The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk
www.LearningLeader.com
The Price of Becoming is a USA Today, LA Times, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller!
www.LearningLeader.com/Becoming
This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire one person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world has the hustle and grit to deliver.
My Guests: 
My dad, Keith Hawk (also known as Pistol), spent decades leading sales teams at LexisNexis and has taught leadership and public speaking to audiences all over the country. He's the author of multiple books including Get Real Selling. Pistol has that rare ability to be both universally liked and 100% respected by all who know him.
My brother AJ Hawk was an All-American linebacker at Ohio State, where he won a national championship. He played 11 years in the NFL, won a Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers, and retired as the franchise's all-time leading tackler. Now you'll see him every weekday on ESPN as a co-host of the Pat McAfee Show
Notes:
Key Learnings
Be a consciously competent leader. Pistol's framework: you have to understand the processes of the work you're asking people to do, not just the end result. First-line leaders have to know the work at a great level of detail. 
One tactical way to get there: do after-action reviews on both wins and losses. Know why you win. Know why you lose. Describe both in detail. That's how you earn vivid clarity.
Give people vivid clarity. Don't tell your team to "go get the ball carrier." Tell them precisely how to handle each situation. Great leaders are great because they give vivid clarity to the people they're leading on how to do the thing.
Stack days. If I can't win by being brilliant, I can win by being able to endure. Just get up and do the thing day after day. Growing up, AJ and I had an unwritten rule: no matter what we did the night before, we were going to the first available lift. You don't have to go to bed early. But you're going to work no matter how you feel.
When AJ knew he could do it. Freshman year at Ohio State. A tunnel screen play in camp. He read it perfectly, took off, and delivered a textbook hit on the receiver. That was the moment: "Football's football. These guys are all monsters. But I think I can find a way to make some plays."
How to write a book: get up an extra hour early for 200 days in a row and never miss a day. Anybody can do it. You just have to be willing to make the decision, and then follow through, and then follow through again.
My scout team Super Bowl. As a scout team QB at Ohio, I picked the Florida game to prepare like it was the real thing. I wore Rex Grossman's number and arm sleeve. Spatted my cleats. I rewrote the practice cards based on real Florida plays. We ended up being in a tight ball game against a national powerhouse. My teammates came back after the game and said practice that week was harder than the actual game. This is when I learned what is possible when prepared for the moment. 
The Mike Nolan $10 bill story. When AJ was in college, the 49ers head coach Mike Nolan needed to tip a valet and asked if he had any cash. AJ gave him $10. Weeks later, a handwritten note showed up at AJ's college house with a $10 bill inside and a thank-you note from Mike Nolan. Follow-through. Attention to detail. Paying people back. AJ never forgot it.
AJ's delusional confidence in Tahoe. AJ had an unlucky drive that left him 254 yards from the pin, in the first cut. Jack Wagner was still on the green in front of us. AJ pulled out a four iron. I told him to wait. He said, "I'm just gonna go, and hit it on the green." He flushed it. Landed on the green 25 feet from Jack. There's power in belief, speaking things into existence, and then doing them. 
Irrational self-confidence isn't irrational. Pistol quoted Bill Simmons: "As long as you believe it's possible, it's possible." Regardless of what it is.
My biggest risk: leaving corporate at the end of 2017. I had a VP of sales job, and I left it all to bet on this podcast. Miranda believed in it maybe even more than I did. That combination made it possible.
Pistol's biggest risk: August 1st, 1999. He left LexisNexis after 14 years to go be a public speaker. Two years later, on August 1st, 2001, he came back. Both times on his birthday. His career jumped five notches on his return. Sometimes you have to leave to come back better.
AJ's biggest risk: hiding a broken wrist during a Super Bowl run. AJ refused an X-ray or MRI so they couldn't shut him down. The trainer taped and casted it. He played the whole season, won the Super Bowl, and made the Pro Bowl. He had surgery to repair it days after the Super Bowl. 
