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How to Be 18 Years Old Again for Only $2M a Year (bloomberg.com)
106 points by deeel on Jan 25, 2023 | hide | past | favorite | 177 comments


> Johnson, Zolman and the team are more than a year into their experiments, which they collectively call Project Blueprint. This includes strict guidelines for Johnson’s diet (1,977 vegan calories a day), exercise (an hour a day, high-intensity three times a week) and sleep (at the same time every night, after two hours wearing glasses that block blue light)

So you are like an 18 year old except you can't have any fun. Why would you want to live like this? You can't ever go to a party, have a drink, or go to a restaurant? Thank you, but I'll stick to eating healthy, exercising, and living my life.


Old joke time:

Patient: Doctor I want to live to 100!

Dr: First stop smoking

Patient: Ok I can do that

Dr: Next stop eating red meat

Patient: Sure, that too

Dr: No more alcohol

Patient getting uncomfortable: Ok ok fine

Dr: Go to bed early and get 8-9 hours uninterrupted sleep

Patient: hmm

Dr: And finally, cut out sugar, don't eat so much and do a lot more excercise

Patient: Ok ok ok, and will I then live to 100?

Dr: Eh... probably not but, it will feel like it.


That's great. I heard a similar one:

A man is concerned about his health and longevity, so he visits his doctor.

Man: "Doctor, I am concerned about dying before my time. Am I okay?"

Doctor: "Do you smoke?"

Man: "No"

Doctor: "Do you drink wine or beer?"

Man: "No"

Doctor: "Do you stay up late?"

Man: "No"

Doctor: "Do you eat rare red meat?"

Man: "No"

Doctor: "Do you have sex with many partners?"

Man: "No"

Doctor: "Then why the fuck do you care?"


Or yet another version...

OLD MAN: Look at me, son. I don't moke. I don't drink. I don't take drugs. I don't eat fatty food. I don't chase after women. And tomorrow I celebrate my hundredth birthday!

YOUNG MAN: How?


He (almost) literally wrote this as a blog post...

https://www.bryanjohnson.co/articles/i-fired-myself


Worse than not having fun; you have to take all these pills a day. https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.co/#step-2-supplements

I think there's an in-between. Getting sleep. Fasting. Exercise. Avoiding sugar.


Jesus why is he on so many diabetic meds?

He's on metformin, taking 1500mg in the morning of an extended release, and 500mg extended release in the evening. Normal dosage for this is 500mg/day. Extended release means they stay in his system for 24 hours, no reason to take it in two doses, much less take 4x the normal amount.

He's also on Acarbose, another diabetic med. The recommended dosing for this is 50mg 3 times per day and hes' taking two 200mg doses. This makes no sense, your body eliminates it quickly, halflife of 2 hours. It's also 6x the standard dose.

He's also on Rapamycin, a cancer med or organ transplant med that is immunosupressive. Standard dose is 2mg/day. He's taking 13mg twice a week.

He's also taking Testesterone 6 of 7 days of the week, and half your standard does. Total nonsense.

This guy is going to wreck his kidney and liver with these meds, put himself at high risk of infection and disrupt his endocrine system. And that's just with his prescriptions, not even examining his supplements.

All this to brag that he's as fit as an "18 year old" whatever the fuck that means. I too could probably get "fit as an 18 year old" if I were taking steroids like testosterone and exercised every day. Hell, I be you could too, and probably without the testosterone.

This is the last guy I'd listen to for longevity treatments.


Honestly he's got some obsessive issues here. Mental health issues that he's willing to try anything to be younger. He doesn't look young in the face and very little can change that. He must be very insecure about it. The sad this is that the doctors see money, and with that much money people won't tell you no if you have terrible ideas.


People will go to extraordinary lenghts to avoid having to confront their own mortality.


From the article: "The team, led by 29-year-old regenerative medicine physician Oliver Zolman"

29-year-old physician? Did he complete medical school and his residency? Give me a break.


To be honest I'm actually surprised he's able to grow muscles at the rate at which he's doing it considering Rapamycin and Metformin are both known for really hindering muscle growth and general performance.


I mean ... he ran it by his team of 30 doctors he hired.


Team of 30 doctors lead by....a 29 year old.


I think rapamycin has some study supporting it


The data on rapamycin (and rapalogs in general) is mixed. There is no reliable evidence that it slows down biological aging in humans. Even if it does have some benefits we don't clearly understand the optimal dosing and schedule.

https://peterattiamd.com/mattkaeberlein2/


If only some kind of machine could help us figure that out! /s

200+ references in this journal article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6814615/


Rapamycin to me is the bat shit crazy aspect of this.

There is no research on taking a powerful immunosuppressant pharmaceutical for the next 40 years for "longevity".

Not to mention testosterone. At least testosterone will make you feel great while you actually shorten your life in the name of longevity.


