Saks Snacks #31
Quality Time Billionaires, Magic Pill of Life (non-existent), Transitional Intelligence, Creation vs. Consumption, Inspired by the Music
Hi friends, from Delray Beach, FL š,
Welcome to the 20 new Saksā Snackers since the last newsletter. If you donāt know me, Iām Adam Saks, a Digital Strategy Lead at Google, Co-founder of RunWithMe and a creator focused on the emerging intersections of health and tech.
This week, you might notice a new newsletter format! More details in the endnote about future changes you can expect.
Letās get into todayās content:
š„ Snacks of the Week x2 - Biological Aging + āMagic Pill of Lifeā
š½ļø Meal of the Week - Quality Time Billionaires)
šļø Podcast of the Week - Chip Conley
š„ Spark Moment of the Week - creation vs. consumption
āØEndnote: Changes you can Expect + Calls to action
š„ Snacks of the week (x2)
The questions we ask ourselves dictate the lives we live. Check out these thought-provoking tweets and a few questions you can ask yourself over the long weekend.
#1: Biological aging
Weāll be able to quantify our biological age sometime sooner than you think. If you had access to this dataā¦ what would your pace of aging be?
#2: Whatās in your formula of the āmagic pill of lifeā?
Whatās your formula for the āmagic pill of lifeā?
I reflected on my own āmagic pill of lifeā after seeing this tweet. Let me be clear before sharing the ingredients in my metaphorical pill: thereās no pill for this.
Sure, thereās simple best practices for our health that will serve us well, but Iām not here to tell you how to live your life. Iāve been scrutinizing my own habits and prefer to live in constant beta, because without our healthā¦ what do we have?
Adamās formula: 8 hours of sleep + eating healthy food + mindful movement + intentional media. + intellectual stimulation + daily sun + extreme hydration + disconnected from tech + limited sugar (curbing the sweet tooth) + no/limited alcohol + solid purpose + love / intimacy + social connection (family + friends) + great music (intentional soundscape) + creative expression + dancing (occasional)
If I were to nail even 80% of these, Iād be a happy camper and fire on all cylinders. When I consistently get 8 hours of sleep, Iām my best self, showing up for all those around me. Realistically, Iām closer to 7.
What I find interesting is that some components to my formula are more or less intuitive to me. For whatever reason, Iāve only recently realized the importance of social connection, creative expression (writing) + dancing (more concerts / music exploration lately). In the last 6 months, Iāve realized I relish my alone time, serving as my sanctuary to create, read, explore ideas, and bring simple ideas like these to you.
Whatās in your pill? What do you relish? What simple area can you improve? I expect your answer to be different than mine based on what makes you tick.
š½ļø Meal of the week (Article) - Quality Time Billionaires
I loved this article that explores a fascinating investing thesis of āQuality Time Billionairesā. Doug Clinton shares 3 broad subcategories that these QTBās must optimize to improve their physical & cognitive performance: Performance Medicine, Nutrition, and Fitness.
I reflected on my own āhealth-stackā, and current shortcomings, and resonated with the visual he offered to understand where we can make the biggest impact on our own health journeys. I asked myself this question, and I offer it to you:
If you were to visualize performance medicine, nutrition, and fitness as three separate mountains, which mountain do you have the furthest distance to climb?
At any given time, youāll be further up relative to the others. The higher you scale any single QTB mountain, the harder it is to generate incremental physical or cognitive benefit from that effort.
This article / content is geared towards the 1%āers/optimizers crowd. but looking forward, I remain optimistic that thereās an opportunity to bring the āleast accessible parts of high performance health to broader audiencesā.
šļø Podcast of the Week - 1 ofĀ this weekās listens
Prolific entrepreneur Chip Conley discusses a wide range of topics. Here are 3 bullets that resonated with me:
Wisdom is metabolized experience.
We should move from resume values ā”ļø Eulogy Values. This message resonated. Iām still learning how to maximize my impact on this world and those around me through my work. This message, as well as his apparent latent desire to be an entrepreneur hit home.
āTransitional intelligenceā - We know what IQ or EQ stands forā¦ what about TQ? Chip coined this term ātransitional intelligenceā. Most people take 4-5 years to go through major life transitions because nobody taught us how to do this! Chip teaches mid-life adults how to transition through life stages at the Modern Elder Academy down in Baja California, and this concept applies much broader.
Transitional Intelligence means understanding and embracing our "what's next" as a source of curiosity, wonder, and awe. We rely on our core strengths and inner values as a compass north and a growth mindset to learn new skills.ā Itās common to feel alone in the midst of a transition. While your inner experience may feel singular or overwhelming, we have found that wisdom is not taught or discovered. It is shared. - Transition IQ
š„ Spark Moment of the Week - music
The last 2 months have been filled with music. It started with San Franciscoās inaugural music festival, Portola at the end of September. I left inspired by several musiciansā talents, creativity, and commitment to their crafts. It led me to check out 4 other artists in the ensuing weeks.
Perhaps this appreciation stems from my own creative pursuits. Iāve been dialing in a new habit: creating āmorning pagesā - prioritizing my writings first thing in the morning. Through writing a simple olā newsletter & publishing some essays here, Iāve acquired a deeper appreciation and inspiration for music and other creative crafts.
Iāve viewed these artists through a different lens - a lens of admiration and respect for their craft. Just like music leaves its impact on the listeners crowd, so do our thoughts and ideas. Iād previously written:
Genes and ideas spread similarly - through replication. Thereās 1 key difference: Genes can be replicated when dormant.
Knowledge is only replicated when expressed.Ā
Ā
We all have the power to change the world with our ideas. Allowing your ideas to remain dormant is one of the last things you want to do. If you keep your ideas to yourself, you're robbing yourself of the chance to influence the lives of others.Ā
Experiencing several artistsā music made me want to create even more. To hone my craft as a writer. To deeply study how technology is impacting our health and ensure weāre reminded of ancient principles on how to live well. To inspire others through actions and stories.
It made me want to share more publicly about the downs of my health journey, the process of kicking my sweet-tooth, finding fitness after my identity as a college athlete was stripped away, and more.
It reminded me of a journal entry from over 2 years ago when a podcast guestās words hit me like a brick wall.
9/6/20: Sloan Davidson talked about creation vs. consumption.
I am .5% creation, 99.5% consumption.
Her introducing this concept makes me want to create and simply make that 1% progress and do. Remember: done is better than perfection.
All of this is to say, Iām eager to continue sharing with each of you, and if thereās anything that interests you most, please let me know so I can go down the rabbit hole with you.
āØEndnote + Changes you can Expect + Calls to action
What did you think?
š LovedĀ |Ā š GreatĀ |Ā š GoodĀ |Ā š MehĀ |Ā š Bad
Iāve reflected on the types of writing Iād love to keep writing about. I want to write about both long-form content and retain my newsletter content. But I want any and all of my newsletter content to be āevergreenā by nature and have ties to ancient wisdom. I want the newsletters to age like fine wine. Iāve felt like past content is a bit āquickā - while synthesized industry updates are great, they arenāt as relevant months or years down the road.
For my short-form newsletters, Iām challenging myself to keep it even more short-form, yet timeless.
Want to read more? Check out any of my latest essay on flow states, alcohol, dopamine, or our malleable identity. As always, let me know what you think!
Follow along on Twitter for quicker, more frequent updates. And if you enjoyed this Saks Snacks, why not share it with a friend?
Hope you have a creative, restful, and reflective rest of your long weekend.
Adam