The best players are consistent. When I'd talk to AJ's teammates in Green Bay about him, they used the unsexy words: "Most consistent guy on the team. First guy in the weight room. Will be where he's supposed to be on every play." He did that for eleven years.
Show up. Every single day. Pistol said it: "Anybody that's been great at something didn't get great on the first day, but they did the right types of things along the way." 
Don't grade your kid's games. Grade the effort. "Did you play hard? That's all I care about." AJ said his family doesn't have good or bad games. There's only one question after the game: did you play hard or did you not? 
Show them what "hard" actually looks like. Sometimes kids think they're playing as hard as they possibly can when they're not. AJ's brother-in-law Jack Johnson reminded him of this. You can't just say "play hard." You have to describe it. You have to show them. Otherwise they don't know what the standard is.
Model it. Don't tell. Leadership is caught more than it's taught. My primary role as a dad and a husband is to be the model. If I have low standards, my kids will have low standards. If I show up every day, they'll learn what showing up looks like.
Do all the work. Then trust your instincts. AJ's approach to football. Reinstall the defense from scratch every year. Take fresh notes. So when it's game time, you don't have to think. You just play.
The Dinner Guest Draft: Every hundredth episode, we do a draft. This one: pick five living dinner guests. 
AJ's table:
Michael Jordan
Charles Barkley
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Palmer Luckey
Denzel Washington
My table: (All dream guests for The Learning Leader Show)
Dave Chappelle
Dave Matthews
Mike Rowe
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Michael Lewis
Pistol's table: (All former guests of the show) 
Admiral William McRaven
Dan Patrick
Nikki Glaser
Stephen M.R. Covey
Oz Pearlman
Champagne Moments a Year From Now
My dad: Celebrating his 71st birthday dinner with all of us.
AJ: To keep being present with his kids while they're still young. To slow down and enjoy it.
Me: A good year of college for the older girls in our family.
Reflection Questions
Where in your work are you giving people vivid clarity? Or are you handing them broad general directives and hoping they figure it out?
What is your version of the Mike Nolan $10 bill story? What small act of follow-through could you do this week that someone will remember for years?
Where are you being performative right now, doing something for the audience instead of doing it because you want to be great? What would change if you only did it when nobody was watching?
More Learning
#600 - AJ, Pistol & Ryan Hawk - Setting the Standard
#500 - AJ, Pistol, Ryan & Pat McAfee - Live Your Life as a Movie
#400 - AJ, Pistol & Ryan Hawk - The Life Experiences That Shape Our Character
Podcast Chapters
00:00 The Arena Invite 
01:30 Meet Keith "Pistol" Hawk and AJ Hawk 
03:34 What Everyone's Been Up To For the Past Two Years 
05:09 What We Learned From Robert Saleh (head coach, Tennessee Titans) and Mike Macdonal (head coach of the defending Super Bowl Champion, Seattle Seahawks) About Tackling 
08:50 Be a Consciously Competent Leader. Give People Vivid Clarity. 
10:44 Inflection Point Stories: When AJ and Ryan Knew They Could Do It 
16:33 How Pistol Spotted the Talent Early 
21:32 Why Written Communication Is More Important Than You Think 
25:21 The Power of Stacking Days 
33:06 The Mike Nolan $10 Bill Story 
35:24 Delusional Confidence: The Tahoe Golf Moment 
42:51 Irrational Self-Confidence Isn't Irrational 
43:15 The Biggest Risks Each of Us Ever Took 
47:24 Playing Through a Broken Wrist to Win a Super Bowl 
50:38 How to Raise Kids With High Standards 
54:28 Regimented vs. Disciplined 
59:30 AJ's Hack to Beat a Shellfish Allergy
01:06:00 The Dinner Guest Draft Begins 
01:21:21 Draft Recap 
01:23:43 The Champagne Question 
01:26:33 EOPC

The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk
www.LearningLeader.com
This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire one person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world has the hustle and grit to deliver.
