Samurai have swords, Jedi have lightsabers, we have mouse and keyboard.

Computers are currently the cockpit from which we are tasked with conquering the universe. It’s where most of us do everything. It’s where we earn our living, connect with friends, entertain ourselves, pay our bills, and rush through a meal. It’s where we do our taxes, scroll socials, correspond with confidants, and read books.

We sit at our little desk for 12+ hours per day, at home or otherwise, playing life Tetris, trying to retire our mothers or maintain some semblance of sanity.

The world runs in the wavelengths. Wins and losses stacked from behind the screen of a computer. We jack in like Jake Sully from Avatar and run around a fake world (whether it be for fun or for work) and take it for real life. It almost is.

But while our brains are lucky enough to backpack around the virtual world, while our consciousness gets to vagabond around the digital frontier, it’s easy to forget that our bodies are still in that very room in a little town in Pennsylvania.

When we jack out of our computer for the day, and regain our consciousness in the real world, we feel it. Our bodies feel it. But what can we do? When tomorrow comes we do the same. And again the day after that. Because the world is happening in there.

And so our bodies atrophy.

Every desk has a side quest

My girlfriend sits on the couch hunched over her laptop. My dad has a grand office with books in the background to optimize his Microsoft Teams background. My friends on X have minimal desk setups with Apple Studio Displays and Magic Mice.

Desk setups come in about as many shapes and sizes as people do. Some are minimal, some are disorganized. Some are clean, some basically don’t even exist (see the person who sits at the kitchen counter). Some have enough RGB to turn the room into a night club in Prague and others have big beautiful wooden desks with stiff ass, uncomfortable, boss villain leather chairs.

All of which, although designed to get work done, typically serve some secondary unrelated purpose too.

The RGB desk setup, formerly known as the battlestation, is often optimized for late nights killing boars in World of Warcraft (see 17 year old me over the moon scrolling reddit (r/battlestations), ripping my parents’ credit cards to acquire as much RGB as possible). My East Blue. Pallet Town. HQ. Miss it.

The Apple Studio Display acts as content engine for aesthetic pictures on social media.

The “library” acts as a museum for friends in the real world. “A study.” A place meant to look pretty for others.

But no matter what camp you fall into, not one of these desk setups is on the most important side quest of all:

Preserving your health.

Built to protect posture. Improve circadian rhythm. Offload stress, not promote it.

We camp out at our desks sometimes for so long and with such focus that we forget to drink water. Like we’re driving in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. So stationary the body mummifies itself into a series of self-induced chronic aches and pains. The desk is a sarcophagus. A full body cast. Bad Bad Bad!

Bad for posture, bad for health, bad for productivity.

And not dantefofante dramatic effect bad. Literally bad. Measured bad.

In a study from 2017, researchers strapped accelerometers to 8,000 adults and watched them grind Call of Duty/PUBG (sit at desk). The longest sitters, in the longest unbroken stretches, had double the risk of death. Yep!

Link to study: Patterns of Sedentary Behavior

The worst part about the study was that exercise didn’t come to the rescue like usual. The only variable that mattered was whether or not they got up.

Not good for me. I’m one of those people who burns the match early in the morning then doesn’t move the rest of the day. Working on it! Exercise snacks!

Can’t imagine how much damage I did to my body spending hours and hours sitting in my battlestation ripping Lucio ultimates over and over and over.

SPEEEEEEEED BOOST! - Lucio

I know you want your office to look like Harvey Specter’s. I know you want it to go viral on social media. I know you want to be a Twitch streamer. So buy the RGB if you want to. Have a library in the background if you want to. But make sure that all of these things are third fourth and fifth to maintaining your health.

Luckily, I’ve been working on something to help solve this.

The Healthstation

Sips coffee, takes deep breath Ahem.

I present to you, the healthstation. The desk setup in its final form. Perhaps my best work yet. A one of one POI designed by you for you. All the loot intact.

A spot where no matter what you do, what work you have, how many hours you’re there, you have all of the options you need to not only improve your productivity, but improve (yes improve) your health.

A spot that goes from pro-inflammatory to anti-inflammatory. A place where you control your post lunch insulin spike. A place where you correct your posture.

Magical.

The more I think about it, this is quite possibly the lowest hanging fruit on planet earth for improving your health.

Imagine owning one of those Wall-E chairs that serves up food and entertainment but instead it makes you healthier.

Almost like the robot in Project Hail Mary that takes care of Dr. Ryland Grace. You basically, just sit there and exist, and get healthier.

You spend 8+ hours per day at your desk. Without the healthstation, you are destroying your body. With it, you get healthier. Passively.

Not only that, but the healthstation actually makes you more productive too.

I believe that the bane of productivity in 2026 is the cell phone. Distractions. Needing to reach for something else constantly.

The healthstation is fantastic at satiating the zoomer brain.

All the gadgets and gizmos lying around act as a way to quench your ADHD productively without doing more harm. Without stealing your attention the way a cell phone does.

The healthstaysh is essentially a little superchamber that helps extinguish the idle phone grab.

I know we’ve all been on a call and reached for our phone because we’re bored out of our mind, zapping 30 minutes away and retaining nothing from the call, right? RIGHT?

Point is with everything else lying around, everything else to do, it helps you channel that excess energy into something productive, that might even HELP you pay attention.

Most of the items listed below are ones that you can place on and around your desk to fidget with/perform while taking meetings or on calls instead of checking your phone.

Think walking and talking. Think fidgeting while thinking. Think hanging from a bar while listening (can’t reach for phone).

Two birds, one scone. The healthstation improves productivity and improves health, all through environmental design.

It’s like not keeping pints of ice cream in the house!

Building the Healthstation

So whats this thing look like?

Some items are certainly more important than others, but the more you think about it, the easier it is to be creative. To add more and more items that turn your workstation into a health promoting escape pod.

Have fun with it. I came up with some ideas for mine just by writing this.

Let’s explore the inventory. Most of these items are relatively inexpensive. Some a bit more so, none of which really exceeding more than 5 Chipotle bowls.

• Standing desk. S-tier item. #1 on list. Got mine for $94 on Amazon (and they actually made a mistake so I got it free). Sitting is the worst possible thing you can do for your mobility and posture. Getting a standing desk helps with blood flow and recovery. It also helps you burn a few extra calories. Helps you blow off steam, and for me actually improves my ability to produce as an employee. I am a pacer and have always done better thinking and talking while moving. I am a better communicator when standing. Try it.

• Walking pad. PBnJ of the healthstation. With a standing desk and walking pad, 10K steps is literally effortless. Plug it in after lunch or breakfast or while on calls. I know you’re bored anyway.

• Grippers. Replace the phone grab with a forearm gripper. Fun way to level up forearm strength while doing nothing.

• Massage gun. Instead of grabbing phone, grab this. Use on tight areas. Stand, sit, whatever.

• Monitor. POOOOOOOSTURE CHECK! A good monitor is paramount for keeping that posture solid. Plus makes work more enjoyable. I actually find I’m most productive with only one. Your eyes can only look one place at a time anyway and alt+tab is faster than turning head. One monitor is like blinders on a stallion. Try it.

• Lacrosse ball. Unbelievable at rolling out feet and fascia. Swear the effects all the way up to my lower back. While desk is in standing mode just roll around on balls of feet.

• Foam Roller. Duh.

• Happy light. Incredible if you don’t have a window and or are up early. Great for circadian rhythm. Use in the early hours of the day. (Pay more attention to your light diet. One of the most important health interventions we have and most people ignore it.). Check out my essay on Circadian Rhythm

• Red light. Recently, nothing has felt more pro recovery, more calming, more efficacious, than red light therapy. I swear wherever I point it, heals more quickly, feels better. We live in a state of chronic blue light exposure and it’s essential we balance that out with adequate red light. Right now, comparing light diet to real diet, it’s like we only ever eat carbohydrates and completely neglecting protein. We NEED both. Literally passive healing. Point at back. Point at legs. Point at……

  

• Wired headphones. EMFs are one of the biggest reasons why your brain feels schizzo 24/7. Zapped. Get yourself a nice pair of headphones or just the wired apple ones.

• Earplugs. An absolute must. Another reason why if you live in a city you feel so stimmed. Your environment is way too loud. WAY TOO LOUD. There are dryers running in the background, airplanes flying by, car horns beeping, people knocking on doors in your hallway, you’re listening to music, it’s endless. You NEED silence sometimes. Watch what happens to your anxiety and stress when you give it some silence.

  

• LARGE WATER BOTTLE. HYDRATIONMAXXING. Essential on any desk. SIP SIP SIP. Half your bodyweight in ozs. DAILY. Drink good water. Filter it with reverse osmosis or spend a few extra bucks on water every week (Gerolsteiner, Mountain Valley, Loonen, etc.). If you feel tired all the time, bet you’re dehydrated. Good luck with any amount of productivity or health improvement while dehydrated.

• Posture friendly chair. You don’t need a $500,000 chair to improve your posture. I sit in a $15 IKEA wooden square half the time and I sit up straighter and feel better in it than I do in my comfy expensive one. Just get something that aligns your elbows properly and helps you sit up straight.

• Blue light blockers. Important for the evening, especially when you’re working late. Crazy how much they help you wind down and relax.

• Excellent coffee mug. For all beverages: coffee, tea, GABAergic brews, stimulating sangrias, whatever it might be. A staple on any desk.

• Mints or gum or pouches. Keeps your brain focused. I like Neuro gum, Spry mints, Greco gum. Sett is a nicotine alternative I’ve enjoyed. Nicotine if tolerated. Always go with NicNac Naturals. Helps you stay locked in. Read my essay on nicotine if you’re hard stuck trying to quit

• Yoga mat. Great if you’re on a call and don’t need to participate very much but don’t want to reach for your phone. Pull it out and do some stretching.

• Resistance bands. Just a glorified fidget toy. Great for posture. Can do some really simple exercises to get blood flow to certain areas or if really bored full on resistance train lol.

• Lock Box. For protecting important cargo. Passport, a nice watch or two, some cash, birth certificates etc. Also as much of a place to keep your important items organized. Most importantly, can put your phone in here, lock it, and then put the key somewhere out of reach. Barrier to getting on that device.

• Pillows or meditation pads. Mine are from Snow Peak. I’ll meditate by my desk or use them to adjust the height of my red-light device.

  Gotta hit them angles - Drake

Software for the healthstation:

• F.lux. For nighttime work (helps remove blue light from computer)

• Whisperflow. For talking to computer with AI instead of typing — so speedy and helps you get thoughts out (not always typing and in that weird arthritis position). Anti-arthritismaxxing.

• Claude Pro. Already to the point where If I lost my little homie my life would suck. Essential.

• Youtube Premium. Recently cancelled my audible and spotify and replaced it with youtube premium. Saving a few bucks every month and basically getting more as result. No reason to look back, yet.

Bonus items I really like and am thinking about acquiring:

• Gymnastic rings. In the future, I’d love to hang rings from the ceiling above my desk so I can hang whenever or do a pull-up or two. Seems way too easy and probably an S-tier upgrade.

• Normatec air compression bags. I run a lot. Legs always sore. Some leg compression sleeves for some bonus recovery while chilling on calls would be great.

• Floor-to-stand desk. I love sitting on the floor. More than a chair by a mile. If I could bring my desk all the way down to the floor and sit and stretch in front of the computer screen, that would be cool. Or just meditate and have a place to drop my stuff nearby.

• Balance toys. Dowel rod. Mobo board. Balance work. Stability. Why not. Any mistake means I fall into my computer. Raise the stakes. Works.

• Calf raise slant board. Plant near desk to spam calf raises when irritated

• A big window. A nice view with nature. Sun. Need to move lol.

The healthstation isn’t flashy, but neither was Tim Duncan. Five rings.

So what your parents friends think you’re a weirdo, when you leave a day of work feeling better than when you started, you wont care at all.

In time, I’m certain you can make it pretty. You can still have a fancy book case in the background, you can still have cool materials, a minimalist angle, with storage for all of your gadgets and gizmos. The order of operations in which we create our desk setup is just backwards.

I think most people prioritize productivity which is great, the whole point, but then we reach for something useless like aesthetics or minimalism when we could make our desk a place we go to improve our health (we’re already there all day long).

Once you turn your cockpit into a healthstation, then by all means, make it pretty. I promise your body will thank you.

All in it’s not even that expensive, just takes a little elbow grease to setup, and then you’re off to the races. Instead of reaching for your phone, reach for a gizmo. Pace. Stretch. Meditate. Something. Anything other than go on your phone. You’ll be better at your work too.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed. Catch ya soon. Peace peace.

Dante

At first, Zyn is amazing. Work is effortless, dopamine is sky high, and somehow coffee becomes even better.

But then, one random day, all of life’s color gets drained from the world and poured into a pouch. It becomes your single source of happiness. Your compass. Your god.

Everything that should be enjoyable, that once was, no longer is. The delicious meal is suffocated by a post-dinner zynbabwe. The slow moments on vacation turn miserable without a zynachino. The work becomes impossible unless you’re stimmed out the wazoo by a Thomas Jefferzyn.

I know you just wanted to have a little fun. I’ve been there. But you’ve always known, deep down, that you shouldn’t keep this up forever. That one day rent will come due.

But hope is not lost. Not if you’re willing to sack up.

And no, you don’t need to quit forever. Why would you do that? Nicotine is incredible.

Control. That’s what people are missing. When you take it back, it’s like the first warm day after a long winter. You see in color again, and wonder how you ever let a pouch of ground-up leaf get in your head and drive the ship. The pouch works for you, not against you, and the downsides shrink to a rounding error.

