#1: Become Smarter About Life!
A newsletter about life and everything interesting
This newsletter tries to share the interesting things I come across and ponder in my mind each week while researching, studying, reading and trying to connect the dots about life. It covers a wide area of subjects from neuroscience, well-being and spirituality to health, exponential technologies like artificial intelligence, life philosophy and hacks, reflections, interesting people, things to read, try and do. Every week will be different. I’m certain that you — as a curious mind — will find something interesting here. You can subscribe here and get it straight into your inbox.
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Want a little more background, read on:
Three years ago, I left my startup and embarked on a journey to understand life — though I had no idea at that time. On my journey, I discovered so much about the world and myself that I wish someone would have told me before. You don’t learn those things in school nor later — we don’t have time to think while we are busy doing things and as we grow older come to believe we have figured it all out. Nothing could be further from the truth: I came to appreciate that the more you learn the more you understand how little you know. Plus the world is in constant flux. I took advantage of the freedom and time I had to distance myself, zoom out, observe, learn, understand and put everything into a bigger context. In this process, I have become fascinated by decoding what life is about, making sense of the world and how we can thrive best living it. I believe that this is more valuable than ever in today’s increasingly complex world full of choices and constant distractions.
Life can be so much more than what we think it is and we continuously get stuck in a very limited perception of it. This newsletter is meant to take you out of your daily routine and beyond the things you know to inspire you and make you become smarter about how you can live your life and make the most of it.
Welcome to an exciting journey!
Vincent
Newsletter #1
- Life. Buddhist wisdom
- Sleep. Take sleep seriously
- Heath. Test your microbiome (last day!)
- Blockchain. Beyond the craze
- Interesting events to attend
- Movie. Artificial Intelligence
- Relationships. Desire and infidelity
- Books I’m reading. Life learning
- Business transformation. Successfully navigating disruption
- Cool new gadget. Headphones
- Interesting person to follow
- Quote of the week
- About this newsletter and me
Life. Buddhist wisdom.
Yesterday, I attended a conversation between neuroscientist Wolf Singer and Tibetan Buddhist Matthieu Ricard who trained as a molecular biologist. Together, they wrote the book Beyond the Self. Some nuggets from their conversation:
- Buddhism and neuroscience are both rigorous analytical investigations of the mind
- Do we perceive reality as it is? Reality is the result of a reconstructive process based on what is stored in our brain. The three sources of our knowledge are: a) evolution, culturally different (DNA), b) post natal experience (including implicit knowledge which you don’t realize you have because it was acquired before age four), c) improving efficiency of the neural connections through learning at adult age. We each perceive the world differently based on what is stored in our brain, i.e. how it interprets reality. Absolute reality is an illusion. Different people and cultures have therefore different perceptions of the very same thing. This is responsible for much of our conflicts because our perception convinces us that our reality is the reality. Buddhism and science are aligned in this understanding.
- The root of suffering is craving and grasping for things and the misperception of reality. We are distorting reality. We don’t see the things as they really are but through the eyes of our experiences (stored knowledge) and desires.
- Our perception of reality can change at any time through experiences or realization that our perception was wrong. Matthieu shared the story that they where in a tropical country sitting underneath a tree where they felt a soothing mist coming down from the tree. They were all pleasantly surprised. This is, until a local told them these were actually tens of thousands of tiny flies. Suddenly, the experience changed from being pleasant to nasty. We experience the world in the context we see them.
- Buddhism’s answer is to learn to perceive things just as they are and not to superimpose your own conscious and subconscious interpretations, i.e. to see beyond our superficial interpretation. E.g. when someone beats us we don’t blame the stick but the person. However, the person beats us because they are angry. We need to go beyond the actions and understand why the person is angry. They suffer from past negative experience, i.e. they are ill. Such person needs help. Buddhism is the practice of curing the mind.
- Heath is the silence of the organs. In analogy, a strong person is someone that is free from mental constraints (inner freedom).
- Mathieu also talked about the placebo effect and that often it is highly effective. He argues that it reflects the power of the mind and that because it cures we really should not call it placebo but rather tap into it using the mind more widely for healing. The mind and body are tightly interconnected. If you are curious about this topic, check out this book I’m currently reading: Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body.
- Another example is that of the cleaning hotel staff. After they were told they should look at their work as physical exercise as well, it boosted their overall health, lowered blood pressure and increased antibody count. They just had changed their frame of mind, nothing else, and that resulted in a changed physiology. Psychologist call this framing. Powerful stuff.
Sleep. Take sleep seriously.
In Matthew Walker’s new book “Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams”, the Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at UBerkeley confirms that sleep is just as important as food (mice die after 15 days of sleep deprivation) and a lack of sleep (< 7 hours) dramatically increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and dementia. “In the late 1990s, when Greece abolished the siesta, a group of Harvard scientists tracked the health of 73,000 Greek adults. Mortality rates for heart attacks increased by 37% across just six years — in males it was almost a 60% increase.”
Heath. Test your microbiome.
