Bryan Johnson

On @netflix Jan 1 2025 is the year of don’t die

@AutismCapital I was dying of curiosity to see what the WSJ would do with the title and story frame. There's obviously endless paths to take. For a conservative publication, they were impressively title aware.

@bryan_johnson What a headline. They nailed the clickbait.

We know curiously little about the first female, Eve: > never heard from her > no data on her life > manufactured from man > was second > is to blame Eve is our foundational concept of a woman, yet she is not legible. Why? For 1,400 years, humanity was confused about planets too. When the ancient Greeks looked up to the sky, they saw some lights (stars) appeared fixed, while other lights (planets) moved erratically. They couldn’t understand why. From their vantage point, Mars would stop, reverse, loop backward, and then resume. Planets were bewildering, called "wanderers". To Greek physicians, the womb was also perplexing. They taught that the womb moved freely, a restless wanderer inside the body. They looked up at the sky, and at a woman, and concluded the same thing: they are erratic and wandering. To resolve this planetary madness, astronomers spent 1,400 years trying to understand. They used complicated models, overlaying circles onto circles (epicycles). Then, Copernicus and Kepler figured it out. Two insights solved over 1,400 years of bad explanations. It turns out the observed was not fixed, and the orbits were ellipses, not perfect circles. Our bewilderment about female health only means it is yet to be understood. There’s a reframe waiting to happen. In the fifth century BCE, Polykleitos sculpted the male body as a system of ideal mathematical proportion. Setting the historical trajectory for the “ideal” body. This passed through Vitruvius and then was immortalized by Da Vinci. This is how the default template of the human body was established. The male body was chosen because it held still, not because it was superior. It lacked the cyclical, "erratic", misunderstood shifts of the female body. Perhaps it's time for another reframe. In the next 90 days, Kate will become the most measured female in history. Three of her menstrual cycles (orbits) will be meticulously tracked. > 1,900 biomarkers tracked > 14.8 million data points > 100 tasks a day > 6-10 hours a day > 50+ devices > brain, taste, smell, and more > 3 menstrual cycles The effort will reveal new insight into female health, though that’s not really the primary objective here. Kate is trying to become legible. First to herself, and then to others.

@luccahuguet The hardest habit to drop for me was not doing self destructive things in the evening. Every night, no matter how well intentioned I was in the morning or during the day, my evening self would run over me. In speaking with others, I think this is very common today.

@bryan_johnson What bad habit was the hardest to drop, bryan?

There's been times when I couldn't stop: > eating > scrolling > working > watching > wherever It feels awful. A miserable existence. Our society is a predator prey relationship. Companies make money and become rich when they convince us to do things that we can't stop. This is a guide to fight back. My resting heart rate is my Sovereignty Index. It measures whether I am a slave or sovereign relative to the powers around me world. Whether I’m ruled by my impulses or the ruler over them. This past month, my RHR has averaged 41 bpm. It’s my best ever 30 day average. It’s less about the absolute number and more about what it represents. A low RHR is a clinical proxy for high vagal tone which is the metric of parasympathetic dominance and physiological self regulation. It’s taken me years to master the daily habits that enable this. A low resting heart rate before sleep is magic: > better sleep > stronger recovery > improved will power > clear headedness > happier life I speak about RHR because it’s the single number that captures modern society. Everything “normal” today increases a person’s heart rate before sleep. It’s slavery camouflaged as ambition, relaxing, and “living life”. 24/7 work, eating before bed, scrolling, binge watching, vaping, late night debauchery, red eye flights…People mistakenly confuse these things as being admirable and a rite of passage. Don’t be fooled by this. This is a cultural mistake that will be corrected in time. The coming years will look back and see the foolishness of it. Most of you reading this are in a state of chronic sympathetic overdrive, burnout, anxiety and depression. That's the state of society today. 88% of Americans are metabolically unwell. Sometimes though, that's because you have a new born, are caring for an aging parent, are fighting a health problem, or are in some other challenging situation. I remember feeling helpless with three children under 6. For those of you in a tough spot, I feel you. For those of you who have the freedom to make decisions, this is for you. And for those of you in the tough spots, maybe these things can be helpful for you too. Master these habits and everything in your life will be better: > final food four hours before bed > screens off 60 min before bed > same bedtime every night > a wind down routine: reading, walking, hobby > final caffeine by noon > red and amber lights in pm, no blues It's the end of the day that get's most people. It's when your will power is lowest and stress is the highest. We reach for things that soothe but they end up causing us self harm. The habits outlined above are designed to be a check against the version of you that is stressed out and overwhelmed, and not in the best state of mind to make good decisions. Deciding on what you will do before that version of you take charge may help you wrestle the upper hand to start living the life you want.

This is a practical, thoughtful proposal to win cooperation. And Demis has done an admirable job, personally and professionally, to have the credibility to play this role. Stepping back, I kind of can't believe the craziness of this moment. What's about to happen has never happened. It's not clear the mental models we have of ourselves and the world will be relevant in the future. Each of us is trying our best to use our pattern matching skills to predict what will be. We talk about the immediate things that we can understand like jobs and meaning making, but the scale of what's at stake, I think, is far more consequential than that. It's possible that the speed of it all, plus the increased complexity, will feel bewildering. It's also possible that it will feel natural and intuitive. I do hope that we've hit peak fever pitch in acrimony and division and that we'll turn a corner and become more cooperative.

