Why Your Morning Coffee Isn't Working(unless you are Marc Andreessen)
Most energy drinks just dump caffeine in your system to block adenosine. You feel alert for a bit, then your cortisol spikes and you crash. Not ideal.
Better move: pair caffeine with L-theanine. It promotes alpha-wave activity, which means you get the boost without feeling like you're vibrating. Matcha does this naturally: slower uptake, fewer jitters, steadier focus throughout the day.
Here's what actually helps:
Citicoline keeps your attention sharp
Bacopa helps with memory (takes a few weeks to kick in)
Lion's mane supports nerve growth (still early research, but promising)
Rhodiola and cordyceps help you handle stress without frying your nervous system
Add some turmeric and vitamin C to deal with oxidative stress. B-vitamins keep your cells running...
The best ready-made formulation I've found which achieves this and more is Magic Mind, it packs all of this into one shot (matcha, L-theanine, nootropics, adaptogens, the complete package). It's designed for mental performance without the crash or the pill fatigue.
"Most people major in minor things." – Tony Robbins
The future isn't waiting for you to get ready. Tony Robbins breaks down why most people will fail in the next decade and what separates survivors from casualties: 15 minutes of daily micro-learning, understanding your actual human needs (not the ones you think you want), and the Core Four investment principles that keep you from losing everything when markets collapse → Read the full survival guide in Premium
Richard Feynman picked locks at Los Alamos and left top-secret documents on office floors as pranks. That playful spirit helped him make Nobel Prize-winning discoveries in physics.
Huberman explains why playing games you're bad at literally rewires your brain, why running is too linear to make you smarter, and why chess works better than almost any other form of cognitive training → Get the complete play protocol in Premium
"Mood is affected much more than performance. We don't perform less well, we just feel more grumpy about how we perform." – Dr. Tommy Wood
45-70% of dementia is completely preventable through lifestyle changes, and dance has the highest effect size for both cognitive function and mental health.
Dr. Tommy Wood reveals why xylitol gum might save your brain, his 10-gram creatine cognitive ritual, and why Super Mario 3D World has the best video game evidence for brain benefits → Access the full brain protection blueprint in Premium
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“If you were born 30,000 years ago with your exact same DNA, you wouldn’t be you. You’d look maybe similar, but you would have a different culture and a different language and different stories.” – David Eagleman
The Internet Is Actually Amazing for Kids... because brain plasticity happens when you have the right neurotransmitter cocktail, which maps directly onto curiosity
Old school: teacher dumps info on you whether you need it or not
Now: kids get info right when they’re curious about it, so it actually sticks
For Critical Thinking: use AI debate where you argue both sides of hot-button issues and get graded on argument quality
Gives you a 360-degree view instead of ideological capture
You could never have enough patient teachers for this. AI is perfect
Two Words for Keeping Your Brain Plastic: seek novelty
Keep yourself between frustrating but achievable, that’s the sweet spot
Tool: Ulysses Contract to Avoid Bad Behaviors
The Ulysses Contract: Ulysses had his men lash him to the mast so he could hear the sirens but not crash into rocks
He’s making a contract for his future self, who he knows will behave badly
You cannot trust your future self, so set up walls now while you’re thinking clearly
Lock box for phone, gym buddy who’ll show up even if you’re tired, clearing all alcohol from the house for alcoholics
One woman trying to quit smoking wrote a $10,000 check to the KKK (most aversive thing to her) and gave it to a friend to cash if caught smoking
Put your running shoes by the door before bed because your future self will be lazy
Aphantasia to Hyperfantasia Is a Spectrum of How Well You Visualize
Some people see things like a movie in their head
Some people (aphantasic) have literally zero mental imagery
Ed Catmull, who started Pixar, has aphantasia, and most of his best directors and animators are aphantasic too
Memory = Time. As a child, summertime takes forever because you’re figuring out the world and writing tons of memories. As an adult, you’ve seen the patterns
If you spent last weekend parasailing over sharks, you’d think it’s been forever since Friday. Normal weekend doing nothing, and it feels like it was just Friday
Actual tool you can use: rearrange your office, swap two paintings on the wall, push your desk to a different spot
This enhances brain plasticity because it challenges your internal model that says you’ve got the world figured out
It makes you feel like you’ve lived longer because you’re writing down more memories about everything