Hey everyone,
If you're new here, welcome to Never Enough, where I brain dump interesting stuff that has been on my mind over the last week.
Today's edition is brought to you by InsideTracker*.
Ugh. Yes. I know. Another Tech Bro “biohacker” thing. But this one might have extended my life by a decade or more (because of it, I have reduced my risk of Alzheimer’s disease, heart attack, and stroke risk).
No, it doesn’t involve healing crystals or anti-aging supplements. This one is insanely simple:
Every 4-6 months for the last eight years, a phlebotomist comes to my house and draws some blood. It takes about 3 minutes.
I started using InsideTracker in 2016 and it sent me on a health journey that has resulted in me fixing a ton of underlying issues that I wasn’t even aware of.
For example because of my test results, I learned that:
- I had APOe4, a genetic marker that significantly increases Alzheimer’s risk
- I had insanely high cholesterol
- My blood sugar was out of control
And much more. Look, you can go to your doctor and do these same tests. It will probably be cheaper. But you’ll get a confusing printout of numbers that probably won’t make sense.
What I love about InsideTracker is that it makes blood test results insanely easy to understand and take action on. It provides specific recommendations based on what it sees, and can even incorporate data from your genetics, Apple Watch, and Oura Ring to custom tailor its recommendations. It also graphs out your results so you can track your progress over time.
Today, my blood looks markedly different from 2016 thanks to the insights and changes I made with InsideTracker. When a friend tells me they want to get their health in order, it’s the first place I send them.
Go check it out here. I’ve done a special deal with them where you’ll save 25% if you click this link.
Now onto this week’s issue…
- I just launched my podcast. I’m fortunate to get to talk to interesting people for a living, and after 20 years of it I figured I should start recording some of these conversations. Go check out the first episode with my friend Sam Parr, host of My First Million, here:
Spotify / Apple Podcast / YouTube
- I treat myself like a drug addict. But not with drugs, with my phone.
I have no self-control. I’ll often be enjoying a quiet moment reading a book or looking out at a view and suddenly, without even realizing it, I’m clawing for my phone in my pocket to check my Twitter feed.
After listening to this interview with Dr. Anna Lembke, I realized that you can become addicted—in the same sense you would to drugs or alcohol—to anything that stimulates dopamine.
This can be your phone. Chocolate cake. Fizzy water. You name it, if it stimulates dopamine, you’re hooped.
In the interview, she goes on to say that the effective treatment protocol for drugs and alcohol (6-8 weeks total abstinence) is the same way to treat things like phone or video game addiction. She talks about “self-binding,” the forced removal of the stimuli from your environment.
Don’t want to eat chips? Don’t keep them in your house.
Well, the same applies to phones. What I ended up doing was going into my iPhone’s Screen Time settings, blocking all the distracting stuff that causes me stress or I scroll endlessly, then having my girlfriend set the passcode.
This means that, in order to use email, Twitter, check the news, Reddit, etc, I need to bug my girlfriend for the code.
As Dr. Lembke predicted, the first 6 weeks were tough, but now I don’t even miss them. And I prevent myself from going back down the rabbit hole by continuing to keep the aggressive Screen Time enabled.
I’ve found that my life is much happier without scrolling feeds and current events. I’ve managed to replace most of my scrolling time with reading books or long-form audio and I haven’t found that not having email, news, or social media at close hand has in any way negatively affected me.
You should try it.
- “Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos.”
That’s a line from one of the most profound books I’ve ever read, The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant. In just 128 pages, it summarizes the key lessons of human history in paired-down prose. Talk about cutting to the chase.
Here’s a few key ideas from the book:- History repeats, driven by unchanging human nature.
- Geography molds civilizations' fates.
- Class struggles fuel historical change.
- Religion and morality shape societies.
- Civilizations rise and fall in cycles.
My pal David Senra just did a great episode on this book on his (incredible) Founders podcast here. If you haven’t listened to Founders yet, you are missing out. Each week, he summarizes a great book and ties its lessons to other great books and leaders.
- My friend Mark Nichols said something that struck me the other day:
“There’s friends for reasons, for seasons, and for life.”
Which are your friends?
