Apple, one of the biggest and most visionary companies in the world recently announced their first product in 10 years. Goggles. Screens in front of your eyeballs. Ok. I'm sure it'll be good.
There's gyms on every corner, the television ads have athletes. You'd assume everyone is exercising. Wrong
Only about 20-30 percent of Americans get minimum government required exercise. And since it's the government saying this, we probably need more.
Of those 20-30 percent, half hate it.
That means about 10% of Americans actually enjoy exercising. That basically means exercise is a fetish
who's to blame?
It's a tough problem to solve.
We didn't evolve to want to exercise. It was just a byproduct of life and living.
You had to travel somewhere. you have to hunt. you have to work the fields. you have carry something. You have to have sex, go to war, or play.
Today we can live a completely sedentary life and be wealthy
We've gotten so good at automating life that even farmers today have worse health outcomes than city people
Which is a reversal of a historical norm
We have to exercise every day, or most days. Consistently and throughout our life. It doesn't stop
It's just part of living.
If you look at the Hadza, a modern hunter-gatherer tribe. They have very low rates of cardiovascular disease.
Since there is a mismatch between ourselves and our modern environment
Who are some of the groups that are part of 10% of exercise lovers?
It should attract an odd group. And it does.
1) The C-Suite consistent cardio white collar workers
2) The Bodybuilders
3) The men who fear death
If we're serious about solving real problems of modernity. We need to focus on the exercise problem.
There is hope. I outline a few ways we can address it.
We can either focus on fun and stimulation (NOT DISCIPLINE OR MOTIVATION)
or we can change our environment back to a more lindy time where we NEED to exercise to get things done.
2 paths...
Playing sports is great. I love tennis. I have done martial arts for years. But unfortunately, the sports as they exist now are not doing the job or we wouldn't be having this problem.
New sports may be something we should work on. Like the rise of pickleball
Or maybe technological solutions can be a way to help solve the exercise problem. Put fun sedentary games on cardio machines. GTA on the elliptical.
Currently, technology isn't helping the exercise problem very much.
The other pathway is completely change the environment
To do your daily life you need to exercise
This is a radical solution that many people may not be ready for
You're going to have to walk or ride a bicycle everywhere.
There's this rowing machine type of guy who loves doing them. I never got it. I never liked the rowing machine
My guess as to why it attracts some people is its a full body cardio exercise so you can feel it more intensely than running or biking.
I hope it doesn't have to come to this. It seems too excessive when we can just think about it differently
It's really a testament to the power of music that it can single handedly make exercise the least bit tolerable
Everyone you see running or at the gym has earbuds on.
You read about Plato or Islamic scholars wanted to ban music. It's because its powerful. It holds up the exercise regime today
Americans are experiencing a profound shift in priorities, traditional sources of meaning like patriotism, religion, community, and family have collapsed and have been replaced by a singular focus on money and economic survival.
There's an alternative to the race. Instead of competing, you can survive, avoid terminal risks, and wait for the system to break
Books are great, they can change your life. But people are not reading books anymore. They are ways for an author to get speaking fees or appear on podcasts to get famous. They are business cards of the intellectual class
There is a complete collapse of literacy happening right now. Replaced by short form video, tweets, podcasts, IG, youtube, tiktok, newsletters, etc.
These drugs are being tested at a massive scale right now. Turns out people have lost interest in their previous interests, like gambling or drinking alcohol or sex drive.
We don't really know what's going on. These were unexpected side effects
but it brings up an interesting philosophical question.
How much do you want to suppress your Pleasure Drive?
The same neural pathways that make you overeat also make you start companies, chase lovers, create art, take risks. Ozempic doesn't distinguish between those
Today, we’re often advised that true health requires intense self-reflection and therapy, with an emphasis on looking back. But this perspective is actually quite modern.