The problem is not nicotine. Its you. It’s your relationship with it. The two of you simply need to be on the same page.

Time for a little therapy session.

There is no free lunch

I’m getting deja vu from high school. Missed the cigarette wave but witnessed the Juul in full force. Experiencing the same thing now with pouches. Same molecule once again larping as something new.

We are in the 1950s of Zyn. Just like all of its predecessors, the zeitgeist approves for now. But soon enough I’m sure the downsides will surface. And then it will be the next thing. And the next thing. Until it’s just nicotine.

A plague sweeping the globe once more. Millions of humans brainwashed into believing that nicotine has no side effects, many even advocating that it is good for the world.

Unshackle your mind and think about it for 2 seconds. You have not reasoned yourself into that way of thinking. Of course nicotine is not harmless. A little bit of objective science for you:

It is a vasoconstrictor. It narrows your blood vessels, so every organ in your body, brain, skin, hair, genitals, receives less blood flow. That often shows up as ED, hair loss, and bad skin. It drops your heart rate variability and raises your blood pressure. If you wear a fitness wearable, watch what happens when you take a break. Your resting heart rate will drop and your HRV will skyrocket.

There is no threshold below which nicotine is proven non-addictive. It alters brain chemistry within minutes of the first use. Very quickly 1 pouch turns to 2, to 3, to 4, to 5.

I’m not a scientist, but 30mg of nicotine circulating in your body, permanently, for 40 years, cannot be a good thing.

Especially when you live more of your life on nicotine than off of it.

The impact nicotine has on the body isn’t even the worst of it. The real cost is upstairs in that skull closet.

Willpower is useless. Biology and science have you in a headlock and are laughing in your face. Nicotine up-regulates happy receptors in your brain. When you use it chronically, it sets your baseline dopamine “requirements” higher.

This is why experiences that were once enjoyable now taste like a flat Cola. Your baseline is higher, and that activity is falling short. Everything in life turns gray and the only way to see in color again is to reach for another.

Basically, life is no longer tall enough to get on the ride.

Without even realizing it, the pouch has become a moral compass of sorts. Everything you do needs to be accompanied by a little lip pillow. You can’t go on vacation without making sure you’ve an ample supply, the pouch consumes your thoughts while you’re out to dinner, video games (one of the most stimulating activities ever invented) are boring.

These are all wonderfully unique human experiences, all of which become lifeless when you forget your little puck of nicotine at home. You panic, your thoughts consumed by getting to the nearest 7/11 or bodega.

You don’t need it, it’s just a productivity tool right? You’re Eddie Brock, and Zyn, is the Venom.

But Dante, Dante, random blue zone people smoke cigs and live to 100 and it prevents Alzheimers and it makes me more productive. Sure. You are not a Sardinian grandpa enjoying a cigarette on a porch. You’re on pouch 7 and it’s Tuesday.

Control is everything. The minute you lose control, it’s gg. All of these side effects blasting you in full force, even if you don’t realize it. This is your new normal.

The other side

Fear not, after just a few weeks off, it’s like seeing the sun again. I cannot explain it. A ship emerging from a stormy sea, a cast off a broken arm, a weight off the chest.

The brain feels calm and focused not wired and tired. Your resting heart rate drops and random anxiety disappears. Every recovery metric improves and you can run faster.

The gray things come back in color. The meal is delicious again. The slow moments on vacation are actually slow. Dinner with your friends and family is fun again. Video games are fun again. The weather excites you. Walks are elating. Buildings are gorgeous. Sunbeams on your skin are the best thing in the world. Awe and wonder are restored to the galaxy. No more crafting a master plan to get to the gas station.

Life starts to feel like it was meant to. You feel again, and wonder how you ever let yourself fall so far.

“Quitting” doesn’t have to be forever

Losing that feeling, not being captain of my own mind, is what gets me to reset. Every single time.

Not “because I should.” Not some study. I reset because I remember what the vivid version of life feels like, and I can feel it slipping. I can feel the runs getting harder, the dinners getting duller. The color starting to drain. It’s like a fire alarm going off in the middle of the night. And then the guilt arrives.

I’ve “quit” nicotine more than once. But quitting hasn’t really been the objective. The objective is to siege my own mind and exorcise the demon. To regain control, which is what I’m really advocating for in this essay.

At the end of the day, why would you want a wintergreen zinger to be the first thing you think about when you wake up?

I like nicotine. You like nicotine. I find it beneficial, so do you.

BUT ONLY UP TO A POINT.

It’s easy to let slide because it won’t level your life the way say alcohol does. But you must admit it’s pretty sad to see a pouch become a priority over water or to become your new favorite dessert.

I’m here to tell you that quitting doesn’t have to be forever. Just like you can have a few drinks every week and still operate successfully and stay healthy, the same can be true with nicotine.

The goal here, and always should be, maintaining control. Quit for life? That depends.

Retaking the fortress

Nobody just up and quits nicotine because they don’t like it, it’s awesome. This essay won’t make you quit. Your girlfriend asking probably won’t work either. Only a decision made by you, for a reason that’s yours, is strong enough to carry you through the irritation, the withdrawal, and the frustration to get to the other side.

Take cigarette smokers for example. Even little babies know cigs are horrible for you. You think smokers don’t? Of course they know. They just don’t think the bad outcome will happen to them.

Then, when they get a bad diagnosis, or it catches up with them, and they quit instantly, because they finally have a reason why.

Don’t let this be you. Find a reason why, today, one you can feel now.

For me, the alarm is when nicotine time is the best part of my day. When life starts getting boring. When my watch confirms the decline, resting heart rate up, sleeping heart rate up, HRV down. And, something I haven’t really talked about, nicotine likely isn’t great for reproductive health, and I want healthy kids one day more than anything.

Find yours. Then channel that fuel into powering through the exit.

Use the rule of 3, taught to me by good friend (see his guide to full exit and more science HERE)

3 minutes to suppress the cravings.
3 days to push past the withdrawals.
3 weeks to form the new nic-free habit.
3 months to rewire your brain chemistry.

Start with the 3 minutes. Think about what it takes to lose weight. When I’m cutting, the hardest part is getting up from the table still hungry. Leaving a few bites. Every primal instinct screaming at me to meander to the fridge and scarf down more. A tiny choice that seems like nothing in the moment but makes all the difference. If I can make it a few minutes, the urge subsides. I’m back in the driver’s seat, one day closer.

Nicotine cravings are the same. Make it 3 minutes and the craving passes. 3 minutes to set the tone.

From there, 3 days. 3 horrible days. This is the worst of it. Withdrawal, irritation, anger, hunger, garbage sleep. And you’ll lie to yourself. You’ll try to convince yourself that life is better this way, that nicotine is adding to your life, that it needs to be part of the experience. You’ll want to cave. This is a lie. A little leviathan whispering sweet nothings into your ear. It’s the voice of another. Hold strong. Be steady. Press on.

(Spoiler: knowing you can come back actually makes you want it less. It’s like how you spend money when you’re on a budget, but forget about it entirely and you spend nothing. Brain is weird.)

Make it 3 days and it’s smooth sailing. No more physical withdrawal. The next few weeks are only hard because you want it out of habit, tied to certain times and activities. Difficult in its own way.

3 months is the full biological reset, if you’re brave.

Keeping the monsters out

So the fortress is yours again. Now your job is to make sure nothing moves back in.

First and foremost, know yourself. For some people, control will not work. There is no happy medium. For some people, nicotine just plays the perfect melody, their biology loves it. I’m like this with video games. If that’s you, you must abstain. Nicotine is your Ring of Mordor. It cannot be wielded, no matter how well intentioned. It corrupts and must be tossed into the volcano. Know thyself.

For everyone else, your castle needs a drawbridge, with rules for when it opens.

The best way to stay in control is to gate it to specific tasks, at the lowest effective dose. The sweet spot is 1-2mg, which is hard to get from most sources, so I opt for 3mg of Nic Nac Naturals (cut it in half), the cleanest source I can find.

Use it for reading, writing, building, studying, anything that actually matters, I do it in dead silence to get the most out of the dose. I tie it to the task like Pavlov’s dog, so I actually get the benefit.

Outside of work, keep it simple. Never alone. Never on a Tuesday. Always for a specific task. Make it a reward for doing something you really really don’t want to do. Treat it the way you treat caffeine, a tool for a fine window, not the key to happiness in your life (guilty lol). Use it to keep you awake on a long drive or to get you through the hard thing.

I keep it to 2 to 3 lozenges per week. At that rate I see no observable impact on my cardiovascular health. Beyond it, I do.

Why so strict? Because of the leak. Nicotine, gated to real focus work, is the best. But that’s not the problem, it never stays “just for the work.” Work becomes golf becomes video games becomes a little treat after dinner becomes Tuesday.

Plus the pouch only buys you 30 minutes anyway, and when it runs out, the work ain’t working. You need another one. You’re a salivating dog to a dinner bell. All you’ve done is condition your brain to know that pouch means work. Stimulated does not mean focused.

You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to hold the leash. Remember that mirror from Harry Potter? The one that showed them exactly what they wanted? Imagine if all that thing ever showed you was a hockey puck of nicotine. Dumbledore had to drag Harry away from it because bro was drooling in it night after night.

You can look. Dabble. Enjoy! You just can’t make it your life.

A fortress is not a prison

I have this weird mindset where if I try too hard to be healthy, the opposite outcome will happen.

Being neurotic about health is easy, and quite damaging. Yes, be a unit. Work hard. But you need to live! Chud out every now and then. Get a double meal from Chick-fil-A, destroy a sleep score, have a drink or 12.

I’m of the belief that we need hobbies that do nothing and vices that take our minds off things. Little escape hatches and nights we don’t remember. Without ever releasing the pressure valve we turn into boring lifeless losers who can’t relaxed. Horrible way to live.

For me, nicotine is one of those eject buttons. In my opinion, it’s really only problematic when we leave the ship and never come back. As long as we can stay in the drivers seat, can say yes or no on our own terms, can keep it from being our source of motivation, I think were good.

The key is building that relationship.

Hopefully this shifts your mindset a little. Talk soon, and thanks for reading.

Dante

Good morning chat.

Can we talk about how genius Prime Day is? Slashing prices on absolutely everything so the entire world goes into a consumption feeding frenzy like Bruce from Finding Nemo. I will happily be participating.

I thought I would put together a little list of my favorite gadgets, gizmos, snacks and supplements for you to try yourself.

Sorry to be a bit behind the ball on this, but hey, never too late to spend a little money, right? Without further adieu, feel good shopping vibes. Lets roll.

Recovery & Body

1. Hyperice Massage Gun

My muscles often times crave a beating. And they get it. Swear this thing helps wake my old ass up. Staying in the game is key and this thing helps without question.

Shop here:

2. Lacrosse ball

Most ailments can seemingly be solved by jamming a lacrosse ball into it. If you’re sore, try rolling your feet out. I swear I can feel it in my lower back. Always have one with me in my backpack.

Shop here:

3. Happy Light

Used to make fun of my mom for camping out in front of this thing in the winter months. Now, as someone who needs to wake up before the sun, I find it incredibly helpful in helping me maintain my circadian rhythm. Ate shit on that one.

Shop here:

4. NOBS Floss

Easily the best floss I’ve used in my life. Can see it removing gunk from my teeth. Every time we run out my girlfriend literally begs me to order more. Yes, my love.

Shop here:

5. VanMan Beef Tallow

Recently got into skin care. Shit works. Have been putting this on at night and in the morning and my skin looks more lively. Combine with some sun and you instantly become handsome! Also have used it as hair gel. Works!

Shop here:

Kitchen and Home

6. Chemex Pourover

I’ve had mine since ‘08. Kidding, 2021. When people ask me the best thing I’ve ever purchased, it’s this. Makes great coffee and is one of the cleanest ways of doing so. No plastic, no nonsense. A fun little ritual.

Shop here:

7. Coway Airmeg Airfilter

You will hear this again later, but the best thing you can do for your health is control the things you indulge in the most. Hyper fixating on the 1% is useless if you don’t patch up the bigger holes. You should strive for clean air, clean water, and clean food above all. This is what I use. Looks cool in my opinion.

Shop here:

8. Zojirushi Rice Cooker

God have I done a number on my rice cooker. This thing is a must. Literally a clean carbohydrate factory. Does numbers. This is the best one I’ve used and is stainless steel. No tefflon! Thing literally cranks 90s.

Shop here:

9. AquaTrue Carafe

Stop drinking tap water. Take the plunge. Do it one time and forget about it. One of the best investments you can make in your health.

Shop here:

Food & Snacks

10. MASA Chips

Will cost you an arm and a leg but easily the best chips I’ve ever had in my life. Have never met someone who doesn’t love them. This is where half my paycheck goes. Trust.

Shop here:

11. Seek Coffee

Seek and you shall find! My daily drive. When I leave home, I get more excited to get back to my cup of seek than I do my girlfriend. Tastes incredible, mold free, and organic. The founder is also an incredible human and I’m lucky to call him a friend.

Shop here:

12. Jacob Protein Bars

The best protein bar I’ve ever had. I eat more of these than is probably necessary but when I can have clean food in 10 seconds who cares. Clean ingredients and taste incredible.

Shop here:

13. Chomps

I can’t remember the last day a day went by where I didn’t have at least one chomp. I have this time of day called Chomps O’clock. Best time. My go to beef stick.

Shop here:

14. Cadence Fuel Bar

I like bars if you couldn’t tell. This is one of my favorites pre workout. My misses eats them like dessert. Rocket fuel.

