[TT 007] psychedelics, AI interesting, genius, runners getting high, slugs, metal creatures
Hello again Thrivers,
A pleasure to connect with you this Thursday.
The past week has been a deep exercise in empathy as I experientially learn physical and mental health issues that are far from my baseline. One (of many odd) example: Monday I lost sight in my left eye for ~6 hours (operating hypothesis = thiamine deficiency). I have every confidence in my care team, and analytical capacity, to get back to my normal vibrant health. In a strange way, I’m grateful for all the lessons and expansiveness of this discomfort.
Speaking of vision, this week I published my piece referencing my Hawkeye nickname and my lenses on Thriving. This piece is much more personal that I typically write, and I’m curious if this style of writing resonates with you. (I almost didn’t publish because it felt too self-oriented, so I’m curious to hear your thoughts.)
Also, I revamped my homepage to be more welcoming and offer a touch more context. I’d like to work on the color palette and visual layer, but how does the content land for you?
Without further ado, the main attraction of Thriving Thursday.
On the renaissance of psychedelics (entheogens)
🍄 🔬 I’m fascinated by the resurgence in research in psychedelics. More precisely, I’m amazed by the efficacy in different domains. MAPs has a great psychedelic bibliography for treatment-oriented research (what I call sub-baseline to baseline) and Michael Pollan wrote a stunning overview in How to Change Your Mind. Anyone remotely curious about this world will likely find Pollan’s even-handed approach illuminating and engaging.
Peter Attia had a curious take on the practical side of medical MDMA and psilocybin. I largely agree that the pharma financial model and standardizing administration protocols are big picture limitations for more systematic acceptance in the medical community.
I’m also amazed by how many top tier universities now have psychedelic programs. Here is my running list so far: Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Yale, University of Toronto, and Berkeley. Not as well-known and more application-oriented, there is also the California Institute of Integrated Science and Naropa. Did I miss any?
And the tides are turning in politics as well. Denver, Colorado became the first city to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms and the state of Oregon went so far as to legalize psilocybin mushrooms in therapeutic contexts. For me, that means public opinion is starting to catch up with the academic literature about the potential value, in the appropriate set and settings, for these neurochemical tools.
Rick Doblin, the founder of MAPs, gave a great TEDx in 2019 on the renaissance of psychedelics. One of my favorite lines:
Experimenting with psychedelics in college put me in touch with my emotions and gave me a spiritual connection that, unfortunately, my bar mitzvah did not produce.
Jennifer Ouyang, a graduate student at Stanford Business School, gave an insightful presentation on psychedelic assisted psychotherapy.
Very fascinating to see how this world develops for mental health and for the study of consciousness.
On optimizing for interesting
👨🏻💻 🤔 Taylor Pearson recently published a piece on how he optimizes for interesting. He cites this German AI study that says
Curiosity is the desire to create or discover more non-random, non-arbitrary, regular data that is novel and surprising
I liked Taylor’s note that he leaves 1 day a week just for “tinkering on interesting”. I’ll have to noodle on how I optimize for interesting in my own life.
I haven’t read the entire study yet (it’s rather … dense) but my cursory read unearthed some fascinating points on the fundamental natures of beauty and curiosity.
In Sonke Ahren’s book, How to Take Smart Notes, he talked about honoring our intuitive process of interest and then internalizing those interests with synthesis (my version: Roamkasten). I believe this is very closely related to Jurgen Schmidhuber, the AI academic, calls “compression”.
Have you ever stopped to think about something you find strikingly interesting, and what exactly is so darn interesting about that thing? When it’s practical, it can feel easier to articulate, but when it’s interesting in other dimensions I find myself grasping a bit more. At least for me, I have a strong somatic reaction when something resonates deeply with me, and it takes some cognitive processing to work my way backwards to what actually appeals to me. And I don't always get there - sometimes a thing is just beautiful and that is enough.
Incidentally, I’ve recently removed the phrasing of “interesting” as a modifying descriptor from my daily speech because it is void of descriptive power. Well “that was an interesting conversation / movie / newsletter”. Come again?
I find the word so overused, and so diffuse, that the substance of meaning has been diluted to near zero. Now, if “interesting” is shorthand for “first derivative of subjective beauty or compressibility” then … umm, what?
And where does that leave me if I find the very concept of interesting … interesting?
On the paradox of genius
📟 🔮 James Currier of NfX recently had a wonderful conversation with Kevin Kelly, founder of Wired. Although the topic was largely focused on businesses and technology, I see a much broader application to a life worldview.
One of the opening comments resonated with me right away:
One of my missions is to be a good ancestor — to try to incorporate more of a long-term view.
Much of what was discussed applies directly and immediately to how I’m envisioning the Global Institute for Thriving (GIFT). Specifically, I want to build an institution that will last 300 years and, in doing so, raise the Gross Domestic Thriving (GDT) and Gross Global Thriving (GTT).
They also talk about initiating experiments that last 20+ years. My Master Plan has the experimentation phase active for 25ish years, but truth be told the “experimenting” will be baked into the core ethos so it is part and parcel of the mission.
I especially enjoyed this visual metaphor of short-term thinking as a pinhole for a long-term perspective. I could easily swap out some words (Your Startup = Your Life // Product = Throughput // Scaling = Connecting) and have this neatly describe my worldview.
In general, NfX is one of the only VC firms that genuinely inspires me with their thought leadership and precision. Their content is uniformly great and, when I ramp on the business side of GIFT, I’m going to zettel and synthesize every single piece of awareness and insight they offer. It’s really that good.
On rethinking the runner’s high
🏃🏻 🔥 For a long time, folks have thought that endorphins are the magic behind the fabled “runner’s high”. As I’ve ramped mileage recently, I can personally attest to this enjoyable experience (though running to it isn’t always as fun …)
A recent study suggests that endorphins may not be the magic molecules doping up distance runners. For one thing, there is a structural limitation - the structure of the endorphin molecule, an endogenous opioid, doesn’t cross the blood brain barrier. For another, as the study showed, when researchers block endorphin uptake with naltrexone (an opioid antagonist used in treating drug addiction), runners still experience their high.
Current thinking now points to endocannabinoids, our endogenous marijuana-like molecules, as the gift from the go go gods. A vague evolutionary biology rationalization is that early humans had to run to hunt, so it behooved our ancestors to enjoy hoofing it. Those that got high running survived, and viola!
I think the research around the prolific function of endocannabinoids in our system is compelling, particularly as we learn about the medicinal potential for cannabis. Don’t get me wrong, consuming marijuana has plenty of downsides, but I am intrigued to understand the nuances of the upsides for more targeted applications.
Come to think of it, I do get the munchies after my long runs …
On Marie Antoinette’s favorite slug
🐌 🤕 Scientists recently discovered slugs that regrow an entirely new body. As in, the head lops off and they literally grow a new heart, torso, and limbs. That makes me lose my mind (even if I can't regrow new appendages).
On mesmerizing mobile art
⚒️ 🐉 Anthony Howe creates absolutely stunning wind-powered art pieces. I especially love some of his recent pieces that look like moving creatures on the beach.
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Until next week,
~Henry