Habits

These are some Atomic Habits-style things that have worked for me.

Food

It's much better to think about getting the correct macros than hitting some calorie target
- If you get the correct macros and exercise / sleep enough, your weight will basically be correct
Factor is the best meal kit service out there
- I have tried a lot of them, this one is hands-down the best
- If you want to try it, please email me for a referral code
CalAI is essentially a random number generator for macros and is not worth the subscription

Join a running or biking club that meets at a regular time, for accountability
Biking is lower friction than running, so I find the best cadance is to alternate running, biking and gym
It's much easier to exercise regularly if you're sleeping and eating well
- Food and exercise are downstream from getting enough sleep, so it's important to prioritize sleep above all else
- Top AI researchers are more likely than the general public to get 9 hours of sleep per night
BodBot is decent for recommending workouts for gym days, but ChatGPT is getting there as well

Equipment that works:
- Eight Sleep: Expensive, worth the cost
  - The killer app is that it can vibrate one side of the bed to wake you up without waking your partner up, or vice versa
- Eye mask: Anything works, basically
- Earplugs: I have a jar of disposable earplugs
If you're religious about it for 2-3 weeks, it becomes way harder to maintain good sleeping habits
Kindle beside bed replaces phone / laptop / television
- Book genre matters, your brain needs to want to read it instead of scrolling on your phone but it needs to not be so engaging that you don't want to sleep
- Biographies about failed tech companies seem to be the sweet spot for me, personally (e.g., the SBF biography and the Theranos biography)

Print scientific papers to read and allocate some amount of time every day to read them
Spend a meaningful amount of time pair programming or working closely with other people, to be able to observe what kinds of habits they have that make them effective
Separate work space from non-work space
Get glasses for using the computer, even if your eyes are only mildly bad
Software is essentially free now, so it's easy to make your own software, particularly Mac apps
- For example, here is an app that I made to ensure that I go to sleep on time, and this is an app which acts as a site blocker with the particular customizations that I prefer.

Waking Up is the only meditation app that seems to take mindfulness seriously
- Commuting to work is a good time to practice this
Some things which have provided very interesting framings and influenced a lot about my worldview:
A lot of startup friends use ChatGPT as a therapist
- If you do this it's probably important to add a user prompt asking ChatGPT to be scientific, data-driven, and reference peer-reviewed literature