What I Read This Week - 6.9.24
Weekly finds from across the internet.
Hey Everyone!
Happy Sunday, and welcome back to this edition of The Gunn Show - #18. Hard to believe that we are almost at 20 total newsletters - time has been flying as I’ve been enjoying writing this every week. And I hope you have enjoyed following along.
Not much to report on the home front this week, outside of the fact that we are barreling towards the busiest month of the baseball calendar in July with the MLB Draft and Deadline fast approaching. So with that, let's get into this week’s newsletter featuring:
The why and how of famous speeches in sports
Why you should drop what you are doing and get tested for Lp(a) - seriously, if you want to stop reading and go now please do
Some thoughts on longevity as it relates to the thing it creates: more time
And more! As always, please feel free to share any thoughts or ideas. See you all next week!
- CG
P.S. - As a reminder, you can find the master database of Weekly Read resources here.
Sports/High Performance
Inch-by-Inch? Or An On-Field Dressing Down? - The Most Famous (and Infamous) Sporting Speeches - The Athletic (~13 min)
This was an interesting piece from The Athletic, which contains a collection of famous speeches from across the sports landscape.
There is something unique about the competitive nature of sport that makes it a fertile ground for memorable words. So much so that I’m willing to bet each of you reading this could recall 3-4 well knowns in but the snap of a finger. This read got me thinking into both the why and the how for these speeches.
First, on the why - why do many of history’s landscape stem from either the locker room or the field? My best guess is that it has something to do with the human love for cause and effect.
As a species, we have an innate desire to make sense of the world. We want clear pictures that tell us how actions affect outcomes, such that if we want result B we simply need perform action A. This sense for understanding maps neatly to speeches in sport - we use the subsequent performance (the outcome) to assess the quality of the speech itself (the action). There are few things we love more than the post-game breakdown of the rousing speech in the huddle that magically ‘spurred’ a team to victory, so much so that when there isn’t one - a critical moment to point to, an impassioned call to action by a coach or player - we can’t help but feel a little disappointed.
Second, on the how - what traits to the greatest speeches share? what characteristics can we call on if we are ever in a position where we need make our own?
Pulling from the speeches in the article, these are some of the aspects I see as commonalities:
Appeal to Emotion - One of the more powerful things in human experience. What emotion are your athletes or team running on? Love? Pride? Respect? And how can you channel that into a driving force?
Brevity & Simplicity - Keep it short and to the point (like this sentence). Keep the main thing the main thing.
Leveraging Expectations - Sometimes the most effective call is not to rise to the moment, but rather for the team or individuals to rise to their own expectations.
Source - The person drives the message. Regardless of where it comes from - coach, superstar, bench player, or elsewhere - that person must carry a unique aura of respect and credibility with the group in order for it to resonate.
Timing - The right thing must be said at the right time. The moment drives the message just as much as - if not more so - the message drives the moment.
Health/Fitness
Your Top Questions on Sleep Answered - Andrew Huberman (~8 min)
This article from Andrew Huberman dives beyond general sleep recommendations and research, instead focusing on more specific questions brought to the table by his followers.
The item that stood out to me the most: we cannot accumulate a sleep debt and ‘pay it off later’. According to Huberman, the body can only recoup approximately 25% of lost sleep hours. So for those of us sleeping less than the recommended 7-8 hours on a consistent basis - especially during the week - and trying to ‘catch up’ later, it looks like it may be fruitful to reconsider that strategy. Those weekend sleep-ins don’t seem to carry as much value as we may have once thought…..
Instead, to counteract the sleep-debt effect, Huberman suggests being proactive rather than reactive: if you know there is likely to be a night or two where you sleep will be compromised, you can try to ‘bank’ more sleep ahead of time so that you have a deeper reserve from which to pull.
High Lp(a) Warrants Intervention, Even Without Other Cardiovascular Risk Factors - Peter Attia (~4 min)
After first hearing about the concept of Lp(a) in Peter’s book Outlive, and subsequently getting tested for it myself, I am convinced this is one of the most slept on biomarkers in the health sphere.
