Welcome explorer

You’re in the Slipstream. The wake of the worlds greatest scientists, thinkers, teachers and doers. If you’re looking for the best ideas to improve your mindset, habits, health and happiness, you’re in the right place.

After 6 years of deep immersion in entrepreneurship, health, crypto, AI, robotics, product development and self-improvement, I’ve come to a simple realization -The quality of your ideas (thoughts) determine the quality of your life.

Let’s dive in!

HEALTH / PROSPERITY / LIFESTYLE

👴🏽Retirement is a myth - Life is work; a good life is meaningful work

Sigmund Freud, the famous Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis, said the two most important things in life are to have love and meaningful work.

In the article, the author makes the point that the idea of "traditional retirement" is a false dream, one that doesn't lead to a happily ever after. Too often we hear the stories of people who were healthy their whole lives, only to fall sick and pass away shortly after they retire.

What is going on?

"Too much time spent with no purpose is associated with unhappiness." Unhappiness generates a swathe of chemicals in the body, including cortisol (our stress hormone). This is a key culprit in the loss of vitality and health.

So how are we supposed to age gracefully then? As the article states, "...not with busy­ work or trivial pursuits, but with meaningful activities."

For Warren Buffet, one of the most successful investors ever and richest men in the world, 99% percent of his wealth was created after his 50th birthday. in 1989, Age 59 - his net worth was $3.6 Bn. If he had retired then, as I'm sure most of you would think is a logical thing to do, he would have been a "normal" successful billionaire. However, he didn't stop working. He still put in 6 hours of reading every day for 6 days a week . What was he reading? The past financial reports of companies.

Today, in 2023 and at the age of 93 (and some 34 years later!) his net wealth is approx $117 Bn (ranked as 5th richest person in the world), with his charitable giving totalling $50 Bn in total. If you take away the $4Bn he made at age 59, you can see he made $113 Bn in the latter 34 years of his life, at an age most are “taking it easy”. His productivity kept getting better, and his gains compounded. This is the power of compound interest, not just on finances but on knowledge and skill.

Age discrimination is legal in some countries, while illegal in others. But it is DISCRIMINATION nonetheless. It is an artificial constraint imposed upon society. It can make sense in certain industries that require intense focus, energy or has a very close impact on people's lives and deaths. However, in most cases it does not make sense to create a blanket ban on older people. After all, this could largely be done as a matter of company policy, the free-market. Forcing older people out of the workforce ultimately cripples us further as a society as we take away people who have deep expertise and wisdom.

While physical abilities may decline with age, cognitive and creative work can improve. Older people can leverage their years of experience, mistakes and skills to keep delivering even more value to the world.

Economists have coined the term unretirement to describe the hordes of people who retire, find they don’t like it, and go back to work. Between 25 and 40 percent of people who retire reenter the workforce. While many people think they have to go back to a paying job in order to get meaningful work, I'd argue there's much better ways to spend your time (and you could also still make money).

If continuing to work in your job isn’t possible after a certain age, and if new employers aren’t willing to hire older workers, there are still ways to stay actively engaged in meaningful work.

I think the best category to shift to is Education and Skills transfer. There are many young people in the world that are trying to make it, to build better lives for themselves. They require coaching, mentorship, guidance. A lot of people are aiming at the wrong things in life. The right teacher, the right believer in a child or an adult, can tip the balance for that person’s life and help them to overcome life’s obstacles, to get them back on track toward a happy and successful life.

Why should you consider not retiring/ hiring older people?

1. Employers should recognize that offering oppor­tunities to older workers is smart business, and not just a feel-good, charitable act.

2. Multi-generational teams with older members tend to be more produc­tive; older adults boost the productivity of those around them, and such teams outperform single-generational ones.

My take?

Anyone that makes it to age 60 will have enough life experience and wisdom to teach something that others are interested in. More so, if they're financially secure, they could spend these days focusing on the younger generations within their own family and making themselves available to teaching them and sharing life experiences.

Read time: 5 mins

HEALTH/ PRODUCTIVITY/ ENVIRONMENT

💀Artificial light is killing you

The incandescent light bulb was invented in 1879. Since then lighting has became a common technology and society has been forever changed.

Prior to this, humans lived more naturally and in tune with our biological rhythms, also known as circadian rhythms. The circadian rhythms are the cycles that run in our body over 24 hours. These are things like sleep, energy, repair cycles, etc.

In the supporting article, the author makes the argument that we have sacrificed quite a bit in order to have this wonder of light, and this often comes in the form of giving up restful sleep. Too much artificial light upsets pineal gland function, melatonin secretion and generally disrupts the body’s circadian rhythm (including hormone levels), brain wave patterns, cell regulation, etc..