I recently did a blood test to understand what food I’m not tolerant to. Subsequently, I’ve changed my diet and I can feel the difference (more energy, less tired, more focus and clarity). While this is an expensive process, I just ordered a test to get to know my microbiome. You get to test your gut, mouth, nose, genitals and skin. Today is the last day! that it’s on offer for $89 + shipping (instead of $399). Go to uBiome choose the $399 product and use discount code YOURMICROBIOME2018 in the checkout. (I’m not affiliated with the company nor do I benefit from you taking advantage of this offer.)
Blockchain. Beyond the craze.
Just a year ago, only few people around me where talking about Bitcoin and now it’s all over the news. Google Trends indicates that the search volume for Bitcoin has increased twentyfold (and 33x for “crypto”). It’s like the early days of the internet: Few people understand what’s really going on except that this time the future can be gambled with financially. It’s the wild west: Full of scams, misinformation and hard to find the few trustworthy sources. Despite the possible returns and world-changing potential, I urge anyone to only invest what they are willing to completely loose and to learn about and understand the technology they are investing in (which is a lot of work). And even then it is still pure speculation: While the crypto ecosystem will very likely generate huge economic benefits, it is impossible to know what coin/currency/token will be a winner. Some good sources that you can get you started with:
- Why Blockchain matters: Naval Ravikant’s (founder of Angellist) now famous tweet storm. Read more on him and Blockchain under the “Interesting person to follow” section.
- Besides Naval’s fundamental wisdom, Andreas Antonopolous is probably one of the smartest and most ethical (driven by changing the world not money) persons to follow in the space. Check out his introductory talk to Bitcoin here. He published two books on The Internet of Money which are summaries of his many talks that you can find on his YouTube channel. To get his newest updates and insights (and support him) join his supporters page. To learn more about who he really is (and his altruism), read this Fortune article.
- On the promises of the blockchain beyond the craze (NYT article): https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/magazine/beyond-the-bitcoin-bubble.html
- Beyond financials. To appreciate how the blockchain will also completely transform the material world of goods aka supply chain watch this mind-bending 102 mins video. If you don’t have time, start at minute 40 or minute 60 where it gets juicer. Or read this more easily and quicker to digest (though not as mind-bending) article (16 mins).
Interesting events.
What are the conferences with the most interesting people. I recently polled my friends with that question. This is what I got. The list is tech biased based on my circle of friends. I’ve only been to a few of those (marked with *). I’ve added a short description and leave you with the list to explore (in no particular order). Let me know your thoughts or any event that you think is missing.
- DLD: Digital-Life-Desig. “Connecting business, creative and social leaders, opinion formers and investors for crossover conversation and inspiration.” Munich, Germany (with satellite events in NY, Berlin, Tel Aviv)
- Summit*. “Summit connects, educates and inspires a community of today’s brightest leaders.” Powder Mountain, Utah, USA and yearly flagship event in Los Angeles (previously on a cruise ship)
- Founders Forum. “Founders Forum, the premier community for global entrepreneurs, CEOs, and investors in the digital, media and technology sectors.” Events worldwide
- F.ounders. “F.ounders nicknamed ‘Davos for Geeks’ by Bloomberg is an annual tech event. It’s aim is to give 150 key tech company founders the space to network.”
- Kinnernet*. “Gathers innovators and some of the most interesting people working in the media, art, technology or creative industries.” Various locations throughout the year
- World Economic Forum (WEF). No explanation needed. Davos, Switzerland
- HLAI: The Joint Multi-Conference on Human-Level Artificial Intelligence. “A joint effort of conferences and academic events working towards the creation of human-level Artificial Intelligence.” Prague, Czech Republic
- NIPS: Neural Information Processing Systems. “A multi-track machine learning and computational neuroscience conference.” Montréal, Canada
- Burning Man*. Too difficult to describe in one sentence. Check out this video (for the visual not the personal experience) and ask around for someone who has been. Black Rock City, Nevada, USA
- The House of Beautiful Business. “Pop-up community to humanize business in the age of machines to create positive visions for technology and humanity in a playful and intimate setting.” Lisbon, Portugal. Takes place before and during Web Summit
- Wired Live. “A festival that brings to life the fantastic and compelling stories on ideas, business, technology and design found within WIRED magazine.” London, UK
- Guest Ghost Host Machine. Bringing together a diverse group of people “to consider the advent of ‘artificial intelligence’, consciousness, interspecies cooperation, machines, trans-humanism and non-linear time.” London, UK
- Creative Social. “We believe that we are about to enter a new Age of Creativity that will require a new set of creative problem solving skills.”
- TED. No explanation needed. Two flagship conferences each year.
- WPP Stream. Named by WIRED as ‘one of the world’s best conferences’. Anderson Cooper (CNN anchor) is a participant. Co-hosted by Yossi Vardi who is also the founder of Kinnernet. Various locations around the world
- EG. “An annual conference and a community of brilliant innovators driving our most creative industries.” Carmel-by-the Sea, CA, USA.
Movie. Artificial Intelligence.