Shop here:

15. Oliva Dorado Olive Oil

The best olive oil I’ve ever had. Founder is a stud. Nothing like treating yourself to one of the healthiest foods on the planet, in the highest quality possible.

Shop here:

16. BPN Fuel Bar

Another fuel bar. Carbs carbs carbs carbs carbs carbs carbs carbs carbs!

Shop here:

17. Neuro Gum

I have a mouth fixation issue. This gum has caffeine and L-theanine for focus. I like it.

Shop here:

18. Greco Gum

Mastic gum is supposed to be good for your teeth and oral health. Also, it will give you a chiseled jaw (maybe). I’m also a Greek kid, and I like the branding, so I buy it.

Shop here:

Supplements

19. L-Theanine

My go to supplement for focus. I have a problem chilling out. This helps me mid day when I can’t zen out and in the evening when I wind down.

Shop here:

20. Magnesium Glycinate

Most people are deficient in magnesium. I opt for glycinate because it’s supposed to help with sleep. I take it during the day as well because I have trouble chilling out and it promotes calm.

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21. Promix Electrolytes

If I could prescribe one supplement it would probably be electrolytes. Without hydration, you’re cooked, nothing else matters. Promix is one of my favorites

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22. Sport Drink Electrolytes

Sport drink is the cleanest electrolyte mix I’ve ever had and it tastes great. The branding awesome. My girlfriend doesn’t really care much for electrolytes, but she takes a little pinch of this, puts it in her water, and for some reason it makes her think that she’s sipping a lemon water in a chair in Positano. Check it out.

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23. Momentous Creatine Chews

If you don’t already take creatine, you should. I’m recommending the chews here but these should be a supplement to normal creatine. However, I wanted to put them on your radar if you’re someone who travels. These have been a lifesaver for me when I’m on the road.

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24. Equip Colostrum

This has been one of the most effective tools I’ve found for healing my gut. This means more energy, better looking skin, and something I didn’t expect: healthier looking hair.

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25. Equip Beef Isolate

Whey protein gives me acne. When I switch to beef isolate, all those problems went out the window. Equip tastes great. I usually opt for the unflavored one, but they have a variety of different options if you’re looking to get fancy. Would recommend.

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Desk & EDC

26. Field Notes Journal

You need an analog hobby. Field notes are an incredible way to get started. Carry this little guy around, and whenever you have an idea, write it down. Whenever you need a pen and paper, you have it. It has been truly freeing to be able to leave my house without my phone and know that I won’t forget if I need to remember something.

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27. Moleskine A5 Dotted

For now, this is my go to journal. I’ve gone through a couple of these things. Make sure you get dotted; it helps with the creative process. I’ve also got an entire newsletter on journaling, which is here: How a little pen and paper could save your life

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28. Muji Pens Black - .5

Best pen, plain and simple.

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29. Apple Wired Headphones

Wired headphones are all the rage. This is the gold standard for now. Cant wait until apple gives me these with the silicon tip. GG.

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30. Loop Earplugs

Earplugs have been one of the highest ROI items I’ve ever purchased. Start using them like your AirPods. Wear them in stimulating areas. The world is too loud. Will help you chill out. These Loop ones are money.

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Books

31. Red Rising Series

“Read what you love until you love to read.” - Naval

I’ve always liked reading but like many of us do, in adulthood I got sucked into other hobbies. This series not only revived my love for reading but also helped me land my girlfriend. A story for another time. Also, too much self help nonsense nowadays. Go on a space conquest instead. GGs.

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32. Theo of Golden

This is the last book I finished and was a recommendation from my mom. I really really enjoyed it, made me think deeply about living more simply and more generously. Lots of work to do to start living outside myself!

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33. The Inner Game of Tennis

This is what I'm reading now. Not about tennis. If you are hard on yourself or need to silence a demon, read this. Required reading.

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Clothes

34. Wrangler Pants

This is my favorite pair of pants. Got them in 2021 and they’re holding strong. 100% cotton, cheap, comfy, look good. I have a couple of really nice pair of pants and would pick these over them instantly.

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35. Gildan Hoodie

Everybody knows the old school Gildan hoodies were the best. Get a couple of these and absolutely destroy them. All I wear.

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5 things I’m checking out that I haven’t tried

36. Demon Copperhead (Book)

Supposed to be good and cover looks cool. Gotta be good right?

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37. Vagabonding (Book)

A recommendation from Tim Ferris. I like the title. Intrigued.

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38. Red Light Panel

Been wanting to try this out. Figure now is the time. This was a recommendation from my friends BowTiedPhys - check him out if you want detailed health protocols. Wizard.

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39. Blood Pressure Cuff

Also a recommendation from BTP. Most people don’t check their blood pressure often enough. As Phys says in his letter, “Blood pressure is the canary in the cardiovascular coal mine.”

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40. Dirtbag Energy Bar

Branding feels fitting, and who doesn’t love a little energy bar, right?

Shop here:

Hope this helps you save some money on products you already enjoy or gives you something to try that might become your new favorite.

I’ll talk to you guys soon.

Roger roger, peace peace, love ya.

Dante

The supplement industry has built a billion dollar business around nutrients you can get from a $3 tin on almost any shelf, in any grocery store, in any country on the planet.

Most protein shakes have 10 ingredients. Fish oil is $40 a bottle. B12 is $30. A tin of sardines costs less than $2.

This is no wellness fad. It’s a grotesquely lopsided math equation even a baboon wouldn’t ignore.

Meanwhile the entire world is panicking about wages not rising with inflation, gas hitting $5 a gallon, and groceries costing an arm and a leg. Fear not. There’s an eject button.

Ahem. Tinned sardines. Sent to its room and forgotten about because it comes in a can.

Here’s why you should be eating these little fish instead of your $12 breakfast sandwich.

Read more

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

— Viktor Frankl

I run a lot and I’m still aggressively average. If this is you, let me tell you why and how you can avoid staying there much longer.

But Dante, why should I listen to an average runner claiming he can make me great?

Would you rather take advice from the guy who fought a slice for 25 years and finally fixed it, or the scratch golfer who never had to?

The scratch golfer. Same. Please keep reading lol.

I’ve witnessed many a running journey. I’ve seen people run marathons and never run again. I’ve seen people become elite runners in months. I’ve seen first hand what works and what doesn’t. I know what makes the great runners great, and I understand completely why I’m stuck being average.

This letter is not only a letter to myself, but to younger me, who would’ve benefitted from hearing these things, so as to not wind up where he is now.

Back when I started running, and for roughly an entire year, my only goal was to, well, run. I probably ran in lifestyle New Balances. I have no clue how far or how fast I went. I didn’t track distances, speed, or heart rate.

I ran to that tree and back. I came home tired, I came home healthy. I ran hard when I felt like running hard and I took it easy when I felt like I needed to. I never got hurt, I never felt guilty, I was just running. I was probably making great progress.

This, was running by feel. Now, it’s all about numbers, stats, pace. It’s about outfits, social posts, and making friends. When running drifts from a thing you do to a social anchor, things can start to go south.

We ego run, push it when we shouldn’t, stretch high mileage for the sake of it. We buy cool shoes because they look good, not because they feel good. We let others, algorithms, and apps tell us what we should be doing. We get fomo, run too hard, and end up on the bench. We’ve lost that childish intuition and natural intention because of the great running boom. If we want to be great, we need to start running for ourselves.

In my opinion, there are three things great runners have that make them great. Yes genetics matter, yes body composition matters, but I have those things, and I can’t progress for shit. Three things beyond a good diet, solid speed workouts, and natural born talent:

Intuition, intention, and durability.

Intuition is what younger me had by accident: the ability to listen to my body. Intention is what younger me never had: a plan built around what intuition was telling him. And durability: the floor that makes everything else possible.

As I sit here writing this, I’m realizing I’ve lost all three.

Let’s dive in.

Intuition

In war, information is the most powerful weapon. Not nukes. Not machine guns. Not rockets. Information.

In running, the same is true. Your greatest weapon is not zone 2 training, or intervals, or ice baths. It’s your intuition. The little information factory in your brain. It’s what your body is telling you, all day, every day, before, during, and after a run.

We all have it. The problem, is that we fucking suck at listening to it.

You slept for 3 hours and then tried to PR the 5K. Your calves were absolutely cooked, you didn’t foam roll, and now your achilles feels like it might explode. You didn’t hear the little rascal telling you that you were completely dehydrated and should stop for a drink. You didn’t admit to yourself that you had 7 beers too many and should’ve chilled on the long run.

You need to become chief noticer. And then you need to actually listen.

Great runners, are great listeners. But they didn’t become so overnight. They had to learn how to give their subconscious the floor like anyone else.

Sure, to outsiders, it doesn’t really look like they’re doing anything at all. But at one point, they were. Through time, they’ve built a second brain that manages all of this without having to think about it consciously. It’s second nature. They just know. Know when to push, when to pull back, when to cut a mile or two, and when to throw in some strides.

For normies like us, we have to manufacture it. Consciously. Consistently. And one day, hopefully, it’ll be automatic.

If you stay stuck in a loop of running influencers and elite friends telling you what to do, when to do it, and how, you’re going to wind up injured, hating the sport, burning out, or resenting your friend.

The intuition is there, I promise, we just ignore it for the sake of our local legend status. Give the little fella some room to breathe!

If you’re going to listen to anyone intentionally, might as well let it be yourself.

Now, what to do with it?

Intention

In looking at my Strava, it says I’ve been on 566 runs. What’s funny is that if I had to guess, less than 50 of these really mattered. 50 of these, done with intention and real consistent effort, have driven 99% of all the progress I’ve made as a runner. The hard short runs, and the long slow runs, most likely.

And on maybe 3 of those 50, I got hurt. Shin splint in my left leg. Right hip. Left achilles. (No intuition. Ran hard anyway because I was supposed to, according to Strava, Aura posts, socials, ego, etc.)

And the other 516? I have absolutely no idea. I guess that’s what happens when you replace intuition with metrics, and metrics with absolutely nothing. Big swings. Big setbacks. Long plateau.

I’ve got the bones of a sub 3 hour marathon (my goal) right in front of me, the heart to make it happen, and absolutely no capability to go for it. I am consistently injured, unable to stack hard sessions, and trapped running in zone 1. My body is weak.

That’s what 516 runs with no plan looks like. At least now I know.

Intuition tells you what’s happening. Intention is what you do about it.

So, as much as younger me really enjoyed running to run, if I really want to improve it’s simply not enough. I need a plan that knows me and where I need work.

Take for example the most popular advice in the sport. The “run slow to get fast” propaganda.

In a vacuum, it’s good advice. Call it zone 2, build your base, consistent steady mileage, whatever. I followed it relentlessly. Yes, I got more efficient. Yes, I could go further. But no, I really didn’t get faster.

It wasn’t until I started speed work, intervals, VO2 max type sessions that I finally made the progress I wanted.

But what I didn’t know, was that speed work would be my achilles heel (literally).

All my favorite running influencers, YouTube videos, books, and shorts were subscribing this session and that session. I was listening and they were working! I was getting faster, I was motivated, and I was having fun. But these plans have no idea who I am. They have no idea that I’ve got fragile lower legs. Weak calves and weak feet.

So, while, I could run slow and steady and far forever with no issues, the second I added speed consistently, I broke. And this keeps happening. Three times now. Each time I have to dig myself out in the gym, heal my shit up, then overbuild the area so it doesn’t happen again. And every time it’s the same loop. I see progress. I get excited. I overdo it. I feel something bad creeping in. (In hindsight… Always in hindsight). I ignore it because I’m excited. I get hurt.

I see the progress, I just can’t make it stick.

So I revert back to zone 1. Hold my base, and watch all the progress I just made drain back out. Then start over.

So, while the run slow idea is great, for me, it’s just not the bottleneck. And if I’m always looking to others to tell me what I need to work on, I’ll keep missing that.

I knew my body couldn’t handle speed work. I cannot run fast at high volume. I knew it after the first time. I just never built a plan around knowing it. If I’d designed the whole thing around the one thing that shits in my cornflakes every morning, I’d have hit my goal a year ago. Such is the ego and the greed of wanting to be great now.

That’s intuition. That’s intention. It’s listening to your body enough to know where you stand before a run, and after, and having a good plan for what you’ll do when you feel off. It’s not about following some general plan from Runna.

A plan built without intuition is a plan that gets you hurt. A signal without a plan is a feeling you ignore.

You need both!

Durability

If I could give younger me one piece of running advice, it would be this: If you want to be great, you actually need to be able to run. Consistently.

Staying healthy is priority number one. It should be non-negotiable. Not mileage, not volume, not specific shoes, not being lean, not improving your VO2 max. Staying healthy. Without question.

Easy to ignore.

Like I said, I’ve been doing this a while. Something I’ve noticed is that the people who end up with the best results or the fastest progress, are also the ones with the best durability. They don’t get hurt. They stay in the game.

I have friends I’ve watched push high mileage and multiple speed workouts a week, leaving me wondering how they’re recovering so fast. How they aren’t hurt. I’ve also seen friends hit 20 miles a week and crater.

Everyone talks about how running slow is the best way to progress, or how intervals are what make you fast.

Both true. But not the foundation.

What makes these training modalities possible (and efficacious), is actually being able to go out there pound pavement week over week (with adequate recovery).

You cannot, and will not, make progress if you cannot run. Durability is what grants you that opportunity.