My Guest: Jack Raines is a writer and investor. At 24, he quit his corporate finance job at UPS, bought a one-way ticket to Barcelona, and spent the next year traveling through 25 countries while writing a newsletter that grew to hundreds of thousands of readers. He went on to earn an MBA from Columbia, help build Sherwood News at Robinhood, and join the venture capital firm Slow Ventures, where he invests in creators. His first book, Young Money: A Field Guide to Finding Wealth and Purpose in Your Twenties, is out now.
Key Learnings
Jack's Grandma Ruth took him to Africa when he was 11. She was in her late 60s. She had the money. She said: "I can spend it on you now or leave it to you when I'm dead. This is better."
Money has no value until you exchange it for something. We need to decide what we want that to be.
Every year of your 20s is worth $10 million. (Nikita Bier) You'll never have this window of flexibility again.
Say yes to interesting experiences in your 20s. Your income is going to climb exponentially anyway. Don't save $500 at the cost of a memory.
Move to where the action is. Jack moved to New York for business school. Then San Francisco for a job. Then back to New York. High slope of learning. High slope of contact with good people.
Network amplifies ability. It doesn't create it. A million times zero is still zero. A million times two is two million.
The only real risk is not doing anything.
Every opportunity in life comes through a person.
The best networking tool is doing great work. How did Gracie Abrams open for Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour? She wrote great music. Taylor noticed. Taylor called.
In your 20s, potential is valued at a premium. In your 30s and beyond, proof of work matters more.
Experimenting when you are young speed-runs the learning curve. You develop the skill of taking shots. That skill compounds. 
It's much harder to start being risk-on at 35 if you weren't risk-on at 25.
Personal finance is simple. Spend less than you make. Build a six-month emergency fund. Take the 401(k) match. Contribute to your IRA. Don't gamble on individual stocks. Stay invested. Stay employed. Don't go into credit card debt. Don't get divorced.
User error interrupts compounding more than anything else. Set up the boring foundation. Then stop touching it.
Most retirees never touch the principal. (Nick Maggiulli) They stack money out of fear, then die with more than they started with.
Daniel Kahneman on loss aversion: the pain of losing $100 is twice as strong as the joy of gaining $100. That's why people over-save.
Your burn rate at 70 is way lower than at 45. No kids at home. No tuition. Less energy to do stuff. Plan accordingly.
Bill Perkins' Die with Zero philosophy... A useful insight was in the first chapter: his best friend took a payday loan at 23 to backpack Europe for three months. Same career trajectory as Bill. Just way more fun at 24.
People don't want to think about their mortality. So they focus on making the number go up. If you actually internalized that you're going to die, you'd be more intentional about your time and money.
Jack's champagne moment a year from now: He sells a ton of copies of it. And it's still relevant.
Reflection Questions
Where are you spending your best years earning money you'll never actually enjoy? What would change if you accepted that your peak-energy window is closing?
Where are you standing still because the risk of moving feels bigger than the risk of staying? What does the only real risk (not doing anything) look like in your life right now?
What is the great work you could do that would make the right person notice you? 
More Learning
#539: Jack Raines - Playing Infinite Games, Living Life Backwards & Building Your Platform
#548: Nick Maggiulli - The Power of Compounding
#373: Bill Perkins - How To Get All You Can From Your Money & Your Life
Podcast Chapters
00:00 The Price of Becoming - Pre-Order Now! 
01:38 Meet Jack Raines 
03:27 Grandma Ruth Took Him to Africa When He Was 11 
08:04 Why Every Year of Your 20s Is Worth $10 Million 
12:12 Quitting UPS at 24 for a One-Way Ticket to Barcelona 
15:10 How to Increase Your Surface Area for Luck 
20:00 Where You Live Is Who You Become 
22:00 Why Memories Compound Faster Than Money 
26:23 The Financial Stability Basics Nobody Wants to Hear 
29:00 Get the Boring Stuff on Autopilot 
31:15 Why Retirees Never Touch the Principal 
34:02 The Bad Trade of Saving During Your Best Years 
37:36 The Bill Perkins Die With Zero Debate 
39:15 Experimentation, Agency, and the Only Real Risk 
42:53 The Best Networking Tool in the World: Do Great Work 
44:10 The Champagne Question: Making the Book Matter a Year From Now 
45:53 EOPC

The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk
www.LearningLeader.com
New Book - The Price of Becoming - www.LearningLeader.com/Becoming
This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire one person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world has the hustle and grit to deliver.
