flooding in from the

7:06outside world. Think things like the

7:09feeling of the headphones in your ear if

7:11you are wearing them or where your

7:13computer is or your wrists on the desk

7:15or the various background noises

7:17outside, wind, flapping of birds, sounds

7:20from your family members, whatever it

7:22is. All of this is currently flooding

7:24into your brain constantly. Yet, you're

7:26not constantly aware of it. Why? Well,

7:29that's because attention is like a

7:31spotlight. Your brain can put that

7:33spotlight on the things that it wants

7:34you to attend to. And so attention is a

7:37gatekeeper like that spotlight that

7:40chooses what it is in our environment

7:41we're actually going to be lighting.

7:44Working memory is the next step. And

7:46that is like a workbench. If you guys

7:48have ever worked with any sort of heavy

7:49machinery or tools, you'll know that

7:51that workbench, you know, can typically

7:53hold a few things simultaneously. And

7:55the whole idea of a workbench is you put

7:58something on the workbench, you work on

8:00it, you get rid of it, you finish it,

8:02and then you put it out away. You clear

8:05the workbench so that somebody else or

8:07let's say you in the future can put new

8:09items on the workbench and then repeat

8:10that process again. That is what working

8:13memory is and that's an excellent way of

8:15conceptualizing it. The next is

8:17executive function. The best way I found

8:19of conceptualizing executive function is

8:22like a foreman or a general contractor

8:24if you guys have experience with

8:25construction. These are the people that

8:28ultimately decide what goes on the

8:29workbench and who works on the

8:31workbench. You have all these things

8:32that are constantly flooding into your

8:34working memory from your attention

8:36because it is the gatekeeper that

8:37permits things. Well, the executive

8:39function is the foreman that decides

8:41what gets thrown out, when you should

8:43stop one task and move to another, etc.

8:46They are the project managers of your

8:48thinking. Now, the problem is the

8:51majority of human beings currently

8:53operate with next to no attention, very

8:56poor working memory, and not very

8:58functional executive function.

9:01In practice, this leads to you feeling

9:03fuzzy all the time. You know, you you

9:05really struggle focusing on anything

9:07that is actually important. You struggle

9:09with carrying an idea through to its

9:10logical conclusion. A lot of the time

9:12things probably feel confusing or

9:14unnecessarily difficult and things like

9:17maybe this course just feel like they're

9:18happening a little bit too quickly. This

9:21often frustrates you constantly and it

9:22also leads to a relatively emotionally

9:24fragile state which I'll cover more in

9:26the course. So, how do you actually fix

9:28this? I mean, it sounds like a pretty

9:30big problem, right? We have attention,

9:31we have working memory, we have

9:33executive function. These are obviously

9:35deep cognitive science concepts, and

9:37you're learning them for the first time.

9:39Just like a video game character creator

9:41screen, you can actually just pour bonus

9:44stats from various hardware and software

9:47optimizations that I will teach you in

9:49this course directly into these skills

9:51of your attention, your working memory,

9:53and then your executive function. You

9:56know, we can find hardware improvements

9:58through things like health optimization,

10:01better nutrition, circadian rhythm

10:03optimization and so on. And then in time

10:06we can distribute these free wins to

10:09parts like your attention, working

10:10memory and executive function to allow

10:12you to level up each of these. Then we

10:14can also take various software wins

10:16which are problem solving techniques and

10:18so on and so forth to also fundamentally

10:20improve your executive function as well.

10:22And that is simply all we are going to

10:23be doing today. I'm going to be going

10:25through like a caveman, finding all the

10:28extra bonus stats that you're probably

10:29leaving on the table, and we're just

10:30going to combine them to make the best

10:32video game character you've ever seen.

10:34So, let's cover a little bit about the

10:35biology behind the brain. Now, if you

10:37didn't already know, the human brain is

10:40extremely expensive. By weight, the

10:42brain makes up around 2% of our total

10:45body weight, but at the same time, it

10:47consumes approximately 20% of our body's

10:50energy at rest. That means that per unit

10:53weight, the brain is actually the most

10:55metabolically expensive tissue in the

10:58entire body. And you can see that with

11:00this graph right over here. Despite

11:03having a small share of body mass, only

11:05around 2% or so. It includes over 20% of

11:10all resting energy usage. And obviously,

11:12this is very disproportionate. A very,

11:15very light organ, but one that requires

11:17a lot of energy to fuel. Now because of

11:19this incredible amount of energy per

11:21unit, there are two major implications

11:24and frames that I want you to think

11:25about this course through. The first is

11:28that if something is expensive

11:30energetically, then evolution and other

11:32pressures will always force it to

11:34minimize costs and the brain is no

11:37exception to that. That means that the

11:39brain will always prefer a habit to a

11:41decision. It'll prefer, you know, a

11:44guess to a calculation. it'll prefer,

11:47you know, the old to the new and so on.

11:50You can think of this as the brain

11:52budgeting its energy, you know, like a

11:54spreadsheet or something like that,

11:55trying to spend as little energy as

11:56humanly possible, assuming energy is a

11:58resource. Now, many of the techniques

12:00that I'm going to be discussing with you

12:02guys, things like chunking or

12:03implementation intentions, uh, and so on

12:06and so forth, they work because they

12:08exploit this inherent stinginess which

12:10is currently operating by default, but

12:12which you can actually learn to utilize

12:14to think more clearly and be more

12:15effective. Now, much more surprising

12:18than that is that the brain's energy

12:20consumption is actually fixed. What I

12:23mean by this is throughout the day

12:25there's actually no statistically

12:26significant increase in whole brain

12:28energy consumption during difficult

12:30tasks versus simple and easy tasks. At

12:33most any local energy consumption

12:35difference caps out at around 5% or so.

12:39Now this has interesting implications

12:40because it means that from a metabolic

12:42perspective you burn just as much energy

12:44solving a calculus problem and really

12:47racking your brain with it than you

12:49would if you were to just stare at the

12:50window. [gasps] Now, this I think is at

12:54the core of why it makes sense to

12:57improve your ability to think and be

12:58effective because the core reality is

13:01from a metabolic perspective, your brain

13:03is going to be burning those calories

13:04anyway. Why not use those calories as

13:07efficiently and as effectively as

13:09possible? Part of me feels like as an

13:11animal, I have a moral and ethical duty

13:13to use every one of those damn calories

13:15in a way such that I positively impact

13:17the world. And I think that if you guys

13:20understand that perspective, it'll

13:21probably inherently motivate you to

13:22learn how to do that as well.

13:25Now, there's this notion of willpower,

13:27which is the idea that there's a certain

13:28amount of effort you can apply to

13:30thinking, and that it is a naturally

13:31depletable resource.

13:34Well, think about it from this

13:35perspective. Looking out the window and

13:37then doing a bunch of extremely

13:39economically valuable work consumes the

13:41same amount of energy. So, where is that

13:43depletable resource? The science doesn't

13:46actually check out with that

13:47explanation. And I'm going to explain to

13:48you guys in a moment how you guys can

13:49use a better concept of willpower to

13:51actually get things done. Anyway, for

13:54now, just know that the brain is

13:56expensive. It is always on. It's also

13:58very stingy and it budgets its energy as

14:00much as possible, typically by reducing

14:02the total capacity at all times. All of

14:05this puts you under a very strong

14:06constraint or optimization pressure,

14:08which you know, if you want to think

14:10clearly, you have to maneuver.

14:13Okay, now that we've covered the brain

14:14in general, let's cover probably the

14:16most important singular component of the

14:17brain that most people would say is

14:20responsible for how clearly you think.

14:22That's called your working memory. Now,

14:25if I asked you to repeat a sequence of

14:2612 random digits immediately, like if I

14:29just gave you a random list of 12

14:31numbers and then had you walk away from

14:33the computer and come back a minute

14:34later and then repeat them, would you be

14:35able to do so? Statistically, no. Very

14:38few people can. Now, it's not because

14:41you're dumb, although that may have

14:42something to do with it. It's because of

14:44the incredibly small and natural size of

14:47a human being's working memory. I'm

14:49going to show you guys how you guys can

14:51increase or improve the size of your

14:53working memory in a moment. The current

14:55consensus in psychology, which is

14:57supported by many, many studies, is that

14:59you can hold approximately three to five

15:02meaningful items in your working memory

15:05at any one moment in time. because it's

15:07a range of three to five. Most

15:09researchers will round this down to

15:10about four. For those in not in the

15:13know, a meaningful item is also referred

15:15to as a chunk. And a chunk is any unit

15:18of information that your memory stores.

15:21For instance, how many chunks would

15:23these letters be? E I L N D A E. Well,

15:31if it's not clear, that is eight chunks

15:34long because it's eight letters. Given

15:36the previous cap on 3 to five items

15:38stored approximately four, statistically

15:40if you were to walk away from the

15:42computer for a second and then come back

15:43afterwards most of you guys would not

15:45actually be able to repeat those

15:46letters. And the reason why is simply we

15:48do not have the working memory capacity.

15:50There are only so many things we can

15:52store on our workbench at once.

15:55But the magic here is the meaningful

15:58part of meaningful items. Now, if you

16:02took those letters above, e i l n d a e,

16:06and then you reorganize them into

16:08something meaningful, you can actually

16:09get a word out of them. For instance, if

16:11you reorganize e i l n d a, you'll find

16:15that putting the letters together

16:16magically, it turns into the word

16:18deadline. Now, if I flash the word

16:21deadline on the screen for just a second

16:23and then I asked you guys a moment

16:24later, hey, what word flashed on the

16:26screen? Not a very tough question to

16:28answer, right? It's the word deadline,

16:30obviously. Of course, I'd get it right.

16:32So, that takes me to an interesting

16:34idea. Why can't you remember eight

16:37letters by themselves like e i l n dae?

16:40But when you organize all of those

16:42letters into a word that it becomes

16:44really easy. Well, it's because of

16:46meaning. Meaning is a layer that

16:48inherently organizes information into

16:50higher and higher levels of abstraction.

16:53Which means rather than store the base

16:54data of E I L N D AE into your working

16:58memory each as an individual chunk, you

17:00can actually just zoom out or reorganize

17:03the information a little bit into

17:04something that makes sense and then

17:05store the entire thing as a single chunk

17:08instead.

17:10Now this continues up the ladder of

17:12abstraction, reducing chunk size the

17:14entire time, which as you get good at

17:16things allows you to store more and more

17:17information in your working memory at

17:18once. Put another way, it allows you to

17:20zoom out and see more of the picture at

17:22once. And as you guys know, seeing a lot

17:25of the picture at once is how you make

17:27good decisions and think clearly. So for

17:30example, let's say I had this sequence

17:33here. You tarindula

17:37data at face value. If you guys are

17:40listening and not watching, we have 22

17:42chunks here, 22 letters. Now, this is

17:44obviously a lot of data and the

17:46probability that you'd be able to

17:47memorize this whole long string of

17:49characters without spending a lot of

17:50time and energy invested on it is quite

17:52low. But if I reorganize that

17:55information, you'll find that those

17:57letters, if put in a specific way,

17:59actually mean quarterly tax deadline.

18:02And to an average adult, we're no longer

18:04at 22 chunks anymore. Quarterly means

18:07something. Tax seems means something.

