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Work Smarter Not Harder with Dave Asprey

Released Sunday, 14th May 2023

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Work Smarter Not Harder with Dave Asprey

Sunday, 14th May 2023

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In this episode, Sachin interviews Dave Asprey, a speaker, best-selling author, and biohacking entrepreneur, by video from Costa Rica. Dave shares some of his experiences, including the health challenges that enabled him to invent biohacking to improve his health. Dave discusses states of consciousness, tools for biohacking, tech entrepreneurship, the importance of mentors, how he deals with personal attacks from trolls, and how he has achieved greater equanimity in the face of stress and triggering events. Dave shares hacks he learned that he wrote into his books. Listen in for many more hacks you can use for better health.

Key Takeaways:

[1:03] Sachin welcomes everyone and introduces the guest, Dave Asprey, who speaks on being an entrepreneur. Dave is a long-time entrepreneur and a best-selling author. His newest book is Smarter Not Harder. Sachin recommends you read it. Dave will talk about his experiences and how he can help your functional medicine or holistic health coaching practice.

[1:59] Dave joins the podcast from Costa Rica. Sachin thanks him for joining us. Dave is passionate about helping people feel and do their best. Dave is known as the Father of Biohacking. His definition of biohacking is the art and science of changing the environment around and inside you for full control of your biology.

[2:55] The definition is still basically the same but the domains of the environment around you that you can change are constantly expanding. Some of the biohacks that have the broadest impact are at the cellular level. When your cells start to work better, your capacity for consciousness starts to improve. You have more bandwidth to access hidden parts of reality.

[4:02] Dave speaks of the hidden parts of reality and non-ordinary states of consciousness reached through neurofeedback and breathwork and having science-based and consciousness-based techniques that allow us to access altered states of high performance, including healing, relationships, and feeling inner peace and compassion.

[4:54] The set of tools for biohacking is ever-expanding.

[5:40] Writing didn’t come naturally to Dave. He is a computer coder by training so he knows how to group things logically. He held Google’s first servers when Google was two guys with two computers. He co-founded the Professional Services Group there. He was part of building Salesforce’s architecture when Salesforce had eight employees.

[6:09] Early-stage work requires structured thinking and the ability to teach new knowledge. For five years, Dave ran a program at the University of California starting each day in a tech startup and then teaching working engineers in Silicon Valley for two and a half hours how to build the internet and cloud computing. After dinner, he studied trade journals and wrote his next class.

[6:44] It was stressful, but Dave learned to assimilate information rapidly, translate it, and make it teachable. That made him one of the most powerful people in his company. Teaching is the best way to learn something. If you’re not going to teach, write a book as if you were teaching. When Dave writes, he asks how he would teach it. That forces him to structure his thoughts.

[7:35] Dave is good at building the skeleton of a book and at putting the outer skin on it. The part of writing he doesn’t enjoy is putting the muscles on the skeleton, so he works with a writing partner to flesh it out before putting on the finishing skin.

[8:37] Dave’s first book, The Bulletproof Diet, had managed to break onto The New York Times list. He talks about the tech he used to achieve altered states of consciousness so he could write. The tech and coffee got him into a flow state quickly.

[10:04] Sachin advises opening Smarter Not Harder and finding something to quote on social media, giving Dave credit. Teaching knowledge is the best way to learn it. Dave’s goal as an author is to say something that hasn’t been said. He writes books to be launching points for things you haven’t seen somewhere. Quote something from the book and add your nuance to it.

[11:48] Sachin adds, nuance it to your audience.

[12:34] Dave mentions WIFY, What’s In it For You (your client)? Create content not for yourself but for your audience. Put yourself in your audience’s mindset. What is the goal of your audience? How do you make what you have to share relevant and useful for them? Dave credits Joe Polish for WIFY.

[14:21] In Dave’s early 20s, he was running a portion of the IT for a hospital. It was taking him a lot of time to manage their eight servers that did most of the work. He considered how to automate his job to free up time to learn more about tech. That was the thinking that led to the early days of cloud computing.

[15:00] Dave says with confidence that the first shipping modern cloud computing was his product. It shipped one day before Marc Andreessen shipped Loudcloud. There were probably 1,000 people in Silicon Valley all working on the same concept. It was driven by laziness. We all have a deep shame for being lazy. Dave explains how laziness is biologically built into us.