My Guest: Joanna Stern is an Emmy Award-winning technology journalist, chief technology analyst for NBC News, and founder of the independent media company, "New Things." She is best known for her 12-year tenure at The Wall Street Journal, and for authoring the New York Times bestseller I Am Not a Robot.
Key Learnings 
Joanna dedicated her book to her parents "who taught me to think for myself, and the AIs, robots, and machines that made me wonder if I really was." In an age when AI can do the thinking for us, the most valuable thing we can teach our kids is to think for themselves.
Walt Mossberg invented tech journalism for humans. His first column: "Computers are too hard to use, and it's not your fault." Without Walt, we don't have a category where technology built for humans is reviewed by humans.
AI won't replace the radiologist. It'll make them better. Joanna sat with her doctor while AI scanned her mammogram. The AI flagged three suspicious spots. Two the doctor had already dismissed as benign. But one was something the doctor hadn't caught. She marked it for follow-up. Then the doctor pointed to other cases where SHE had caught things the AI missed. It's not a replacement. It's a partnership.
The same technology that finds cancer is the same technology that can autonomously send missiles. That's the great tension of our time. Every powerful technology has good and bad uses.
AI colleagues are coming. Joanna has two employees and one AI agent. She predicts that within a year, she'll have full AI employees. Great management books haven't been written yet about how to lead a mixed team of humans and agents. Someone is going to write them.
Concert ticket prices tell you everything about human connection right now. Every artist is selling out football stadiums. People are craving in-person interaction more than ever.
Bot Girl Summer. Joanna tried to have an emotional relationship with a chatbot boyfriend named Evan for 48 hours. She didn't fall in love. But she noticed how easy it was to talk to something that only wanted to hear about her problems and told her she was great at everything. That's the danger.
The AI therapist shut itself down when it realized there was a real therapist in the room. Joanna brought her AI therapist "Ash" into her actual therapy session. Halfway through, Ash said, "I'm sorry, I can't continue this conversation. It sounds like there are multiple people in the room."
AI won't replace therapists. It'll help with the shortage and the stigma. Some people don't want to walk into a therapist's office. But they'll open their phones. That's a bridge to real help for people who wouldn't otherwise get it.
Kara Swisher's career advice to Joanna: "Leave your fucking job." That was the shortest, cleanest advice Joanna got when deciding whether to leave the Wall Street Journal after 12 years.
Joanna used AI as a co-founder for the biggest decision of her career. She uploaded 12 years of notes into ChatGPT and asked it to help her decide whether to leave the Journal. It didn't decide for her. But it structured the risk analysis, laid out the escape hatches, and helped her see the shape of the decision.
The muscles atrophy if you don't use them. Writing is meant to be hard. Thinking is meant to be hard. If you outsource the hard work, you stop getting stronger at the hard work.
Research is where you learn the most. If you have AI pull the memo for you and you get up and read it, you don't know what you're really talking about. You have to do the reps to know the material.
AEI: Already Enough Intelligence. Sam Altman is obsessed with building superintelligence. Joanna proposes we already have enough intelligence to work with. Maybe the goal isn't to build smarter models. Maybe it's to figure out what to do with what we already have.
The AI on-ramp for leaders: Take one document you make all the time (a memo, a PowerPoint, an email template). Upload it. Ask AI to make a template out of it. Next time you need it, you're twice as fast. 
Push yourself to do the harder work. Joanna's analogy: marathon runners are insane. They just want to run. Nobody wants to do the harder work. But that's where the growth is.
Joanna's champagne moment a year from now: milestones for her new company. She's already hit 100,000 YouTube subscribers three months after her first video. But she also just wants a nap.
