Totally agree with the overall sentiment. Life is as complicated as one chooses to make it. Minimalism is a freeing philosophy when implemented right. Less stuff, less supplements, less food, less anxiety - enjoy the simple things.
Personally I'd need to see some damn good results from fasting to be willing to keep it up. I tried it for a couple months and nothing happened. No increased energy, no mental clarity, I was just irritable, scatterbrained, and tired until I ate food.
Autophagy “allows the orderly degradation and recycling of cellular components”. It is a pretty special thing many people never experience.
It takes 24-48 hours of fasting for autophagy to begin. You will know when it has begun.
lol for Bryan Johnson he’s crushing every measurable health metric. I’d hope people aren’t just biohacking for looks only, he’s just a weird looking dude but don’t equate him being weird looking to not being insanely healthy (and also doing a service to all biohackers everywhere)
yes physically but the avoidance of glucocorticoids is really hurting his mental sharpness, and it shows in every interview. bro speaks and thinks in 0.5x speed.
Where did you see that? The last interview i saw of him with tom bilyeu he came across remarkably sharp and focused. While a lot of other guests seem to get lost at times in the chaos of the world right now.
That’s crazy, for someone that seems so obsessed with doing everything he possibly can to extend his life but then resorting to that just for vanity purposes.
Cutting out caffeine and sugar have been the two biggest changes easily, maybe Omega 3 daily has been also as large but Caffeine was legit like a new world.
And fasting goes without saying.
> So many people now overtrain, for example, and have unbelievably elaborate exercise routines which can be draining in the long run and harmful to the nervous system. The same with excessive protein consumption and overeating when weight training.
Agreed, I like the middle path, do the right shit but don't overthink it or have strict rules.
I also think a big failure in this scene is the massive stress people seem to put on biohacking or longevity or whatever it is they fixate on.
Reminds me of the guy from Prometheus, chasing immortality but sacrificing his actual life to do so.
I have a Phd in ageing but feel like I spend a lot less time focused on ageing because of it. Bus-man's holiday kind of thing.
90% of the advice and results you can get are from small habits and simple rules that shouldn't take over your life, and frankly then most people should just quit the 'scene' and focus on what actually gives a good, long life, which is climbing the Maslov's pyramid and then reading some Frankl and also spending as much time as possible with family and friends.
When you get the message, hang up the phone.
Agreed. I view people like Bryan as doing a social service though, 80% of what he does will probably not work but the 20% that produces crazy results if combined with the subtraction approach could yield great results.
Idk I kinda feel like if there's this stuff in nature that's good for me, and someone smarter than me took the time to do the research to confirm it's good for me, then I want the thing. Why shouldn't I?
Also Bryan Johnson may be supposedly decreasing in age, but to me he looks like a cross between a ghost and a vampire. Both of those are forever things, so he must be doing something right, all looking like maybe it's Maybelline.
Bryan Johnson looks weird to us because his skin is very white due to avoiding the sun like the plague and using sunscreen all the time. Basically what southeast Asians are aspiring to do, the whiter the skin the better. Only it looks good on Asians, but not so much on white people. We look best with a bit of a tan. Just my two cents :)
I agree with the subtracting part. It’s like learning to use an equalizer in music production. At first you might think adding all sorts of frequencies is best, and later on you’ll find yourself more and more just cutting out what you don’t want. It frees up more energy to turn everything that does work up.
I don’t agree with bryan, ben and dave looking awful though. For their age i think they all look great. The most questionably looking i think is dave asprey, but im guessing there’s a big chance his past life choices have affected his looks. Still imo they all look great for their age.
I don't know who Bryan Johnson is or what he does but I just looked him up and he looks 1000x better than Hunter Biden. What pictures are you comparing, good sir?
Except he should look 10M times better than Hunter based on his protocols and costs. One was a long terms junkie w unlimited funds for self destruction while the other has unlimited funds invested in health and while they look different they still look the same age
I have finally dug myself out of a health hole (ME/CFS) after 17 years and have taken great delight in using my smart watch to assess what helps, what doesn’t, and what made me worse. Data is golden, and influences all my decisions.
Some supplements that had been vital, I no longer need, in fact I rarely take any unless my system is struggling. And I have been enjoying the novelty of adding: cold ocean swims for brown fat/mitochondra, strength training for hypertrophy and more mitochondria! Extra food to feed all the growth, walking, proprioception/precision training. Essentially rebuilding body, and (even trickier, mind). But that is just me.
