A Few Things....

July 17 2019

1. How Not To Die…..I recently re-read billionaire Jim Mellon's book - Juvenescence which focuses on the science of aging and longevity. What if you assume death is just a disease, a condition that we can overcome than how do we go about curing it, or at least delaying it.....and if nothing else at least understand what aging is. This book really opened my eyes around the many hallmarks of aging, including: Telomere attrition, Cellular senescence, Mitochondrial dysfunction...

If you want to learn more, I recommend Jim’s presentations:

2017 presentation @ Master Investor

Investing in the Age of Longevity Panel

The book is split into four main sections:

a) The current or soon to be marketed treatments that will enable everyone to live much longer than actuarial table currently suggest. 

b) The technologies that have the potential for extending life, such as genetic engineering and stem cell therapy. 

c) How does one invest into this space - companies worth following….

d) What you can start doing to live longer ->>

Step 1: cut sugar to almost zero, be physically active and reduce chronic stress. 

Step 2: Get eight hours of sleep, Have a sense of purpose, Be around people who love you and are happy.

Step 3: Key micronutrients matter…….

On the last step, I just finished How Not To Die by Michael Greger, MD. The book was highly recommended by a couple who turned vegetarian!

The book examines the top causes of premature death - heart disease, cancers, diabetes and then explains how specific nutritional and lifestyle interventions can stop you dying from specific diseases. Lots of great practical and actionable advice.

You can watch his Google talk here and TEDx talk here, but he’s not a great presenter.

If you loved Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, you are gonna really love this book. It’s changed my life already and what I eat !

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2. A few things worth watching or listening to:

A. Goldman Sachs Global Market Institute published a great piece on Disruption. It examines how companies can reshape themselves to better compete in today’s Everything-as-a-Service (EaaS) economy.

B. There were two great venture podcasts I listened to this week on Venture Stories: Mike Maples of Floodgate on How To Avoid The Fake Growth Epidemic

Alex Bangash of Trusted Insight on what the future of Venture funds looks like - if great founders pick their investors, rather than the other way around, does a VC’s picking skill matter ?

C. Great documentary - Sour Grapes (on Amazon, Netflix, and iTunes). This film scores 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, and both the story and its cinematic telling are simply fantastic.

D. My commute has become great because I’ve been listening to Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meetings since 1994.

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3. Quotes I’m thinking about:

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is your power to choose your response. In your response lies your growth and your freedom.”

– Victor Frankl

“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”

- Herbert Simon