18:10And deadline means something. which

18:12means we will have transformed these 22

18:14chunks into just three. Now, if I flash

18:18quarterly tax deadline on the screen and

18:19walked away, you'd probably be able to

18:21memorize that and be able to repeat that

18:23back to me in a few moments, right? Of

18:25course. But here's the really

18:27interesting part. You can actually go

18:28one level up and that is where a high

18:30degree of skill becomes important. If I

18:33put the term quarterly tax deadline, not

18:35in front of an average adult, but I put

18:37it in front of a specialized tax

18:39accountant, you know, who has spent

18:41years internalizing the concept of a

18:43quarterly tax deadline. To them, it's

18:47not even three chunks anymore. It's just

18:49one. Why? Because they are now storing

18:53quarterly tax deadline as a concept in

18:56and of itself. A quarterly tax deadline

18:59is not just the combination of three

19:01separate words, quarterly tax and

19:02deadline. It is a thing. It is a

19:05constant reoccurring thing in an average

19:07tax accountant's life. It's something

19:08they're always looking up to and forward

19:10to. They recognize that as a standalone

19:13idea. And that takes me to the following

19:16point. People who are exceptional at

19:19things can typically remember far more

19:21than an average adult so long as they

19:23are in their zone of competence. The

19:25reason why is because throughout their

19:26lives, they've applied meaning to larger

19:28and larger groups of information, which

19:30allows them to chunk larger amounts of

19:32data in any single time. A good example

19:36of this is a chess master. A world

19:38famous chess master can remember the

19:40positions of pieces on a board far

19:42better than you or I can. And it's not

19:45because their brains are inherently

19:46better than ours. They do not remember

19:49any more chunks, so to speak. What they

19:51do is they've simply combined all of the

19:53information into larger chunks

19:55themselves and then they store those

19:57fewer chunks in the same area that you

19:59and I have available to us. Whereas you

20:02might see 32 distinct pieces on a board,

20:05they would see only three or four

20:07distinct patterns and thus can store far

20:10more information with just four chunks

20:12than we can. Another example. Can you

20:16remember the following number?

20:18149217762001.

20:24Well, if I just said that to you guys

20:25and then walked away and came back in a

20:26minute and asked you to repeat it, the

20:28vast majority of you would not be able

20:29to do that. The reason why is because

20:31you're trying to remember 12 individual

20:33chunks.

20:34But for example, what if I told you that

20:37that number was actually just three

20:40chunks.

20:411492, which was the year that Columbus

20:44sailed to the New World, 1776, which is

20:47the year of the American Revolution, and

20:502001, which is the year that the Twin

20:51Towers fell. If I asked you to now

20:54repeat those numbers back to me,

20:56probably be far easier, right? Simply

20:58because you now know 1492, right? That's

21:01the year Columbus made it to the New

21:02World. 1776, right? That's the year of

21:04the American Revolution. In 2001, right,

21:07that's the year that the Twin Towers

21:08fell. I'm doing this obviously for an

21:10Americanric audience. I'm Canadian, but

21:12hopefully you'll bear with me. Okay. And

21:15so, as we see on this diagram here, we

21:18started with 12 items, which was vastly

21:20over our capacity. You know, 1492, 1776,

21:242001. Very, very difficult sort of to

21:26remember it as 14921776,2001.

21:30But because we're now applying meaning

21:32to this information, we're organizing it

21:34in a way that allows us to chunk them

21:35smaller and then store them all on our

21:37workbench simultaneously.

21:39Now, if I told you I was going to quiz

21:40you on this later, uh, you'd probably

21:42remember it for a week or more. And

21:43studies have shown things like that. You

21:46can be shown a long string of characters

21:47or numbers. You can then be told how the

21:50meaning organizes that into some sort of

21:52concept you understand. And a week, a

21:54month, a year later, people can still

21:56understand that information, which is

21:58obviously far more efficient, right? I

22:00mean, could you imagine working three

22:02times as hard to try and store 12 items

22:04in your working memory as somebody else

22:06who just knows a little bit more about

22:07the underlying patterns and facts and

22:09and let's say in this case, history and

22:12can turn them into just three chunks.

22:13Why would you work three times as hard

22:15if you don't have to? Well, this is a

22:16good example of exploiting that natural

22:18energy conservation concept of the

22:20brain.

22:22Now, this is just a very tiny example in

22:24the grand scheme of things. As I

22:26discussed with you guys earlier,

22:27cognition is composed of three parts. We

22:29have attention, working memory, and

22:31executive function. And what we just

22:33discussed together, chunking, is just

22:36one very small and tactical way to

22:38slightly improve the working memory

22:40stat. In reality, there are actually

22:42dozens, if not hundreds of different

22:44ways that you can improve each of these

22:46three stats. High performers in avenues

22:48where thinking is very essential. So,

22:50think things like poker or public

22:52speaking or business, memory,

22:55championships, and so on and so forth.

22:57They will take all of the techniques

22:59that I'm about to show you guys and

23:00apply them across the board in a very

23:02intelligent way so that they can achieve

23:04productivity and thinking gains of well

23:07over the 300% that we just saw with that

23:091492 1776 2001 example. And that's

23:13ultimately where we're getting to. In

23:15addition to talking about what they are,

23:16I'm also going to show you guys how you

23:18can apply them to real problems in your

23:20life. Until then, I want to talk to you

23:22guys a little bit more about the

23:23hardware to fully flesh out this idea of

23:26what thinking really means.

23:28Now, as mentioned, I spent about half a

23:30decade in behavioral neuroscience. And a

23:32lot of that time was spent volunteering

23:34and later working in laboratories whose

23:37whole goal was to manipulate the

23:39environment of animals, their food,

23:42their cage mates, the other animals

23:43around them, the time of day that their

23:45lights were on or off, uh their

23:47training, and a bunch of other things.

23:49and then immediately after test their

23:51resulting cognitive performance on big

23:54batteries of tests. And so you can think

23:56about this as you know I at the time was

23:58volunteering and then later paid

24:00specifically to analyze what inputs

24:03resulted in clearer or less clear

24:06thinking. And so the key takeaway I got

24:09from that experience was that

24:11counterintuitively rather than thinking

24:12clearly being very hard thinking clearly

24:14is actually quite easy. They're actually

24:17extremely simple and very mundane, but

24:20very powerful interventions that

24:22drastically improve animal performance.

24:24And I guarantee you, you will not have

24:26thought about more than half of them.

24:28And the most powerful and impressive

24:29ones to me were not the ones that

24:31required injections or supplementation

24:34or various drugs or treatments. The most

24:37powerful ones were always things like a

24:40few hours difference in the feeding

24:42times of the animals or which lights got

24:46turned off earlier or later than usual

24:48or which cage mates which other rats or

24:50mice did they get to play around with

24:52before they went to bed. And you'll find

24:55that all of these made a massive

24:56statistically significant difference in

24:59many cases between 30 to 50% of improved

25:01or impacted performance which turned

25:04them into basically different animals.

25:07And it all boiled down to simple changes

25:09that I don't think anybody here would

25:10probably bat their eyes at. These simple

25:12changes impacted their hardware. Now

25:15obviously it'd be unethical to perform

25:17these experiments at large on people.

25:19Okay? Okay, I'm sure some people have

25:20unfortunately, but it would be unethical

25:22to do this sort of thing obviously

25:24unless somebody explicitly opted into

25:25it. But with what limited research that

25:28you know neuroscientists have done, it

25:30is clear that human beings are quite

25:32similar to the animals studied in most

25:33of these experiments.

25:35Small changes in what you eat or the

25:38strength of the lights that you are

25:39exposed to or maybe the people in your

25:41periphery or your friends or maybe the

25:43colors in your environment. Believe it

25:45or not, all of these variables that you

25:47might not have otherwise noticed at all,

25:50if you stack them up, can actually make

25:51a massive difference to your ability to

25:53think clearly over time for your brain

25:56to basically function. Now, I'm going to

25:58run you guys through a bunch of examples

26:00of those in this section and then give

26:02you a big laundry list of all possible

26:04ways that you can optimize your biology

26:06or hardware for the purposes of

26:07thinking. And we're only going to do

26:09thinking in this course, so obviously

26:10you can optimize your biology for

26:11anything these days. Afterwards, I'm

26:14going to give you guys the programs that

26:16I talked about to stretch that hardware

26:17out as much as possible.

26:20So, if you guys didn't know, there's

26:22this very famous 1997 experiment where a

26:24bunch of adult mice were put into what

26:26they called an enriched environment,

26:28which is more or less a cage that

26:29contains more cage mates, a bunch of

26:31running wheels, a bunch of tunnels and

26:33toys, and so on and so forth. when they

26:35were compared to control mice and

26:37control just means like the default the

26:39mice that did not have all of this. Um

26:41what they found is that mice in the

26:43enriched environments showed massively

26:45increased granular cell layer thickness

26:48in an area of the brain called the

26:49dentate gyus which is the area of the

26:52brain that is typically responsible for

26:53new memory formation.

26:56The cool thing is this was achieved

26:57solely through housing. There were no

26:59drugs and no training involved, which

27:01means quite literally the only

27:02difference was that their environment

27:04was more stimulating in a positive sense

27:07than the mice that did not see these

27:08gains. And you can actually see on this

27:11graph here that the granular neurons in

27:14the dentate gyus index to 100 here in

27:16the standard cage were 100. In the

27:18enriched cage, which had all these extra

27:20things that I talked about, we hit 115.

27:24Now, what's important to note here is

27:25that the mice did not have to, you know,

27:27hustle and grind for these improvements.

27:29They did not have to wake up at 5, watch

27:31a bunch of Instagram inspirational Tik

27:33Toks, and go to the gym. Really, they

27:36didn't get more disciplined at all. They

27:38also did not have to watch super

27:39comprehensive courses on how to improve

27:41your hardware and your software. All

27:43that happened was they were by

27:45circumstance put into better enclosures.

27:48And as a result, their brains, their

27:50hardware followed suit and became

27:52better.

27:53Now, a similar study on human beings.

27:55There were 24 architects, uh,

27:57programmers, engineers, managers, just a

27:59bunch of knowledge workers basically

28:01that were put into a fake office for six

28:03full days. These had the exact same

28:06desks. They had the exact same

28:07co-workers as before. And to my

28:09knowledge, they were also doing the

28:10exact same work. The only thing that

28:13differed in that experiment was the air.

28:16how much of it came from outside, how

28:18much CO2 was inside of it, and how much

28:21offging there was, which is something

28:23called volatile organic compounds, which

28:26typically are gassed off of paint,

28:29carpets, furniture, and uh, you know,

28:31things like that, typically when they're

28:33purchased new. Now, every afternoon at 3

28:36p.m., these 24 knowledge workers took

28:39the exact same set of cognitive tests to

28:41evaluate their ability to think clearly.

28:44Well, the shocking result is that on the

28:47days with very clean and well ventilated

28:49air, the scores of these knowledge

28:51workers were literally double what they

28:54were on their normal office days. That's

28:57not 10% better. That is literally

28:59double. And the specific part of their

29:01thinking that improved the most was

29:02their strategy, their ability to plan,

29:05prioritize, and then sequence actions.

29:08All of which are executive function

29:10related. basically their ability to

29:12think clearly. There wasn't a single

29:14person in that room that slept more.

29:16Nobody took supplements or neutropics.

29:19Nobody tried harder. All of these people

29:21literally just breathed slightly

29:23different air and then became twice as

29:25good at certain batteries as a result,

29:28which is kind of nuts, right? And as a

29:30business owner, that's extremely

29:31attractive to me because it means I can

29:33achieve 200% output with the exact same

29:35input. You know, we define that as

29:38leverage. It's free money. If you can

29:40make 200% with a minor change that has

29:42no real other impact on my day-to-day,

29:45why the hell wouldn't I do it? In

29:47general terms, you guys might have also

29:48heard of this concept as lowhanging

29:50fruit. And when you have low hanging

29:51fruit, you should probably pluck it

29:53wherever possible. It's low hanging,

29:54right? That's what I'm going to be doing

29:57with you guys next with zero additional

29:59effort. I want you guys to be able to

30:00output twice as much as you are

30:02currently outputting. Or put another

30:04way, think twice as clearly. So our next

30:07few sections which are on the scientific

30:09definitions of willpower on choice

30:11architecture on friction on hardware

30:14optimization and on environment

30:16optimization you can think of as

30:17basically the human equivalent of

30:19designing a better cage like those

30:21workers were in or like those mice were

30:23in uh compared to their default

30:25counterparts.