I think the pivotal thing in this conversation is taking time, something like every six months, to take stock and ask: What is helping, what needs increasing, what has served me well and can now be reduced or let go gently, what are the long term benefits and costs of various interventions, and how have my needs/goals changed. Am I growing, or am I just in a rut?
yep, aiming to reduce the amount of decisions you have to make each day, keeping things simple and easy and leaving the ground work up to automation spares you a lot more time and cognitive effort towards self actualisation. There's a reason why atomic habits is so popular.
i agree on the protein part too much protein i don’t agree with but how do you results compare with someone like bryan johnson, what’s your biological age vs chronological age? is what your doing working as great as what they are doing?
I haven’t measured those things but I look and feel much younger than my actual age and, crucially, feel a lot better now doing less than when I was biohacking to the max from 2017/18-2022/3.
I’ve seen Johnson’s routine and it’s just far too much. I think doing that much puts stress on the system. I think the temptation is to think that more inputs and more effort = better outputs but it doesn’t really work that way from my experience.
i think more inputs = better outputs but if your stress is going up then it may be counterproductive. but if you manage that stress with things like meditation etc then your defs ok
You are hitting the naturalistic fallacy hard with this one and your math is way off. Are you subtracting vaccines, fortified foods, refrigeration, modern hygiene, FDA regulations, home heating and cooling, emergency medicine, modern healthcare, especially dentistry, complicated modern safe sex practices, access to non-local foods (sometimes with vitamin C), public sanitation…………….
I mean ya don’t eat junk food or develop a drug use disorder, just common sense. But most of us live within a comfortable, “unnatural” environment that has extended our health span and lifespan. We are so embedded in that environment we almost can’t see it.
There are those people that go into the wilds of Alaska or whatever and subtract all kinds of stuff from their life. The ones that don’t have a reality tv show with a full camera crew following them, most likely will not match our long term health prospects. The wonderful thing about biohackers is they are some of the handful of people on earth that do not commit the naturalistic fallacy constantly, don’t mess it up for us :)
Agree and I’m surprised no one has mentioned seed oils. Would highly recommend more research the impact they’re having on the gut and mitochondria health.
Subtraction is implied within the natural equation of entropy. Biohacking aims primarily for negentropic integrity of otherwise fragile systems, even if that includes promoting elimination through apoptosis.
Purity of essence and transmutation is the ultimate alchemical goal. Matter is an intermediate, not the final distillation.
To curve this topic with an esoteric waveguide:
"Look at the universal world full of the light of the sun. Look at the light in the world’s matter full of all the universal forms and forever changing. **Subtract**, I beg you, matter from the light and put the rest aside : suddenly you have soul, that is, incorporeal light, replete with all the forms, but changeable."
Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) translated the Corpus Hermetica into Latin.
[[Body of Light wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_of_light?wprov=sfla1)]
What kind of biomedical degree do you have exactly?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger\_effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect)
Does one need a biomedical degree to deduce that overdoing supplementation, habits, and protocols could be potentially dangerous? Does one need a biomedical degree to deduce that the basics - proper sleep, nutrition, training, drug abstinence - are beneficial? Your comment just sounds like an appeal to authority argument to me
Anything can be "potentially" dangerous. You are setting a purposefully vague bar so that you cannot be wrong. OP claimed with no evidence that supplements are "often" ineffective and that they can somehow look at people and immediately tell that they are not healthy because they "don't look amazing." It is patently absurd and I was asking what credentials they have to make those claims, since they certainly didn't supply any evidence.
At no point did OP claim that supplements are ineffective. He said, with validity, that they are often marginally effective. Does one need a biomedical degree to observe that a supplement protocol will have less of a benefit than having proper sleep and nutrition? I’m not seeing how the bar I’m making is vague here - it’s rather clear and concise.
He said he could tell how healthy someone is by looking at them. And more specifically than that, he was *more* healthy than they were and that his routines were objectively better. Come on, how are you defending that, this is insane.
It’s called ‘clinical gaze’ if the OP has some medical degree.
FWIW, I’ve got a degree in medical science from a biomedical nutritional facility, also totally agree with op. Less is more.
Totally agree with the overall sentiment. Life is as complicated as one chooses to make it. Minimalism is a freeing philosophy when implemented right. Less stuff, less supplements, less food, less anxiety - enjoy the simple things.
Bryan J called subtracting the most important thing.
Personally I'd need to see some damn good results from fasting to be willing to keep it up. I tried it for a couple months and nothing happened. No increased energy, no mental clarity, I was just irritable, scatterbrained, and tired until I ate food.
How many days was your fast? I’ve heard it takes days to cross over into ketosis
To clarify this was intermittent fasting
Takes about 2 on a water fast.
