Alive Time vs Dead Time:
• This is a concept from Robert Greene. He has written many formidable books about mastery, war, power. This concept relates to how you choose to spend your time. It relates closely to what David Foster Wallace was advising on where to direct your attention (“This is water”).
• This motivates one to use free time wisely: instead of watching TV, read a book or create something. But another use of this tool is to wisely use time that is not free. Turn potentially dead time into alive time. Like heroes who have used time in prison or concentration camps, use time where you must be in the hospital or at work or in line at the grocery. Be a positive influence on your patients and coworkers.
Gut-Brain:
• More on the gut-brain connection. This is an Atlantic summary on some interesting research on gut flora and autism and anxiety. In true American fashion, they believe they have pinpointed a key molecule related to autism: 4-ethylphenylsulphate, or 4EPS.
• Bifidobacterium and lactobacillus supplementation alleviated stress as much as Lexapro in mice. Another study from 2013 showed less stress response in humans who had eaten yogurt twice a day.
• Eat Kefir or yogurt at least once a day. (Thanks Verbon Graves III for the link)
Mobility:
• Bear walk. Exactly how it sounds: on all fours, butt in the air. Not recommended to be done at work. Try the bear walk first thing in the morning. Low impact, great way to warm up before a workout.
• See the variations above, straight vs bent arm / leg. You’ll find yourself a little bit tired after just a few minutes. Not an efficient form of locomotion, but great for your joints.
Breaking the Fast:
• On days you have time to choose to eat breakfast, try these quick and very low carb pancakes: 3 eggs, 3 oz cream cheese, 3 heaping tablespoons of almond flour.
• Melt the cream cheese and then vigorously stir in eggs and almond flour. You’ll get about 2 servings (6 small pancakes). Almost no carbs, taste great with just butter if you throw a packet of sweetener in the batter.
Mo Money Mo Problems:
• Fables of Fortune, by Richard Watts. A quick read, entertaining and pragmatic. The author is an accountant to the super rich, those above $100 million net worth, therefore earning $3 million / year passively (at 3%). The narrative of the book follows the different aspects of rich life that look worthy of envy at first, but crumble on closer scrutiny.
• You start each chapter jealous of that Kardashian life, but by the end you learn to be appreciative of the simple pleasures in life. Hedonic adaptation is woven throughout, i.e. the more money and material goods you accumulate, the more it takes to be happy or even feel normal. Much like drug addiction.
• Your friends aren’t real friends. Your family is either jealous or waiting for you to die to cash in. Loneliness during and after rocky marriages. Entitled children.
• I do wish he had given more of a counterpoint on wealthy but balanced families. But these are all super rich people and maybe normalcy is rare in that cohort.
Quote:
Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
– Theodore Roosevelt