- Hiring a CEO is a weird skill. Not that many people have done it, and those who have have only done it once (most people either run their company for life or only pass the baton once and then retire). Chris and I have done it dozens of times, and my inbox is often packed with people asking me questions about how to transition their company to a CEO. I finally broke down and wrote a little PDF on it for my paid Twitter subscribers. If you want to check it out, go to my Twitter profile and click the purple “Subscribe” button, then check out this subscriber-only tweet.
- You are probably a jerk in some way. We all are.
But if you’re anything like me, you aren’t all that aware of it. You warp every situation to give yourself the most charitable interpretation. Our brains do our best to protect our egos. It's not fun to look at the darker sides of your personality.
This is a highly adaptive aspect of humanity. It enables us to get through life. But ignoring your flaws is no way to become the optimal version of yourself. At work, we all understand the value of 360 reviews. Deeply understanding how we are affecting those around us and how we can improve. Pain + reflection = progress.
A few years ago, my friend Mohnish Pabrai told me about a psychologist named Jack Skeen who had done a 360 review on his entire life. It sounded fascinating: he did a deep dive on every part of his day-to-day life. How he perceived himself. How his family and wife perceived him. His co-workers. His friends. As a result, he said that he changed his entire life.
It sounded kind of interesting, so I hired this guy, Dr. Jack Skeen.
He spoke with my closest friends, my wife, my co-workers, and we spent hours on the phone together.
He'd ask me weird uncomfortable questions like:
"Are you a good person?"
And
"What is your purpose?"
And
"Are you well liked?"
With long, awkward silences on the other end of the line to make me squirm, while he took notes.
I also did a series of multiple choice personality tests
All in all, it probably took 6-8 hours of my time, with another 10 hours of interviews across all my friends and colleagues.
What came out of it was brutal.
It was a complete picture of me...including all the horrible stuff. It was chock full of gut wrenching feedback and anonymized comments from the people who knew me best.
There were lots of positive things too, but it was a shit sandwich. Positives wrapped around the stuff nobody wants to read.
Here's a few:
"He is quite hard to work with. He is a terrible manager. He never gives positive feedback."
"He is oblivious of how he comes across to others."
"He needs to do the hard work of 'real' relationships. He can drop people when the work gets hard."
"Sometimes I feel like he's acting in social situations."
"I get the impression often that Andrew isn't happy."
As I read the report, I felt like I was going to hurl.
I immediately regretted it, and it put me into an existential tailspin. One of the key insights from the report was something I had felt but never quite put my finger on.
I scored high on the "histrionic" scale…
Something I had never heard of.
TLDR: Behaving in a histrionic manner = essentially being able to "perform" for others, craving attention, and wanting short term gratification.
Fortunately my score wasn't so high that it was a serious problem (for some people, it's a full on personality disorder and it ruins their lives), but it felt apt.
I'd noticed this in myself. That I could be dying inside, miserable, but when I needed to I could perform.
This was an incredibly valuable business skill. It helped me deeply connect with people and build positive relationships, but what I came to realize was that it was actually draining my life force. I'd arrive at a meeting I didn't want to go to and LIGHT UP, putting on my mask. Big smile. Firm handshake. Asking all the questions. Making the other person feel good. Tap dancing. Faking it.
But inside, I was secretly sad. I was being inauthentic. Something I had learned to do, for some reason, in my childhood.
I was an expert of wearing a mask, and it was making me profoundly sad.
There were a ton of other insights like this— some so personal I won't share to 20,000 people on the internet—but it all culminated in me making huge changes to my life…
I got divorced.
I completely changed my day-to-day life.
I started focusing on different things at work.
I changed the way I interacted with friends.
Stopped wearing the mask.
You name it, this psychological "Roadmap" I did with Jack Skeen rocked my world. It's been a few years now, but it's still one of the most impactful things I've ever done. It felt like 10 years of therapy in one month.
I know it sounds scary, but I highly recommend doing it yourself, if you can handle it: www.jackskeen.com
That’s all for this week…but one more thing. If you’re enjoying this, can you do me a favor and forward it to a friend? Thanks.
-Andrew
Want to sell your business or know someone who does? www.tiny.com
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*This is a sponsored post, but I only run ads for products I love and use myself. If you want to advertise, email Monica.
