Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large. 

A quicker way

Whoever invents muscle protein synthesis in a pill form is going to make many billions. Who the heck would want to workout many times a week just to be in decent shape? Even the most insufferable lovers of the gym will have lazy days, when they much rather lie on the couch with a laptop. But, until the day the muscle-making pill becomes reality, I shall continue pushing these weights on a consistent basis.

Fitness is tough work, multiplied over many months and years. I can see why people are quick to hop off that train. Shortcuts - what’s what we want, right? Shortcuts for everything. Social media has shown us the fantastic end results that we all want right now. How can I get as rich as Warren Buffett without putting in the decades of work and patience? (Crypto, obviously.) How can I lose fat without the immense willpower needed to eat less over a long period?

Ozempic. Kind of crazy to realize that we essentially have an effective diet pill. (Yes, I know these semaglutide GLP-1 agonist drugs are needle shots - you get the idea.) If I weren’t already skinny and lean, I’d be shooting myself weekly with that drug. Why put in the work when there’s a shortcut? Sure, there’s no free lunch, especially when it comes to drugs. But there’s downsides to exercising, too: time loss, working out becoming your entire personality.

I think semaglutide drug for weight loss is great news for folks in the higher BMI ranges, the people who have struggled to lose weight. Even the absolute lazy ones deserve a chance to lower their all-cause mortality by getting leaner. These drugs will only get better - in terms of mitigating side-effects - and cheaper. Thereby more accessible by more of the population. Health insurance companies should be very happy to cover Ozempic, because that open heart surgery down the line costing cost way more will be obviated.

Pharmaceutical companies: please do muscle-protein synthesis next. Because some days, working out is a total chore and a half.

Trap you.

Do what you love, even if it's for free

Last evening, I encountered this golden nugget of a twitter thread by Christopher McQuarrie (yes, that Christopher McQuarrie.) In the thread, he answers the question of how to become a successful writer in Hollywood by saying that there aren’t any shortcuts: you have to do the work. Keep making stuff and show it to the world; have a portfolio of done and complete things that fully represents you. McQuarrie calls the act of pitching scripts to producers and various gatekeepers as “playing the lottery”, and it’s not advisable to have that as your sole focus. Clever metaphor, because I’m sure we all understand the futile odds of playing the lottery.

The director’s sound advice reminded of Charlie Munger (yes, that Charlie Munger) answering the question of how to become as accomplished as him by playfully scorning the questioner that he simply wanted Munger’s success, but far quicker - essentially asking for shortcuts. McQuarrie alluded to the same idea in one of his tweets, stating people are tacitly asking “What is the shortest route to [McQuarrie’s] career?" Indeed; to quote the great Jocko Willink: There is no shortcut. There is no hack. There's only one way. So get after it.

We should be happy to do the work anyways, because it’s what we love to do, right? Even if the end product leads nowhere and it pays nothing, the satisfaction of having created something is what really matters. That’s exactly what passion is about. The people asking for McQuarrie’s advice are looking at it from the monetary perspective, which the director cautions is the wrong lens to look from. The tools are out there - more than ever - for us to do the work and produce stuff, and if you’re truly serious about your particular craft, just go ahead and do it, without permission, and without thinking of some advancement endgame.

You have to ]detach from the results, and simply make the art for art’s sake. Produce or participate, then iterate and improve, and most importantly, put you and your work out there into the ether. The Internet has democratize and flatten many of the hierarchies and barriers that are no longer there, so there’s no excuse. It’s the reason this website of mine exist, and I shall continue to put out stuff, because it’s what I’m passionate about.

Thank you for coming to McQuarrie’s TED Talk.

Today is a good day.