Questions from a reader - this one's about sleep amounts, vitamins, and books.
Hi Sebastian,
I'd like to thank you for writing the blog posts on your website. I just found your blog today, but I see a lot of stuff I think I can use on there.
Thanks, that's nice of you to say and glad you reached out.
I have a few questions about some routine-optimization that you've done, if you'd like to help me out:
1. What benefits have you noticed from refining your diet? Is most of the expected value coming from increased mental performance or longevity?
More energy and less fading at the end of the day. Also, some foods lead to a general "bad feeling" a couple hours after eating them - heavy dairy, pizza, deep fried stuff, etc. Eating simple carbs early seems to make me fade/crash harder in the afternoon/evening.
2. Aside from more waxing and waning in energy, what effects have you noticed from sleeping less? You said that you had more focus, but what kinds of activities are you using to test this? (I'm worried that if I sleep less, I'll become more effective at easier tasks but less creative/able to catch my mistakes on harder tasks.)
On very low sleep (4 hours or less over 24 hours), I go through strange cycles. I actually feel more awake during the peak parts of the cycle, very alert and aware, but then I crash a lot harder. When I'm running on low sleep, I need to "cycle" my tasks so that I only work on creative/important tasks during the peaks, and then take downtime or work on rote work during the lower times. On more sleep, I can usually do important work even when low energy. Not so on low sleep.
Also, I don't consistently sleep 4 hours a night. I usually average out to 7-9 in any given week, but oftentimes it looks like this, which is last week's review of nine days:
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0 + (9.5 + 4.5) + (0 + 4.5) + (8 + 3.5) + 5.5 + 12 + 9.5 + 8 + 8 = 73 /9 = 8.1
Notation: In parenthesis are days I slept twice - usually a main sleep and a nap.
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That was kind of a crazy week though. Also, the "12" was when I took an overnight train and had nothing to do for a while it was still dark on the train and my laptop was dead, so I just stayed in bed.
Also, I don't recommend this haphazard sort of schedule. There's probably serious downsides to it. Seriously not recommended, that's just how the week worked out.
3. What benefits have you noticed from taking vitamins?
I load up on Vitamin C when I feel a cold coming on, and it seems to help, but it's hard to measure those things exactly. Fish oil, Vitamin D, Calcium isn't the sort of thing I'd expect to be able to perceive on a day to day basis.
On another note, I was looking for a list of books that you recommend and couldn't find one. If you have any in particular that you'd recommend, I'd appreciate it. I would give you a category, but I'm not sure how well I would manage to communicate the sort of things that I'm looking for -- except that I'm currently looking to make as much money as possible, for realpolitik reasons (I don't yet know how to most effectively save the world, so I mainly want to gather resources that I can throw in most any direction). I think that we have enough interests in common that I'd rather have your general top-tier list instead.
Okay. My favorite book is "Musashi" by Eiji Yoshikawa. I think it's a must read for anyone with high levels of raw, natural talent but who is undisciplined about it. Tons of great lessons in there. It's also a hell of a story.
If you want an obscure nonfiction book, "Winning Through Intimidation" by Robert Ringer. I had two excerpts on it here - "Quick Review of Winning Through Intimidation" and “You have a lot of nerve trying to earn $15,000 on one deal; why, you’re only a broker.”
E-Myth Revisited is the best I've read on general small business. The Ultimate Sales Machine the best book on high dollar sales. Crucial Conversations one of the best on dealing with conflict and negotiating.
Ron Chernow's "Titan" is an excellent biography of John Rockefeller. I just finished "The Rise of House Rothschild" by Corti which is good, though it's from 1928 so some of the language is dated and there's some racism in there. Not enough to make it unreadable, just know about it going in.
For finance/investing, "The Intelligent Investor" by Ben Graham and "Seeking Wisdom" by Peter Bevlin.
I started to write, "Also, read LessWrong" but then I saw you're already a member :) Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is also good if you haven't read it yet.
As for myself, I highly recommend Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power -- I think that it has a large number of generally useful strategic insights. One note here, just something to take into account whenever I suggest books -- I find myself prone to false positives on valuable insights. I'm not sure whether this is because my skill in identifying insights is low or because I'm just not yet good at applying these insights.
Ah, that's a great point about false positives. A really important question is, "How can I make this actionable?" If you can't, it doesn't really matter how true something is... well, it's entertaining and maybe there'll be future value for being more informed. But if it's not actionable in a reasonable timeframe, it won't produce real world results.
I've read Greene's 48 Laws - actually, I really disliked it the first time I read it, but I was a lot more naive and idealistic back then. I since re-read it and there's a lot of good points in there.
I think Greene is slightly too adversarial - almost all of the book covers betrayal and combat and adversity, but very little on finding good partners, colleagues, an excellent team, etc. Almost everyone successful in business and statesmanship and everything else had great people on their side, and Greene kind of glosses over that.
That said, there's lots of works that cover more cooperative-style building, and very few that cover the darker side of things, so I do enjoy Greene for that. For another very pragmatic book, check out Winning Through Intimidation. Very no-nonsense about it.
Machiavelli's original "The Prince" is also worth a read, I think, I got a lot out of it. If you're a big fan of general strategy and military operations, I'd strongly recommend Carl von Clauswitz's "On War" - it teaches you how to think. But, it might fall into that category of things that aren't immediately actionable. I feel like I became a much clearer thinker after reading it, but it doesn't necessarily translate to the day to day business of coming up in the world.
Anyways, I'd like to keep in touch with you, if you'd like -- you seem like an interesting person. If I had more time, I would tell some more about myself, but I need to get some sleep.
Definitely, I'm glad you reached out. Excellent questions here - I'll put my replies up on the blog in the next couple days, so there might be some other book recommendations by readers. (That's today, so let's hear your recommendations too) Sure, I'd love to hear what you're working on and your general thoughts - being able to ask good questions is a hallmark of good thinkers, so I'd enjoy learning more about what you're doing and what you have to say.
Regards,
Sebastian