Dopamine, Salt, Emotions and Public Policy
Future Thoughts - Issue 13
Hello Everyone,
this is Future Thoughts, a newsletter written by a guy striving to become a polymath, writing about your, my and our future applied to and made better through business innovation, mindset and the human condition.
This week our overarching topics are controlling your dopamine levels, the importance of elctrolytes and other supplements that promote focus, as well, why public policies are the prior condition for companies to function.
For those who don’t know, these are the segments, the newsletter is parted into:
The [contrarian] Viewpoint
Curations [What to hear, What to read, What to watch]
Let’s get physical [everything health, longevity, lifespan, supplements, fasting, meditation and exercise related]
High Performance Habits [Lifestyle optimization for performing better]
Close Up [a weekly issue I’d like to address personally]
Quote of the week [so good, your brain will thrive on it till next week]
Let’s get started!
The [contrarian] Viewpoint
If politics says no, good luck.
First of all, a quick origin story of this. Last week, I attended a UN-affiliated cleantech innovation festival called The arc, which concerns itself with the implementation of, what they call “sensible policy” implementation to pave the way for mainly european cleantech and climate tech startups to emerge and solve the problems we have.
I liked the whole premise of the festival and as one of the speakers there said: “What is so special about ‘the arc’ is that there are many conventions where you talk about the problems, here we talk about solutions.”
Through the arc I gained some valuable insight into the world of politics in a not-stupid way. For the first time, you actually got a feeling of some positive change [although I still disagreed on some notions or implementations they some of the speakers proposed, such as outright banning internal combustion engines, which is just authoritarian] happening.
So, anyway, this opened my eyes to the importance of not only having 1) a good idea, 2) marketing it well, 3) actually delivering on your promises, but also 4) making connections with your local decision makers and your federal ones, too to clear the path for your company. Because, after all, some regulatory agencies, like the FDA, really don’t want to see change happening and block innovative technologies and contrarian ideas.
So, yeah, lobbying is a useful tool, when in the hands of the right people.
Curations
What to hear?
Why to listen to this?
Lex Fridman is the only interviewer who consistently gets the human part out of the tech people. Case in point: his interviews with Musk, Pfizer CEO [which is a really hard thing to accomplish] and Bryan Johnson. Anyway, in this interview, Zuckerberg talks about his love for martial arts and his exercise regime [“being physical is very important to me”], Meta’s new LLaMa LLM AI, which is far smaller than ChatGPT and for different purposes, the Apple Vision Pro and how it compares to the Meta Quest 3 [IMHO: they target completely different customer groups, Apple is promoting a luxury product aimed at affluent, young and active people, who want to use it for work, while Meta targets mainly gamers, techies and active people]. Zuckerberg also gives good advice about hiring: “Only hire people, you’d want to work for”, and talks about the importance of internships on that same note.
Why to listen to this?
In light of my attendance of “the arc”, I’m diving deeper into climate change as an engineering problem. This is quite the opposite. Rich Roll, popular Vegan and Ultramarathon runner, talks to travelers and experts about what you can do reduce your carbon footprint you leave behind by traveling. Some aspects seem extreme to me and maybe not even feasible for busy entrepreneurs, but again, with sensible policies and companies solving problems, we’ll get there.
Why to listen to this?
I’m currently reading Mcgilchrists book “The Master and his Emissary”, which an intense and quite dense read about neuroscience and how the two different hemispheres of our brain influence our attention and thinking. He argues that the left hemisphere is inferior to the right, because it depletes the world of meaning. So Jordan Peterson is the perfect man to interview McGilchrist, who is a Psychiatrist, btw. Really interesting conversation, you can take a lot away from it and it will make you rethink your attention.
Why listen to this?
Cal Newport fan here. In this instance of his podcasts, Cal talks about the lies these efficiency YouTubers tell you and what you really need to do in order to become more focused and efficient in your work.
What to read?
Book of the Week:
The Four by Scott Galloway: Galloway is a professor of marketing at NYU Stern School of Business and his work focuses mainly on what he calls “the four horsemen”: Apple, Google, Amazon, and Meta. i. don’t want to take away too much of your personal reading experience, but here are a few notions: the author is very good at deconstructing “the four”, you’ll gain many valuable insights - from making a luxury brand to implementing robotics and training Wall Street to accept risk taking and being basically unprofitable, yet having one of the highest stock evaluations ever in the case of Amazon.
Although I think Galloway is very hostile towards the people behind these companies, especially Steve Jobs, and I personally disagree with a lot of his opinions, I can only recommend reading this book. Take extensive notes on these companies, study them, implement them.
Blog Posts of the week:
ETH Zurich: the MIT of Europe on sifted: Europe is far behind the US when it comes to startups and there are some completely bananas policies universities implement when it comes to patents of ideas Students[!] had, but ETH is on a good path.