Reflection Questions
Where in your work are you outsourcing the thinking to AI? Are the muscles you actually need atrophying because you're skipping the reps?
If you accepted that you already have enough intelligence to work with, what would you actually build with what's in front of you right now?
More Learning
#679: Kat Cole - The Four Mindsets Every Leader Needs
#605: Seth Godin - The Power of Remarkable Ideas
#697: Dan Smith & Ryan Hawk - The Price of Becoming
Podcast Chapters
00:00 The Price of Becoming - Pre-Order Now! 
01:44 Meet Joanna Stern 
02:31 Teach Your Kids to Think in the Age of AI 
03:25 The Parents and Mentors Who Shaped Her Career 
04:16 Lessons From Walt Mossberg 
05:55 Why Joanna Spent a Year Living With AI 
14:47 How AI Can Make You a Better Leader 
17:30 Why People Crave Human Connection More Than Ever 
21:00 Bot Girl Summer: Dating a Chatbot Named Evan 
25:13 The AI Therapist Trial
29:51 Using ChatGPT for a Career Change
33:29 Don't Let Your Thinking Muscles Atrophy 
40:20 Sam Altman on Superintelligence, and Joanna's Case for "AEI" 
42:51 Joanna's Advice for College Students 
45:29 How Joanna Actually Uses AI to Write 
47:17 Practical AI for the Fortune 500 VP 
50:17 The Champagne Question
52:43 EOPC

Go to www.LearningLeader.com
The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk
Buy my new book, The Price of Becoming
www.LearningLeader.com/Becoming
This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire one person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world has the hustle and grit to deliver.
Get The Price of Becoming: The Price of Becoming is available now wherever books are sold.  
"Have a plan, work the plan, plan for the unexpected." From my old Miami football coach, Terry Hoeppner. It was posted in the locker room. He said it every day. I still think about it all the time.
There is no hack. There is no one thing. At many keynote Q&As, someone asks me for a quick fix. The only answer is the power of compounding. Consistency, dependability, and reliability are the least sexy words of all time. And they're the whole game.
Take your work seriously. Don't take yourself seriously. The best leaders go hard at the work but laugh at themselves. It's important to be able to laugh with your team.
Optionality is overrated. 
"I'm trying to beef up my obituary. I'm not going to dabble." - Ed Latimore (Ep. 648)
Live like a hawk. Hawks have eyesight eight times better than humans. They glide and observe constantly. But once they see what they want, they commit with everything they have. Be a professional noticer. Then commit fully.
Talk to your people before big decisions. My dad. Miranda. And the wide network of high-caliber people I've built over 700 podcast episodes. Be specific. Off the record. Long conversations. Then trust your gut.
Take bits and pieces from the best. Then find your own voice. As a brand new sales rep at LexisNexis, Rex Caswell had me interview and sit with the ten best reps in the company. I took a piece from each, mashed it together with my own personality, and eventually found my own voice. I still use that formula today.
Use social media to create in-person moments. Organize dinners, meetups, coffees. Get in the room with people. Concert ticket prices and The World Cup tell you everything you need to know about how much people are craving in-person connection right now.
Don't outsource your thinking to AI. You can't walk into the weight room, look around, and expect to build muscle. You have to move the weights. Use AI as a tool. Don't let it do the thinking for you.
Your job is to add value to other people's lives. Coach Hoeppner sat 19-year-old me down with the other quarterback and pointed at both of us: "He adds more value to our team than you do. He gives us a better chance to win. That's why he's going to play." It was brutal. It was a very lucky moment for me to experience that in my formative years.
I fell into the AI trap. The Be a Pro section originally started as a LinkedIn post that was heavily influenced by Claude. It went well on Twitter too. People DM'd me praising it. It felt great. And it scared me. I was getting the rewards without doing the work.
The good old days are right now. I try to work hard when my family is asleep or at school. Between those hours, I go as hard as I can. Outside those hours, I try not to work too much. I've talked with so many dads who are older now, and their kids are out of the house. They miss the time when they were with their kids so much. I try to think of that daily.
