Hey friend,
Last weekend I took a short train trip to Kyiv to have some rest and enjoy the business of living. The weather was gorgeous. Yellow leaves falling off the trees. Warm, bright sunlight.
Idling on the cozy Kyiv streets reminded me of how Spider-Man came into being. It’s a true story, but although sometimes it’s hard to believe it.
In the summer of 1962, Stan Lee came up with a new superhero for Marvel Comics. He was excited, so he came to his publisher to pitch him the idea of Spider-Man.
Here’s what the publisher said:
“Stan, that is the worst idea I’ve ever heard. First of all, people hate spiders, so you can’t call a hero Spider-Man. You want him to be a teenager? Teenagers can only be sidekicks! And you want him to have personal problems?? Stan, don’t you know what a superhero is? They don’t have personal problems.”
Stan left the office, disappointed, but obviously a much “wiser” man. But he couldn’t get Spider-Man out of his head. He was obsessed.
At that time, they were about to kill the Amazing Fantasy magazine. It wasn’t selling well, and they were sending the last issue to the press.
In comics business, when you do the last issue of the magazine, nobody cares what you put in it cause it’s dying anyway. And just to get it out of his system, Stan put Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy, featuring him on the cover and forgot about it.
A month later, all the sales figures came in.
The publisher raced into Stan’s office.
“Stan, Stan, you remember that character we both loved so much?? Spider-Man?” Let’s do him as a series!”
Remember this:
“If you have an idea that you genuinely think is good, don’t let some idiot talk you out of it.” — Stan Lee
Here’s what’s up this week.
Work
I haven’t talked much about work in October cause we were cooking up something new in London.
Now it’s time to share what we’ve been up to.
Carrot: Mindful Eating
Carrot is a visual, non-judgemental food diary app that helps people lose weight and live longer by being mindful of their eating habits.
I lost 60 pounds myself, maintained for 10 years, and have developed some insights on weight loss in the process.
Carrot is also our first take on obesity, the 2nd leading cause of preventable death in the US after tobacco use (40% of US adults are overweight).
We’re just starting out, so I’d love to hear your feedback!
The Longevity Community
I spent the past three months learning the biology of aging but haven’t found a place where one can learn about living longer and healthier without having to read scientific biology books. So I’ve built one.
The Longevity Community is a weekly Substack publication on how to live 200 years (or at least how to feel like a 25-year-old at 50).
I launched it two days ago, and it went wild on Facebook with 710 comments and counting. The first issue is coming out today!
Writing
Why I Wake Up At 5 a.m.
I published my story of trial and error and how I finally started waking up at 5. It’s been great, and I definitely accomplish more and feel happier since I started.
Disclaimer: this is not for everyone, both biologically and socially. More on this at the end of the post.
Books
Why We Sleep, by Matthew Walker
Written by an English scientist, it’s the best thing I’ve read about sleep in the past year. I like how Matthew covers rest from different points of view, including both evolutionary and biological.
Here’s what stuck out.
The most significant contribution of fire to the development of our civilization is probably not the creation of tools like copper or iron smelting but changing our sleep patterns.
Before fire was invented, we had to wake up a few times during the night to not to be caught up by some sneaky bastard (or a predator). This prevented our brain from washing out toxins and creating new neural pathways, essential to learning and creative thinking (more about this here, #4).
As with most technologies, the greatest benefits of sleep came from the things we couldn’t have predicted in advance.
Just in case you’re now wondering how to improve your sleep, here’s a handy checklist from Matthew:
Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even after a bad night’s sleep or on the weekend.
Keep your bedroom temperature cool; about 65 degrees Fahrenheit is optimal for cooling your body towards sleep. Wear socks if your feet are cold.
An hour before bedtime, dim the lights and turn off all screens. Blackout curtains are helpful.
If you can’t sleep, get out of bed and do something quiet and relaxing until the urge to sleep returns. Then go back to bed.
Avoid caffeine after 1 p.m. and never go to bed tipsy. Alcohol is a sedative and sedation is not sleep. It also blocks your REM dream sleep, an important part of the sleep cycle.
Quotes
I’ll leave you with this quote from Eminem:
“Cause sometimes you just feel tired, you feel weak,
And when you feel weak you feel like you want to just give up,
But you gotta search within you, you gotta find that inner strength,
And just pull that shit out of you and get that motivation to not give up,
And not be a quitter, no matter how bad you want to just fall flat on your face and collapse.”
Sleep well,
Vasili