30:27Now it's miraculous to me as somebody

30:29that's worked with modifying animal

30:30environments for performance reasons

30:32that human beings have as much control

30:33over our own environments as we do.

30:35Because if you think about it, you can

30:36quite literally design your world. You

30:39can, for instance, choose where to live.

30:42You can buy or build your own home. You

30:45can surround yourself voluntarily with

30:47better cagemates, which are things like

30:49family, friends, competitors, your

30:52spouse, and so on.

30:54When you do this and you actually design

30:57your environment or design your own

30:59cage, you'll find that for at least the

31:01hardware side of things, thinking

31:02clearly becomes way less a question of

31:05being really disciplined and using

31:07various structures to think and to guide

31:09your thinking and more really just a

31:11sense of minor engineering actions that

31:13you only really ever need to make once,

31:15which is when you make the decision to

31:17like move somewhere or I don't know buy

31:19a new house or associate with a person

31:21and not associate with another person.

31:24Okay. And that takes me to the first set

31:26of action questions in our course.

31:29First, what was that 12-digit number

31:31that I asked you to memorize from

31:32earlier? Actually, I want you to sit

31:34with it for a second and think, what was

31:38that 12digit number that I asked you to

31:40memorize from earlier?

31:42Second question is given the experiment

31:43on knowledge workers and CO2/organic

31:46compounds can you guys just off the top

31:49of your head without us going in depth

31:50on hardware optimizations think of any

31:52other biological limiters that you

31:54yourself might be facing and that's just

31:57right now without you having any

31:59extremely detailed list of of steps to

32:02optimize anything come to mind odds are

32:05that thing is probably pretty important

32:06to fix.

32:08Okay, moving on to willpower. On a

32:10similar level, what the hell is

32:12willpower? Well, most people think of

32:15willpower as a reservoir. Every time

32:17that you use your self-control, they are

32:19withdrawing a small amount from their

32:21willpower reserve. Like, let's say you,

32:24you know, didn't hit snooze this morning

32:25even though you really wanted to, or you

32:28didn't check your phone even though you

32:29really wanted to, or somebody was rude

32:31to you, but you kind of buried it and

32:34were polite instead. The way that most

32:36people conceptualize willpower is that

32:38consumes a little bit of willpower, a

32:40unit here, a unit there. And then

32:42eventually what happens is at the end of

32:43the day your willpower reserve is low.

32:45Maybe because you've had a, you know, a

32:47lot of temptation fighting all day. And

32:49then because it's low, you know, if

32:50another temptation comes around or

32:52something happens that requires

32:54self-control, maybe you're you're more

32:55likely to give up, you know, and at some

32:57point you refill your willpower

32:59reservoir with sleep and then just

33:01refill or redo the process tomorrow.

33:05Now, what's interesting is, have you

33:07ever noticed how some people are capable

33:08of staying extremely clear-minded and

33:10self-controlled, whereas other people

33:13cannot? Why is this? Do you think it's

33:16because they have more willpower? Well,

33:18it's not really. The answer, which has

33:20been backed by a tremendous amount of

33:21science at this point, is not that some

33:23people have more willpower than others.

33:25It is that the people that you think

33:27have more willpower simply never have to

33:29fight the same level of temptation that

33:31you do in the first place. What I mean

33:33by this is people that maintain clear

33:36thinking and strong self-control usually

33:38just do not put themselves in situations

33:40where they have the opportunity to make

33:41a mistake at all. If you think about it

33:44logically, if you cannot make mistakes

33:46at all because that is not one of the

33:48possible moves available to you, like in

33:49a video game or a chessboard, well, news

33:52flash, you're probably going to make

33:53fewer mistakes, right? Because you

33:54simply can't make the move that leads to

33:56a mistake.

33:58Think bowling with the guardrails up. If

34:01you bowl with the guardrails up, landing

34:03in the gutters is simply not one of the

34:04possible mistakes. I mean, I guess it is

34:06technically a possible mistake, but

34:08damn, you'd have to screw up really hard

34:09to make it in the gutter. What happens

34:11when you bowl with the guardrails up is

34:13if you bowl and you're just a little bit

34:14off to a side, you knock off a guardrail

34:17and eventually end up virtually

34:19somewhere in the neighborhood of hitting

34:20the pin that you want.

34:22Now, in a similar vein, it turns out

34:24that the majority of the effort involved

34:25in resisting temptation or avoiding work

34:28that you have to do or some sort of

34:30similar issue like that really just

34:31boils down to you having to adjust to do

34:34work at times that are maybe less

34:38effective or profitable for you. To do

34:41things outside of a regular schedule. to

34:44do things at times that are closer to

34:45the end of the day when your quote

34:47unquote reserves have fallen low than at

34:49the beginning of the day when your quote

34:50unquote reserves are still high. I want

34:53to give you guys an example of this. A

34:55person that doesn't check their phone in

34:56the meeting, for instance, would

34:58commonly be referred to as resisting

34:59temptation. And that's good for them,

35:02right? But if you think about it

35:03logically, a lot of people don't check

35:05their phones during meetings. Do you

35:07know how most people do it? They just

35:09don't have their phones on them in the

35:11meeting. The people that don't check

35:12their phones in the meetings, that have

35:14them in their bags, constantly have to

35:16fight the temptation of pulling out

35:17their phone to check a text message or

35:18write something down. Whereas the people

35:20that simply do not have phones on them

35:22whatsoever, well, they never have to

35:23fight that temptation. Their phone is,

35:24you know, three doors down. It's

35:25impossible to get it without making a

35:26total ass of yourself.

35:29Basically, the people that don't check

35:31their phone in this example because they

35:33don't have their phone on them, they

35:34have adjusted and built their

35:37environment such that temptation never

35:39shows up in the first place. And this is

35:41a very small example of much larger

35:43sweeping lifestyle changes that I'm

35:45going to run through with you. Now, to

35:47be clear, this is probably not what is

35:49going on in your brain under the hood.

35:50There probably is not actually a

35:51reservoir of willpower. It's not like

35:53you're using up energy every time you

35:54say no to something. As mentioned, we

35:56use approximately the same amount of

35:57energy when staring out the window or,

35:59you know, working on a task. But I want

36:01to introduce a concept to you today

36:03called asymmetric bets. If you assume

36:05that your willpower was limited and then

36:07acted according to that philosophy, that

36:10would probably lead you to reducing

36:11temptations more. Right? So even if you

36:14are wrong, you will have built yourself

36:16a better environment and probably some

36:18extra capacity now. Similarly, if you

36:22assume that your willpower was unlimited

36:23and that you could just rely on it every

36:25time because you're a badass MF, right?

36:28Well, you will fail in front of

36:29everybody at the worst possible time

36:31simply because that is the modus

36:33operandi with which you have lived your

36:35life. So logically then if you have

36:37possibility to believe one thing or the

36:39other thing and one thing leads to a

36:41universe where you are better off aka

36:43you resist temptation less because you

36:45just do not have the opportunity to

36:46resist temptation and the other one you

36:48resist temptation more which leads you

36:50to screwing up every now and then.

36:51Shouldn't you believe the univer believe

36:54in the story that results in the

36:55universe where you do not have to resist

36:56temptation at all? Obviously, right?

36:59This is a concept known as instrumental

37:01rationality, which we'll cover a little

37:03bit later. But basically, it is where

37:05you choose the most effective and useful

37:06belief system to achieve a goal, even if

37:08it slightly differs from reality. The

37:11takeaway is do not build resisting into

37:14any of the plans that you come up with.

37:16If one of the steps in your proposed

37:19plan, which we'll be doing a lot of

37:21later on, is you know, I just won't do

37:24that bad thing that I always do. Well,

37:26it's not a plan. It is a hope and it is

37:28quite unrealistic at that. Instead of

37:32eliminating X completely, what you

37:33should aim to do is just reduce X by

37:36reducing your access and opportunity to

37:38abuse X. If you remove some sort of

37:40temptation entirely, it will naturally

37:42go down for free and you will think more

37:44clearly as a result. Now, in terms of an

37:45actual immediately actionable example

37:47that you guys can do right now while

37:48watching this course to gain an

37:50additional 10 to 20% out of it, you guys

37:52probably have your phone in the room

37:53right now. And some of you may actually

37:55be listening or watching to this course

37:57on their phones. Now, by doing so, you

38:00are increasing the probability of

38:02picking up your phone for whatever

38:03reason and getting distracted by an

38:04order of magnitude, which is 10x or

38:06more. What I'd recommend you do right

38:09now is if you are watching me on the

38:12computer and your phone is somewhere in

38:14your periphery, I'd recommend you

38:16actually stop, go grab your phone, pick

38:18it up, move it to another room, and then

38:20place it somewhere where it isn't

38:21directly in your periphery. And if you

38:23are listening to me while on your phone,

38:26because this is your only access to

38:27media, then I would recommend you swipe

38:29down from the top, go to the do not

38:31disturb button, or the equivalent,

38:32depends on your operating system, and

38:34turn that on. If you just do that one

38:36thing right now, if you pre-commit, you

38:38will get 10 to 20% more out of this

38:40course. Imagine if I had two options

38:43available to you, kind of a red pill or

38:45blue pill like in the matrix. And on one

38:47hand, I had a dollar and on another hand

38:49I had a $110 and I said, "Hey brother,

38:52which one do you want? Do you want the

38:53dollar or do you want the$110?" What

38:55would the logical thing be to do in that

38:58scenario? It would obviously be to be

39:00like, "Hey, give me the freaking

39:01dollars." Obviously. Well, that is what

39:04I am offering you right now. You have

39:05the ability to design the future few

39:08hours that you will be listening to this

39:10and to maximize your engagement and

39:12minimize your distractability during

39:13that time period. And so, this is a

39:16great example of a bunch of techniques

39:17that we're going to line up back to back

39:19in order to help you think more clearly

39:21and get more done. But I'd recommend

39:23that you do so right now because if you

39:25do so, you won't be serendipitously

39:26distracted by like a rogue notification

39:28flavors. Yeah. You won't be randomly

39:31distracted by a friend of yours texting

39:32you a funny meme on Instagram, which you

39:34have because the damn default

39:35notifications always blow up your phone.

39:37You know, you won't have a little

39:38buzzing constantly occurring in the

39:39background, which pulls five or 6% of

39:41your cognitive capacity away from you

39:42like we'll learn about in the hardware

39:43optimization section. [sighs and gasps]

39:45Can you think of a freer? You're

39:47literally picking up a 100 gram object,

39:49moving it 10 meters to the right, and

39:50then immediately being 10 or 20% more

39:52effective. Okay, another good example of

39:55this which my family would probably hate

39:56is that I used to smoke weed uh mostly

39:59in social settings luckily and I did not

40:01really like what weed did to me. You

40:03know, I was I grew up in a British

40:05Columbia, you know, Vancouver. So I was

40:06I was smoking that BC bud for anybody in

40:08the know and I grew up in East Van. Um

40:10so there was a lot of it an abundance,

40:12let's say, in my periphery. So I tried

40:15many times after, you know, picking up

40:16the habit with my friends at parties and

40:18stuff like that to just quit many, many,

40:20many times. But I didn't really know

40:22half of what I know now. And back then,

40:24I tried to quit every time based on my

40:27willpower. Not shockingly, every one of

40:30my attempts failed. You know, I would do

40:32pretty well for like a week or two

40:34saying no and no and no. But then

40:36finally, one random night, I'd go with

40:37my friends and maybe I'd be a little bit

40:39sleepd deprived. Maybe I wouldn't have

40:40been entirely in my best state and

40:42somebody would have some weed on them

40:43and they'd offer some to me and then

40:44next thing you know, I was smoking.

40:47So eventually I identified a rule and

40:50the rule was when I hung out with person

40:52X or person Y, I would lead to smoking

40:55weed. And then when I did not hang out

40:57with person X or person Y, I would not.