Running rewards consistency, not just intensity. You have to nail hard sessions over and over to see any progress at all. You can’t burn the match one week, be hurt the next, power through a shit one, then take a week off. You have to show up and nail the session. And then nail it 12 more times in a row. And if that means dropping a rep, or taking a few seconds per mile off so you can show up again tomorrow, it’s worth it.

You need to be proactive, not reactive. Rehab. Strength train. Stretch. Mobility. Sauna. Ice bath. If you want to be great, you need to stay in the game. This should be the foundation of any running program, and it is essential, perhaps most important part of all, that this is the starting point.

(Let me know if you want an essay on what I do outside of running to be good at running!)

This is what I wish I heard when I started running. In fact, I think it’s step one to being successful in the sport.

Because being great isn’t being great unless you stay great.

Patience, Padawan. You’ll get there.

Enjoy it

At the end of the day, this sport is supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to be something you enjoy. It’s an individual sport for a reason. You’re competing against yourself, and the very nature of the world has disrupted that. You’re now competing against everyone, every day, because of apps and influencers and everything telling you what you should be doing.

What you should do, is run for yourself. Listen to your body. Design a program that works for you, that lets you move forward (even if more slowly than you’d like) in a way that lets you stay healthy. In a way that lets you be consistent. If you really love running, I’m sure you’d much rather run slow than not run at all.

You’ll get there. But you need to take your time. Enjoy the ride. What are you in such a hurry for? You’ve got your whole life ahead of you.

I promise, the anxiety you feel from not achieving your goal is nowhere near as bad as not being able to run at all because you ego ran when you were injury prone. Trust me. I’ve done it too many times to count. I can only hope that after writing this essay, I will have learned my lesson. Who knows!

Good luck out there. Don’t quit. Rooting for you.

Dante

Things I’ve been thinking about lately:

• Oral health

• Embracing boredom as a creative process

• Taking what I’ve been given and not wanting more

Kids come home from school and hangout with their friends on Discord instead of going to play roller hockey. They’re soft and gentle because they’ve never had their knees shredded to a pulp by the cheese grater that is a sports court. They eat Oreos and kettle cooked potato chips and drink Celsius to fuel their evening Fortnite binge. All to wash it down with a little chit chat with a chat bot on a TikTok riddled cell phone.

I’m 26, trying my best to fight unlimited screen use, eat a clean diet, and still find it unbelievably difficult to resist the temptation to rot at every stoplight, elevator ride, or wait in line. The young brain, the developing brain, is more plastic than mine by a landslide. Far more sensitive to stimulation and fueled by processed food and sugar that only accentuate the problem. The only way my mind can imagine a modern day 12 year old’s brain is “amusement park.” Cotton candy, arcade games, lights, loud music, funnel cake. A complete shit show. Luckily (or unluckily) I no longer have to imagine. I’ve seen it first hand.

Recently, I sat down on an airplane next to a kid who was somewhere between the ages of 10 and 13. I’m not exaggerating, his level of zoomerism was absolutely peak.

He had maybe 4 different snacks, all candy and carb infused. He played no less than 7 different games. He watched 5 minutes of 4 or 5 different movies. He watched highlight reels of Saquon Barkley. He listened to music, if you can even call it that, the rate at which he was changing songs. He was genuinely hitting the woah on beat drops. He was messaging homies and chicks on Snapchat, tilting his phone toward me to show me that he too had a girlfriend. The flight was an hour and he had successfully done more in that hour than I had in my entire day. Calorically, he probably ate more than my girlfriend had in 24 hours. What’s more, with each win in a game or song swap, he actually looked to us to get a reaction. He wanted our approval. And we gave it to him.

He was a nice kid. But absolutely, and utterly, beyond cooked. So far gone. It was honestly my first glimpse into what zero parental control can do when it comes to food and devices in the 21st century. My girlfriend and I got off the plane and the only thing she had to say was “omg I want to hug his little brain.” The kid just couldn’t calm down and it’ll probably be a long long time until he can, if ever.

I left that airport sad at the prospect of the world and what this means for future generations, and what I think I may do with my own kids when, one day, I hopefully sit in that seat.

Not impossible

I’m at that age where friends and family members are starting to settle down. Getting married, having kids. So I feel closer to the subject than I ever have. Naturally, I’ve started asking questions. What’s fun. Challenging. Easy. Unexpected. And it’s become abundantly clear that the biggest challenge my generation is going to face with our children is the screen time problem. We’re all acutely aware of the issue, and most young parents I know are working to figure it out. But sadly, over and over, every time it comes up, I end up hearing the same sad thing: “I just don’t think it’s possible to manage.” Already?! Your baby is 3 months old! Not yet!

Frankly, this irritates me.

Not because it’s not hard to manage, but because I simply hate the idea of throwing in the towel so easily. We cannot. And of course, yes it’s easy for me to cast judgement when I’m not sitting in the seat. I get that. I don’t doubt for a second it’ll be incredibly challenging. I’m absolutely certain I’ll bottle it at some point with my own kids. But hard doesn’t mean impossible. Anything worth doing won’t be easy. In my opinion, it doesn’t really matter how challenging it is. It needs to be done. For our kids and the generations that follow.

And honestly, I don’t even think it’s the regulation that makes this hard, at least not in the early years. A 3 year old doesn’t know what an iPad is unless you hand them one. The hard part is the temptation on your end. Handing your kid a device makes your life significantly easier in the moment. It’s harmless today, so who cares.

You must not fall into this trap. You can’t. It is not a one time choice, it’s hundreds of tiny moments that seem completely benign now, but cost an arm and a leg later.

Which means your life as a parent will be far more difficult than the life of the parent who just doesn’t give a shit. You won’t be able to tranquilize your kid with an iPad when they start crying at the restaurant. You won’t be able to hand them an iPhone when they’re 8 and going to practice for the first time, you’ll have to figure something else out. You won’t be able to spam TikTok reels yourself, because monkey see monkey do.

The easier road is right there, and most people are going to take it.

Which brings me to my first and most important point (and the mindset I think I’ll have when I have kids).

Lead by example

The best way to enforce habit change on others is to lead by example. Asking your buddy to come to the gym day after day never works. Getting in great shape in front of him over six months sure does. Behavior is contagious, and I can’t even imagine how much more this applies to kids. You are their idol. You are their protector. They look to you for safety, knowledge, support. Everything you do, they’ll do, in time. Their early years are the foundation, the base for everything else that follows.

This is the most important part of this entire essay and if you take nothing else away I think it should be this.

If you want your child to live a life more device free, then you yourself must live a life more device free. You set the bar without even realizing it. You create the normal. The hardest part about this entire problem, is that we, as parents, aren’t equipped to make this happen. We enjoy our phones, our technology, our televisions. We like camping out in front of screens and swiping and gaming.

And so when our little Roger finally enters the chat, he enters the ecosystem that we’ve created and live in. This will be hard to accept, and many won’t, but it’s the best thing you can do for your child.

You can’t doomscroll while eating lunch with your son. If you sit on the computer playing video games, naturally they’ll get curious and want to try. If you take out your phone at the restaurant, they’ll think this is okay.

You must be different. You need to live a life of limited screen time, at least in front of them. You need to create a tech free biome for them to grow up in. Build a big library and read books. Watch movies and TV sparingly. Use your phone as a communication device, not an entertainment factory. If your evenings look like sitting on the couch watching American Idol, then that’s what they’ll expect. If your mornings are filled with breakfast and Instagram reels, that’s what they’ll expect. If daddy sits in his office all day behind the big light producing cube, that becomes the normal.

YOU, not your neighbors, not the kids’ friends, not the randoms at the restaurant, decide what the home looks like. You decide if there are TVs in the house or if phones are allowed at the dinner table. You get to decide (as a byproduct of the environment you create) how your child spends their free time.

If you want your kid begging you for iPad time then make that default down time. If you want them to find an alternative, then you must provide one.

This, is perhaps an even bigger challenge.

You are the alternative

What actually happens if your kids don’t have screens? Well, your kid is going to be bored. A lot. The Nintendo Switch kid down the street has infinite stimulation on tap. Yours doesn’t. That gap has to be filled by something, and that something is you.

This is what actually makes it hard. It’s not just leading by example. Not just the environment you create, or the rules you set. It’s the time you will lose. Strip away the device that captures their individual attention, and they will look to you instead. As they should.

You must actively fill the void. You cannot expect a 4 year old to be okay sitting still. It falls on you to fill what would have been screen time with something else. Doodle with them. Take walks. Shoot hoops. Do 150 jumps into the pool. Sit on the floor and build legos for an hour when you’d rather be on your phone. If you don’t fill that space, they’ll reach for the alternative. At home, you’re the alternative.

But Dante, I have work calls. Responsibilities. Places to be. Absolutely you do. But understand the tradeoffs. The more often you make it a habit, the more often it becomes default. It’s a slippery slope, and one that’s hard to climb back from.

Just do your best not to pass your child off to the babysitter (the iPad) for as long as you can. I know I’ve been harsh, but this has never been about being perfect. You can’t be. Screens are part of the world.

Even if you have a perfectly insulated home, they’ll only stay inside it for so long. Eventually they’ll have friends. Eventually they’ll go to little Johnny’s house. Eventually they’ll leave your grasp, and the world out there is not built like the home you’ve built. You won’t be able to be the alternative forever. Which is why, before they ever walk out that door, you need to do everything in your power to set them up for success.

You, as the parent, make the rules and shape their values. Remember that.

The rules apply to everyone, you included

In my opinion, there are two ways to fail at this. One is doing nothing. The other is doing too much.

We all knew the kid whose parents were ridiculously strict and then the kid goes off to college, finally has freedom, and goes absolutely nuclear.

The other is the kid on the airplane, whose parents did nothing at all.

Both lose. I think the answer lives somewhere in the middle.

If you think about it, children don’t really have friends or leave the house until they’re like 5. These are the prime years to start building a foundation, so when they take their first leap from the nest, their brains are hopefully in better shape than most. Your job in these years isn’t to ban everything, it’s to give them structure.

Don’t go full neanderthal. Kids need to know what technology is. The point isn’t to live in a cave, it’s to design an environment that’s healthier and more conducive to appropriate use.

These screens do not give a shit who you are or where you come from. They are scientifically designed to fuck with your biology. It does not matter if your child reads 100 books by age 2; the second they touch an iPhone and get their hands on Jet Pack Joy Ride, they’re cooked. It will be the best thing they’ve ever done in their life.

But you also can’t do nothing. There are a million ways to manage this, but one thing holds true: you must do something, even if they hate you for it.

So set limits. A set amount of time. Even better, a period of time where the two of you do those things together. “Hey kid, let’s spend 20 minutes looking at social media to see the new London Marathon PR, then let’s go shoot hoops.” Participate so they see that you follow the rules too. Any rule you set, you must follow, or they will resent you. Do not take your child’s Nintendo Switch and then make them watch you play Clash Royale on your phone.

The friends question is the same question. When your kid hits the age where they leave your grasp, they’re sentient enough to have a real conversation with. They are smart, remember that. Your child will go over to little Johnny’s, and little Johnny will have the new GTA, and your kid will be exposed to the coolest thing he’s ever seen. He’ll come home begging for the PlayStation. Same will be true for cell phones, computers, TVs.

Don’t be a helicopter. The human brain wants most what it can’t have. Don’t light that fire. Get them the phone, or the Xbox, or the Switch, but show them it’s not the only hobby. Explain the downsides. Let them learn and make decisions for themselves. They want to be treated like adults at a certain point. They’re going to live in this world whether you like it or not. Better they learn the roads with you in the car than discover them on their own.

On comms

How will I communicate with my kid? A good question. How do you reach your kid when they leave the nest if they don’t have a phone?

Buy a smart watch. Kids can use an Apple Watch to call and text and the functionality is limited by design. They can communicate but they can’t doomscroll or accidentally buy $600 of Clash of Clans gems on your credit card. You could also get a dumb phone, or use something like Brick to restrict what a normal phone can do. Keep the phone what it’s supposed to be. A tool.

Another alternative is to have them send physical letters in the mail.

Your child will probably try to find loopholes. Good. Let their little brains problem solve. It’s probably good for them.

Lean in

What if your kid is the next Mr. Beast or Tom Holland and you never let them touch a screen? What if they love watching movies and want to be an actor and have a natural talent for it? What if instead of watching Fortnite chug jug videos they like watching people play piano on YouTube and they’re the next Beethoven? How would you ever know.

Screens are part of life. Here to stay. And if we cannot escape, the next best alternative, I think, is to lean in. What’s most important, aside from leading by example, is that we as parents enable our kids to use technology to do cool things. Not just to consume but to create. If they love Roblox or Pokemon, help them learn how to make videos or write something. If they love gaming, get them to stream. If they love performing, help them make videos. Show them there’s an outlet. Show them these screens aren’t bad, they can be used to build a fulfilling life around something you actually care about.

This is something I wish I’d realized earlier. As a parent, I want to do what I can not to pull my kids away from their interests, screen related or not, but to push them toward those things.

I want my kids to optimize for happiness and nothing else.

Screens are only really bad when used purely to distract the brain, suffocate the thoughts, or be a permanent escape. When they become a hobby, a passion, and potentially a line of work, which I think they can be for anyone now, they’re not so bad after all. You are the one who needs to enable that mindset in them.

Good luck

I don’t have kids, but it’s all I’ve ever known I’ve wanted. I’ll face these same challenges one day, and this is what I’m going to try to remember when I do: I don’t need to be perfect, and I shouldn’t be, but I can’t give in, and I need to try my best. And I think you should too. For the future our children deserve.

