Vali2003

@Natasha Tori Maru Is there a specific reason you take 10g as opposed to 5g for example? I’ve been seeing it more often lately that people advocate for a higher dosage of creatine than is usually recommended (by the scientific consensus). What’s the rationale behind that?

I don’t have any smoking-specific advice since I’m not a smoker. But I’d say first, your intention to stop smoking must be really strong. Then you use whatever method/tricks seem best for you, and try to quit. I think it’s normal that you will fail quitting many times until you don’t and actually quit. This is good, though. Each time you fail, you will learn new things that trip you up, which you can then solve for. I remember Leo saying somewhere that most people just don’t try things often enough. They lose hope after they try 2 or 3 times. The key is to keep going, and improve each time. At some point you’ll figure it out!

@Sugarcoat Yes. It made think about what a cushioned, lucky privileged life I have. It’s a remarkable story, no wonder it has like 100K ratings on Amazon. I’m not a big fan of his philosophy on a societal level (everybody’s responsible for themselves, conservative type of talking point), but on a personal level, the book empowered me to take more responsibility for my life. Great read, honestly.

@Sugarcoat It’s a fun read. His life story is absurd.

@Basman Of course, a mostly healthy and functional body is a base-requirement to do any kind of athletics. I’m saying there’s a deeper level than having a functional body or not. That, within this range of functional bodies, there’s a something (fascia tensegrity strength) that gives the best of the best, the (huge) edge over the rest. And that this thing matters much more than hard work. Because hard work is easy if your body is like this, it’s fun. The problem is, the term “fascia tensegrity strength” is useless since it means nothing to most — again, lack of reference experience. I tried really hard right now to find a suitable metaphor to explain what it feels like, but it’s so difficult. You gotta imagine. When I shoot a jump shot now, or run, or jump, I first feel my abs contract. Then I feel how my abs pull on my glutes which activates them, since they’re connected through fascia. If I’m doing a movement with my upper body too, like throwing a punch for example, or pushing somebody, the energy will transfer to my upper body — coming from the glutes and abs. When I walk, I feel the tensegrity structure throughout my whole body. My feet activate, my glutes activate, my abs activate which are connected to my lats, my lips seal shut automatically. It feels a little bit like a shoelace being tightened, throughout my entire body. Maybe that gives you some sense of what I mean by tensegrity structure. It’s nothing that most people have come into contact with before. About the example. You’re right that it’s not perfect. But I think the argument that she beats boys her age just cause she’s been groomed to be an athlete from the onset is a relatively weak argument. There are many parents who want their kids to be a star athlete and train them from young age. I don’t think this would make up the difference that’s between them in terms of muscular strength. But maybe she only fights really amateur boys. But then, again, there aren’t many other girls — if any — who do this.

@Sugarcoat There were some strategies in his book on how to endure pain, and push through it, but I don’t remember all. One of them was to remember a past moment when you pushed through something that first seemed impossible/really difficult to do, as a reminder that you can do it again. I found that quite effective, but haven’t used in a while.

This is another misconception that people have about pro-athletes. They think that pro athletes just work inhuman amount of hours and that is what separates them from other, less successful, athletes. But the truth is, it’s not them being able to endure working so hard that makes them better. It’s their bodies’ ability to put in thousands and thousands of hours and reps without breaking down, which obviously turns them into way better athletes over time. Other people also attempt to do this, but their bodies just can’t take the load, and sooner or later the injuries start piling up. You see, when you are less fascia driven (less holistic), 1) Your body will fatigue quicker as you’re using more energy and less elastic recoil. For example, your shoulder muscle will be fatigued, when shooting jump shots. For a fascia driven athlete this doesn’t happen even closely to the same extent. The energy, even for a jump shot, comes from the abs, lats, and glutes. I can shoot hundreds of jumpshots without fatiguing. Traditional biomechanics paint an incomplete picture that doesn’t account for differences in fascial tensegrity strength. 2) As your fascia works less optimally, with every rep you put in, energy will leak at your ankles, tibialis, hips, knees and your joints will suffer more and more. I wanted to say something else, I think, but I forgot what.

@Sugarcoat Pushing hard opens some doors for sure. I remember after I read this one book of David Goggins, I think Can’t Hurt Me, we had a plank challenge with my basketball team that we were supposed to practice for that summer. The winner got some reward. I didn’t practice a single time and was able to last like 7 minutes, just by being able to endure the pain. I lost the challenge, but was quite shocked by how far you can go just by enduring pain.

@Rigel Please expand on how cardio makes caffeine better. I don’t mind a little bit of cardio, so I’m interested… I’m not rich. I‘d get 90 capsules each 200mg for 15€ + 5€ shipping costs. You have a point about it just being another bill. Partly, wanting to buy this comes from the urge to just buy something, and engage with the spiral dynamics stage orange fantasy of finding some productivity hack that propels me to the riches. But also, it may not be that deep . You’re wrong about it just being placebo though. Research shows there are statistically significant effects of L-Theanine on humans.

That’s what I thought as well, although 100mg caffeine may be a bit too strong for me. It’s crazy. If I drink a small coffee (~60mg caffeine) in the morning, I’ll still clearly feel the effects of it 4-5 hours after the intake. And some of my friends and my siblings say they don’t notice anything from coffee. I make sure never to consume caffeine after noon, so it’s completely out of my system when I go to sleep. I’ve never tried CBD oil, but I’m interested in trying it with caffeine. The anxiety really is annoying. Only thing is, like you say, that it’s a bit pricey.