41:00So logically, me being a, you know, I

41:03don't know, bright 18 or 19-year-old kid

41:05thought, hm, I wonder, can I use this

41:08rule not to smoke weed anymore? So what

41:11I did is I just stopped hanging out with

41:12the people that smoke weed. And

41:13miraculously, I stopped smoking weed.

41:15And it's been a hot minute, quite a

41:17while since the last time I did. If you

41:19think about it, this is a very simple

41:21and minor example of a deep part of me

41:23not wanting to engage in a habit that I

41:25had picked up just by happen stance that

41:26I then felt chained to for for quite a

41:28long time. We all have the ability to do

41:31so. We simply need to stop and observe

41:33and notice, which I'll cover in the

41:35software uh section, various things in

41:37our periphery that tend to lead to

41:39actions that we do not want. The second

41:41you've established an if then rule,

41:43everything becomes very very easy. So

41:46the key pattern is I put the work in

41:48before I got tempted, not during the

41:50temptation. I could have come up with a

41:52variety of things to say, maybe like I

41:54tell my friends, no, not tonight, guys.

41:56I got to wake up early tomorrow. But

41:58that works far less effectively than

42:00just building a rulein to eliminate the

42:02possibility of temptation in the first

42:04place.

42:06It sucks that we stop hanging out, by

42:07the way. you know, some of these people

42:08are pretty cool, but obviously my life

42:10is way better off. And I think that's a

42:11core thing to understand. Like, do you

42:13want your life to be better off or do

42:15you want to be dragged down to the level

42:17of everybody else? I don't necessarily

42:19want to do things like that. Um, maybe

42:22if you zoom out on a deep level, I don't

42:25want to. Maybe on a superficial level

42:27when I'm tempted and so on and so forth,

42:28I do. But I obviously like the deep

42:31version of myself more and that's

42:32ultimately who I'm I'm looking to better

42:34and self-actualize. So if you find your

42:35guyselves in similar situations, that's

42:38a very simple and easy hack to do. Okay,

42:40let's think of some action questions.

42:42Think of the last time this week that

42:44you lost to some sort of temptation.

42:46Maybe it is your phone. Maybe it is your

42:48food. Maybe it is skipping your workout.

42:50Whatever it is for your particular

42:51challenges. Was there a way that you

42:53think you could have reorganized your

42:55environment to avoid you doing the thing

42:56that you did not want to do? I'll give

42:59you guys an example. I had some junk

43:00food in the house because my girlfriend

43:01and I bought a bunch of these wonderful

43:03creamy all-d dressed potato chips from I

43:05think Miss Vicky's. And these things are

43:07incredible. They are so good. But one of

43:10my goals was not to eat these sorts of

43:11extremely ultrarocessed potato chips.

43:13Well, anyway, we had bought it earlier

43:15on in the week because we were

43:16celebrating something. I just got hungry

43:18one day. I opened up the cabinet and

43:20there it was. I ate it. If I had not had

43:22that at home, I obviously logically

43:24would not have eaten that bag of chips,

43:25right? I would not have just downed

43:261,200 calories worth of probably the

43:28most ultrarocessed fat known to man. Now

43:30listen, I'm not saying you have to, you

43:32know, live your life like a freaking a

43:34sack. You really don't. You can enjoy

43:35your life and have fun. And it's not the

43:37first time I had a crazy bag of chips.

43:39Not the last time. But the end result is

43:42I ended up doing something I didn't want

43:43to do, not because of intention, simply

43:46because of my environment. So why not

43:49only do the things that I actually want

43:50to do? And I have the power to do the

43:52things that I want to do. If I did want

43:54to have that bag of chips, I could have

43:56reconstructed my environment such that I

43:58got them when I wanted them, but I did

44:00not. So, at some level, a dumber,

44:04younger version of me or somebody else,

44:07the manufacturer of the chip, you know,

44:09and so on and so forth, essentially made

44:11me do something that I did not entirely

44:13want to do. So, think about an example

44:15like that from your own life. Do you

44:17have any? If so, consider them. Now,

44:18next, find some step in your plans that

44:21depends on you resisting something in

44:23the moment. Rewrite that step so nothing

44:26needs resisting at all. Maybe instead of

44:29you, I don't know, coming home from work

44:31or something and then having a big fat

44:34candy bar, remove the ability that you

44:37have to do that in the first place. So,

44:39let's talk phones. What is a phone

44:41really? Well, initially it was a tool

44:43used for making phone calls. Then it

44:46expanded into a tool used for both

44:47messaging and making phone calls. But

44:50eventually it exploded into a basically

44:52general purpose computer that could do

44:54everything from check your GPS route to

44:56video conference your friends to take

44:58photos and post them and more. How about

45:01social media? Social media initially

45:03started as a simple tool for messaging

45:05your friends. Think things like AOL chat

45:07rooms, IRC, and so on. Eventually, in

45:09the pursuit of increased functionality,

45:11it became a tool used for both messaging

45:12and then posting updates. Think things

45:14like MySpace with like your original

45:16pages. Eventually, like everything else,

45:20it exploded into an everything app where

45:22you can play games and you can even buy

45:24furniture. Have you ever asked yourself

45:26the question, who came up with all of

45:28that and why? Well, the unfortunate

45:31reality is virtually all of the

45:32decisions around your virtual

45:34environment and your physical

45:35environment were made by other people

45:38for the express purpose of consuming

45:40more of your time, typically in an

45:43unproductive way. Think about it

45:45logically. You don't need to be able to

45:48play Farm Simulator 2000 on Facebook, do

45:51you? No. So, why does it exist? Well,

45:55it's because there was some smart person

45:57on Facebook's team that noticed that

45:59having games embedded in their little

46:00message box increases the average user

46:03time spent by, you know, 10% or 17% or

46:0625% or something. If you think about it,

46:09the vast majority of the time that you

46:10do something on the internet and really

46:11life in general, it is a decision that

46:14somebody made for you. This is called

46:17choice architecture. Now, this term was

46:20coined in a book called Nudge. Really

46:22good book if you guys haven't heard of

46:23it before. And it basically means the

46:26way that you present options or the way

46:28that options are presented to you

46:31influences which options are chosen.

46:35Put another way, there is no single way

46:39to neutrally present more than one

46:42option. Anytime that you give somebody a

46:45choice between X or Y or A or B or C, in

46:49some way, shape or form, you will always

46:50be influencing their behavior logically.

46:54A good example of this is a cafeteria

46:55manager. A cafeteria manager can

46:57actually fundamentally change what

46:59people eat. Not by taking anything off

47:01the menu entirely, but simply by

47:02changing the way in which the food is

47:04presented or the story is shaped. For

47:07instance, if you have two items, a

47:09healthy bowl and then an unhealthy

47:10burrito. If a photo of the healthy bowl

47:12looks like crap and the photo of the

47:14unhealthy bowl, unhealthy burrito is

47:17high quality and attractive, people will

47:20eat way more of the unhealthy burrito.

47:22And if you think about it, that's a

47:24massive responsibility on behalf of the

47:26cafeteria manager because over 10 years

47:28or 20 years or 30 years or even 50

47:30years, that single action could

47:33theoretically lead to hundreds of times

47:35more heart attacks, strokes, deaths, and

47:38so on and so forth. If this is a really

47:40busy cafeteria with several hundred

47:42people visiting every day and you've

47:44nudged them even 30% more towards a very

47:47unhealthy food option or something like

47:49that, obviously people are going to eat

47:51way more of it and as a result screw

47:53their bodies up and that obviously has

47:54consequences, right? So what I mean to

47:57say here is that you are being

48:00manipulated constantly. Even the

48:02algorithm that led you to my video here

48:04today was in part some sort of

48:06manipulation.

48:08Now, in rare cases like the one that you

48:10guys currently have, manipulations can

48:12be positive and they can end up

48:14improving your life. But that is the

48:16exception and that is not the rule. The

48:18vast majority of the time, the 99.999%

48:20of the time, manipulations are actively

48:22detracting from your ability to think

48:24clearly because your ability to think

48:25clearly is tied to your ability to set

48:27intentions and then reason through those

48:28intentions. But if you are being led not

48:30by your own intentions, but by somebody

48:32else's, obviously you're not being led

48:34to your own ends. You are being led to

48:35someone others. A great example of this

48:38um from like a sociological perspective

48:40is organ donation. Some European

48:43countries run optin systems where you're

48:45not a donor unless you actually register

48:47to become a donor and then other ones

48:49run opt out systems which are where you

48:51are automatically a donor unless you

48:53register out of it. Now they compared

48:55the two groups of countries back in 2003

48:57and found an insane difference in total

49:00organ uh uh essentially defaults. Now in

49:03Germany which is an opt-in country only

49:0612% of people were registered as donors.

49:08In Austria which is right next door and

49:10which was an opt out uh uh region 99.98%

49:14of people registered to be an organ

49:16donor. Every single opt-in country was

49:19around 28% or less whereas every single

49:22opt out country was around 85% or more.

49:27And if you think about it, that is one

49:28of the clearest examples of how

49:30impactful choice architecture can be.

49:32These governments simply made a choice

49:34really early on. Should we default

49:36people into organ collection or should

49:38we allow people to make the choice about

49:40whether they want their organs collected

49:41or not? You know, basically opt in. The

49:43countries that said opt in have

49:45virtually no organ collection. The

49:47countries that say opt out have

49:48virtually all of the organ collection.

49:50And it is a hell of a power law

49:52difference here, which I'll cover later

49:53on. Now, these are societal level

49:55choices that are being made for you. And

49:57it shows clearly how much a single line

49:59on a piece of paper can impact things

50:00like your organ availability or more

50:03what people will do with your body after

50:04you die. And that takes me to this

50:07concept of default. If you think about

50:09it, autoplay is a default that is

50:12selected and defaulted to because it

50:13increases your watch time. Notifications

50:16on your phone are a default because they

50:18are selected to increase the total

50:20number of times you open an app.

50:22pre-selecting an annual plan when you

50:24are shopping around a SAS that is done

50:26to increase the total amount of money

50:28that you spend and your ultimate

50:30retention or churn and putting candy by

50:33a checkout is done to maximize the

50:35number of people who ultimately impulse

50:37buy because they're saying well I

50:39already got all that healthy stuff when

50:40I just throw in some candy too. It is

50:43not illegal right now to do this. It's

50:45just designing an environment in the

50:47service of a KPI. The issue is it's just

50:51not your KPI. Now, I don't mention any

50:54of this because I want to freak you the

50:55hell out or mislead you. I just want to

50:57offer a new lens to look at the world

50:59through. Next time that you're presented

51:01with some sort of choice, okay, just ask

51:04whose interests are being served by this

51:06choice. You know, if you have a choice

51:08between A or B, is that a choice you

51:11need to make at all? When you get a

51:13phone and all of your notifications are

51:15automatically defaulted to on, or you

51:17get a new Windows PC and you have a

51:18bunch of game apps that are auto

51:20pre-installed, why are they auto

51:22pre-installed? Why is all of that stuff

51:24set up the way that it is to begin with?

51:26It's not like phones evolved. There's

51:28something that a person put together.

51:30Same thing with Windows PCs. The reality

51:32is there's a complicated interconnected

51:34web of incentives at play, but the harsh

51:37reality is most of those incentives are

51:38not for you. They're against you.

51:42Now you can use this knowledge to design

51:44your own life. As mentioned, you guys

51:46can build defaults yourselves that

51:48overwrite the typical defaults of

51:50corporations and big organizations. And

51:52in doing so, you can have a lot more

51:54control over what it is that you do on a

51:56day-to-day basis. The math is very much

51:58in your favor. And it's another clear

52:00example of leverage if you think about

52:02it because you only ever have to make

52:04the decision one time while very

52:06clear-headed, maybe on a, you know,

52:07Sunday morning after you've had your cup

52:09of coffee. And despite you making that

52:11decision once, it will continue to pay

52:12dividends even, you know, at every other

52:146 a.m. morning when you don't get a lot

52:16of sleep, you're tired, you're lazy,

52:18maybe you're a little less caffeinated,

52:19whatever. The point that I'm making is

52:21you can make a default decision right

52:23now when you're in a strong state of

52:25mind and then force all future instances

52:28of you to do the default decision and

52:30basically just treat that as how things

52:32are.