Thanks for reading. Rooting for you (and your kids).

— Dante

We live in a world where the SAT is optional, GPAs don’t go on resumes, and AI can make you look like you went to Harvard.

On paper, everyone is exceptional.

Everyone played sports, everyone led a club, and everyone has the same three bullet points dressed up in Instrument Serif.

You are not unique.

Sorry buster, the resume space race is over, AI won, and it took your “extracurriculars” with it. LinkedIn profiles, fancy websites, and optimized applications getting cannonballed out into the void, never to be seen again.

You hope and pray it lands you an interview, but deep down you know it never had a shot from the time it left the ground.

Whether you like it or not, firing off 30 LinkedIn applications isn’t a job search. It’s a feeling. It feels like effort. It feels slightly more productive than doing nothing.

Movement instead of progress.

It’s easy. Easy to have AI bundle up your little profile and spam 20 jobs in two seconds. You’re doing it! You’re finally going to make a change! You’re finally going to escape! But deep down, you know you don’t stand a chance. Not this way. Something about it just feels too… too good to be true, right? Wonder why.

Like most things that are worth doing, this too won’t come easy. The only way out is through. It’s not quick. It takes time and effort and consistency. It takes putting yourself out there, being a pest, getting embarrassed, and dropping your ego long enough to figure a few things out.

Today, everyone looks good on paper. Everyone is obsessed with the shell of the turtle. But no one is paying attention to the turtle. In this superficial world, the inside is the last place anyone thinks to look. That’s exactly why it’s the only place left to win.

Hard, Not Complicated

Getting a new job is hard, but it’s not complicated. The hard part is actually getting in the room. Being in a position where you have the opportunity to show off your stuff. The interview. I’m sure many of you are amazing people with incredible talent, but none of that matters if you can’t show it off.

This is why the resume feels pretty much useless. It really says nothing about who you are, what kind of work you’ll do, what kind of colleague you’ll be, or whether you’ll be fun in the lunchroom or awkward with clients. You need to be seen, more than ever, especially given how normal you’ve become on paper.

You need to be different, sometimes just for the sake of it. Most people struggle to land a job because they’re the exact opposite of that — they’re doing what everyone else is doing. So in order to get the interview, you almost by default need to be doing what everyone else isn’t. What’s everyone doing? Saucing their resume in the soup. So maybe you shouldn’t even be in the kitchen.

Become Someone Worth Hiring

I’ve been fortunate in my young career to work with people who (from a corporate ladder perspective) are pretty high up there. Really really intelligent people with aspirational titles and long “successful” careers. Naturally, you pick up on things.

Over and over, I keep hearing the same shit: “I got brought on to do this.” “XYZ gave me a call and told me there was this opportunity.” “The role presented itself to me.”

None of them had applied for the job they were in.

In fact, I find it kind of annoying how many times I’ve heard the words “I’ve never applied for a job in my life.” Their prior work and character opened the door. They are the resume.

And yes, I understand that if you’re reading this you’re probably not the CFO of a large financial institution, but the point still remains. The best aren’t scrolling Glassdoor looking at salaries. They’re working, and their work is working for them. Who they are is doing the heavy lifting.

Let’s play with this idea for half a second.

I’m a hiring manager looking for employees, teammates, whatever. How would I do it? How would I fill seats today knowing literally nothing? Probably one of two ways.

1. I’d turn to the best people I know. Friends, family, old coworkers, etc. The ones I trust to put the effort in. The ones with the drive. The ceiling. The chemical makeup to be successful. They’ll learn the job, the technical bit. And I trust them to do so. So they get the call.

The flip side of this is kind of funny. I have plenty of friends I absolutely love, but they’re fucking idiots. I’d never hire them. Because I know them. I know they sit around jerking off playing WoW on the clock.

The point is, you need to be the kind of person worth hiring. What gets you in the room is being high character, positive, enjoyable, and if possible, hardworking and good at what you do. Which brings us to number 2.

2. I’d go find the best people that exist for the role. They probably wouldn’t be hard to find.

If you’re really really good at the job, they almost have no choice but to hire you. Every organization is looking for people they’re confident will boost their “KPIs”. If you can guarantee that, they’ll find you. Word travels fast. I promise.

In our world, it’s simply easier to polish a resume than it is to focus on yourself. Which is why no one does it.

You need to be the kind of human worth bringing on board. It’s very very simple. Ask yourself these questions: Would I hire myself? Am I the kind of person worth hiring for this role?

If not, then get there. Thats it. Recruiters, your friends, your coworkers can see it too.

You need to be someone others would stake their reputation on. Flat out.

How to Get in the Room

Step one: know what you want.

You can’t network towards nothing. You need a target. There are too many jobs out there and things are too competitive. You’re far better off setting your sights on one target and taking all your shots there than firing 100 shots a day at six different industries, 12 different companies, and five different recruiters. Sure, cast a few lines and see where you get nibbles, but you need to know what you want. You’re far more likely to catch the fish you want if you know what bait to use.

Once you know what you want, you know how to frame yourself. How to tailor conversations, outreach, preparation, emails. Use Claude or ChatGPT to help you narrow the search. Tell it your experience, what you’re good at, your current role. Ask what you’re suited for. Ask it to ask you questions to help you find a good pivot. If you know the end goal but can’t see the road, ask it to map one for you and follow it.

Step two: networking.

Yeah, I hate the word too. What does it even mean? I don’t really know. Make friends and shit. Anyway, unfortunately, this is really how you’re going to get a job. This is the best approach by far.

Honestly, given the nature of our world, I think it’s the only way to get a job you actually want. It’s also exactly why being worth hiring matters so much.

When you call your uncle’s uncle, he needs to not only be okay with making the introduction — he needs to think it’s a good idea. (It’s like trying to set people up for a date. Nobody wants to introduce their ugly, out of shape, broke friend who still lives with their parents at age 45, no offense.)

And for the record, I understand this is uncomfortable, and you don’t want to have to lean on people, and you want to do it yourself tough guy, and you don’t want to be a nepo baby, and so on and so forth. Nobody cares.

Drop the fucking ego. Get over yourself. It’s not lame, it’s reality. Take what you want from this life or be used by it. Plain and simple.

So what do you do? Make friends!

Most adults on this earth have a job. That means everyone is a prospect. Think about that.

Start with your immediate circle and branch out. Brothers, sisters, parents. Then uncles, cousins, aunts. Then friends. Then friends of friends. Then parents’ friends. Then the random you meet at the coffee shop. Identify who has the job you want, and hone in. Then reach out. Ask someone to reach out for you. Don’t be shy. This is the hard part. This is the embarrassing part. It’s ego. It’s not only hard for you, it’s hard for the person making the connection. (Again why you need to be a high value person).

When nothing happens, follow up. Don’t be annoying, but be persistent. Most people will tell you they’ll help, and it will fizzle. Follow up anyway. Be selfish in this game. It’s literally your only option. Or back to LinkedIn. (Don’t.)

If they said they’d reach out to their recruiter or their boss and you hear nothing, you have every right to follow up. Only stop when they tell you directly that there are no openings. Most of the time what happens is you get handed off. Then handed off again. Then again. You just keep going. Don’t take silence as an answer.

Most people don’t do this. I know because I am most people. You send one or two emails, don’t get a reply, chalk it up to “didn’t hear back,” then go back to ripping Indeed applications.

Do not do this.

Keep shooting. It will take many tries. Lots of rejection. Many phone calls. Many, many. It will seem like nothing is happening, but with each go you’re really getting closer and closer. The odds aren’t in your favor, but eventually, someone’s gotta reply, right?

In college, I witnessed this firsthand. My little brother. Fucker.

He works in Sales and Trading in New York at one of the biggest banks in the world. In college, while I was playing League of Legends, he was sending hundreds of emails to alumni of our school who had landed jobs on The Street. Hundreds. Hours and hours. Weeks on end. He shared his work, his knowledge, who he was, his interests, what he wanted. In time, he got in touch with the right people. Internship, then full time hire.

The smallest connection makes a difference. It instantly warms the two of you up. Don’t only consider direct relationships. In that story, my brother used our school as the bridge. Anything helps.

But he also knew what he wanted. He wasn’t sending hundreds of emails in a million directions — he was tossing lines in a pond, not the ocean. He was tasty bait and people saw that. Then he nailed the interviews.

Keep following up. Keep sending emails. Be persistent. Because when you finally get in the room, you need to be ready.

How to Interview

“Want it, don’t need it.” - Matthew McConaughey

Remember, you already have a job. You have infinite respawns. Use the job you hate as a tactical insertion to respawn after rejection. Rip call after call, email after email, fearlessly. There is no defeat when you’re already being paid. Everyone else is acting like it’s Search and Destroy. It’s not. Paychecks will keep coming.

And if you don’t have a job at all — enjoy it. Work sucks. What are you rushing into something stressful for? My favorite job to this day was caddying at a golf pro shop. Go try that. Find a minimum wage job you enjoy.

Regardless, the mindset should be the same — want it, don’t need it. (Applies to networking as well.) Desperation is so stinky. It’s not an escape or your golden ticket. It’s just a new opportunity. Remain calm, be yourself, prepare, execute.

I digress. Let’s talk interviewing.

I had one recently. Whether I did a good or bad job is still up for debate, but I got the role — which is of course all that matters. In this game, your score doesn’t matter. A+ is the same as C-. It’s pass or fail.

But you need to prepare like you need a 100%.

It’s incredibly easy for an interviewer to tell if you want it. The people who want it have done the work up front. They’re intense. They’re confident. They’re on a mission.

Every job I’ve ever really wanted, I’ve gotten. Every job I didn’t really care about, I didn’t get. That comes out in the interview, whether I’m aware of it in the moment or not.

If you really want it, the preparation will take care of itself. Which brings me to my next point, how to prepare.

AI, obviously.

AI makes it stupid easy. Not just from an information standpoint, but from a rep perspective. You can get so many optimized at bats. It’s incredible at generating interview style questions. It can store your answers. You can feed it documentation, job descriptions, anything that resonates. You can tell it your current role, the role you’re going for.

AI would pass your interview in a heartbeat. You just need to prompt it right to get the information into your head.

Here’s exactly what I did:

I compiled a list of interview questions in an Apple Note. I practiced my answers over and over and had AI ask me those questions in random order. The list grew naturally. I had it generate new questions it thought would be important for the role, and I added those too.

Once the list was big, too big, I had it reference it to run full mock interviews.

Then I created a rating system. After each question, I would rate the difficulty somewhere between 1 and 3.

A 1 meant I nailed it and didn’t need to see it again that round. A 2 meant I did okay but wanted another pass. A 3 meant I bombed it and needed to see it frequently.

I had it show me 3s most often, 2s sometimes, and 1s rarely. This helped me get comfortable with the questions that I found most difficult.

Most importantly perhaps, in this process I had it throw in curveball questions — ones I’d never seen to help me practice thinking on my feet (this too is a skill).

Then I spammed this interview mini game I had created. I spent hours. And hours. And hours. I got good at winging answers in a way that sounded good. I learned the material. I asked questions about things I didn’t understand. I used voice mode to have it ask me questions while I would go on walks and while I was commuting to my then current job.

It was so easy because just like an interview each question was served up one at a time in a random order.

In the end, I was wildly, confidently prepared.

I also opened Microsoft Teams and started a meeting with myself to simulate being on camera.

I had my dad hop on a Teams call and grill me from my question bank. It helped me get used to that feeling.

When I finally walked into the real thing (for a job I actually wanted), it felt like I was a college kid playing kickball with elementary schoolers.

On the morning of the interview, I skipped coffee to avoid the jitters and went for a walk beforehand to clear my head. I listened to AC/DC’s “Hells Bells,” same as I did before games as a kid. That’s what game day looks like now.

It’s all about being prepared. I’m sure there are better ways than how I did it, but it worked for me. Maybe it will work for you too!

Go

Getting a new job is daunting and challenging. But when you take a step back, it’s really not that complicated. The problem is that most people are trying to 360 no scope a job off of Indeed. Which is pure laziness. Kind of like dating apps (Kidding).

Not because it can’t work — but because it has no intentionality to it. It’s a desperate plea. Which is why, for so many people, the grass isn’t always greener. They didn’t give their next step any thought.

And when it does work, it’s almost always obvious why they end up miserable again. They took the job the world served up to them instead of going out and getting the job they wanted. A bandaid on a bullet hole to their “fulfilling career” problem.

If there’s a job you want, it’s now your job — pun intended — to go out and get it. It will be hard. It will be challenging. But you need to go directly to the source. Use LinkedIn to do exactly that. Link with people. Make connections. Have conversations. People like feeling important — make them feel important, and they’ll probably talk to you.

The key isn’t just to get a job. It’s to get a job you actually want. Which, naturally, is going to be way, way harder.

Just keep going. Don’t give up. Be persistent. Silence is not an answer. Want it, don’t need it. Use AI.

Go. Go. Go. No one is coming to save you. Remember that.

Thanks for reading, and godspeed.

— Dante

Most weight management strategies are ass because they aren’t built with you in mind. You a unique, 1 of 1 specimen with your own biology, schedule, circumstances, and history. You have your own pitfalls, strengths, preferences, and levels of activity.

Most of the time, you are trying to force a hotdog into an auxiliary jack, which is surprisingly, useless.

As you go down the self-improvement rabbit hole, you’ll hear the same thing over and over. “You need to find what works for you.” Which is true (although not particularly helpful).