The acronym stands for Lipoprotein(a), which is a type of lipid that scoops up and transports other lipid molecules through the bloodstream. As a function of its structure, which is characterized by large loops of amino acids called ‘kringles’, it is especially prone to getting stuck in the walls of your arteries and thus plays a role in increasing the risk of sudden cardiovascular disease incidents. Newer research suggest that it is one of the strongest indicators for sudden, seemingly premature heart attacks. And as Peter details in the book, it has a very strong hereditary component such that it is the most prevalent factor for heart disease that ‘runs in the family’.
This piece brings added context to the table that reinforces the importance of assessing Lp(a) in bloodwork. According to a recent study that examined Lp(a) in relation to a wide variety of other modifiable heart disease risk factors (think diabetes, smoking, etc.), it appears that Lp(a) is associated with a higher risk for heart attacks regardless of whether these other risk factors are present or not.
So what does this mean, especially given the fact discussed above that Lp(a) is largely hereditary? As Peter argues, paraphrased in my own words, your number should inform your habits. Even though you have limited control over your Lp(a) counts, you have complete control over the habits that could potentially amplify its effects. So if your Lp(a) numbers are high - even in light of the fact that we do not currently know how to reduce them - you should take a much more aggressive stance towards managing other risk factors for cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.
If you get nothing else out of this newsletter this week, let it be this: go get tested for your LP(a) levels if your doctor is not already doing so.
Storytelling
Paint With Words - Nathan Baugh (~4 min)
This was a great, short read by Nathan on a topic I’ve been thinking a lot on recently: the dichotomy between minimalistic and descriptive presentation of ideas. My personal perspective is that the world is biasing much more towards the former of late - opting for short and concise at the expense of painting beautiful pictures.
Expanding on a few examples from the writer John MacDonald, Nathan discusses the perils of opting for ‘subjective words’ - words that are short and concise, but are up for interpretation because the storyteller has not given you any context within which to interpret them. Rather than opting for these subjective words, he argues that we should instead create more ‘objectivity’ in our communication, using both unique and specific language to create the appropriate amount of detail. When we do so, we avoid allowing our audience to take our words out of context and instead paint a high resolution picture for them.
From my perspective, this is becoming an increasingly important consideration as the internet trends towards ‘Threadification’ and bite-sized content to satisfy our ever-compressing attention spans. Be on the lookout for a piece from me= later this week that discusses the idea in more detail.
Personal Growth
Longevity & Interest - Naval Ravikant (~3 min)
This conversation between Naval Ravikant and Chrys Bader on the challenges associated with life span extension smacked me right in the face. Why? Because many of us - myself included - like to think about the longevity space as inherently positive sum, devoid of tradeoffs. After all, what could possibly be wrong with humans living longer, healthier lives? Isn’t that something every person on the planet can get behind?
One of the reason’s I appreciate Naval Ravikant’s work so much is that he has a unique ability to be both forward thinking about future possibilities yet introspective about the accompanying implications. And he applies that skill especially well here in regards to longevity, urging us to consider an important analogous question: what will we do with all that extra time
It’s a great point, and one worth all of us thinking a bit more deeply on. As I’ve wrestled with this concept, I’ve found myself biasing towards this framework providing by Naval (emphasis mine):
“But if you have a lifespan measure in the hundreds and thousands of years, you’re going to have to play really long-term games to hold your interest.”
I think this is as good of a place for us to start as any - rather than by thinking about the different games we might play as life extends, and how we might oscillate between them, is it possible instead for us to find a singular one that we are comfortable playing for however long we have left?
The earlier each of us can find the answer to this question, the better off I think we will be.
Mental Models/Principles
The Pursuit Map: 3 Steps to Choose Your Life Pursuits - Sahil Bloom (~ 7 min)
I found this piece from Sahil to be analogous to the above conversation, as it provides a tactical framework from choosing what games you want to play.
In it, he suggests using two grading scales through which to assess the possible pursuits in your life - energy (draining to creating) and competency (low to high). By assessing our possible options along each of these dimensions, he argues, we can then create a ‘map’ that adds more clarity to what each pursuit may provide. With this in place, it quickly becomes clear which actions we should be allocating our time more heavily towards - and which ones we should avoid.