52:34Okay? So, you know, if a default is set

52:36by a company and you do nothing, you get

52:38what they want. But if you set a default

52:41and you do nothing, you get what you

52:42want. So, maybe your laptop

52:44automatically opens the tab that you

52:46were on yesterday. And you know, usually

52:48before you go to bed, you're on some

52:50sort of entertainment website or social

52:52media. What that means is the default is

52:54when you go to your laptop in the

52:55morning, you are now seeing a bunch of

52:58social media. If there were two

53:00universes, one where you know you had

53:02that tab open and then another where you

53:04had a tab open with your work on it. You

53:06which of the two universes do you think

53:07you would do more work? Obviously the

53:09one where your tab is open with the work

53:11on it, right? You have the ability to

53:13control that. Tabs reopening are not a

53:16default setting. That is something that

53:18the people that designed these browsers

53:20did because they want to keep you on

53:21them for longer. Likewise, maybe your

53:24refrigerator is organized so that the

53:26worst snacks are at eye level. And so

53:28every time you open it, they're

53:29literally the very first thing that you

53:30see. Now, that is a default that you

53:33yourself probably unknowingly created.

53:35But it's also a default that you can

53:36change. How about your calendar, your

53:38virtual environment? Maybe it's bookable

53:4024/7, and the reason is you just never

53:43set your working hours, and that results

53:45in a variety of annoying ass

53:46notifications that come in throughout

53:47the day, and a bunch of people that come

53:48in and steal your time. Well, you have

53:50the ability to control that and change

53:52that right now. So, all these are

53:54defaults. They take you maybe a few

53:56moments, but the cool benefit here is if

53:58you change them, you get repeated gains

54:01literally every day until you die or

54:03until the company claws back that claws

54:04back that default.

54:07How do you actually identify all the

54:08defaults in your life? Since obviously

54:10this is a okay list, but it's not an

54:12exhaustive one. Well, I use the

54:13following diagnostic tool to do this.

54:16For every transition in my day, I just

54:18ask myself, what happens if I do

54:20nothing? So for instance, at 5:00 a.m.

54:23in the morning when I access my

54:24computer, what happens by default if I

54:27do nothing? So a good example of, you

54:30know, environment design is what I have

54:32done to my computer at 5 a.m. when I

54:34access my computer. I open it up. There

54:36are no additional applications on my

54:38screen except for Chrome. So I will

54:40double click on Chrome. I then look at

54:42my bookmarks bar, which includes links

54:43to all of the work laid out in serial uh

54:46capacity. Literally 1 2 3 4 5. I then

54:49click one and then it opens the page

54:51that I have to start doing my work on.

54:53If I try and access any sites outside of

54:55these, my browser will actually block

54:57them until 3 p.m. So, what I mean by

54:59this is that that's a transition state

55:01for my day, right? I went from waking to

55:02working. What happens by default if I do

55:05nothing in this situation? Well, I work.

55:07I physically can not work. I basically

55:09have, if you think about it, gone onto

55:12like some sort of Wet n Wild tube ride

55:15or something and, you know, I've gone up

55:17to like the slide and I've entered the

55:19slide and the slide takes me to the end

55:22destination and there's nothing I can do

55:23about it. The cool thing is I'm the one

55:25that architected that slide and I'm the

55:27one that made it how I wanted it to be.

55:30as opposed to entering somebody else's

55:31slide which maybe had a lot of

55:33entertainment on it or distractions or

55:35things that reduced my capacity for

55:36attention, working memory or executive

55:38function. I got to do all of this

55:40myself.

55:42Similarly, since my phone is not in my

55:44room, you know, if I do nothing, I

55:45cannot check my phone easily without

55:47physically getting up and going

55:48somewhere else. Which if you think about

55:50it means that my default if I do nothing

55:52is I have very low usage of my phone.

55:54This graph here is quite important

55:56because if you notice that when you do

55:58nothing you achieve an outcome that is

56:00beneficial for somebody else like a

56:02company odds are that default is

56:04something that you need to change. Now

56:06if you do nothing and then you achieve a

56:08positive outcome that you like odds are

56:09you have in some way shape or form

56:11shaped that default and that is okay. So

56:14some action questions look at the last

56:1524 hours and list every point at which

56:18something happened because you did

56:19nothing. For instance, what did you

56:21open? What did you eat? What did you

56:24check? Ask yourself which of those

56:26defaults did you set and which ones did

56:28a company or an organization that is

56:30incentivized to make money off of you

56:32and your time set instead. Next, pick

56:35the single default that cost you the

56:37most each week and write down the

56:39one-time change that would change that.

56:42When will you make that change? By the

56:44way, I'll run you through a bunch of

56:45great ways to make changes in a moment.

56:48Okay, one final point before we begin

56:50the optimization of our hardware. The

56:52golden rule of this whole course, if you

56:54think about it, at a meta level, is

56:55friction. I've been dancing around that

56:57word for the last maybe 30 minutes or

56:59so. I say 15 here, but it took a little

57:01longer than I was expecting. But it's

57:03worth us clearly defining it before we

57:05move on. The way I define friction is

57:08it's a cost between a person and a

57:10behavior. This typically means an extra

57:12click. It means an extra step. Means an

57:15extra 10-ft walk down a hallway. Means

57:17having to put in an extra password, and

57:19so on and so forth. A great example of

57:21this is if you, a person, wants to go to

57:24the gym, which is a behavior. Friction

57:26is anything that makes it harder for you

57:28to go to the gym. For instance, your

57:31distance from the gym, like where you

57:33live versus where the gym is, that is

57:34friction. If you go to sign up to the

57:37gym, but the signup portal bugs out,

57:39that is friction. If there is a physical

57:42cost which is a little bit higher than

57:43you were anticipating, that is friction.

57:46In general, if you want to decrease a

57:48behavior, what you do is you add

57:49friction. If you want to increase a

57:51behavior, what you do is you remove

57:53friction. Because your brain, as

57:55mentioned, is extraordinarily energy

57:57conservative and it wants to conserve

57:58energy wherever possible because it

58:00consumes 20% of the entire body's energy

58:01reserves. It will do the rest. You

58:04simply need to make something a little

58:05bit harder and make the other thing,

58:07presumably the thing you want to do, a

58:08little bit easier. And your environment

58:10will start shaping your choices without

58:12you even noticing.

58:13The most important point about friction

58:15is that it is proportionate. For

58:16instance, the size of the friction

58:18scales typically with the size of your

58:20opportunity to engage in the behavior.

58:22So if you make something maybe three

58:23times as hard to do on average, you will

58:26do it maybe three times less. If going

58:28to the gym is now three times easier

58:31because maybe the gym has moved three

58:32times closer to you or maybe because I

58:34don't know you have a friend that picks

58:35you up in the morning and actually

58:36drives you and drops you off there like

58:37I used to have um then you will do it

58:39far more often. A good example of this

58:42is friction in food consumption. If you

58:43guys think back to our cafeteria example

58:45where we had a good-looking photo and

58:46then a bad looking photo of a bowl and a

58:48burrito and that impacted the uptake of

58:50food. Lots of studies have been done on

58:52the exact same idea except instead all

58:55about applying friction. What I mean by

58:58that is making something easier or

59:00making something a little bit harder. So

59:03in one of these studies they changed the

59:04distance of three foods in a cafeteria.

59:07There was a bowl of cherry tomatoes.

59:09There was a bowl of peas and then there

59:11was a bowl of carrots. Aside from that,

59:13they didn't change the signage or move

59:15any of the food at all. Here are some

59:18results. When they moved the cherry

59:19tomatoes 10 in further away, consumption

59:22of all cherry tomatoes dropped 9%. That

59:26means that by moving the cherry tomatoes

59:28literally less than 1 ft further from uh

59:31where they were before, people consumed

59:33approximately 9% less. When the peas

59:36were moved 10 in away, consumption

59:38dropped 13%. When the carrots were moved

59:4110 in away, consumption dropped 9%.

59:44Then the researchers went as far as to

59:46replace the serving utensils for the

59:48peas from a spoon, which is quite easy

59:50to use to grab peas, to tongs, which are

59:52hard to use and you can't really get too

59:53many. Total consumption of peas dropped

59:5616.5%.

59:58Now, this is a massive effect. Not to

1:00:00mention, all of this took only a few

1:00:02seconds to actually implement, right?

1:00:04Because look at this graph here. You

1:00:05could see food taken on baseline. The

1:00:08spoon at reach obviously allowed for

1:00:10baseline consumption. When you move

1:00:12something at 10 in, it reduced it by

1:00:1413.4% 8.9%. And then when you replaced

1:00:17your spoon with tongs, it reduced it by

1:00:1916.5%.

1:00:21All of this is pretty crazy to me.

1:00:23Here's a quote from an essay that was

1:00:25written back in 2009 by a really smart

1:00:27guy, uh, Scott Alexander. And I

1:00:29personally think about this quote all

1:00:30the time. The point is that you don't

1:00:32have to make things impossible to make

1:00:34them not happen. You just have to make

1:00:36them inconvenient. Even a trivial

1:00:39inconvenience, one that takes a second

1:00:41or two, is enough to stop the majority

1:00:43of people the majority of the time. So,

1:00:46what does this mean? Have you guys ever

1:00:48been in the following situation where

1:00:50you decided not to open an application

1:00:53because it signed you out? Have you ever

1:00:55not read some sort of report because

1:00:56maybe it was attached as an attachment

1:00:58or PDF rather than in the body of an

1:01:00email or an easy to click link? Or maybe

1:01:03have you ever not worked out because you

1:01:04went to your bag and then found that you

1:01:06just didn't have the stuff inside of the

1:01:07bag or you didn't have your shorts on or

1:01:09something like that? Realistically, none

1:01:11of these are real barriers. Like would

1:01:13this stuff have stopped Kangaskhan from

1:01:14conquering the known world? No, probably

1:01:16not. But they all still worked on you. A

1:01:20good model to internalize is that your

1:01:22mind is always calculating the startup

1:01:24cost to do anything in your environment,

1:01:26also known as the friction. So if you

1:01:29add or remove even a second of friction

1:01:31from a process, you can over a long

1:01:34enough time change your life completely.

1:01:36Like we talked about in the first

1:01:37section on the biological basis of

1:01:39cognition, executive function is very

1:01:41very expensive. You know, your working

1:01:43memory is also quite small, and you guys

1:01:45only really have enough space to attend

1:01:47to a couple of things in your

1:01:48environment at any one point in time.

1:01:50What that means is your brain, which is

1:01:52always looking for a way to minimize

1:01:53costs, will always default to not now as

1:01:56the most efficient option as opposed to

1:01:58the let me figure out how to take the

1:02:00first step option.

1:02:02The crazy thing is from the outside, it

1:02:03all looks like discipline. You know,

1:02:06when I used to be really poor, I would

1:02:08look at people that were making 10K a

1:02:10month or 20K a month or 15K a month or

1:02:13maybe even 100K per month, and I would

1:02:14always think, you know, these people,

1:02:16they're a different species. They're

1:02:17just built different, and I'll never be

1:02:19able to catch up. I looked at how much

1:02:20time and effort it took me to make

1:02:22$2,000. And then I looked at the guy

1:02:25making $10,000, and then I went, there's

1:02:27no way. I mean, that's five times the

1:02:29work. That's impossible. The harsh

1:02:31reality is those people are not doing

1:02:33five times the work. In fact, many of

1:02:35them were probably doing half of the

1:02:36work that I was doing, maybe even a

1:02:38quarter of the work that I was doing.

1:02:39The main difference was they had

1:02:41designed their environment to be able to

1:02:42do the things that actually make them

1:02:43money really easily and automatically.