Think about it like this. Yes, you need to build your own plan, do your own research, and find something you can personally sustain. But I’d almost guarantee that this roadmap won’t come from one single source, which is exactly what everyone wants. Unfortunately, one person’s (complete) playbook cannot be another’s.

But that doesn’t mean pieces of their plan won’t work for you, which is exactly why I’m writing this.

Fear not, all of these little things you’re doing to learn and educate yourself are not useless. You simply need to stop treating the podcast, the YouTube video, the book, the article, as scripture. It won’t be. Individually, in the short term, each of these does nothing.

But over time, something interesting happens. These little nuggets of information compound. They combine to form something meaningful. A piece here, a piece there. Get rid of this, add that. Over and over and over, like a little thief.

You try a weight loss strategy, it doesn’t quite work, but you keep one thing you liked. You try something new, it fails, but again, you keep a piece. You keep pulling rubber bands from the metaphorical self-help bag and adding them to your personalized rubber band ball.

And eventually, all those little nuggets form a beautiful amalgamation that’s yours. Your system. Your protocol. Your “what works for you.”

This essay is my rubber band ball. Simply what works for me. My hope is that somewhere in here is a rubber band that belongs in yours.

This is how I manage my weight. How I gain weight (muscle), maintain it, and lose it all without counting calories.

Shall we?

Read more

The porcelain throne may as well be the 8th wonder of the world. One of very few sacred places remaining on earth. Going to the bathroom is something you do alone for the duration of your life. A socially acceptable reason to be absent. A vacation in the middle of the workday. A take 5 to rip a few text messages and inhale a YouTube video. No one can argue with it. No one can stop it. A few glorious minutes that are completely yours. Most of the time, the bathroom break is a magnificently intimate experience. Of course, sometimes it feels like you’re opening a portal to the underworld in there (see the speed run or the battle after a night out), but on average I think it’s typically an enjoyable experience, particularly if you’re regular.

Hopefully, (more on this later) you’re going to the bathroom consistently. A daily ritual that’s already scheduled into your day. 20 minutes where you get a little time to reset, check your phone, and do your business. Honestly, I’d argue the bathroom break has become more of an entertainment break than a time to go to the bathroom. I can speak from personal experience when I say the actual bathroom part takes 2-3 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of droiding around on my little super computer. Enjoyable? Absolutely. Useless? Pretty much. Now imagine this, you take your little “requirement” and use it to your advantage. You use those 20 minutes to build a new habit. Something meaningful. I mean, it’s not like it’s that hard, you’re already in there anyway.

On average, I’d imagine (or hope) that most people are going to the bathroom at least once per day. Myself, sometimes twice, but always about an hour after I have my morning coffee and banana (pre run fuel). Let’s pretend the bathroom break takes 15 minutes. For me, it’s probably closer to 20, but let’s call it 15—for science.

So if you spend 15 minutes per day on the toilet, you’re spending 90 hours per year doing your business. 90 hours! Many estimates say that in order to become above average at anything, it takes roughly 100 hours. Not far off. Now imagine if you spent your 15 minutes on the toilet doing something constructive. Something to work towards a goal. Language learning, writing, building a reading habit, journaling, whatever. What if you spent your break studying the stock market, or reading economics, calling family, or playing with AI? In one year’s time you’d be above average at that thing.

Why it Works

It’s not just the time that makes the toilet a great spot to build habits, it’s the process itself. The bathroom is an S-tier POI for habit formation. If you haven’t read James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, it’s one of those trademark self help books on how to get things done. Spoiler alert, it’s all about habit formation. How to build habits. In his book, he talks through a few different strategies you can deploy to get better at exactly that. Since his ideas have all but been ingrained into the self improvement hive mind, I won’t pretend these are ideas are mine. However, I want to talk through why taking a shit is an incredible time and place to build a new habit, using the tools that he discusses. Let’s pretend that you wanted to build a reading habit.

1. Habit stacking - Adding a habit to an already existing habit. (This is why the morning routine works). When you sit on the toilet, you will read 5 pages. Pavlov’s dogged instantly. You have to go to the bathroom daily so it’s a perfect choice.

2. Habit cue - A signal that means it’s time to do the thing. You have the urge to go to the bathroom, and your body knows it’s time to read. Cheeks hit the porcelain and it’s game on. Plus you can leave a book in the bathroom to help.

3. Make it attractive - Straightforward. Going to the bathroom is usually enjoyable. Won’t dread sitting down most of the time.

4. Make it easy - This is the bread and butter of the toilet habit strat. You’re already going anyway. No friction.

5. Frequency - Skills are acquired through reps. You get the reps for free.

6. Environment - No TV in there. No computer. Can choose to leave your phone behind and take a book instead. Completely alone too. No distractions.

7. Goldilocks rule - You don’t want the habit to be too hard or too easy. 1 minute not enough. 30 minutes too long. 10 minutes of reading is just enough time to build, and not so overwhelming that you burn out. A manageable chunk.

It’s literally perfect. Going to the bathroom is already carved into your day. It’s usually fun, so you won’t dread it. It’s frequent and of a comfortable duration—not too long, not too short, just the right temperature. All you have to do is choose to do something constructive.

Tips for Consistency in the Bathroom

This trick will only work if you’re going to the bathroom regularly, so we need to talk about that. A healthy gut is a healthy body. Sidebar: weirdly, when I think back to high school, all my friends who were the gassiest were the ones with the best skin. Active bowels. Healthy guts. I’ve personally noticed significantly better skin health since I started prioritizing gut health and “movement”—the more regular I am in the bathroom, the better my skin, and the more energy I have. If you aren’t going to the bathroom regularly, consistently, toxins are being reabsorbed into the bloodstream due to impaired excretion through the bowels. It is called waste for a reason. Simply put, going to the bathroom is so important for your overall health and wellbeing. Here are my blanket recommendations on how to fix your sluggish bowels (I’ll dive deeper into this topic in a future newsletter because it’s that important):

1. Consistency - We are aiming for consistency, are we not? Therefore what do you think we need to be? Consistent, yes yes. Our internal “body clocks” are remarkably powerful. Timing is everything. Timing with when we eat. Timing with when we sleep and wake. Certain cues that trigger movement. Eat at the same time every day without fail. You need to give your body time to understand your system.

2. Fiber - Apparently, our ancestors ate close to 100 grams of fiber from a variety of different sources daily. Compare this to modernity at roughly 15 grams per day. Not enough. Up your fiber intake, preferably from various plant sources. I like to focus on berries and cruciferous vegetables. Aim for 30 grams per day—build up as you tolerate.

3. Drink lots of water - Aim for half your body weight in ounces. Need to get some H2O into that stool. Lubricate the pipes. Add more water with extra activity. Good hydration is important anyway.

4. Supplementation - Fiber supplements such as psyllium husk and inulin work well. Do not rely on these, try to get fiber from food, but they’re a nice kickstarter. Magnesium is a wonderful supplement. You should probably be taking it as is. But it also helps with going numero dos. Magnesium citrate is the best for this, but I like magnesium glycinate. The taurate and threonate varieties are nice as well. Creatine is another supplement that accidentally helps and has nice benefits on the side. Lastly, taurine seems to help with detox and bowel movement. I like it. Works well for my friends that I’ve recommended it to.

5. Exercise - Straightforward. Helps kickstart digestion. Gets things loose. Stool gets moving and grooving.

6. Eat - This might seem counterintuitive, but I notice my digestion doesn’t really “turn on” until I’ve had something to eat. I’ve tried all kinds of intermittent fasting—all of which seems to slow my bowels. A good practice for certain reasons, but doesn’t seem to help me with going potty. Be mindful of this.

7. Coffee - Lots and lots of coffee. Chug jugs worth.

Gotta be going to the bathroom consistently. If not to build habits, than for robust health, energy, and mood.

The World’s Cockpit

The toilet is a beautiful little sanctuary. A place we do our business. Unequivocally important for our health. And an incredible place to build and sustain habits. If you wish to start something new, try giving it a stab while you’re going to the bathroom. It truly is such an easy way to be consistent, if you are consistent. All it takes is the tiniest shred of willpower to not go on Instagram for 10 minutes. You have all day to do that, just like usual.

My hope is that I can one day write a newsletter on how I learned Japanese entirely while going to the bathroom. Also, for those times where I go more than once, I find that I do some of my best writing while taking a deuce. Something about that beautiful little porcelain throne that induces a robust flow state. Hopefully, this gives you some ideas. Stay safe out there, and best of luck conquering the universe from the world’s cockpit.

Thanks for reading,

Dante

Selfishly, I’m frustrated with what our overly connected, overly stimulated world is taking from me. I’ve worked hard in my early twenties to adopt habits that I think might be useful as I grow. The hardest of which, and still a work in progress, is the idea of disconnecting. Going analog. More deeply integrating myself in the world and the experiences in front of me. I’ve worked hard to not be chronically online and to enjoy the slow moments. The coffee, the book, the dinner, the car ride, whatever. This, at least from an individual perspective, has been one of the best things I’ve ever done. I’ve become significantly better at enjoying almost everything. Yes, I mean what I’m saying, I enjoy everything more. Fewer peaks and troughs. I find myself less frequently longing for the next thing. I have no desire to fill the space between with meaningless swiping and online shopping. This past year, 2025, was a year where I really felt like I started to break through. It went from something I was trying to do, to being a part of my life. I am no longer trying to be less online, I am less online. I make more time for the people in my life. I enjoy the slow moments. I’m comfortable in my own mind. I can sink into books without getting distracted. I can watch movies without going on my phone. It has been incredibly challenging, and simultaneously, incredibly rewarding.

This holiday season was the first long break I’ve had in my short career, which of course was exciting. I knew it would be a perfect time to view everything with my new set of eyes. I was looking forward to enjoying some much needed family time, away from the onslaught of rogue teams messages and undesired responsibilities. On Christmas morning, as my family sat around our beautiful living room, Frank Sinatra J-I-N-G-L-E belling, wrapping paper being shredded and coffee being sipped, I couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. As I sat on the mantle of our fireplace, watching my lovely family partake in our usual Christmas traditions, I found myself longing for something more. It wasn’t more gifts, or more coffee, or our usual fantastic breakfast, but something much, much deeper. I was longing for my family’s attention, something that was so clearly stolen by our devices. This pattern would repeat itself. Not days later, my family and I were at a beach concert. The weather was perfect—a cool breeze, clear skies, and Chris Stapleton making my eardrums dance. I was completely and utterly immersed in the experience. I noticed seagulls screeching, families laughing, feet tapping. The sun was charring my effervescent, vampiric skin, and life was good. A year ago I would’ve never been able to sink into this magical experience. I would’ve never taken notice of these things. I didn’t need to fill the space. I wasn’t longing for more. I wasn’t bored or thinking about dinner. I was present and I was happy, but only for a time, because just like Christmas morning, I felt almost completely alone.

For a long time, I felt like I was one of those people who could go at it by myself. Chuck Norris style. A lone wolf questing to become a modern day DaVinci. I was comfortable in my own head, in my own space. I enjoyed alone time and my hobbies were enough to keep me happy. I felt like I would be okay no matter where I ended up or what I did. I was selfish, but then again, maybe that’s just youth. As my prefrontal cortex finally started to boot up, it became abundantly clear that I would eat shit on that one. I needed—I need people. For me, experiencing life with someone else, with others—my family and close friends is what makes this wild human experience worth it. It became the driving force behind all of my actions and decision making. What’s the point in having a great job and lots of money if I didn’t have anyone to spend it on? Why would I travel if I didn’t have anyone to share the memory with? If I didn’t care about the people in my life, and the experiences I want to give them, I’d be backpacking in Peru, writing articles and running marathons. I don’t think I’m alone either. Life is significantly more enjoyable in the company of others. It’s never the personal accomplishments I remember, it’s the smile that I put on other people’s faces. It’s the gifts I buy for others. It’s the moments where the people I love make me laugh. I never realized how much I needed, longed for, human interaction. How much the people in my life made a difference. I was certainly happy in myself, but knew there was more to the story. I needed to be the best version of myself, not just for myself, but for everyone else. It was about how I wanted other people to feel when they were around me. Controlling my attention, and being more present, became something I felt like I needed to do for everyone else. I wanted to give them all of me when I could. The time I had to spend with those people was diminishing, and probably will only continue to do so as adult life takes over. I wanted to make sure that when I was in those moments, I wasn’t wasting them, and not just for me, but for them.

So I put in the work. I stopped using all my free time to play Valorant. Anime time was limited. I deleted social media from my phone. I started meditating and rediscovered my love for reading. I spent so much time doing things without technology. Running in silence, walking with just my thoughts, journaling with pen and paper. I raw dogged flights, sold my iPad, and cancelled subscriptions. I stopped using 3 monitors and most importantly, I started writing. It sucked, just like quitting any addiction, but being off the apps is an incredible feeling. No urge to reach into my pocket for no reason—the magnetic aura that my devices once carried no longer exists, and it’s completely and utterly freeing. It feels like there’s so much more time in the day. It has been glorious and I would do it all over again if I had the choice. I’m able to focus at work, in conversation, and on things that matter, which is invaluable. However, I’d be lying if I said it was all sunshine and rainbows.

