What I Read This Week - 3.3.2024
Weekly finds from across the internet.
Happy March, everyone!
Officially less than one month out from Opening Day and the start of the 2024 MLB season.
Back with edition #4 this week, featuring finds from personal health, a look into how modern tech companies are creating “soft power”, and why we need a “White Mirror” vision of the future.
Enjoy!
Health/Fitness
The Ultimate Guide to Understanding Your Cholesterol Panel and Metabolic Blood Tests - Levels (~15 min)
A great reference document for interpreting your bloodwork at a more nuanced level. Levels - A CGM (continuous glucose monitor) company - polled 8 expert advisors to find consensus recommendations on target levels for specific blood markers. The main takeaways for me:
“Standard” ranges that we often see printed on results are often not equivalent to “optimal”. For many of the tests listed here, the target concentrations for optimal metabolic and cardiovascular health are either much higher or much lower than traditional recommendations.
The cholesterol conversation is completely skewed. Absolute LDL-C counts have been shown by newer research to be a poor indicator for risk of cardiovascular disease relative to other options. More important: triglycerides and triglyceride-to-HDL concentration.
Gluten Intolerance - Cooking with Chris (~3 min)
This helped peel back the curtain on some past life experiences. Gluten is a hot topic of conversation, but as Chris highlights it is less about natural human intolerance (~7% of the US population) and much more about ingredients and processing strategies. The US and Europe have drastic differences in food types, with Europe biasing more towards ‘soft wheat’ containing less gluten. He mentions Italy as a country that uses soft wheat almost exclusively, which I learned first hand - after 5 months of studying abroad in Rome and eating pizza/pasta daily, my roommate and I hardly gained any weight and never felt any negative health issues.
Eating Windows & Bed Time - Dr. Rhonda Patrick (~1 min)
Any easy to understand explanation for why you should stop eating at minimum 3 hours before bed time. To repair themselves, the organs in our bodies must be in a fasted state - but It takes ~5 hours to fully digest food and reach this point. Shifting your latest eating window up tends to be one of the quickest levers to pull to improve sleep quality. I personally have 5+ years of Whoop data showing this to be the most impactful habit for improving the quality of my sleep, outside of eliminating alcohol consumption.
A Study Comparing the Effects of Vegan and Ominivorous Diets Fails Science 101 - Dr. Peter Attia (~ 8 min)
There is a new Netflix show making the rounds on the internet that highlights a supposedly ‘scientific’ study performed on identical twins to study the impact of the vegan diet on health. Called You Are What You Eat, my wife and I spent about ~30min watching the first episode before we clearly started to see the propaganda at play. Peter Attia does a great job here highlighting the missteps in the study, such that it was designed to tell the story the authors wanted to hear. A great example of why some level of skepticism is important as new research seeks to shape the ways in which we live.
Storytelling
Soft Power in Tech - Whose Story Wins? - The Generalist (~17 min)
Resurfacing an old favorite. Mario from the Generalist takes a look into how new age tech companies are tapping into the art of ‘soft power’ - the ability to influence others through persuasion, rather than coercion. Rather than focusing on traditional marketing, these companies are more frequently focusing on narrative and magnetism to create a sense of myth around their brand. Robinhood, Stripe, and a16z serve as examples for how to craft a compelling story - as well as why a powerful vehicle is needed through which to share it.
The Future (AI, Tech, etc.)
Reid Hoffman on The Best Possible Future - The Generalist (~8 min)
Part 4 of ‘Letters to a Young Investor’, a great series of correspondence between Mario at the Generalist and legendary investor Reid Hoffman. There is more hidden behind the paywall, but the main course is in the free version here. In discussing our perception of the future and tendency as humans to bias toward pessimism, Reid provides a helpful lesson through the lens of the TV show Black Mirror. The show’s producer Charlie Brooker has said in the past that its goal is to portray “the way we live now - and the way we might be living in 10 minutes time if we are clumsy”. Hoffman notes the value of caution in regards to new technologies, but suggests we also need a ‘White Mirror’ lens: a positive viewpoint of the implications that innovation can, and have had, on the world in which we live.
Personal Growth
9 Learnings from a Business Retreat - Sahil Bloom (~8 min)
I love hearing what ideas and insights emerge after you put a group of talented, successful people in a room together. This is a great read on just that from Sahil, detailing common insights taken from a retreat with highly successful entrepreneurs. Two of my favorites:
If You Want to Think Bigger, Get in Bigger Spaces - Expanding our minds often means expanding our surroundings - through either people or spaces. Big spaces catalyze big thinking.
Being Impressive to Others is Overrated - A great lesson from former NHL player Chris Pronger. We spend too much time trying to impress those around us, rather than trying to impress ourselves.