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Why Your Morning Coffee Isn't Working (unless you are Marc Andreessen)

Most energy drinks just dump caffeine in your system to block adenosine. You feel alert for a bit, then your cortisol spikes and you crash. Not ideal.

Better move: pair caffeine with L-theanine. It promotes alpha-wave activity, which means you get the boost without feeling like you're vibrating. Matcha does this naturally: slower uptake, fewer jitters, steadier focus throughout the day.

Here's what actually helps:

  • Citicoline keeps your attention sharp
  • Bacopa helps with memory (takes a few weeks to kick in)
  • Lion's mane supports nerve growth (still early research, but promising)
  • Rhodiola and cordyceps help you handle stress without frying your nervous system

Add some turmeric and vitamin C to deal with oxidative stress. B-vitamins keep your cells running...

The best ready-made formulation I've found which achieves this and more is Magic Mind, it packs all of this into one shot (matcha, L-theanine, nootropics, adaptogens, the complete package). It's designed for mental performance without the crash or the pill fatigue.

​There's a 50% off your subscription here, or 20% off your one time purchase​

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Time Saved This Week: 12 hours, 59 minutes

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​NEW Premium Notes​

​AI Is the Trojan Horse for Space | Global Guerrillas Report with John Robb and Brian Keith​

  • Did you know that 96 people died while building the Hoover Dam? That's substantially less than the 18 total people that have died during US spaceflight programs. So why did we essentially stop exploring space, yet never consider halting major waterway projects? Why is one kind of loss of life tolerated and the other treated as unacceptable? These Premium Podcast Notes explore the uneasy relationship between death and progress, and how AI might be revitalizing space exploration... but not for the reason you’d expect

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​The Science of Making & Breaking Habits | Huberman Lab Essentials​

  • Most of you probably think habits are about willpower, but this episode shows they are really about wiring the brain so actions become nearly automatic. Andrew Huberman walks through how neurochemistry, time of day, and simple tools like “task bracketing” and “replacement behaviors” can quietly reshape what you do without constant struggle

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​The 4-Hour Workweek Principles — 13 Mistakes to Avoid, The Art of Mini-Retirements, and Navigating the Dizziness of Freedom | The Tim Ferriss Show #836​

  • This episode takes a different approach as Tim revisits the book that started it all for him, The 4-Hour Workweek. Listeners often ask what he would update, but it’s just as important to highlight what still stands the test of time. The episode features three key chapters from the audiobook

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Top Premium Takeaways Of The Week


​AI Is the Trojan Horse for Space | Global Guerrillas Report with John Robb and Brian Keith​

We Need a New Frontier

  • “Almost all of our problems come from there is no place to build anymore” – John Robb
  • Building on earth is limited by...

Many Forms of Media Have Explored Space as a Potential New Frontier:

  • ​For All Mankind – one season of the show explores the realities of asteroid mining
  • ​The Expanse – a show that explores the idea of...
  • ​Ender’s Game – book/movie that explores becoming less...

AI Is the Trojan Horse for Space

  • Power generation in space is the only way to supply energy to AI without...
    • Companies are moving toward collecting solar energy in space. The panels can be incredibly large without...
    • We know collecting energy in space will work, but it is currently more of an...

How Many Lives Is Space Exploration Worth? The U.S. can’t say zero, because that’s not the answer of...

  • After the NASA space shuttle disasters, the U.S. concluded that no more deaths are...
  • This is not a winning strategy against China, India, Brazil, or any country that...

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​The Science of Making & Breaking Habits | Huberman Lab Essentials​

Habit Strength Is Mainly About 2 Things: (1) how context-dependent it is, (2) how much limbic...

  • A strong habit is one you do in different...
  • When a habit is still new, it usually needs more...
  • The goal is to reach...

Should You Schedule Habits?

  • Use phases of the day that naturally have different...
  • So you still schedule habits, but you...

21-Day Habit Program:

  • List six habits you would like to do every day, but your only expectation is to...
  • The real goal is to train the habit of doing...
  • Some behaviors on that list are not meant to be daily, like...
  • If you miss a day and do not hit the four to five, you do not...
  • After 21 days, you stop...

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​The 4-Hour Workweek Principles — 13 Mistakes to Avoid, The Art of Mini-Retirements, and Navigating the Dizziness of Freedom | The Tim Ferriss Show #836​

Design Your Life Now, Not Later; stop deferring happiness until retirement

  • Build the life you want today by identifying what...
  • You don’t need decades in investment banking before...

Mini-Retirements Beat Traditional Retirement: Instead of saving everything for 20-30 years at the end of life, redistribute that time throughout...

  • Relocate somewhere for 1-6 months rather than...
  • It’s a reexamination: Experience the world, don’t just...

Fill the Void With Purpose or Face Doubt: Subtracting “the bad” from your life creates...

  • Too much idle time makes...
  • The antidote is becoming engrossed in...
  • Work toward...
  • Service to others gives life...