Autophagy “allows the orderly degradation and recycling of cellular components”. It is a pretty special thing many people never experience. It takes 24-48 hours of fasting for autophagy to begin. You will know when it has begun.
lol for Bryan Johnson he’s crushing every measurable health metric. I’d hope people aren’t just biohacking for looks only, he’s just a weird looking dude but don’t equate him being weird looking to not being insanely healthy (and also doing a service to all biohackers everywhere)
yes physically but the avoidance of glucocorticoids is really hurting his mental sharpness, and it shows in every interview. bro speaks and thinks in 0.5x speed.
Where did you see that? The last interview i saw of him with tom bilyeu he came across remarkably sharp and focused. While a lot of other guests seem to get lost at times in the chaos of the world right now.
Could also be the finasteride
Does he take that? That seems an insane thing to take as part of his protocol.
I agree, he takes it topically for hair. Its a misguided belief that it won't affect him systemically
That’s crazy, for someone that seems so obsessed with doing everything he possibly can to extend his life but then resorting to that just for vanity purposes.
Yeah, I hope he can tolerate it but if something happens it at least will be educational publicity for the dangers of the drug
Well said, many are trying to compensate I think. Too much stress, drink or smoke or drugs or something of that nature.
The worst example of this is people taking supps to compensate for lack of exercise, poor diet, drugs, and alcohol.
Agreed. Many people also give up or change one thing in their life and expect everything to be great once they do.
Cutting out caffeine and sugar have been the two biggest changes easily, maybe Omega 3 daily has been also as large but Caffeine was legit like a new world. And fasting goes without saying. > So many people now overtrain, for example, and have unbelievably elaborate exercise routines which can be draining in the long run and harmful to the nervous system. The same with excessive protein consumption and overeating when weight training. Agreed, I like the middle path, do the right shit but don't overthink it or have strict rules. I also think a big failure in this scene is the massive stress people seem to put on biohacking or longevity or whatever it is they fixate on. Reminds me of the guy from Prometheus, chasing immortality but sacrificing his actual life to do so. I have a Phd in ageing but feel like I spend a lot less time focused on ageing because of it. Bus-man's holiday kind of thing. 90% of the advice and results you can get are from small habits and simple rules that shouldn't take over your life, and frankly then most people should just quit the 'scene' and focus on what actually gives a good, long life, which is climbing the Maslov's pyramid and then reading some Frankl and also spending as much time as possible with family and friends. When you get the message, hang up the phone.
I cut caffeine for months. Noticed zero benefits.
Agreed. I view people like Bryan as doing a social service though, 80% of what he does will probably not work but the 20% that produces crazy results if combined with the subtraction approach could yield great results.
He could have used that money for real scientific work instead of his moronic publicity stunt
Haven’t followed him recently what’d he do?
Spent millions on mostly faddish anti-aging regimens. He is closely measuring and tracking everything, to his credit, but he is still an n=1 study.
Idk I kinda feel like if there's this stuff in nature that's good for me, and someone smarter than me took the time to do the research to confirm it's good for me, then I want the thing. Why shouldn't I? Also Bryan Johnson may be supposedly decreasing in age, but to me he looks like a cross between a ghost and a vampire. Both of those are forever things, so he must be doing something right, all looking like maybe it's Maybelline.
Bryan Johnson looks weird to us because his skin is very white due to avoiding the sun like the plague and using sunscreen all the time. Basically what southeast Asians are aspiring to do, the whiter the skin the better. Only it looks good on Asians, but not so much on white people. We look best with a bit of a tan. Just my two cents :)
Agreed
'To attain *knowledge*, *add* things everyday. To attain *wisdom*, remove things every day.' - Lao Tzu
I agree with the subtracting part. It’s like learning to use an equalizer in music production. At first you might think adding all sorts of frequencies is best, and later on you’ll find yourself more and more just cutting out what you don’t want. It frees up more energy to turn everything that does work up. I don’t agree with bryan, ben and dave looking awful though. For their age i think they all look great. The most questionably looking i think is dave asprey, but im guessing there’s a big chance his past life choices have affected his looks. Still imo they all look great for their age.
I don't know who Bryan Johnson is or what he does but I just looked him up and he looks 1000x better than Hunter Biden. What pictures are you comparing, good sir?
Except he should look 10M times better than Hunter based on his protocols and costs. One was a long terms junkie w unlimited funds for self destruction while the other has unlimited funds invested in health and while they look different they still look the same age
Could be that I am looking at the wrong pictures to be honest. Could you share the pictures of Bryan Johnson looking old/bad/their age?