1:02:46Whereas I, I was a door-to-d dooror

1:02:48salesman at the time, um, had to get up

1:02:50and push through a slog every single

1:02:52day. Many of the times when I would have

1:02:54to do this, I would not actually carry

1:02:56through with my core foundational

1:02:57revenue generating activity simply

1:02:59because of how hard I had made it for

1:03:00myself.

1:03:02So that takes me to a few action

1:03:03questions. The first is name one

1:03:06behavior that you want to do more of

1:03:08this month. How many steps currently sit

1:03:11between the thought and then the action?

1:03:14And what single change can cut down the

1:03:16number of steps so that instead of going

1:03:18to the gym requiring 10 things where you

1:03:20got to get put your shorts in your bag

1:03:22and get your shoes and get the

1:03:23basketball and walk out the house and

1:03:25take the bus, instead of all of those

1:03:27steps, what changes can you make that

1:03:28would bring that to just one?

1:03:31The other question is, name the behavior

1:03:32that ate the vast majority of your last

1:03:35week. What one step could put you in

1:03:38front of it that would force a conscious

1:03:40decision every time? It is now time to

1:03:42actually optimize our hardware. Before

1:03:45we get started, none of this is probably

1:03:46going to seem very fancy to you guys. I

1:03:48mean, if you think about it, we're going

1:03:49to talk about some very elementary and

1:03:50basic things here. So, things like food,

1:03:53uh, sleep, exercise, and so on and so

1:03:55forth. And these are all things that

1:03:56people have been realistically

1:03:57discussing for decades. But if you

1:03:59optimize them in the way that I will

1:04:00show you, most people that are taking

1:04:02this course can expect 40 to 80%

1:04:03improvements in cognitive function. And

1:04:05that is not a typo. I mean, we did the

1:04:07math. Um, that is literally 1.5 extra

1:04:09performance on a wide cognitive battery.

1:04:12To make it clear, I'm not a doctor and

1:04:14none of this is medical advice. What I

1:04:16have done is I've gone through all the

1:04:17currently available up-to-date

1:04:19literature, the meta analyses, and the

1:04:21randomized controlled trials on various

1:04:22biological interventions. I've also

1:04:24ranked them according to EV or expected

1:04:26value, which I will teach you guys how

1:04:27to do later. for the median person. And

1:04:29so if you're unsure about any of this, I

1:04:30would encourage you guys to talk to a

1:04:32qualified doctor or your LLM. With that

1:04:34out of the way, I've seen people spend

1:04:37tens of thousands of dollars on

1:04:39biohacking and cold plunges and crazy

1:04:42supplement stacks and neutropics and all

1:04:45this other stuff ultimately to ek out

1:04:47maybe 1 to 2% improvement in cognitive

1:04:50capacity. [snorts] These same people

1:04:52when asked, "Hey bro, how much sleep did

1:04:54you get last night?" will confidently

1:04:55turn around and tell you, I don't know,

1:04:57maybe like five or six hours. If you're

1:04:59one of those people, if you are

1:05:00currently focusing on trendy and super

1:05:02shiny objects or maybe all these bio

1:05:04hacks without actually having maxed out

1:05:07your health, the biological gold, which

1:05:09if you think about it is available to us

1:05:11all, very low hanging fruit, you're

1:05:12almost certainly wasting your time, and

1:05:14I recommend you stop it. I think about

1:05:16it like winning a minor skirmish and

1:05:17then losing a generational war, or maybe

1:05:19dodging a bullet just to get hit by a

1:05:21nuke. Do you guys remember the basis of

1:05:23cognition? It was attention, working

1:05:25memory, and then executive function.

1:05:27What I'm going to do is I'm going to

1:05:28show you guys how to use biological

1:05:29interventions to improve each of these

1:05:31in turn. To begin, I'm going to start by

1:05:33going through the three major drivers of

1:05:34clear thinking, which is sleep,

1:05:36nutrition, and exercise. And we're going

1:05:38to do that one at a time. For every one

1:05:40of these, I'm going to explain how it

1:05:41works, what you guys can do about it,

1:05:43and then also my own routine. And if

1:05:45something is not backed by hard evidence

1:05:46and it is just a suggestion, I will be

1:05:48sure to tell you because I don't want to

1:05:49mislead anyone or have you do things

1:05:51that is are not necessarily

1:05:52scientifically backed. So this graph

1:05:54shows where the effective sleep,

1:05:56nutrition, and exercise. These tend to

1:05:58be approximately 70 to 80% of all

1:06:00possible gains. Although there are some

1:06:01others that I'll cover too.

1:06:02Unfortunately, the attention currently

1:06:04goes towards flashy things like

1:06:05neutropics, uh cold plunges, supplement

1:06:07stacks, productivity apps, morning

1:06:09routines, biohacks, all that stuff.

1:06:11While some of these are important,

1:06:12they're typically more important

1:06:13important in concert with the former

1:06:15three. And it's also a good point to

1:06:17remember that um the whole point of this

1:06:19is none of these should really require a

1:06:20tremendous amount of willpower. That's

1:06:21the whole point, right? My goal is

1:06:23really to get most of these gains done

1:06:25without really adjusting by only really

1:06:28adjusting your schedule. Things like

1:06:30your light, uh your diet, your exercise,

1:06:32and some other stuff. And the plan is to

1:06:34make habits that clarify your thinking

1:06:37and turn those into defaults and then

1:06:39take those that ruin your thinking and

1:06:41make them like we saw uh with the

1:06:43European examples optins.

1:06:46The format typically is the title with

1:06:48the actional tip plus expected cognitive

1:06:50improvement. Any expected cognitive

1:06:52improvement is just what I've reasoned

1:06:53through first principles. Um as well as

1:06:55you know summarizing the literature and

1:06:57meta analyses on the subject. Um I also

1:06:59want you to know that these are not

1:07:00additive. So you're not just going to

1:07:02add the 10 to 15% with the 8% with the

1:07:0514%. These are all multiplicative. So

1:07:07think about it not as 10% plus 10%

1:07:09equals 20%, but 1.1 * 1.1 equals I don't

1:07:12know 1.11 or something. Okay. So the

1:07:15very first is to rule out a sleep

1:07:17disorder. Now logically you will sleep

1:07:20every night for the rest of your entire

1:07:21life. Right? Given how often you sleep,

1:07:24doesn't it make sense to ensure that you

1:07:25guys are sleeping well? If you think

1:07:27about it, that's a huge return on

1:07:28investment for just a few moments of

1:07:30your consideration, right? And the

1:07:31unfortunate news is a lot of people

1:07:33haven't spent more than 5 minutes

1:07:34thinking about something they are

1:07:35literally going to be forced to do for

1:07:37about a third of their life. So, first

1:07:39before proceeding to optimize anything,

1:07:41cuz I'm going to give you guys a big

1:07:41laundry list of sleep improvement

1:07:43techniques which have direct and

1:07:44measurable impacts on cognition, just

1:07:46make sure you don't have a sleep

1:07:47disorder because if you do, uh, no

1:07:49amount of the next few tips are going to

1:07:51help you given that the problem is

1:07:52mostly on the hardware level and not

1:07:53actually on anything else. The main one

1:07:56to look for, which unfortunately around

1:07:5730% of uh men in the United States are

1:07:59expected to have, is some form of sleep

1:08:01disordered breathing. This is an

1:08:03umbrella term that includes sleep apnnea

1:08:05as well as its less audible cousin

1:08:06called Us. As mentioned, 30% of men in

1:08:10the US are suspected to have one of

1:08:11these two and it's simply mostly a

1:08:14byproduct of weight at this point. Um,

1:08:16you know, the more you weigh, the more

1:08:17compression occurs around your trachea,

1:08:20the thing you use to breathe. And as a

1:08:21result, that compression leads you to

1:08:23not being able to breathe fully in the

1:08:25middle of the night when all of your

1:08:26muscles collapse. As a result, you

1:08:27typically have disordered sleeping. Now,

1:08:30essentially, this triggers the brain to

1:08:32wake you up partially, dozens of times

1:08:34per hour to fix the issue. You have to

1:08:36wake up a little bit to take a really

1:08:38deep breath or you start snoring a lot,

1:08:39which kind of wakes you up as well. And

1:08:41you don't remember any of it, but it

1:08:42still reduces your sleep effectiveness

1:08:44significantly. A very common thing to do

1:08:46is to spend around 8 hours in bed and

1:08:48then only get the equivalent of maybe 5

1:08:49hours of actual sleep. The symptoms are

1:08:52also quite vague. They're often

1:08:53misattributed as personality traits,

1:08:54which I find funny. You know, brain fog

1:08:57or waking up tired after 9 hours in bed

1:08:59or always being the sleepy person or the

1:09:01person that loves their coffee and so on

1:09:03and so forth. Um, all of this stuff is

1:09:06associated with sleep disordered

1:09:07breathing and it's not something that I

1:09:09would recommend. The whole reason why I

1:09:11spent a solid two minutes talking about

1:09:12this, by the way, is because I actually

1:09:13have that. And for many years, I

1:09:14attributed my groggginess in the

1:09:16mornings to a lack of discipline and a

1:09:17lack of routine. I also tried a bunch of

1:09:19different sleep hygiene protocols and

1:09:21medications. None of those worked until

1:09:23now. So, if you have any of these,

1:09:25snore, wake up tired, breathe through

1:09:27your mouth at night, you have a narrow

1:09:28jaw, maybe you drink an incredible

1:09:29amount of coffee or energy drinks, I

1:09:31would recommend getting a sleep study

1:09:32and and ruling it out. If you find out

1:09:34you have one and you do treat it, not

1:09:36only will you live many additional

1:09:37years, but you'll also think far more

1:09:38clearly. You'll also instantaneously

1:09:40basically, not actually, but almost

1:09:42become fitter, healthier, more vibrant.

1:09:44And it also costs you very little in the

1:09:46grand scheme of things. Think about that

1:09:48right now. If you had one and you

1:09:50figured it out, you've just gained 10%.

1:09:53Like the matrix pill analogy, you will

1:09:55have just taken the $110.

1:09:58Next is to sleep somewhere between 7 to

1:10:009 hours for another 10 to 20%. Sleep

1:10:03deprivation is super common. I would

1:10:04wager more than half of the people that

1:10:06are currently watching this course have

1:10:07some form of sleep deprivation,

1:10:08knowingly or otherwise. The major issue

1:10:11is it's not actually the sleep

1:10:12deprivation itself that's so dangerous,

1:10:14but the fact that it is invisible to us

1:10:16as humans because you don't know that

1:10:18you're suffering. And science has shown

1:10:20this many times. In this example, 48

1:10:22healthy adults were monitored in a lab

1:10:24for 2 weeks 24/7 and they restricted

1:10:26either 4, 6, or 8 hours in bed. So

1:10:29moderate, mild, or not at all uh sleepd

1:10:31deprived. Results were over two weeks

1:10:34that people in the six-hour group

1:10:35accumulated as much of a sleep deficit,

1:10:37aka impact of performance, as an entire

1:10:39one or two whole nights without sleeping

1:10:41at all. Yet, their perceived sleepiness,

1:10:44how they thought they were, did not

1:10:46change after the first few initial days.

1:10:49Which is interesting because the

1:10:50researchers found that subjects were

1:10:52unable to reliably detect their own

1:10:54impairment.