Why should you think about this?

1. Disruption of circadian rhythm is linked to depression, insomnia, cardiovascular disease, cancer

2. Human Beings are born to be diurnal animals (i.e. function during the day time). Modern society has many elements that run counter to our optimal environment.

3. The effect is more than just you - artificial light adversely affects everything from algae levels in water that determine cleanliness, to the behavior of plants, insects and animals.

4. Energy consumption is not trivial - One quarter of energy consumption worldwide is used for lighting.

What can you do?

• Increase your natural light consumption (e.g. get in early morning sun for 15 mins, as per Dr Huberman!)

• Decrease artificial light (go to bed earlier, use less lights)

• Block blue wavelength (Blue blocker glasses, flux app, night mode, etc.) during evenings, to avoid melatonin suppression

Read time: 5 mins

HEALTH / MINDSET / PRODUCTIVITY

⏰Your Habits are your destiny

In Slipstream #33, I shared an optimal morning routine by Dr Huberman. This time, we are hearing from the great Tony Robbins, personal coach to the world's best performers and world-class motivational speaker.

Tony drops wisdom bombs all the time. I liked his formula for a "Key to a quality life" - and that is “quality of emotions and quality of relationships”.

When it comes to generating optimal, quality emotions, the first area to start with is the body. When you change the body, you change your emotions. Emotions are just energy in motion. When you experience better emotions, you make better decisions. The quality of emotions felt directly impacts the quality of life lived.

Guess you better work on experiencing quality emotions, then.

A key way to do that is to analyses the various activities, ideas, triggers, music, etc. that generates different emotions within you. Then design a routine/ protocol that helps you experience these emotions in a repeatable way. Every time you do this you strengthen the connections of the brain. You make shifting to those emotional states easier and faster.

This is what Tony did and he incorporates this into his morning routine, which has many proven emotional-shifting and productivity-enhancing techniques baked in.

Tony's morning routine:

• Physiological change: Cold exposure (ice plunge) - moves the lymph, trains the brain

• Priming the brain: rehearsing quality emotions

• 3 things I want to complete/ get done: mentally rehearse your day ahead

• Pay a specific complement to someone: pass on good vibes, train your brain to notice positive things

• Do the most difficult thing in the day (something you're resisting/ don't want to do): developing mental strength

Why should you listen to the whole episode?

• Tony has a unique and powerful view on the world, and a voice to match it. If you've never heard him before, you will be really happy you found him.

• He is widely known as the greatest performance coaches in the world and is called by Oprah and Tiger Woods, to name a few. You can learn something from this guy.

• Tony talks about why and how people are holding themselves back

• He discusses the insights from his book Lifeforce, a compendium of knowledge from the greatest scientists on the cutting edge of health

Watch time: 1h27 mins

Mentors, teachers, thinkers and doers. The best of the internet and portals to a better you

👨🏽‍⚕️Huberman Lab - Deep neuroscience backed ideas and protocols for improving your life

🤖Lex Fridman - Stimulating, free-ranging conversations with the worlds’ greatest thinkers, builders and problem solvers

💥Impact Theory - More pithy interviews directed at the world’s most successful people in all areas of life. Find specific protocols and ideas that took them from zero to hero

🏋🏽‍♂️AthleanX - Outstanding training advice on muscle gain and injury prevention. Decades of experience in human physiology and sport science applied to elite world performers, now for the masses

Another edition has come to an end. Found anything inspirational or useful? I enjoy hearing feedback!

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Btw, if you’ve been struggling with anything particular in the area of personal development or self-improvement shoot me a question or thought! I’ll try recommending something that helped me with a similar issue.

Lastly, if you have anything interesting to share and think other peoples lives could benefit from it, just reply to this email. My DMs are always open!

Till the next time,

Keep learning,

- Karmsheel

AI Prompts used in today’s newsletter:

1. Futuristic moebius cityscape poster risograph poster with grainy texture, supreme typography, in the style of bold modernist graphic design, swiss style, cluj school, by Dan Hipp, --ar 30:21 --s 50
2. joe biden counting thousands of dollor
3. Hyper-realistic. Blue/purple theme. Ultra detailed. AI Data Labeling: Streamlining Ethical Model Training
4. In Japan, a good-looking male warlord who could follow 100 people under the heavens and a warlord who has been trained in a hundred battles fight. Towering behind is the burning heat of Osaka Castle.-ar 420:594