[17:27] Dave wants to have his cake and eat it, too, and says that’s normal and healthy; just find a way to do it. That will motivate you more than the hope of being efficient. Dave wants “epic,” not efficient. He tells how to motivate yourself to exercise for eight minutes.

[20:21] Dave has set up the world’s first biohacking facility, Upgrade Labs, in Santa Monica, California. Thousands of people have come through it. Dave is franchising it across the country with dozens of labs opening soon. You can go to ownanupgradelabs.com to get a franchise of a business that is profitable and makes a huge difference to the people who go there.

[21:06] Dave could write his book because after thousands of people have come through his biohacking facility, he had enough data on five big domains people are asking about.

[22:04] Dave is on 25 or 30 advisory boards and he has a portfolio of biohacking companies he has invested in. He does a lot of advising work for equity so he often has the conversation on where entrepreneurs waste their time. Many entrepreneurs are looking to prove they are good enough. There’s a great deal of shame-based behavior. Many were bullied in school.

[23:12] Instead of running away from their past, what if entrepreneurs figured out what they are moving toward that’s worthy? That is so much more motivating than running away. That’s working smarter, not harder. Work hard when you need to, but there’s no correlation between working hard and success. You’re not here to be a better worker.

[25:10] When you read Smarter not Harder, figure out what you want. What matters to you? What problem are you going to solve? How do you want to be? This requires freedom of energy and freedom of time. If you’re working hard, you have neither one. This book says, let’s give you five to ten hours a week back, and let’s double your energy and let’s see what’s possible.

[26:52] Dave’s advice for people under 35: spend time with old people, your elders. These are people who’ve already had to solve all the problems you’re trying to solve. You could try to do it all by yourself, but you could get help from others. Dave talks of the many health challenges he experienced in his early 20s that enabled him to create the biohacking movement.

[28:17] Dave ate salads and exercised 90 minutes a day, six days a week, but didn’t lose weight. He still weighed 297 pounds. He realized it wasn’t working even though he did everything he was supposed to do. Smarter Not Harder is his revenge for those lost 702 hours. He then listened to orthomolecular physicians, now known as functional medicine practitioners.

[31:26] Dave started working with the Silicon Valley Health Institute and became chairman and president of it when he was 30 and was the only guy under 50 in the room. He applied a strategy of finding mentors in business and following leaders who lived by different rules. In a tech company, a VP of Strategy taught Dave how to navigate the halls of power.

[33:16] Go to the elders and ask them how they dealt with marriage. Ask them what they learned. They all know and they want to tell you. He tells of mentoring he received from Ken Crittendon, who had in turn been mentored by Jack Welch. Joe Polish was another mentor. They want to help you and they’re not transactional about it. Dave lists more mentors.

[35:22] When you are mentored, let the mentor know that you followed their advice and it helped you. They will be more inclined to continue to mentor you. As an advisor, Dave wants equity in the company as skin in the game. It gives the advice more weight when the company has paid something for it. Free advice, even when it’s great, is not often followed.

[36:12] Sachin says, if you pay, you pay attention. Sachin gets excited when he gets feedback from someone who applied his advice successfully.

[38:00] Dave tells of a “wantrepreneur” who made a knock-off of the oil for Bulletproof Coffee that didn’t work because it was the wrong formula. He says some narcissists and sociopaths want to steal your idea, make it cheaply, and claim credit for the original. Dave calls it the race to cheat instead of the race for results.

[41:08] Sachin wants you to know that Dave is the real deal and his recommendations are for things that he has done. Dave also endorses Sachin as one of the genuine helpers. There are helpful souls in the entrepreneurial health community. Dave cites Daniel Amen and David Perlmutter as people always willing to help. Some people will try to take advantage of helpers.

[42:48] David tells how good people help each other to win. People pretending to be good don’t do good for others. They want you to lose if it benefits them. You need discernment to see when someone wants to take advantage of you to their benefit and your harm. The more successful you are, the more those people are attracted to you. Your discernment is visceral.

[46:57] Dave tells about appearing on the Joe Rogan show three times. At first, Joe Rogan was very complimentary and grateful for Dave’s product that changed his life but when his friend was trying to steal the name Bulletproof, Rogan and his “death squad” became accusatory and defamatory in an 18-month-long online attack. It was very hard on Dave.