1:10:57You might be able to think, hey, you

1:10:58know, I can survive off 6 hours. No

1:11:00problem. I'm special. But logically

1:11:02speaking, the very instrument that you

1:11:04would use to determine that is the thing

1:11:06that is ultimately impaired. Right? So

1:11:08how the hell are you going to know? You

1:11:09can't. Our brain is ultimately the thing

1:11:11that we use to think through whether or

1:11:13not we are sleepd deprived. Now there

1:11:15are obviously a few people on Earth with

1:11:17a genetic mutation that allow them to

1:11:19sleep much less on average. They're

1:11:20pretty cool and you should look into

1:11:21that if you wanted to. Unfortunately,

1:11:23statistically you are almost certainly

1:11:24not one of them. So as a sensible

1:11:27person, try and fix this. What's really

1:11:29interesting is, you know, if you are

1:11:31sleeping six hours a night, as this

1:11:33graph shows right over here, um you

1:11:34could see that after, I don't know,

1:11:37maybe let's say a week or so, you say

1:11:41that you're sleepier,

1:11:45you say that you're less sleepy than you

1:11:47actually are. You essentially have more

1:11:51confidence than reality. And I don't

1:11:53mean that to mean not sleeping makes you

1:11:55super confident, you should go and do

1:11:56it. I mean, you think you are more

1:11:58capable than you realistically are, and

1:12:00as a result, you make a lot of strategic

1:12:02and tactical errors that you otherwise

1:12:04would not. I have a couple of really

1:12:05good friends that have probably been

1:12:06sleeping on somewhere between 5 to 6

1:12:08hours for better part of the last 3 or 4

1:12:09years. And I hate to say it, but I've

1:12:12watched them measurably degrade in their

1:12:14cognitive and and tactical capacities

1:12:16throughout that time. Despite repeated

1:12:18urgings, they continuously say things

1:12:19like, "Dude, it doesn't matter. I can't.

1:12:21No, man. I'm totally fine. I don't feel

1:12:23bad at all." Well, they're definitely on

1:12:24this side of the graph, if you catch my

1:12:26drift.

1:12:27Now worth noting any deficit here is

1:12:29dose dependent. So 6 hours for instance

1:12:31is worse than 8 hours. If you see four

1:12:32hours it's worse than 6 hours etc. Uh my

1:12:36recommendation is 7 to 9. I would

1:12:37consider that non-negotiable if you

1:12:39really are serious about improving this.

1:12:40Uh and you can do this easily by the

1:12:42way. All you have to do is set a bedtime

1:12:44alarm and then a wake up alarm at the

1:12:45same time every evening and morning for

1:12:47maybe a month or so. So let's say you go

1:12:49to bed at 10:00 and then you wake up at

1:12:516:00. You can actually stop right now

1:12:52and set alarms either on your phone or

1:12:54if you have one of those physical sort

1:12:55of wall clock alarms. Um, do that as

1:12:57well. The first few times your mornings

1:12:59and evenings are almost certainly going

1:13:00to be rough, but that's simply because

1:13:02you're not used to it. Over time, you'll

1:13:04begin getting tired right around the

1:13:05time that you're supposed to. And that's

1:13:07just because, like any animal, including

1:13:08the rats that were in the labs that I

1:13:10uh, you know, managed, uh, we thrive on

1:13:12regularity.

1:13:14Another easy 6 to 12% improvement is

1:13:17through improving your wake time. So

1:13:19this is a very powerful sleep tactic and

1:13:21it also costs you virtually nothing if

1:13:22you think about it from an ROI

1:13:23perspective. So I used to work with a

1:13:25lab that dealt with the neurobiology of

1:13:27sleep. We changed rat feeding, waking

1:13:29and light dark schedules pretty often.

1:13:31And to give you guys a rundown of the

1:13:33main concept there. It's called the

1:13:34circadian clock. Your circadian clock is

1:13:37just a system internal to your body that

1:13:39injects you with various chemicals at

1:13:42various parts of the day. So cortisol,

1:13:44adrenaline, and other wake up chemicals

1:13:46basically usually as you wake up. The

1:13:48idea behind that evolutionarily was

1:13:50you're waking up, you better get to it,

1:13:53right? Going to have to go out, find

1:13:54food, fend off saber-tooth tigers, do

1:13:56whatever the hell else. So cortisol and

1:13:59adrenaline naturally when they're

1:14:00applied at the right times are extremely

1:14:02valuable and they're also correlated

1:14:03with major improvements in cognition. I

1:14:05know that all the Tik Tok girlies are

1:14:06talking about reducing cortisol so their

1:14:08face looks less bloated or whatever, but

1:14:10uh cortisol is not inherently bad.

1:14:12Obviously, we have all of the chemicals

1:14:14we have in our body for a reason. So, if

1:14:16you've ever had a morning where you just

1:14:17feel on, a lot of those mornings are

1:14:20going to be because you just so happen

1:14:22to align your internal circadian clock

1:14:24with the time at which you are waking

1:14:25up. It's an easy 6 to 12% improvement to

1:14:28the clarity and rigor of your thinking

1:14:30virtually for free. Now, the issue for

1:14:32most people is that our circadian

1:14:34rhythms, you know, they need a couple of

1:14:35weeks of consistent sleep or wake cycles

1:14:38to lock on to a time. And unfortunately,

1:14:40most people do not actually wake up at

1:14:42the same time for many days in a row.

1:14:44Instead, they will wake up early Monday

1:14:46to Friday, but then they'll ruin it all

1:14:48on Saturday or Sunday on their days off,

1:14:49assuming they work a 9 to5 or something.

1:14:52The best and easiest way to fix this is

1:14:54simply to pick a consistent wake time

1:14:55and then stick to it every day of the

1:14:57week. That way, your body will naturally

1:14:59self-correct the energy boost period to

1:15:01occur right at the time that you wake

1:15:03up, or at least within an hour or so of

1:15:05that time. And this doesn't just improve

1:15:07your short-term or acute cognit

1:15:09cognitive capacity during that hour

1:15:11period. It will improve that throughout

1:15:12the day as well. The next is to cut

1:15:15caffeine such that you are not taking it

1:15:1710 hours before bed. When you do this,

1:15:19you can expect a 3 to 8% improvement in

1:15:21your sleep, which will obviously roll

1:15:23over to your cognition as well. And it's

1:15:25another very easy hardware gain. The

1:15:27reality is most people who sleep at, you

1:15:29know, 10 p.m. or so will drink coffee

1:15:32after 12:00 p.m. What I mean by that is

1:15:34since caffeine has a very long halflife,

1:15:37aka how long it stays in somebody's

1:15:38system, doing this will directly and

1:15:40immediately impact the quality of your

1:15:41sleep because logically caffeine will

1:15:43still be floating around in your body,

1:15:44right? Lots of studies show that

1:15:46caffeine right before sleep impacts how

1:15:48much you actually get, which leads to

1:15:49the same problem that you would

1:15:50otherwise get with sleep deprivation. So

1:15:52in this study, people were given 400

1:15:54millig of caffeine 6 hours before their

1:15:56sleep. These folks literally lost a

1:15:58whole hour of measured sleep and they

1:16:00didn't even know it. Meaning that they

1:16:01were like those people in that study I

1:16:03talked about earlier accumulating

1:16:04impacts on their cognition and they were

1:16:06completely unaware of it the entire

1:16:07time. The major rule is if you go to bed

1:16:09at 10 p.m. you should stop caffeine

1:16:11consumption at noon and no later.

1:16:13Otherwise, you could see that despite

1:16:15the fact that, you know, you you drink

1:16:17it at 12, if you drink your I don't

1:16:19know, let's say 200 at about 10 pm or

1:16:22so, the average or typical person will

1:16:24still have approximately 50 milligs in

1:16:26their system, which is about a quarter

1:16:27of that coffee. [sighs] For those of you

1:16:29guys that haven't had 50 milligs of

1:16:30caffeine, that is pretty sizable. And to

1:16:32have that running around your system in

1:16:33the middle of the night, which is the

1:16:34direct opposite sort of thing you want

1:16:36in your system in the middle of the

1:16:37night, mind you, um is obviously not

1:16:38very good from a long-term health

1:16:40perspective.

1:16:42Next, get bright mornings and then dim

1:16:44evenings so that they're dark uh for an

1:16:46additional 3 to 8%. What I mean by that

1:16:49is circadian rhythms drive a lot of our

1:16:50behavior and our performance, right?

1:16:52Well, have you ever asked yourself how

1:16:53these things are set? The reality is

1:16:56they're set via light. So, there are

1:16:58tiny brain regions in your head which

1:16:59are activated by light which later

1:17:01entrain the rest of your brain and they

1:17:03also entrain those chemicals that we

1:17:04talked about earlier. So, if you want a

1:17:06consistent boost of energy as well as a

1:17:08far more predictable schedule, you have

1:17:10to get consistent morning light

1:17:12exposure. In general, what this looks

1:17:14like is about 10 minutes of natural

1:17:16sunlight within an hour or so of waking

1:17:17up. Even a cloudy day typically has a

1:17:20lot more light than, you know, your

1:17:21kitchen or an office. And so, my usual

1:17:24recommendation is unless you have a

1:17:26really big window or you have some sort

1:17:27of artificial light, which I'll show you

1:17:28guys in a moment, um you're going to

1:17:30want to go outside. And at night, you

1:17:32want the exact opposite. a couple of

1:17:34hours before bed, you want some sort of

1:17:35dim or warm or low inensity light and

1:17:38that will, you know, reverse that whole

1:17:39cortisol adrenaline thing that I talked

1:17:41about earlier and start bringing it

1:17:42down. A note on blue light, by the way,

1:17:45since I think many of us will probably

1:17:46have heard about blue light from pop

1:17:48science shows or YouTube channels or

1:17:50whatever. The idea of blue light making

1:17:52you unable to sleep is probably less of

1:17:54an issue than the actual content on the

1:17:55screen itself. Most of the time if

1:17:57you're scrolling around really late at

1:17:58night, you're doing so on social media

1:18:00platforms or some sort of feeds where

1:18:02that facilitate doom scrolls and that if

1:18:05you think about it is incentivized to

1:18:07show you guys highly engaging and

1:18:08controversial content just to sort of

1:18:10keep you going. These algorithms are

1:18:12tuned and they know your time zones.

1:18:13They will they will do stuff like this

1:18:14on purpose. I don't mean the algorithms

1:18:16themselves are evil. I just mean like

1:18:18their goal is to keep you on, right? So

1:18:19they will show you these terrible things

1:18:21in order to keep you awake and keep you

1:18:23scrolling. Obviously, the there's nobody

1:18:25uh there's no Facebook user like a

1:18:27person that can't fall asleep uh until 1

1:18:29or 2 a.m. in the morning, right? So,

1:18:32despite the fact that, you know, I think

1:18:33blue light at night is important, I

1:18:35think it's a lot less important than

1:18:36people make it out to be. And I think

1:18:37blue light blockers and stuff like that,

1:18:38while they help, they probably don't

1:18:40help in the capacity of, hey, I can wear

1:18:42blue light blockers and keep scrolling

1:18:44through gore and whatever the hell else

1:18:45on my ex account. You definitely should

1:18:47not be doing that regardless of of what

1:18:49it is that you are doing at night. My

1:18:51rule is I just stop looking at socials

1:18:53every night. I do so like a couple hours

1:18:54before I go to bed. And honestly, I try

1:18:56and not look at socials at all because

1:18:58they're just inherently terrible for

1:18:59you. Anyh who, another quick and easy

1:19:02way to gain somewhere between 2 to 6% to

1:19:05your um cognitive capacity is to sleep

1:19:07in a cold and a dark environment. So, in

1:19:10general, you want your bedroom to be

1:19:11cold, dark, and quiet. The majority of

1:19:13human beings sleep best at temperatures

1:19:15in the high teens. I'm Canadian, so in

1:19:17Celsius. And I do not know what that is

1:19:19for my Freedom Loving Brothers down

1:19:20south, unfortunately. But I know for us

1:19:22it's somewhere between like 18 to to 20

1:19:25degrees C. Personally, the way that I do

1:19:27it is I have a mattress topper called an

1:19:30eight sleep. And I'm not affiliated, but

1:19:32these guys are pretty cool. Sort of like

1:19:33water cooled. And what it does is um

1:19:36right before I fall asleep, it reduces

1:19:38the temperature of the bed to get me

1:19:40close to that 18 19° range. And then as

1:19:42I sleep, it modulates and mediates the

1:19:45temperature. So, it keeps me basically,

1:19:47according to known science, in like the

1:19:48optimal space of comfort to be able to

1:19:51sleep for longer. This is not cheap. I

1:19:53think this costs four grand or five

1:19:54grand or something like that, but if you

1:19:56can afford it, I would highly recommend

1:19:57it again because of the ROI. You're

1:19:59doing this every day for the rest of

1:20:00your life, you might as well get as much

1:20:02of an ROI as possible. Now, for those of

1:20:04you guys in maybe warmer climates, you

1:20:05know, I'm up here in Canada, so it gets

1:20:06pretty cold. Um, you can use an AC fan,

1:20:10blackout curtains, and so on and so

1:20:11forth. If you're somewhere really north,

1:20:13you might need a heater as well to get

1:20:15to that point. Another really easy hack

1:20:18is just to understand whether or not you

1:20:20have any nutrient deficiencies or

1:20:22anything like that. Now, I understand

1:20:24this is not the most accessible to a lot

1:20:26of people, uh, especially those in like

1:20:27Commonwealth areas where maybe health is

1:20:29is public, but I would recommend at some

1:20:31point over a course of maybe a year or

1:20:33two, you should probably get some sort

1:20:34of blood test. If you think about it,

1:20:36your brain is fed by blood. It's the

1:20:38most metabolically active organ per unit

1:20:40mass. Around 2% of the mass and 20% of

1:20:42the energy, but it stores very little

1:20:44energy of its own, meaning that the

1:20:45quality of your blood is a very

1:20:47important part of your nutrition.