Contrary to most of the self improvement investments I’ve made, I haven’t necessarily found what I expected to on the other side. Not because a restored attention span isn’t what I wanted, but because I miscalculated something very, very important. I thought that being present would unlock deeper connections, richer experiences and more meaningful moments with the people I love, and it has, but not in the way I’d expected it. I can sink into the experience now, but I’m sinking alone. I’m staring at my friends playing games in Discord. I watch my family pull out their phones at dinner. I don’t necessarily feel closer to the people I love, but possibly even less so. I’ve spent years trying to be more present and in a way, all it’s highlighted is just how absent everyone else is. It’s hilarious to see so many people’s eyes glaze over and minds shift away from the task at hand. I notice how many phones come out and how distracted people are in meetings and in elevators. I’m not experiencing more with my loved ones, I’m experiencing their distraction. Sure, I reach for my phone less, but all that’s shown me is how often people reach for theirs. The skillset I wanted so badly feels almost useless when I’m the only one using it. Why would I care to be more present when all it yields is a more acute sense of other people’s social media addictions. I hear TikToks from phones I’m not using in my sleep. Chronic onlineness is so breathtakingly obvious. I am not some messiah, and I do succumb to the phone grab from time to time, but in a weird way, my effort almost feels meaningless (It hasn’t been!). I am more present, but I am significantly more alone. I’m more present at Christmas, and on the beach, but if everyone else is lost in the land of mind lulling short form, then what’s the point? I’m not getting the high quality time I’ve envisioned, I’m getting a front row seat to the struggle that we’re all going through. This, is the crux of this essay. I am mad at what the overstimulated world is taking from me, and you should be too.

We can all feel the urge. The temptation to disconnect and go back to our roots. A desire to use notebooks and pens. To read physical books and go out with friends. To play board games and sunbathe. We want it. We fantasize about it. We joke about living in a cabin in the woods away from 5G cell towers and bustling city streets. Sounds awesome. But does it really? Is that what we want? Secluded and completely offline? I don’t actually think so. Technology is awesome. The internet is the greatest invention in the history of man kind. We don’t want to give that up. But I think we all agree that we’ve flown too close to the sun, and now we need to backpedal. I think at the end of the day, what we really want, is not less time on technology, but more, real connection with the people and things that we love. Which means that we’re all in this together. Everyone needs to come forward. Self improvement as an individual is helpful, sure, but in another way it’s useless if you don’t at least try to get your little clan to grab on and join you in the process. Everyone needs to be more present. Everyone needs to lay down their phones. Everyone needs to get into the game of cards, into the concert, and into the tradition for it to be meaningful. Our desire to reconnect with our less online selves is so obvious. But why? For what? For who? For each other. This will never work if we don’t do it together.

This essay is my way of telling you that I cant do this without you. I’m tired of being the only person in the room. I need the version of you who gives me all of you, not the one with their head buried in some shit app. The pendulum has swung too far, and I refuse to sink into beautiful moments alone anymore. So I guess this is me asking you to come back. Not to the past, but to this moment. To each other.

I know my family will read this, and it’s no hard feelings, because I just want what’s best for all of us. I think, that at the end of the day, it will be the moments where we’re really all truly together that we remember—and I’m terrified that we’re letting them slip away without even noticing.

Thanks for reading,

— Dante

Everything about my life has improved since I started putting pen to paper. Stronger relationships, better health, a more lucrative career, fulfilling hobbies, goals and purpose. The list goes on.

On the surface, journaling doesn’t seem like it would do a whole lot. Monkey write on paper so monkey feel better? Yes, but journaling is like golf, chess, and meditation—hit ball into hole, capture king, sit and think about nothing. Ogres and onions. Layers. Simple on the surface with a complicated core. Letting the demons spill out onto the pages of a pocket notebook will help with anxiety, sure, but there’s so much more to it than meets the eye—something I failed to notice when I started.

Today, I’m going to talk about those hidden features that only start to make sense once you start. Today I’m going to talk about why you should journal for the rest of your life.

Shall we?

Self Discovery

“In life, the challenge is not so much to figure out how best to play the game; the challenge is to figure out what game you’re playing” - Kwame Anthony Appiah

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most days suck. most days are monotonous, mundane, and mediocre. routine down to the minute. youre a world class clock watcher, spending the entire day thinking about what youre going to do later (except you never do). this leaves you feeling gross inside. empty. wondering what the fuck youre doing.

sadly, for most of us, this is life (so long as you work a job you hate). the machine is a disease. your brain is sprinting all day, and by 6:00, all it can manage is a crawl. so it reaches for the low hanging fruit.

social media. youtube. live streams. shitty food. sports betting. the things that make your brain and body slow. the things that bloat your life. when you go to bed at night your day feels like a waste, because it is.

monday feels like tuesday. tuesday feels like wednesday. youre a hamster on a wheel. you never get to do the things you want. not because you dont have time but because youre a shitty decision maker.

the things you want to do (the things youre not doing) are exactly what you need to do to not feel like shit. so, in my opinion, 3 things need to happen before you go off to do whatever it is that you dont wanna do, so that even the shittiest days feel somewhat meaningful.

days on end with out progress, achievement, and substance are how you ruin your life. surrendering to the conveyor belt youve been placed on is a scam. resist arrest (nothing will happen). get off.

here are 3 things you need to do every morning to make your shitty monday-friday 1% less ass:

1. something for yourself

the entire day is about everyone but you. so wake up and claim whats yours before the world steals it from you. theres nothing worse than getting up to do shit you dont want to do. it makes everyday miserable. i would hit snooze too. its terrible. why would you be excited to wake up when you need to droid away in spreadsheets for 8 hours?

get up and do something for yourself. it helps you ease into the day. you plant the flag in something you want before the void destroys your brain. get up. watch tv. play games. check your email. do something that you “just dont have time for.”

personally, i wake up, make a coffee and read. i spend the whole first hour of the day doing nothing and i fucking love it. noone can stop me. noone can bother me. its quiet. its peaceful. and its mine.

yes, id love to read after work, but my brain feels like poprocks. too fried to sink into a book about philosophy. time stolen.

doing something you enjoy makes getting out of bed exciting.

2. exercise

i know, boring.

exercising makes everything about life better. if you dont, youre probably a miserable human being who complains and makes excuses and points fingers.

that, or you “dont have time” which is a lie fed to you by other carrot danglers who are insecure about their inability to make it a consistent habit. newsflash, this is how you make it consistent.

i love it, and I dont want to do it after work either. the session is lazy and im tired. the world is draining.

life without daily movement is miserable.

if its already a habit, you know how important it is.

get up early, and train your body, so that you can have an ego complex walking into your office. any chip on the shoulder you can possess makes a difference. in a world full of bellyachers, it isnt hard to stand out when the normal person is showing up 25 minutes after their alarm.

plus youll walk through the rest of your day feeling like a corgi on rabies and it feels amazing. if you want more energy, this is how you get it.

wake up early and exercise. its probably the most important habit you can adopt as a human being.

3. food

everybody eats. we all love food. food is fuel. when youre not fueled, youre angry. personally, im a monstrosity. it consumes the mind.

if you care about how you perform, look, and feel, its all downstream from from your diet.

so wake up and get in a good meal. treat yourself like a grown up for once. youll be less irritated because you wont be dreaming of lunch the whole first half of the day.

not only that, but most people opt for the easy, convenient option. the shit. the slop. wake up and have a good meal. control 1/3 of your consumption right then and there. establish the healthy eating habit when its in your hands. while youre the gamemaker.

youll be less grouchy and youll feel more energized. youll eat less of the gross cafeteria food and food wont be the only thing on your mind.

wake up and eat something good.

why cant you do these things after work?

because you never have. the ocean is choppy late in the day. your muscles are weak and you can barely stay above water. in the morning the weather is nice and the ocean is calm. perfect for a swim.

forced time manegement

this strategy forces you to manage your time. since you need to be at work a few hours later, youre basically giving yourself a little timer. you have to do the things that you laid out. theres a deadline. no room for procrastination. its all momentum. downhill running, and it bleeds into the rest of the day.

“give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe”

— abe lincoln

wake up 2 hours earlier and youve done more than most of the population before 8 am. freelo.

golden hour

in time, these 2 hours will become the best part of every day. something you look forward to. something you never wanna give up. stop being a panzy ass little donkey and get up when your alarm goes off so you can go do the things you know are good for you. do something fun, exercise, get a good breakfast, and top it all with a coffee. mm chefs kiss. youll be flying.

thanks for reading.

—dante

my brain:

idea: do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself

song: i dont trust myself (without loving you)

book: the will of many

the world is hard. it puts you in a box. people die. shit doesnt go your way. reality sets in. you conform. friends turn on you. the dog gets sent back. you get stressed. you get out of shape.

theres so many inputs. youve lost yourself in the chaos. youve wandered too far from the path.

you start asking yourself what happened? what happened to the carelessness? the magic? the curiosity and excitement? where did old you go?

if youre lost, fear not, you must not go far. theyre still in there.

never let the kid in you die. little buddy is still in there fighting for their life, and good news… theyve got more dog in them than you ever did.

all you gotta do is dig em out.

whats life like as an adult?

“shambles”

— trafalgar law

like it does for most young 20 year olds, there came a day where i found myself asking, “is this it?”

grinding valorant, working a boring remote job, consuming tiktok reels and jersey mikes on the regular.

shit i hope not.

i got lucky enough to ask myself the right question when i needed it most.

what was i doing when i was happiest and healthiest?

not what i was doing, thats for sure.

what was the answer? when? how old was i?

i was 7. whatd i do when i was 7? easy.

i moved my body a ton. i played sports. i got outside. i spent time with friends. i ate clean (i was fortunate to have a mom that fed me like the professional athlete i thought i was). i did good in school. i read a ton of books. i loved talking with people. i was a little fucking spaz.

how to rally

not all at once, but thats what i started doing.

i stopped gaming 15 hours a day. i started training. i went outside every day. i ate like my mom fed me. i started seeking adventure. following curiosity. i started creating. asking questions. i started to see friends (work in progress). i started reading again. i went back to my roots.

i called up old me and let his interests and desires become my boomer selves.

i started riding the back of the shopping cart again.

i started running up the stairs on all fours again.

i started doing handstands against walls for no reason.

little me was back, and he was a terror.

you know what happened?

life got colorful and vibrant.

turn to younger you

chances are, you were happiest when you were a little kid. when you didnt give a shit about what anyone thought of you.

bring it full circle. everything that you loved as a young gun is what probably what you love doing now. lean into what you gravitated towards when noone was driving the boat for you.

youre not gone forever, youve just lost your way - and you will again.

theres a permanent lighthouse in all of us. all we gotta do is ask the little rascal to turn it on.

every now and then i wonder what little me would think of how im doing now.

at one point im sure he wouldve been so sad to see how far hed fallen. how sad it would make him to see what hes got to look forward to. but not anymore.

dont let little you drown in the nonsense.

live more like the kid you used to be.

thanks for reading and godspeed.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

-dante

my brain lately:

interest - interior design

article of clothing - uniqlo zip hoodie

meal - crock pot roasts full of beauitfuly collagenous slow cooked meat

everyone’s going a different speed. some people are sprinting, some people are barely walking. but what about you? what are you doing? probably too busy judging everyone else to really take a look.

the new hire who seems lost? it’s their second day.

the kid glued to their phone was handed an ipad at age 3, they didn’t choose this.

the person who dresses “weird” wasn’t born into money, sorry they don’t have hermès jewelry.

what gives you the right to judge?

even if it doesn’t look like it to you, people are trying their best. life is hard enough without everyone else’s judgment, so why are you throwing leaves on their fire? who are you to judge? why do you care more about someone else’s life?

it’s gross and lame and your mom would be disappointed.

oh wait, i know why! because it’s easier to zoom in on everyone else’s flaws as opposed to addressing your own. just because you think you’re a formula one car (you’re not) doesn’t mean everyone else has to be. stay in your own lane.

turn the other cheek (inward)

“be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.”

— marcus aurelius

imagine if instead of criticizing everyone else you placed that same scrutiny on yourself? you’d be hercules by now.

what other people do does not concern you. the war is within. it’s you vs you. that’s it. stop being a gluttonous pig of judgment and turn the spotlight on yourself.

“the only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be.”

— haruki murakami

whether you find yourself judging others or being judged by them, the solution is the same: focus on yourself.

focus on what you can control. focus on what’s in front of you. focus on your battle, your progress, your trajectory.

the only thing that should concern you is where you’re headed. not where you are, or where anyone else is, but where you’re going. are you better than you were yesterday?

if you repeated the same actions you’re taking daily for the next 30 years, where would you end up? that’s it. that’s what matters.

that split second of judgement is time that could be used to reflect on your own shortcomings.

since when did you get a free pass?

rebel against judgement

“you can wake up and decide to no longer be a loser.”

— joe rogan

the world has enough critics. be different.

be kind. the world is in shambles as it is. everyone you meet is fighting battles you know nothing about. you dont like the weight of everyone elses judgement, so why contribute to the problem?

treat others how you wish to be treated. choose compassion over criticism. choose curiosity over condemnation.

what if that person is trying their best with what they have? wouldn’t that make you feel like shit?

don’t conform to the culture of judgment. be better. be brave. be the person who lifts others up instead of tearing them down. kind is cool, trust.

thank you for reading and as always, godspeed.

— dante

my brain:

song: aint got nothing on you - leon bridges

idea: gotta strike while the iron is hot

quote: “no man can truly learn, grow, or become wise within himself.” - vis telimus

a gluttonous pig. completely out of control.

a billion hotdogs, burgers, snacks, and drinks. i 20x’d my carbohydrate intake and felt like baron harkonnen from dune after 4 days of saying yes to everything that entered my 200 degree field of view.

after annihilating half a bag of snyders pretzels, i was not quite horizontal, but figuratively that’s how i felt. leeeeaaaaning back in my chair, with a lake view, carb coma’d out, feeling anything but lean and vital.

a close friend of mine, sitting nearby, broke the silence by saying “how do you do it? how do you stay in such good shape? youre eating like there won’t be food tomorrow. so what, truly, do you think it is? why do you think so many people struggle?”

good question.