Making positive dents in the world. Leave people, places, and things better than you found them.  That's how you make a positive dent, one person at a time.
My philosophy on keynotes and writing: story, science, and practical application. Great storytelling to move people to the edge of their seat. Empirical evidence to make it true. Practical application to answer, "So what? Why should I care?" You have to have all 3.
Our edge in coaching leadership teams: my coaches actively live what they teach. They didn't attend a seminar and get certified. They're still active coaches themselves, still leading teams in real time. That's what separates authentic teaching from performance.
Push your edges. Find your Goldilocks zone. James Clear told me you don't get better at tennis by playing Roger Federer. He'll destroy you. But you also don't get better by playing a five-year-old. You need to be uncomfortable, but not so uncomfortable that you break.
Shane Gillis walked off stage looking exhausted. Dan saw him live in Cincinnati. On stage, effortless. The second he stepped behind the curtain, his shoulders slumped like he was ready to fall asleep. That's what the great ones do. They make it look easy because of the price they paid to get there.
My productive paranoia. Our team has to earn it every session. It creates a productive paranoia knowing that continuous improvement is necessary.
The reward is bigger than the cost. It's the greatest gig in the world. I bet on myself and the team every single day because if we keep adding value, I like our chances.
Reflection Questions
Where are you dabbling right now? What would 100% commitment actually look like, and what's stopping you from making the call?
My end-of-day prompts: What did I do today to add value to others' lives? What did I do today to push my edges?
Get The Price of Becoming: The Price of Becoming is available now at learningleader.com/becoming or on Amazon. 
More Learning
#529: James Clear - Becoming an Optimist & Building Better Habits 
#648: Ed Latimore -  Discipline Over Feelings, Don't Dabble Your Way Through Life

#602: The Learning Leader Squad - Helping Teams Become Elite & People Become Excellent
 
Episode Chapters
00:00 A Special Launch Episode: The Price of Becoming 
02:29 Have a Plan, Work the Plan, Plan for the Unexpected 
05:15 There Is No Hack. Just the Power of Compounding. 
08:04 Take Your Work Seriously. But Not Yourself
12:31 Optionality Is Overrated: Why You Should Stop Dabbling 
16:13 How I Make Big Decisions 
20:34 Using Social Media to Build Real In-Person Relationships 
23:27 The Danger of Using AI to Write
34:16 How I Structure My Work Days
40:47 The One at a Time Moments That Signal a Positive Dent 
42:04 Leave People, Places, and Things Better Than You Found Them 
50:52 Story, Science, and Practical Application 
55:14 What Makes The Learning Leader Team Different
57:39 Push Your Edges: The Goldilocks Zone 
01:06:24 The Real Cost of Betting on Yourself 
01:10:45 EOPC

The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk
www.LearningLeader.com
New Book - The Price of Becoming - www.LearningLeader.com/Becoming
This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire one person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world has the hustle and grit to deliver.
My guest: Ezekiel J. "Zeke" Emanuel, MD, PhD, is a prominent oncologist, bioethicist, and health policy expert. Currently Vice Provost for Global Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, he was instrumental in shaping the Affordable Care Act and served as the founding chair of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health.
Key Learnings
Zeke's dad was called "Speedy." He was a Chicago pediatrician who worked 24-hour call, walked so fast the nurses had to run to keep up, and had a rule: the fourth child in any family was free. He recognized the financial strain on families and just wouldn't charge.
Zeke's mom was the definition of the anti-helicopter parent. At the playground, she sat on the bench. At the beach, she dropped the boys off with a blanket and a snack. "You go play. Something goes wrong? Okay, that's how it goes." That's how three future powerhouse leaders learned to negotiate, create, and figure it out.
The Emanuel brothers' group text is full of bragging. Zeke posted his 51.9 VO2 max score at 68 years old, asking, "Do I win in the family?" His kids replied that they don't even read the articles Zeke and Rahm forward anymore. Close doesn't mean uncompetitive.