@demishassabis This is thoughtfully practical

ok, let's see. > it's around 9 pm Paris time > 90°F outside, no AC > meal is 1200 calories Here's what will happen: > elevated body temp from late heavy meal > body must dump ~2°F to fall asleep > melatonin rise finds you busy > will take you an additional ~25 min to fall asleep > restorative sleep down ~30% > less cellular clean up will happen in the body > you'll need a double or triple espresso in am

Fantastic steak tartare and frites @bryan_johnson please attempt to ruin my diner 😂😂😂

Friends, no need to be sad about this. Amidst the noise, so many of you have been supportive and kind to me. I deeply appreciate your messages, posts of public support and private acts of kindness. I feel emboldened by the diagnosis. I want this challenge and I'm hungry for it. No amount of optimism can fully capture what awaits us and I'm glad to be on the same journey for those of you who believe the same.

The world wants me to die. My incurable disease diagnosis became global news. It was omnipresent on social media and 1,900 articles were written in a matter of days. Many were saddened. However, joy dominated the commentary. People pointed to schadenfreude, the pleasure of another's failure. Yes, there’s that. There is a special place in people’s hearts that loves to see others fail, especially when that person’s presence threatens their own psychological stability in some way or helps them feel better about themselves. But, if you look over the social media commentary about me, you’ll see that pattern: “he deserved it.” I deserved it because I challenged death. The crowd was running a deeply rooted psychological script that represents the oldest, most deeply embedded stories of human culture. This was the first story ever written down, 4,000 years ago. Gilgamesh sought eternal life after losing someone he loved, only to have the plant of youth stolen by a serpent as he bathed. Leaving him to accept his mortality. Asclepius became so skilled at rejuvenation that he raised the dead. As punishment, Zeus struck him down with a thunderbolt to enforce life and death authority. This is the story of Jesus. Pontius Pilate offered a choice between a thief and the immortalist, and the crowd demanded the execution. People need this story conclusion to keep themselves sane. The challenger must lose and the loss must appear deserved. It’s a shield of self preservation. For if death is inevitable, their existence and that of their loved ones is justified and unavoidable. If death is not inevitable, nothing about their reality is safe. I occupy the same philosophical and archetypal position as Gilgamesh, Asclepius and Jesus. This statement will draw outrage and accusations of blasphemy, hubris and narcissism. Nevertheless, it’s the pattern that has repeated itself for thousands of years. Death has been the omnipresent concern of the human race. It encapsulates our greatest fears, joy and curiosities. The discourse around it changes over time; however, the fundamentals remain unchanged. What’s different about this moment, that is unlike any other moment, is that physical death may no longer be inevitable. What if I didn’t deserve it? And what if I am your ally, and not a threat?

Some of you commented that you feel the data analysis made you a social experiment. You're confusing the outcome. I asked for advice curious of your perspective. I'm an open minded person and repeatedly find myself blinded by my own perspectives and opinions. Doing data analysis on the 5,000 responses is how my brain works. My brain is incapable of keeping that number of responses in short term memory and I suffer from all kinds of cognitive biases that would prevent me from digesting from your wisdom. Understanding the responses as part of a larger emergent pattern is useful to me. It helps me understand you, me and then opens up space for me to find original thought. I hope you feel heard. That I care enough about what you have to say that I'd spend the time to deeply evaluate and study your suggestions.

I asked for life advice and got 5,500 responses. Here's the how people showed up.

@Jason @chamath Jason, 900 air squats should be enough to zero out the ledger.

For @bryan_johnson and @chamath

most common advice, there's a long tail

@Krishna_agg_ x api into postgres then used claude for analysis

@bryan_johnson How did you made this report? Using Claude?

Eager to hear your life advice. What should I be doing?

@Grimezsz > heavy resistance training > high impact loading (jumping, hopping) > sufficient protein > adequate calcium and vit D > optimal hormone levels > sleep > removing bad stuff: smoking, alcohol, etc.

@bryan_johnson What's the best thing for the bone density besides lifting?

I’m 48, my body composition resembles a 20 yr old > bone mineral density 99.6th percentile > body fat of 11.3% > lean mass: 160.1 lbs On these markers, better than >90% of men in their 20s

Body composition is a longevity predictor: > each 1 SD drop in bone mineral density tracked with about 17% higher death risk (across 10 cohorts) > every 10% more body fat meant 11% higher mortality in adults under 60 (across 11 cohorts) > muscle: each SD less lean mass tracked with about 36% higher mortality; clinically low lean mass with about 74% (across 68 cohorts)

This feels especially good because years ago I was 40 lbs overweight, unable to control what I ate and generally felt miserable all the time. Now I have no aches or pains and feel clear headed, strong and energetic. It’s hard work though. 6-8 hours a week of exercise, sleeping 8 hr a night, meticulous nutrition, and discipline to be consistent.

@Jason You will hit peak arousal at minute 35. In that moment of euphoria, please report back and tell us what you understood.

Another perfect day in Paris