Scientific paper of the week:
Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal by Dr. Andrew Huberman et al.: This paper, coauthored by Andrew Huberman, describes how, basically, Wim Hof Breathing actually works to increase the body’s stress response for a short time, which in turn enhances focus and mood.
What to watch?
Apple Vision Pro analyzed : Still fascinated by this product, a week after it has been revealed, I’d say: buy some Apple Stock!
Oslo’s way to NetZero: If there is a country that shows how you implement climate policies that even make fun, just look at Norway. The country still has some major problems that most people like to blush over and social democracy also means major regulation, but all in all, Norway still is a country to look up to.
Let’s get physical
Salt.
Contrary to popular belief, we need more salt.
Wait, no, you - obese American - don’t need more, you get too much.
But the “healthy” RDV of Sodium - notSalt -, which is 2g per day, is way too low. That’s about 2 teaspoons.
In his book The Salt Fix, Dr, James DiNicolantonio recommends up to 9. teaspoons of a high-quality salt, or 5g Sodium per day. Sodium is vital for cognitive performance and for neurons functioning properly. Yet, we deplete ourselves of it everyday through caffeine intake, which is a diuretic, and if you sweat a lot, you need even more Sodium. Tl;dr: Salt is important for your brain and body functioning properly.
I drink “Salt Water” in the morning, together with my 5g of creatine, which btw also aides mental performance, aside from it’s other well-known and well-studied benefits, and it helps me wake up and focus - and also curbs your hunger while doing intermittent fasting. I also drink Salt Water while at the gym or during a run, and the rest of my Sodium intake comes from natural sources through food.
But Salt isn’t the only substance good for you, Minerals in general are vital for our health. Depletion of Magnesium or being Magnesium deficient can even go so far as “personality changes” - no joke. And Magnesium also aides muscle recovery, brain function, nerve function and, especially Magnesium Threonate and less so Bisglycinate, because they pass the blood-brain-barrier, help you fall asleep.
Other important minerals are potassium, manganese, calcium, zinc, iron, copper, selenium, chromium, molybdenum and boron. All of them important for such bodily functions as hormone production and regulation, bone density, and blood health.
The highest quality foods to find these compounds in are found in a well-rounded, whole foods diet containing red meat, organs and leafy greens and fruits.
To outperform others, consume salt and minerals.
High Performance Habits
Dopamine regulation and attention hacking.
Dopamine is often thought of as the happiness hormone, that’s actually Serotonin. Dopamine is secreted, when you pursue an activity that your brain likes, for example smoking, which - and here’s the caveat - tricks you into addiction. A great book about the topic is Dopamine Nation by Dr. Anna Lembke, if you’re interested.
Yet, if you know how dopamine can play you, you can use it to your advantage to focus your mind and perform.
First of all, you don’t want to constantly spike your dopamine, for it crashes below baseline, which makes you feel like shit. You want to keep it steady and use spike it in situations that need heightened attention, which you can supplement with the breathing techniques mentioned in the paper, I recommended today.
Now, Supplements.
I personally found the following compounds most helpful in tactical dopamine regulation and focusing better. A note of caution: cycle these compounds and deliberately take days off of them to make your brain not dependent on it.
Alpha-GPC 600-900mg/day: This is a precursor to choline, which is known to heighten attention and focus
Caffeine: The best delivery methods of caffeine are simply coffee and7or Yerba Mate, don’t overdo it, for the sake of your sleep
Exogenous Ketone-Esters: Normally, you achieve high levels of this better-than-glucose brain-fuel only on the ketogenic diet. But exogenous ketones deliver a fast, more efficient fuel to your brain, which gives you a high amount of physical and mental energy
Nicotine 2-8mg at once, when needed: In gum, lozenge or tobacco-free “snus” form, Nicotine is neuroprotective, meaning it protects the brain from neurodegeneration. Nicotine also heightens focus and gives your body a relaxed, attentive feeling. You want to use it very carefully, though, and not before workouts
Creatine 2-5g/day: as mentioned above
EPA fatty-acids 1-2g/day: I mentioned Omega-3s before in another newsletter, but EPA is especially interesting in high doses for today’s purposes
In addition to supplements, try mindfulness practices, cold exposure, zone 2 cardio and training your brain to rely more on it’s right hemisphere. More on that in a few weeks, once I’m finished reading McGilchrist’s book.
Close Up
Emotional Health.
I personally think, being healthy emotionally might be the most important aspect of health. Good tools are CBT, DBT and therapy. Yet, also acknowledge that emotions are just made up reactions by your body. If you pay close attention to them, you can deconstruct them.
I struggle with anger often enough and have to work on that. You also need to “clean your room” emotionally, in order to be the next leader of an exponential organization.
Other tools include psychedelic compounds and love, which is the ultimate answer and what makes us human. That is also why the intelligent entrepreneurs incorporate emotionally-laden advertising into their marketing.
Quote of the week
“The success of amazon is the sum of the amount of experiments run per year per month per day”
- Jeff Bezos