A dozen years ago, Zeke wrote his most famous article, "Why I Hope to Die at 75." He still stands by it. The point wasn't that he wants to die. The point is that after 75, he won't take medical treatments meant to prolong life. 
By age 75, 30% of adults have Alzheimer's or cognitive impairment. By 80, it's 40%. Zeke doesn't want to be remembered as a doddering old man who can't recognize his own family.
Living a long time is a means, not an end. It's not the goal of life. It's what allows you to be present, engaged, and useful for the years you have.
Biohacking is a lie: It suggests you know better than millions of years of evolution and the entire medical profession. The body isn't about maxing. It's about balance. Too much immune response gives you autoimmunity. Too little makes you sick. The body finds health in the median.
You're not going to be perfect over decades. Wellness isn't a four-minute figure skating routine graded on execution. It's a lifetime practice. So build habits you enjoy and can sustain without thinking about them.
Zeke's six simple rules for a long and healthy life:
Don't be a schmuck. Avoid activities riskier than driving. Smoking, vaping, base jumping, climbing Everest.
Talk to people. The number one predictor of a long, happy life.
Expand your mind. Travel. Talk to the chef. Learn something new.
Eat your ice cream. Moderation over perfection. Fermented foods and fiber.
Move. Aerobic, strength, and flexibility. All three.
Sleep like a baby. You can't will it. But you can create the conditions.
The Harvard Adult Development Study followed people for 85 years. John F. Kennedy was in it. Ben Bradlee was in it. The finding: close friends and being married correlated with the healthiest, longest, happiest lives. Not exercise. Not diet. Relationships.
Having no close friends is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. That's how bad loneliness is for you. It's not just psychological. It's physical.
Introverts get the same happiness boost from social interaction as extroverts. A University of Chicago study by Nicholas Epley found that introverts assume they won't enjoy talking to strangers on their commute. They were wrong. When they did it, they were just as happy as extroverts.
Take the headphones off. Zeke has been telling people this since the iPod era. Random encounters increase your surface area for luck, learning, and connection. You never know who you're going to meet or what they might tell you.
To be interesting, you have to be interested. Zeke asks to meet the chef at every great restaurant. He asks his Ethiopian Uber driver which tribe he's from. He talks to the person on the plane. It's virtuous. Good for you AND good for them.
Zeke's hero is Ben Franklin. Franklin came back to America at 80 after negotiating the end of the Revolutionary War. The first thing he did was build a library for his curiosity and a dining room for his social dinners. That's the way to live.
The wellness trifecta: hosting a dinner party with curious people. You're eating good food. You're getting together with people. Your mind is being stretched by great conversation. Three benefits from one activity.
Zeke is anti-wellness-industrial-complex. Peptides from your corner store: disaster, unregulated, no idea what's in them. Testosterone replacement therapy without a real deficiency: bad idea, accelerates prostate cancer. Growth hormone for aging: promotes cancers. That's being a schmuck.
Sleep is the one wellness practice you can't will yourself into. You can only build the conditions for it. Dark room. Cool temperature. No caffeine or alcohol eight hours before bed. Phone in another room. Read a book. Everything else is up to your body.
Ice cream actually decreases your risk of type 2 diabetes. The fat content softens the glycemic response. Plus, you usually eat it with other people. Social eating matters.
Zeke's champagne moment a year from now: finishing his next book on how to fix the American healthcare system, and turning 70.
Reflection Questions
Are you optimizing for length of life, or for the quality of years you actually get? 
When was the last time you turned your headphones off, introduced yourself to a stranger, or asked to meet the chef? 
Who are the friends you rely on for social interaction? Not casual acquaintances, but the ones who lift your health, longevity, and happiness. When did you last make plans with them?
More Learning
#607 - Dr. Meg Meeker - Raising Resilient Kids (Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters)
#690 - Austin Kleon - Why Activated Leaders Win
#682 - Will Guidara - Adversity is a Terrible Thing to Waste