[48:45] Dave wondered why that was a trigger for him. On self-reflection, Dave saw that his trigger was around injustice. Most children experience it. Dave cleared the rage of injustice using the reset process in his book. He also saw that every time Joe Rogan attacked him, his coffee sales went up. When Joe Rogan moved to Spotify, he deleted the episodes with Dave.

[50:28] Dave thanks Joe because the concentrated attacks Dave endured on his media highlighted some important things. It takes a bully a minute or two to come up with an attack on you. It takes you half a second to click “delete.” You have a moral obligation to keep your environment clean for the people you serve. People who attack are kicked off. Dialog is fine.

[52:08] Dave and his clients are united in the goal to be healthy, have a better planet, and reduce animal cruelty. People who attack are blocked. Narcissists looking for attention and conflict are blocked. Sometimes Dave will use humor to defuse tyranny. He shares examples.

[56:21] Dave’s newest coffee brand is called Danger Coffee. He explains how he is dangerous to trolls, but they pose no danger to him. They drive up his metrics.

[58:08] Dave got pulled over a while ago. He showed so much grounded love to the police officer that the officer asked if they could shake hands. Treat people as individuals trying to do their best.

[59:14] Dave reveals how he reacts to aggressive drivers without resorting to road rage. He tells that the other driver has a bowel emergency and has to get home. Don’t be programmable by another person’s behavior. What you are going to do is what you choose to do. When we have our full power, what we will choose to do is to support other humans and the planet.

[1:01:10] Rapid-fire round of questions from attendees:

If you could choose one biohack to incorporate for the next 30 days, what would it be?
1. Read Smarter Not Harder, because to answer that question you need to know your goal. Dave lists the Five Big Goals people want. Prioritize them. Dave and Sachin share supplement notes for health.
Einstein said that the future of medicine is frequencies. What do you think about vibrational frequencies as modalities for healing?
1. Don’t look to Einstein for health advice. Dave recommends Nikola Tesla and Royal Rife. They were using frequencies for healing almost 100 years ago. Go to 40yearsof zen.com for Dave’s brain upgrade program. Your body talks in frequencies of sound, light, and electromagnetics. More about light frequencies
What is Brain Tap?
1. BrainTap is a Biohacking Conference sponsor. It uses lights and sounds to lead a person quickly into a meditative state.
Have you heard of Medbed?
1. It is one of 30 or 40 brands of light beds that expose the body to light frequencies for healing. Dave talks about using lasers for healing. AI is helping to accelerate the world of biohacking. There is still much to study about light frequencies.
What are the top free longevity hacks? What are the top longevity hacks to invest in?
1. Read Superhuman, Dave’s book on anti-aging. He goes through dozens of things shown in studies to extend the lifespan of mammals. The top thing is to learn how to get better (not more) sleep. Go to Sleepwithdave.com for a free sleep hack.
2. Skip breakfast and don’t eat after the sun goes down. Eat some animal protein.

[1:15:06] Dave has had many stem-cell treatments. That’s a very expensive thing you can do. Use TrueDark sleep glasses. Wearing them puts your brain in a meditative state. Using them for an hour before bed, Dave does not get jet lag anywhere on the planet. He gets better sleep.

[1:16:13] Sachin thanks Dave for appearing from Costa Rica. Sachin recommends Dave’s book Smarter Not Harder.

[1:17:15] Dave thanks Sachin as one of the people working for the betterment of the world and he genuinely appreciates that. People genuinely want to help you succeed. If you ask for help, you’ll get it. Dave talks about his tech contemporary, Marc Andreessen, who sought a mentor’s help and is a multi-billionaire. Dave wanted to do it himself and is not a multi-billionaire.

Mentioned in this episode

Perfect Practice Live

Dave Asprey

Smarter Not Harder: The Biohacker's Guide to Getting the Body and Mind You Want

The Bulletproof Diet: Lose Up to a Pound a Day, Reclaim Energy and Focus, Upgrade Your Life

Loudcloud (Now part of HP)
Silicon Valley Health Institute

The 48 Laws of Power, by Robert Greene

The Laws of Human Nature, by Robert Greene