A Few Things....

July 25 2019

How is your summer going ?

It’s 38 degrees in London - tourists meant for Dubai are now coming to London - I’m told the exchange rate doesn’t hurt either.

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A. How Not To Die was an idea that really resonated in last week’s email. This book has really resonated with me, it beautifully connects the top causes of premature death - heart disease, cancer, diabetes, infections.….and then explains using scientific research (just the notes section is ~180 pages) how nutritional and lifestyle changes can beat pills and pharmaceutical approaches.

I wanted to share a few quick ideas on how you could change your diet to live longer.

One of the simple ideas is a traffic light system for food:

Green - Unprocessed Plant Food

Yellow - Processed Plant Food, Unprocessed Animal Foods

Red - Ultra Processed Plant Foods, Processed Animal Foods

The other idea is the Daily Dozen, where he recommends that you try to consume servings of the following:

Beans - 3 servings

Berries - 1 serving

Other fruits - 3 servings

Cruciferous Vegetables - 1 serving

Greens - 2 servings

Other Vegetables - 2 servings

Flaxseed - 1 serving

Nuts - 1 serving

Spices - 1 serving

Whole Grains - 3 servings

Beverages - 5 servings (water / tea)

Some super foods: Most berries, broccoli, kale, beetroot, swiss chard, asparagus, mushrooms, walnuts, brazil nuts, flax seed.

Exercise - 40-90 mins daily (40 mins of vigorous and 90 mins of moderate activity)

Separately, one drug I keep hearing about from the longevity experts is Metformin (originally, and still a diabetes drug). More on that in this great Peter Attia podcast on How to tame aging.

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B. “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield (most famous for writing the book that was turned into the movie The Legend of Bagger Vance with Matt Damon and Will Smith), is a book that is hard to pigeon hole, but important to read.

This little book is about how to identify and defeat our inner barriers. It’s about how all of us can go from being ‘amateurs’ to ‘professionals’. Let me try to summarize by borrowing key lines from the book:

“Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance…Procrastination is the most manifestation of Resistance because it’s the easiest to rationalize. We don’t tell ourselves, “I’m never going to write my symphony.” Instead we say, “I’m going to write my symphony; I’m just going to start tomorrow.”……Resistance is experienced as fear; The professional tackles the project that will make him stretch. He takes on the assignment that will bear him into uncharted waters, compel him to explore unconscious parts of himself. So if you’re paralyzed with fear, it’s a good sign. It shows you what you have to do……Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.”

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C. A few things worth reading or listening to:

1. Paradigms are always driven by unsustainable forces. Ray Dalio wrote a great piece on the Paradigm shift we are potentially witnessing now.

2. I try to spend a few hours each month learning about Quant Investing. You might already know this, but apparently more than 50% of trading volume is machines trading with machines, with most volumes at market open or market close. This Invest Like The Best podcast with Eric Sorensen is a good listen to explore that space.

3. A lot of great venture wisdom on the Venture Stories podcast with Beezer Clarkson and Chris Douvos, discussing the LP perspective in fund selection.

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Quote I am thinking about:

“Life is to be taken at the tilt, you do not have forever, and therefore why wait? Why wait, to become a faithful and intimate companion to that initially formidable stranger you called your self?”

- David Whyte