@Joshe I don’t know what modafinil is, but that sounds interesting. I definitely notice a productivity/concentration boost from caffeine but since I react quite strongly to it, I also get jittery and a bit ungrounded. I tried finding L-Theanine in my city, but no store had it, so I’ll probably order it online.

@integration journey yes, what?

@Sugarcoat yeah probably plays a role, especially in things like ultramarathon running. Still, speaking from experience, I know that being able to push through discomfort and exhaustion is pretty much impossible — for most people — if you feel that your knee is gonna blow out, ankle gonna twist, lower back acting up or something similar like that. So your fascia fitness plays a big role, still.

@Schizophonia I don’t know. I feel the pain, and overcoming your limits is actually a big reason why people like running.

@Schizophonia Legend

@Sugarcoat It has to do with hard work. But running for people who have poor fascia health is much more effortful. Look at what happens to David Goggins when he runs an ultramarathon. His body completely breaks down, while other people get out of it with much less damage. Really, you have to imagine it as the body functioning in a completely different manner if you have good fascia health. You automatically get propelled on to your forefoot and the momentum effortlessly carries you forward while running. This is not a technique that you use. It’s a physiological change the body goes through over several years. It’s a neurological metamorphosis where the body becomes more and more elastic and holistic. Once your body has changed in this way it’s permanent and does not require conscious effort. Also, on the notion of hard work. Once your body functions like this, physical activities stop being super effortful. They become like free play and are a lot of fun. Which is why super talented people often “work hard” and do a lot of sports, because they’re so good at that it just becomes pure play and fun.

@Sugarcoat Ah, in terms of by hand vs. laptop. For me, laptop is much better because I can write faster, it's less painful for my hands, and it's easier to organize the notes. But I see how it would be difficult to do it for chemistry. My suggestions is, to research if there's a computer program for chemistry stuff so you can have the benefits of a laptop, while still being able to do all the proper symbols etc.

@Sugarcoat Do you mostly have technical classes, where you solve stuff like math problems? In that case, your number one priority should be to note down the given problem and the solution. However, if the problems are given on the slides and you have access to them, then no need to write it down. Second priority would be to note down wherever you get confused. You can go to the professor after class and ask them about those sections and fill in your notes. In classical lectures where the professor reads from his slides more or less, it's useless to copy the slides. As you say, you can access them later anyways. However, not doing anything is really unproductive because you drift into monkey mind so easily. The best thing to do is to summarize the key insight from each slide in your own words, in one sentence. Don't look at the slide while writing. It has to be from memory. This forces you to stay present during the lecture and go over what you just learned. When you go through this process, you discover what you understand poorly. The things you understand well, will stick to your brain. You're basically already studying during the lecture, while staying really active. Your understanding will be so much better this way, and studying for the exam at the end of the semester will be much less effort. It really pays off and going to class becomes a lot more fun, because you feel smarter and more competent than before. What degree are you pursuing?

How many hours of focused work are possible per day? It’s definitely like a muscle that you can train. When you notice you’re tired and you think you need a break, you can push through until a second wind comes. But I wonder where that limit is. Currently, I can do about 4-5 hours of focused work per day. Focused work means no distractions at all, and actually doing work. I’m trying to build a business now and noticed that I’m gonna need to do a lot more than that per day if I want to get somewhere. The question also depends on the context. If I had to do 12 hours of focused work today or else I‘d die tomorrow, then I could easily do it. But of course that wouldn’t be sustainable. It also depends on how old you are and how your genetics are. i think the max I can get to is somewhere around 7-8 hours maybe. Let‘s find out. What’s the maximum amount of focused work you can sustainably do per day?

You’re on point with hyper-focused time being the most important thing. I’ve also started time-blocking the tasks I want to get done prior to starting the day. I basically allot a time I think is realistic to my tasks, then put on a timer for that time and try to get it done within that frame. It puts a little pressure on you to really concentrate which is nice. Also it enables some deliberate practice, because you can try to set the timer a little bit lower than you think it would normally take you. However, this also runs the danger of doing a sloppy job just to get it done in time. Also, yeah, full-time job while building a business is unrealistic for most people. Especially in the beginning, it will take much more than free 4-hours per day which you may have maximally, if you work a 9-5. I’m in university right now, so I’ll have to see how much high quality work I’ll be able to get done consistently. But my degree isn’t very time-intensive so I think it’ll be fine.

Yeah, I think that’s probably true for highly demanding tasks, where you’re stretching your abilities. Like practicing the violin, learning calculus or something like that.

Yes. I usually take a ~1 hour break after 2 hours of focused work. And then do 2 more hours. I’m trying to build a ghostwriting business. I’m not sure if it’s a great idea, but an online service has the lowest barrier and risk to start and some people seem to make good money in ghostwriting. Specifically I focus on writing e-mail courses that can be used as a lead magnet to get more newsletter sign ups. I used to do something similar as you. I did 50 minutes of work, and then 10 break minutes and repeat. I like to do longer periods now, because you build more momentum. Also, after every break, I got the urge to procrastinate again, which costs energy to overcome. How many hours of focused work do you get done?

You should watch leo‘s video is gender a social construct?

Oh . thanks for letting me in on it.

Oh . thanks for letting me in on it hahah.