AlphaGo (90 mins, Netflix). Fascinating documentary about Google Deepmind’s AlphaGo beating the world champion 4:1 at Go, the world’s most difficult board game. Watch it to appreciate not just the progress of AI and the approach scientists are taking but also what emotions it will evoke once AI starts beating humans at all kinds of previously human-only activities.
Relationships. Desire and infidelity.
Ever wondered why it is so hard to make a relationship work? To get a glimpse of the answer, watch Esther Perel’s TED talk The secret to desire in a long term relationship (19 mins, 11m views) that explains that we want our partner to be two opposing personas: Familiarity/protection/comfort vs. passion/adventure/mystery. Esther has been the most sought after speaker at 2016’s Summit at Sea where her talk had to be repeated to accommodate everyone. Though this is a complex and lengthy topic, I just want to leave you with some thought provoking realities about the trouble with our traditional view on partnership: a) The concept of marriage was “invented” with an economic purpose in mind, not love. b) As Esther points out, we want our partner to be everything all the time — which is impossible. c) We are living much longer and people as well as our needs and interests change over time as we develop and grow. If you like Esther’s talk and topic, check out her other TED talk on Rethinking infidelity (19 mins, 9m views) and her recent book The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity. Much more, and more depth, to come on this topic in future newsletters.
Books I’m reading. Life learning.
Two books I’m currently reading: Principles by Ray Dalio and Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss. Both books are about becoming smarter about life (and as a result happier) but take very different approaches. Ray who built Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest and most successful hedge funds, has created rational operating principles through observation, learning, testing and iterating — for both life and work. He takes a highly logical and structured approach.
Tim, author of several NY times bestsellers including the 4 Hour Workweek, has recently gone through a difficult period of introspection and personal change. He took that as a trigger to seek advice from a highly diverse group of 120+ of the most successful and inspiring people. In Tribe of Mentors, he asked each of them 11 questions like: How has “failure” set you up for later success (insight: failure was crucial for most people to become who they are now), what books do you gift and why, the most worthwhile investment you’ve ever made, and which belief, behavior or habit has most improved your life. Both books are great reads to ponder.
Business transformation. Successfully navigating disruption.
Two weeks ago, I took part in the third ExO (Exponential Organization) conference. One of the biggest challenges in preparing any business for our ever faster disruptive future is to disable the organizations “immune system” that fights change. If existing organizations don’s change, they will die. The seed of this movement has began with Salim Ismail (who I met at Singularity University) publishing Exponential Organizations. The book is about what differentiates the fastest and most agile companies (like Google) from how traditional businesses are run. He identified ten factors and the existence of a MTP, a massive transformative purpose, that unites all stakeholders behind it. To help companies become more ExO like, a ten week sprint format was developed that guides the company through developing their own future version. It’s a framework that inspires and motivates a company’s own employees to ask big questions and develop bold visions for the future of the company. Because it is the employees themselves who are developing the future, there is no immune system reaction to that change (as you would have from a top down or consulting approach) but they are the change! The format and support from ExO coaches and advisors ensures that the projects really are transformative and exponential. A number of large high profile clients have gone through such a sprint over the last two years and the feedback has been incredible. Now the organization is becoming itself an ExO by creating a self-deployment tool that allows you to run a sprint (at a magnitude lower cost) yourself and access an ecosystem of advisers and solutions providers to do so through a platform called ExOLever. The platform will be ready in April/May which will also see the launch of an accompanying book how to run your own sprint. Stay tuned!
Cool new gadget. Headphones.
I came across the nuraphone.com ($399) and — while I haven’t tried them — they seem like a revolution in experiencing music. Check out their ad video here with professionals musicians giving feedback. The headphone has an entirely new design approach and apparently measures the acoustic characteristics of your ear (we all hear differently) to provide a bespoke sound experience that seems to be unparalleled. One person in the video says they’ve never experienced anything like this and that these “might be the best earphone ever”. Let me know if you happen to try them.
Interesting person to follow.
One of my favorite people I follow is Naval Ravikant. He is the founder of Angel List (the financing platform for startups) and a life long learner, thinker and philosopher. He tries to better understand the world just as we like to do here at ConsciousX. He continuously provides incredibly insightful thoughts mostly through twitter @naval. A lot of his recent thinking is on Blockchain and how it will change the world (as pointed out above under Blockchain). I encourage you to follow him. I also recommend you listen to his two hour podcast on Farnam Street Blog (it’s worth your time!). Recently, he also started doing live streaming on periscope and I found it very entertaining and insightful (again 1 hour worth your time, especially for Blockchain enthusiasts).
Quote of the week.
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” — Max Planck
About this newsletter and me.
ConsciousX started as a passion project sharing my life insights I gained by contemplating over the last years. As a result, I recorded 40+ videos on topics like why you should stop caring what other think of you, how to prime yourself happy, how to communicate with others, or why you should embrace uncertainty. You can find all the video’s here. You can learn more about me here. And read my article on How to overcome anxiety.
Feedback.
Last but not least: Please share with me what you liked and disliked about this newsletter and any suggestions or wishes you have for content, format or anything else. Either by leaving a comment below or using this feedback form. I very much appreciate your input!