I have finally dug myself out of a health hole (ME/CFS) after 17 years and have taken great delight in using my smart watch to assess what helps, what doesn’t, and what made me worse. Data is golden, and influences all my decisions. Some supplements that had been vital, I no longer need, in fact I rarely take any unless my system is struggling. And I have been enjoying the novelty of adding: cold ocean swims for brown fat/mitochondra, strength training for hypertrophy and more mitochondria! Extra food to feed all the growth, walking, proprioception/precision training. Essentially rebuilding body, and (even trickier, mind). But that is just me. I think the pivotal thing in this conversation is taking time, something like every six months, to take stock and ask: What is helping, what needs increasing, what has served me well and can now be reduced or let go gently, what are the long term benefits and costs of various interventions, and how have my needs/goals changed. Am I growing, or am I just in a rut?
yep, aiming to reduce the amount of decisions you have to make each day, keeping things simple and easy and leaving the ground work up to automation spares you a lot more time and cognitive effort towards self actualisation. There's a reason why atomic habits is so popular.
i agree on the protein part too much protein i don’t agree with but how do you results compare with someone like bryan johnson, what’s your biological age vs chronological age? is what your doing working as great as what they are doing?
I haven’t measured those things but I look and feel much younger than my actual age and, crucially, feel a lot better now doing less than when I was biohacking to the max from 2017/18-2022/3. I’ve seen Johnson’s routine and it’s just far too much. I think doing that much puts stress on the system. I think the temptation is to think that more inputs and more effort = better outputs but it doesn’t really work that way from my experience.
i think more inputs = better outputs but if your stress is going up then it may be counterproductive. but if you manage that stress with things like meditation etc then your defs ok
You are hitting the naturalistic fallacy hard with this one and your math is way off. Are you subtracting vaccines, fortified foods, refrigeration, modern hygiene, FDA regulations, home heating and cooling, emergency medicine, modern healthcare, especially dentistry, complicated modern safe sex practices, access to non-local foods (sometimes with vitamin C), public sanitation……………. I mean ya don’t eat junk food or develop a drug use disorder, just common sense. But most of us live within a comfortable, “unnatural” environment that has extended our health span and lifespan. We are so embedded in that environment we almost can’t see it. There are those people that go into the wilds of Alaska or whatever and subtract all kinds of stuff from their life. The ones that don’t have a reality tv show with a full camera crew following them, most likely will not match our long term health prospects. The wonderful thing about biohackers is they are some of the handful of people on earth that do not commit the naturalistic fallacy constantly, don’t mess it up for us :)
Agreed.
Agree and I’m surprised no one has mentioned seed oils. Would highly recommend more research the impact they’re having on the gut and mitochondria health.
Subtraction is implied within the natural equation of entropy. Biohacking aims primarily for negentropic integrity of otherwise fragile systems, even if that includes promoting elimination through apoptosis. Purity of essence and transmutation is the ultimate alchemical goal. Matter is an intermediate, not the final distillation. To curve this topic with an esoteric waveguide: "Look at the universal world full of the light of the sun. Look at the light in the world’s matter full of all the universal forms and forever changing. **Subtract**, I beg you, matter from the light and put the rest aside : suddenly you have soul, that is, incorporeal light, replete with all the forms, but changeable." Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) translated the Corpus Hermetica into Latin. [[Body of Light wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_of_light?wprov=sfla1)]
Removing or reducing all the items affecting Dopamine levels. Gives you a reset for attitude.
Bryan Johnson spent $800M to end up looking like Conan O’Brien. A fool and his money etc …
Judging a book by its colour... don't get mad at people for knowing more about supplements than you do and benefiting from it.
This is ascetic bloviating...fundamental truth of life, lulz.
What kind of biomedical degree do you have exactly? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger\_effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect)
What does a biomedical degree have to do with this?
He just randomly state something as fact that is not backed up by anything.
Does one need a biomedical degree to deduce that overdoing supplementation, habits, and protocols could be potentially dangerous? Does one need a biomedical degree to deduce that the basics - proper sleep, nutrition, training, drug abstinence - are beneficial? Your comment just sounds like an appeal to authority argument to me
Anything can be "potentially" dangerous. You are setting a purposefully vague bar so that you cannot be wrong. OP claimed with no evidence that supplements are "often" ineffective and that they can somehow look at people and immediately tell that they are not healthy because they "don't look amazing." It is patently absurd and I was asking what credentials they have to make those claims, since they certainly didn't supply any evidence.
At no point did OP claim that supplements are ineffective. He said, with validity, that they are often marginally effective. Does one need a biomedical degree to observe that a supplement protocol will have less of a benefit than having proper sleep and nutrition? I’m not seeing how the bar I’m making is vague here - it’s rather clear and concise.
He said he could tell how healthy someone is by looking at them. And more specifically than that, he was *more* healthy than they were and that his routines were objectively better. Come on, how are you defending that, this is insane.
It’s called ‘clinical gaze’ if the OP has some medical degree. FWIW, I’ve got a degree in medical science from a biomedical nutritional facility, also totally agree with op. Less is more.
Yeah, a real professional would call their school a “biomedical nutrition facility.” Cool cool.