This is the Monday Medley, a newsletter that goes out, you guessed it, every Monday. I republish it here for sharing and referencing, but if you'd like to sign up you can do so right here:
Happy Monday!
I have two new videos out in the last week. One on the 6 big nutrition lessons I've learned from my continuous glucose monitor. And another one out this morning on how to migrate from Notion to Roam.
Neil and I also published a Made You Think episode on "The Almanack of Naval Ravikant," and you can find my notes on the book in The Brain.
As always, you can get an audio version of the Medley by searing "Nat Chat" in any podcasting app
🥩 This week's Medley is brought to you by returning sponsor White Oak Pastures! If you're not fortunate enough to live close to an ethical, environmentally friendly ranch to get meat from, White Oak is where you should be getting your meat. Even "health" food stores like Whole Foods have terrible meat quality, and White Oak goes above and beyond to make sure their meat is raised sustainably and ethically, so you can enjoy delicious steaks, eggs, bacon, and more guilt free. Check out some of their most popular items here.
🗓️ I've been waiting almost a year to share this article with you.
😖 My good friend Cat Lavery, founder of BestSelf, went through absolute hell over the last year trying to get rid of her leech of a former business partner.
Now that the ink is dry and it's done, she's shared everything she went through, and most importantly, all the mistakes she made early on that led to this mess, in one extensive article.
👍 If you've started a business, or are thinking of starting one, you should absolutely read this article. It's both a great story and an extensive list of advice on all the things you should figure out and set up legal structure for from the get-go to make sure you and your business partners are all protected and there's no messiness later.
❓ I've gotten a number of questions in some form of "how did you pick up YouTube so quickly?" Up through my sleep tech video, I was doing all the editing myself, and I owe that rapid education largely to Ali Abdaal.
Ali was generous enough to let me pester him with questions as I was getting started, and now he's putting on a masterclass in how to build a $1,000,000 YouTube channel. It is an extensive program that should be a no-brainer for anyone debating getting into YouTube, and I'm really excited to see how many great new YouTube stars come out of it.
📹👨⚕️ If you want a bit of behind the scenes on Ali's process, definitely check out his interview in Superorganizers all about how he balances his double life as a famous YouTuber and a full-time doctor. One thing I particularly liked is how much he ties in the Hero's Journey from Joseph Campbell into planning and thinking about his videos.
🕑 This was a fascinating study suggesting that intermittent fasting might not be effective as a weight loss strategy. That doesn't mean there aren't other benefits, but it's surprising to see such a big non-effect for such a widely recommended practice.
💪 What's more interesting is that in this study, the fasters and the control group both lost about the same amount of weight, but the fasters lost more lean muscle mass. So doing IF while trying to get stronger could be hurting you!
👨🔬 This doesn't mean there aren't authophagy benefits from doing longer fasts, that as far as I know is supported by the science. But doing IF for weight loss might not be a good strategy.
🐔 In other news, my friend Anthony is embarking on an experiment to make chicken great again. Chicken is a generally unhealthy meat (something I talked about in my ethical meat eating article), but there may be ways to make them healthy again. Check out what he's going to try in order to bring down their PUFA ratios.
📖 I loved this summary from Dan Stern on the ancient idea of solving problems by letting go.
"The most effective learning occurs when you relinquish control and allow yourself to become immersed in completely different ideas over time."
🤔 One thing I haven't done a good job of this year is giving myself time to think. I want to find some way to schedule in unscheduled time to just wander around the neighborhood or something and see what pops in my head, as loony as that sounds. The strategy he closes the article with is great advice:
"Next time you run into a problem you can’t quite solve, take a moment to note if you’re in active search mode. You might just need to stop thinking and shift your attention elsewhere before the answer becomes clear. "
As always, if you're enjoying the Medley, I'd love it if you shared it with a friend or two. You can send them here to sign up. I try to make it one of the best emails you get each week, and I hope you're enjoying it.
If you want to support the Medley and my other writing, there are many ways you can do that here.
And should you come across anything interesting this week, send it my way! I love finding new things to read through members of this newsletter.
Have a great week,
Nat