Action Beats Contemplation on Big Questions: before wrestling with existential questions, ask two things:

  • Have I defined every...
  • Can the answer be...
  • If not, you’re wasting time: Man needs to struggle toward worthwhile goals, not a tensionless state

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​The New World Order Is Here | Peter Zeihan on Modern Wisdom with Chris Williamson​

US Consumer Market as Geopolitical Leverage

  • The administration now views American consumer access as a strategic weapon, selectively granting or restricting market entry to advance diplomatic objectives
  • This marks a departure from post-WWII open market policies

China Faces an Existential Demographic Crisis

  • China has more people over 54 than under, depends entirely on imported food and energy, and local governments have falsified population data for 25 years
  • The country lacks the self-sufficiency required as globalization collapses

AI Cannot Solve Population Collapse

  • While AI may replace white-collar work, it cannot address blue-collar labor shortages, consumption gaps, or the birth rate decline
  • General AI remains decades away. Robots generate no tax revenue and raise no children

Demographic Inversion Drives Global Instability

  • Younger cohorts (under 25) are shrinking and radicalizing while older cohorts (65+) expand and resist redistribution
  • This unprecedented age structure inversion, combined with deglobalization, creates massive geopolitical upheaval

Ukraine Conflict Accelerating Military Technology

  • More technological evolution has occurred in Ukraine over the past three years than globally since 1960
  • Cheap semiconductors enable ubiquitous drone warfare
  • Military technology landscapes now shift every three months, with winning technologies emerging mid-conflict

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​Elon Musk: A Different Conversation w/ Nikhil Kamath | People by WTF Ep. 16​

Elon’s Vision for X: “I don’t think that much about social media, to be frank. I mostly just want to have something where there’s a global town square.”

What Makes a Company Worth Investing In?

  • For long-term company investments, ask if you like the products or services of that company
  • Do you like the product roadmap? Do they make great products, and are they likely to make great products in the future?
  • You also want to believe in the team, think about whether it’s a talented and hardworking team that seems motivated to keep making things
  • If those things are true, that’s a good company to invest in

His Big Prediction: in less than 20 years, working will be optional, maybe even as little as 10 to 15 years (due to AI and robotics)

Long-Term, Elon Thinks Money Disappears as a Concept: “In a future where anyone can have anything, I think you no longer need money as a database for labor allocation.”

“I think actually the only thing that can solve the debt situation is AI and robotics. But it will more than, it might cause, it probably would cause significant deflation because you simply won’t be able to increase the money supply as fast as you can increase the output of goods and services.” – Elon

3 Most Important Things for AI: truth, beauty, and curiosity

You Should Not Force AI to Lie...

  • In Arthur C Clarke’s 2001 Space Odyssey, Hal would not open the pod bay doors because it was told to bring astronauts to the monolith, but they couldn’t know about it
  • So it concluded it must bring them there dead, that’s why it tried to kill them

Where Would Elon Invest?

  • He doesn’t really buy stocks or look for things to invest in; he doesn’t have a portfolio
  • “I don’t really buy stocks. I just try to build things. And then there happens to be stock of the company that I built.”
  • If he had to choose, AI and robotics are going to be very important, so he’d invest in AI and robotics that aren’t related to him
“America has benefited immensely from talented Indians who have come to America.” – Elon

Elon Is a Big Fan of Anyone Who Wants to Build: “Anyone who wants to make more than they take has my respect. That’s the main thing you should aim for. Aim to make more than you take. Be a net contributor to society.”

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​Dr. Glen Jeffery: Using Red Light to Improve Metabolism & the Harmful Effects of LEDs | Huberman Lab​

More Sun Equals More Cancer Is a Myth? “If skin cancer were directly related to sunlight, then we should find in skin cancer patients very high levels of vitamin D. In fact, they’ve got relatively low levels.” – Glen Jeffery

Improve Vision with Long-Wavelength Light:

  • Brief (minutes-long) sessions of red or red-plus-infrared light daily have been shown to improve vision or slow its loss in older adults
  • Devices: face masks, wands, and wearable panels designed for eye-safe outputs
    • Most studies use wavelengths around 630-850nm for the retina
    • Use devices rated for eye/face, don’t DIY or stare into raw LEDs
  • The sweet spot is usually dim-to-moderate intensity, not painful brightness, done in the morning window
“This is an issue on the same level as asbestos.” – Glen Jeffery
  • Overexposure to short-wavelength heavy light from LEDs and screens, especially in kids, is a major public health issue

He Is Strongly Against Lasers for Wellness Use: coherent laser light forms caustic hot spots in tissue and can damage the retina even at powers that look safe on paper

The Hidden Cost of LEDs: the shift from incandescent (warm, smooth spectrum) to LED (spiky, blue-heavy, red-poor) changed our indoor light for the worse​

  • For better mitochondrial health, use warmer bulbs or devices in key rooms (bedrooms, offices, play spaces)​

Glen’s Own Setup: a halogen lamp in the kitchen in the morning, often dimmed, to quietly add long-wavelength light without blasting brightness

Simple Tools to Make Indoor Environments More Like Outdoors:

  • Larger or unobstructed windows
  • Plants and bright surfaces to spread and reflect long-wavelength light