1:20:49Unfortunately, because our diets have

1:20:50all gotten very efficient. We eat

1:20:52ultrarocessed foods or we eat food of

1:20:55which natural minerals and so on and so

1:20:56forth have been stripped from, a lot of

1:20:58people end up deficient in one or more

1:21:00of these nutrients, which means they're

1:21:01sacrificing breadth of diversity of

1:21:03nutrients for the convenience of maybe

1:21:05the same thing every day. I'm guilty of

1:21:08this as well, by the way. Now, if you

1:21:10have a deficiency, a lot of the time it

1:21:11will manifest as things that look like,

1:21:13you know, a laziness or a lack of focus

1:21:16or unclear thinking, etc. Often to the

1:21:18tune of 10 to 15% or more if you have a

1:21:20nutrient deficiency. Um, you know, as

1:21:23mentioned, I'm not a doctor and I can't

1:21:24give you clear medical advice on this.

1:21:26So, do this if this sounds like it may

1:21:28or may not be something that you are

1:21:30experiencing. But some very common ones

1:21:32that a lot of people have are things

1:21:33like iron, especially in women. Um,

1:21:35feritin, uh, B12, especially if you

1:21:37don't eat a lot of meat or in a

1:21:39vegetarian or vegan diet, a vitamin D.

1:21:41If you live in Canada or other northern

1:21:42countries, northern latitudes, and it's

1:21:44between October and April, you probably

1:21:45have this unless you supplement. Uh, you

1:21:47know, underactive thyroid problems, and

1:21:49so on and so forth. These are all things

1:21:50that are worth at least thinking about

1:21:52and then cluing into to see whether or

1:21:54not there's something that you you might

1:21:55realistically have because all of them

1:21:57essentially unlock you a good 5 or 10%.

1:22:00I would also get some form of metabolic

1:22:02marker just to see how your blood sugar

1:22:03is doing. A lot of people probably eat

1:22:05these ultrarocessed foods and then

1:22:07result in chronically high blood sugar

1:22:09that leads to clarity of thought issues

1:22:11long before you develop things like

1:22:13diabetes and so on and so forth. And

1:22:15yeah, you guys can do this through, you

1:22:16know, a doctor's referral if you're in a

1:22:18public healthare place like I am, or you

1:22:19can pay out of pocket for insurance if

1:22:21you're somewhere private like the US or

1:22:22other places. The harsh reality is this

1:22:25is probably going to be a few hundred or

1:22:26maybe a couple hours of your time max,

1:22:28but it will pay dividends for the rest

1:22:29of your life as you get proactive about

1:22:31managing your health. Okay, so I have a

1:22:34standard panel over here that I would

1:22:36recommend you guys get at some point in

1:22:37time. All of this is super easy to see.

1:22:39Just get the results, then you can take

1:22:41them um to I don't know your own LLM.

1:22:44You take them to any doctor that you

1:22:45want to discuss these things, people you

1:22:47trust and so on and so forth. um for as

1:22:49mentioned proactive health purposes.

1:22:52Another big thing I do is I cut alcohol.

1:22:54People that do typically see somewhere

1:22:55between a four to a 10% improvement on a

1:22:57variety of these batteries. Um if you're

1:22:59going to get anything done, you might as

1:23:01well finish with booze. And I don't say

1:23:03you have to abstain completely. I just

1:23:05mean if you want the best performance

1:23:06and you really want to maximize the

1:23:08clarity of your thinking, alcohol just

1:23:09is not is not for you. I want you to

1:23:12think about this from the perspective

1:23:13that I talked earlier. Everybody's like,

1:23:15"Oh, just have a drink. Why not?

1:23:18We didn't evolve with alcohol. It's not

1:23:20like alcohol, like alcohol was created,

1:23:23you know what I mean? Obviously, it was

1:23:24created through a bunch of natural

1:23:25fermentation processes that led people

1:23:27to, you know, smelling a bunch of very

1:23:29off smelling barley or whatever and then

1:23:32thinking, "Oh, maybe I'll put this in my

1:23:33mouth for whatever reason. Prehistoric

1:23:35people, man." But the point that I'm

1:23:37making is this is a default that was

1:23:39given to you. The whole idea of like

1:23:42going out to the bar or whatever, that

1:23:43was a default that was given to you. You

1:23:45can certainly enjoy it and you can like

1:23:47it. And if you find that you like it,

1:23:49you can turn it into something with

1:23:50intention, but so many people live lives

1:23:52of no intention whatsoever or they think

1:23:54they have to simply because of the

1:23:55people that they're surrounded with or

1:23:56the environments that they happen to

1:23:58grow up with. Um, take the permission

1:24:00from me. You don't have to do any of the

1:24:01stuff if you really don't want to. Most

1:24:03people don't actually even enjoy the

1:24:04taste of booze. It's one of those hidden

1:24:06secrets that nobody really likes talking

1:24:08about. So, anybody that's young that

1:24:10takes a sip of, I don't know, some super

1:24:12hard liquor and goes, "That smells and

1:24:14tastes like crap." You're not wrong. It

1:24:16does. It's just people tend to grow used

1:24:17to it and then eventually find joy in

1:24:18the suffering. Now, the main issue for

1:24:21us cognition interested types is not

1:24:23actually like things like liver disease

1:24:24and so on and so forth. What it is is

1:24:26it's sleep. Alcohol lets you fall asleep

1:24:29faster, which makes sense since it's a

1:24:31central nervous system depressant,

1:24:32right? but it does so at the cost of

1:24:34actually disrupting the second half of

1:24:36your night usually, which is where

1:24:38you're supposed to be in what's called

1:24:40REM sleep or rapid eye movement sleep.

1:24:42Um, this is critical for making you feel

1:24:45more rested the next morning. And since

1:24:47alcohol disrupts that, it interferes

1:24:49with your ability to feel rested and

1:24:50then also consolidate things like memory

1:24:52and so on and so forth. Basically, take

1:24:54things that were in your working memory

1:24:55during the day and then turn those in

1:24:57encode those into memories.

1:24:59So, even one or two drinks can massively

1:25:01impact your next day. I personally keep

1:25:03my alcohol consumption at zero. In the

1:25:05last eight years, I've probably had less

1:25:06than a dozen drinks. And virtually every

1:25:08one of those was at some quote unquote

1:25:10once in a lifetime opportunity, say half

1:25:13a beer at uh my best friend's wedding or

1:25:15something of that nature. And despite

1:25:17that being relatively small in the grand

1:25:19scheme of things, I still feel it the

1:25:20next morning. Okay. like alcohol. I'd

1:25:23highly recommend that you guys cut any

1:25:25sort of drug that may or may not be

1:25:27something that has been, you know,

1:25:28medically prescribed to you. A good

1:25:30example of that is cannabis or weed uh

1:25:32for 2 to 6%. So, if you're an active

1:25:34cannabis user, it's a very similar

1:25:36problem to alcohol, although it works

1:25:37through slightly different mechanisms.

1:25:39It can help people fall asleep faster,

1:25:41at least feel like they're falling

1:25:42asleep faster, but a lot of the time it

1:25:44does this at the expense of sleep

1:25:45quality. When I stopped smoking, I felt

1:25:48almost immediate improvements in just

1:25:50mental clarity, maybe 2 or 3 days. And

1:25:52this is an advantage I've never once let

1:25:54go of since then. Also, if you're at the

1:25:56point where maybe you need this to fall

1:25:57asleep, or at least you think you do,

1:25:59you really should urgently fix this. U

1:26:01because relying on any sort of drug to

1:26:02sleep is terrible, it's obviously bad

1:26:04and it's not where you want to go.

1:26:07Eating more protein and fiber for maybe

1:26:092 to 4% each is extremely important.

1:26:12Protein helps stabilize blood glucose

1:26:13levels as well as prolongs feelings of

1:26:15fullness, which is a side effect can

1:26:16help you lose weight if you guys are

1:26:18overweight. Also beneficial to cognition

1:26:20and then also has a tie-in to the sleep

1:26:21disordered breathing loop. Fiber slows

1:26:24down the absorption of sugar from other

1:26:26foods and also feeds your gut microbiome

1:26:28which is strongly associated with mood

1:26:30and cognitive function. And while all of

1:26:32this is very early on, I mean the

1:26:34research that I'm I'm talking about here

1:26:35has really only come out in the last

1:26:37couple of years, it is not

1:26:38insignificant. And there are a lot of

1:26:41suggestions that you know some major

1:26:43depressive disorders or uh you know a

1:26:45variety of like mental or disordered

1:26:47states of of thinking and so on and so

1:26:49forth are a result of a fractured gut

1:26:51microbiome. So you can fix that. Now I

1:26:54used to blow at fiber. I would eat maybe

1:26:565 to 10 grams in a good day. And just so

1:26:58you know, the recommended intake for

1:26:59somebody about my size is probably

1:27:00closer to 40 gram or so. When I

1:27:02corrected that by eating more fiber, I

1:27:04noticed an immediate improvement in

1:27:06sustained energy levels throughout the

1:27:07day, as well as just my my mood on a

1:27:09day-to-day basis. The next is to take

1:27:12creatine for around a 1 to 3%

1:27:13improvement in cognition, more if you

1:27:15are sleepd deprived because creatine

1:27:17acts as a buffer for sleep deprivation.

1:27:19Now, creatine is really the only

1:27:21supplement that has any real evidence

1:27:22support in the literature. Uh they've

1:27:24done lots of systematic reviews of

1:27:26randomized trials and it shows that

1:27:28creatine may improve reasoning in

1:27:30short-term memory specifically in people

1:27:33that do not have lots of creatine

1:27:35floating around in their bodies.

1:27:36Creatine comes from meat, typically red

1:27:38meat, so steaks and you know very fatty

1:27:41sort of gy meats as well, meaning

1:27:43vegetarians, vegans, and so on and so

1:27:45forth or people that have more

1:27:46pescatarian style diets typically do not

1:27:48get as much creatine. So when you

1:27:50supplement with creatine in that micro

1:27:52population, you typically have a more

1:27:53pronounced result than if you supplement

1:27:55with creatine in let's say a population

1:27:56that eats a lot of beef, but it's still

1:27:58present. It also seems to impact stress

1:28:00management um for the better, which I

1:28:02think is important. [gasps] Now, if

1:28:04you're going to take a supplement, and

1:28:05again, supplements are such a small