“genetics,” i said.

his question was good because he wanted more than the classic “eat less move more propaganda.”

most people already know what they need to do to be healthy but still feel stuck.

im not special.

just like you, i do my best to eat clean, exercise, and get good sleep.

then what makes me successful?

heres what i told him:

1. i say no a lot

2. i get back on the horse fast

no

most people only see the decisions you make when youre in front of them, so seemingly, to my friend, im always saying yes.

yes to the drink, yes to the doughnut, yes to another slice of pizza, yes to skipping the workout, yes to sleeping like shit.

well yeah, every time im with him im a terrible example of what health looks like.

but he hasnt seen the series of no’s i’ve taken between times weve crossed paths.

thousands of no’s.

i say no, a lot. more than i probably should. but success with regards to physique IS saying no.

no to the bread. no to snooze. no to the party. no to the beers.

no’s internally, no’s externally.

most people say yes to everything.

most people aren’t 12% body fat year round.

if you wanna be like everyone else, keep acting like them.

be the black sheep.

get back in the saddle

alright, so yeah i was a complete moron this weekend.

thursday through sunday i dont know if i had a vegetable.

but heres where i’m different.

monday, i was 100% perfect, like normal. back into flow. no hiccups. right back into the grind.

i think that after “having too much fun” most people are slow to get back to baseline. theyre slow to respond. they are floppy rubber bands.

“being healthy during the week” is actually being healthy tuesday, wednesday, thursday, because monday and friday bleed into those days of bad behavior.

your 5 days on, 2 days off is actually 4 days off, 3 days on.

friday night you blow up. saturday you’re reeling, blow up again. sunday you dont recover either because footballs on, wings, pizza. monday youre too tired from it all.

people blow up their hard work on the weekend and theyre slow to get back on track.

this whole week ive heard people complaining about how theyre not recovered from the weekend.

they havent gone to the gym because theyre too tired and their diet is sloppy.

you dont need me to tell you that hangover food isnt meat and broccoli.

you gotta get back to it. you gotta get back in the saddle. after the weekends up there cant be any blur.

its gotta be 5 good days, 2 bad. or 1 bad. or none.

its really gotta be a majority of the time. not in theory, but in reality.

think about it.

tldr

say no more often than you say yes. and when you mess up, bounce back.

you want it or you dont and it really is that simple.

in this game, majority rules. math is math.

just my 2 cents. if youre stuck give it a shot.

(this is more than just health advice)

thanks for reading and godspeed.

-dante

my brain:

song: kiss of life - sade

idea: go to the movies alone

skincare tip: fix your gut

Imagine you’re floating around in the middle of the ocean on a tiny life raft without any fresh drinking water.

One of the most paradoxical situations you will probably never find yourself in—you’re surrounded by H2O and not a single drop of it will do anything but make you more dehydrated.

This is how I feel about the Internet.

Simultaneously our greatest invention ever and Achilles heel.

In my opinion, it’s mostly nonsense. But sometimes, it surprises me!

Sometimes it tosses up a gem that has me ruminating for an entire day, and I think I just found one of those.

I feel obligated to share.

Typically, I like this newsletter to be coming from someone or something you should be embodying—someone whose actions are worth replicating.

This post however, was anonymous. A picture belonging to no one. So I’m gonna get a little creative… bear with me!

Become Possessed by the Internet!

After all, it’s a pretty good teacher, if you use it right… like Uncle Ben said “with great power comes great responsibility.”

Leverage its power for good! Use it to your advantage, not your detriment! Dig up more gems like this!

“To fall asleep, you must first pretend to sleep (and that’s how everything works).”

I like this because it coincides with my message about being. The first quote I ever shared on this app was “take care of the garden and the butterflies will come.”

If you want to get in really good shape, you must first act as if you’re in good shape. You will lift weights day after day after day until one day you have big muscles.

If you want to learn how to play piano, you will play the piano and you will play the piano and you will play the piano and you will suck for a long time until one day you’ll be able to compose.

If you wanna be a millionaire, you must first build the habits a millionaire is capable of. You must first, in your head, believe that you are a millionaire before you can become one.

“To fall asleep, you must first pretend to fall asleep.”

Act as though you are and you will become.

You can pretend your way to the life you want.

Pretend you’re the kind of person who gets the girl. Pretend you’re the kind of person who gets the job. Pretend you’re the kind of person who is in good shape. Pretend you’re the kind of person who can cook. Pretend you’re the kind of person who can do anything! You can!

Act as though you are and you will become.

I think Migos said it: Walk it like you talk it? Talk it like you walk it? I don’t know, something like that.

Talk it then you’ll walk it! :)

Thanks for reading and as always, Godspeed.

— Dante

Things That Have Possessed Me This Week:

Airpods: Cool invention

Food: Saurkraut

Human: Anthony Bourdain

Lionel Messi is one of the greatest soccer players of all time. One of the greatest athletes of all time. His feet are more dexterous than most people’s hands. He’s an absolute wizard on the grass. A little speed demon with exceptional ball control and elite goal scoring ability. He’s got 46 career trophies and is the most decorated player in the history of professional football. Recently he led Argentina to a World Cup victory. He’s an absolute beast. Your traditional number 10.

No one argues that Messi is really really really good at football or soccer, or whatever you call it — but there’s a lot of debate about whether or not the effort is there (kinda like LeBron lol). People think that Cristiano or others work much harder. But critics aside, I think Messi’s supposed weakness is actually one of his biggest strengths.

He does something that I think we could all do more:

Relax.

Slow down.

Conserve your energy.

And then sprint!

Messi seems lazy. Like he doesn’t care.

To the naked eye, it’s hard to argue otherwise.

He seems to walk around the field.

He seems to not care.

He seems like he’d rather be picking his nose or popping dandelions in the corner.

Probably true sometimes.

But I think theres more to it.

I think he’s conserving his energy for critical moments. For moments that matter.

He slowly, tactically mopes around the field, but when the ball comes to him… lightning in a bottle. Magic!

It’s not laziness.

It’s efficiency.

Walking all game lets him play full time.

Something most of us can’t fathom.

Staying in the game. Never coming out. Delivering in the big moments. Relaxing when it’s time to relax. Turning it off. Turning it on.

There are times in life where we should be sprinting. There are times in life where we should be walking.

We are seemingly perpetually in a state of one or the other.

Balance is important.

You can’t sprint forever.

Nor should you walk forever.

There are times when you have a big test, or a big game, or something that requires extra effort.

Extra studying.

Harder training.

But you shouldn’t—nor can you—stay there.

You’ll run out of gas.

On the flip side, if you walk forever, you’re not gonna get what you want out of life.

You gotta be able to turn it on too. You gotta be able to switch the flip. Or flip the switch. Whatever, you get it.

Life requires both modes.

Sometimes we need to have our foot on the gas. Sometimes we need to be warming up the tires to prepare for the roadtrip.

It’s up to you to determine what season of life you’re in, and to execute.

Thanks for reading, and as always, godspeed.

—Dante​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Things That Have Possessed Me This Week:

Book: Project Hail Mary

Money Advice: Saving is a form of self respect.

Training Modality: Stair stepper + weighted vest

Walt Disney is one of the greatest innovators of all time. He built an entertainment empire through boundless imagination. He was relentlessly determined to deliver magical stories and experiences. He revolutionized animation, built theme parks, pioneered new technology, and made sour ass adults feel young again. He was a storytelling genius, and his name will endure forever.

Theres a quote from him that really pisses me off because it makes something really hard sound really easy:

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”

— Walt Disney

Thats a fat “if” isnt it.

If. If. If.

IF you try.

IF you go for it.

IF you have the courage.

Dont die wondering.

Pretty crazy to think about… your dreams can come true. Theres a series of steps you can take to achieve what you want. If you have the cajones!

Better to fail trying than never try at all.

Try to get in shape.

Try for the job.

Try starting the business.

Try asking her out.

Try, coward.

You wont know till you know.

Walt built something great for one reason: he tried.

Does it not piss you off that you are wasting your potential? Getting Mossed by someone with half your talent because theyre actually trying?

Come on now. Its simple really…

Go find out.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Go chase your dreams.

Go fall on your face, so then at least you have some lore to share.

Thanks for reading and as always, godspeed.

— Dante

Things That Have Possessed Me This Week:

Travel: I will never check a bag again

Minimalism: If you own too much stuff, your stuff will own you.

Habit: Journaling has helped me discover myself and get more out of life.

Peter Attia is a doctor who specializes in longevity. His approach to living longer piques my interest, and it should yours too. I like him because he doesn’t just educate his fans and clients on how to live longer, but how to live better.

Longevity is a weird word that sometimes makes you think of that oddball down the street who wakes up and stares at the sun, critiquing your every diet choice (which may have some validity).

Yes, everyone wants to live longer, but why would you want to do so if you’re a miserable sack of potatoes all the time?

Peter is my favorite doctor in the space because he’s practical. He meshes science with applicability, with an emphasis on working hard to live a better life. A life that allows you to do the things you enjoy (the things that make life worth living) for longer. He’s a Stanford grad who spent years at med school at Johns Hopkins. For fun, he derailed into the world of consulting, working with McKinsey before he built his own practice. He’s a cool dude.

One topic that Peter emphasizes often for the sake of health, wellbeing, and longevity is VO2 max. Simply put, VO2 max is the body’s ability to use oxygen to fuel itself.

“VO2 max is key to living a fulfilling, independent life as you age.”

— Peter Attia

VO2 max is a rate limiter for everything. The body uses oxygen to create ATP to power the rest of your system. If you can’t put enough oxygen into your muscles to power the activity in front of you, then you’re shit out of luck.

To most people, it‘s not a big deal (right now at least). As it stands, most of the activities you enjoy, most of the activities you perform to live, don’t require an astonishingly high VO2 max.

Think getting up off the couch, going up the stairs, cooking and bathing, carrying grandkids, going for a walk, golfing, whatever it is you like to do.

As you age, VO2 max declines precipitously and it becomes increasingly difficult to get back.

Your VO2 max will eventually decline past the threshold required to live normally. Basic activities become hard, and then impossible. It’s not a matter of if, but when.

There will come a day when activities that were once easy, become hard. Basic things. Things that are effortless now. We all know someone who just can’t seem to do basic human shit — and It’s so sad.

This is primarily the result of a low VO2 max.

Training VO2 max now will hopefully get it high enough so that as it declines you can effectively keep the walls from caving in. You’ll be able to enjoy the basic day to day activities for longer into life.

If you wish to walk on the beach with your kids when you’re 80, or carry your groceries into the house when you’re 65, you need to train VO2 max now.

Every activity requires a certain amount of energy to perform.

If you can’t produce enough energy, then you can’t perform the activity.

You might not care to run fast, but you should care to be able to carry your grandkid around when your sons or daughters need you to watch their kids for the day.

Your VO2 max needs to be high enough.

This is not some weird sunbathing pseudoscience that might help. This is a requirement to live a long, fulfilling life. A life that allows you to enjoy the activities you want — that you need to be able to perform late in life.

To train VO2 max, the 4x4 method is the gold standard. 4 minutes of near all out effort that you can perform 4 times, with 4 minutes of rest in between. Or you can ask the internet. Or ChatGPT.

To live longer, better, VO2 max training needs to be a staple in your routine, at least once per week.

VO2 max training is the training that quite literally holds up a ceiling that will forever be collapsing. It’s non negotiable.

Thanks for reading, and as always, godspeed.

— Dante

Things That Have Possessed Me This Week:

Food: Honey Mamas (These things are so addicting)

Training Thought: Stability is as important as strength.

Running Tip: Strengthen your tendons and lower legs.

On paper at least, my little brother is what most men, most people really, aspire to be. He’s got a robust social life, a lucrative and demanding vocation, fulfilling hobbies, and people who love him. He’s also quite handsome (the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree).

To the naked eye, he’s one of those people who has seemingly been gifted by the gods… he has… but not in the traditional way you’re thinking. My little bro has a gift that’s given him an edge over most of the population: he knows how to work. He knows how to work hard. He knows how to work for the things he wants. He doesn’t bitch and complain, he just does.

In fact, things haven’t come easy to him. Not at all. Probably the opposite — but he’s learned how to force his will on the world. He’s made it so — and its paid off. The kid sets his sights and shoots past the target.

There’s so much to learn from people like him. People who know what they want, people who know how to get what they want.

“They say intelligence is just whether or not you get what you want out of life”

— Naval

He recently shared a line with me that embodies who he is… his work ethic… a line that portrays how the kid thinks and why he seemingly gets everything he wants.

“Why not go out on a limb, isn’t that where the fruit is?”

Good point brother. Everything you want is outside of the little box you’ve built in your mind. It’s out of your comfort zone. The body you want. The career you want. The relationship you want. The vacations you wish to go on. The family you wish to have.

You gotta reach. You gotta get out there. You gotta get in there. No one’s ever been ready to have a kid, but I bet almost 100% of people would tell you that raising their children is the best thing they’ve ever done. People who run marathons are damn proud of it, but I bet they weren’t sure when they started.

Most of the best things in life come from choices and decisions that make you a little nervous. That stretch you out. That are not comfortable.

The fruit isn’t by the trunk, it’s out on the limb.

Climb out there and get it.

Thanks for reading and as always, godspeed.

—Dante