These help, but genetics also play part. You can’t lifestyle your way out of bad genetics.


To a limited extent you can medicate yourself out of some bad genetics. Statins and anti-hypertensives have really changed the game.


Wow, this is sad.


True but TBH that routine sounds like the routine for anyone that's serious about getting in shape. Yeah you can look fantastic and all your friends will envy you at the pool party, but in return you have to be extremely strict with everything including diet, exercise and sleep.


No pool parties either, they're getting into late night and involve alcohol as well.


You can leave earlier. I can't believe I'm typing this.


Its also not like you have to do it every day either. Going to a pool party once in a blue moon isn't going to be a devastating change in routine, even if you stay the whole time


Kinda disappointing to see so many people on this post implying that their idea of living life is the only valid approach


Incidentally, I'm about halfway through "Time Enough for Love" from Heinlein.

Lazarus is laughing at this man.


right, he's like why doesn't this idiot just become fictional like me?!?


Context: Lazarus Long is at least 2,000 years old, has gone through multiple 'Rejuvenation' services, and seen/done just about everything in the galaxy.

A quote from page 3 of my edition: "WHERE'S MY SUIDICE SWITCH?"


> A quote from page 3 of my edition: "WHERE'S MY SUIDICE SWITCH?"

I realize this was a typo, but now I'm imagining a Russian roulette-type game, but with dice.


I had an idea bouncing around, and now I've got it:

2d6, passed back and forth. First to roll a 7 "wins".

Chances of 1/6 chambers look similar to (2d6) = 7


That's the line that got me to read the whole book.

Shortly after there was an exchange that went something like:

Person 1: "He said his suicide switch is missing?"

Person 2: "Yeah, we had to remove it. He kept pressing it."


He's trying to live long enough to reach "Longevity Escape Velocity" or basically long enough for there to be an easy and real age-reversal method. That becoming a thing is obviously not guaranteed but if it were to happen, especially around the time when he's really old, it might actually pay off.


So far longevity escape velocity appears to still be infinity. We are not making any visible progress towards an easy and real age-reversal method. If we were then we would expect to see some incremental progress with at least a few people living significantly longer. But the age record of 122 years set back in 1997 still hasn't been broken today.


Software engineers like to believe in science fiction.


Besides that, it just sounds like esoteric nonsense. What's next? Essential oils?


At the risk of missing some intended sarcasm, which part of the vegan diet, regular exercise, and sleep hygiene sounds like esoteric nonsense? I don't see how any of those are comparable to essential oils.


Presumably in the comment

"Besides that, it just sounds like esoteric nonsense. What's next? Essential oils?"

it refers to the entirety of Bryan Johnson's routine including the tea-tree mouthwashing, the weekly acid peels, the 33,000+ images of his bowels, the laser treatments, the fat injections into his face, etc.

I doubt they meant that a vegan diet, regular exercise, and sleep hygiene is esoteric.


On the contrary, they were so obvious I wondered if the parent's final comment was a tongue-in-cheek joke:

> Thank you, but I'll stick to eating healthy, exercising, and living my life.


The vegan part is nonsense.


Communities with little to no consumption of meat, like Seventh-Day Adventists, have significantly lower rates of prion disease and Alzheimers.

While it may be nonsense if your goal is solely prolonging life, avoiding meat seems like a relatively easy way to reduce your risk of becoming worthless to society and yourself; virtually everyone can agree that dementia is something to avoid.


Sounds like confounding bias. Seven-Day Adventists abstain from cigarettes, a main contributor to early death. Also any diet that avoids the standard American diet will probably increase your lifespan, even veganism, though probably less so now with all of the processed vegan foods. That has no bearing on whether veganism is an optimal diet for human longevity, it just implies that the standard American diet is a poor diet. If you look at countries with the highest meat consumption - Hong Kong and Australia - they also have the longest lifespan.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6654568/ “It is concluded that evidence was found for the thesis that abstinence from cigarette smoking is the main factor explaining the low mortality from ischaemic heart diseases among SDAs”


The argument wasn't "avoiding meat prolongs death." It was "avoiding meat reduces the risk of dementia."

https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article-abstract/114/1/175/617...


I find it hard to believe there's enough of a population of Seventh-Day Adventists to actually say they have lower rates of prion disease.

Prion disease incidence is 1 to 2 cases per million people per year. You'd have to have millions of 7th day adventists submitting to research to be able to assert that with any confidence.


Vegan is more than avoiding meat. As far as health is concerned, I would put avoiding salmon, eggs, and fermented milk on the "makes your diet less healthy" list. I would be very curious to see a study that said avoiding once a week liver was healthier than having it.

Daily consumption of red meat? Yeah, the jury appears to be tilted against such behavior/habit.


What is the standard rate of prion disease?


> Prion diseases are rare. About 300 cases are reported each year in the U.S.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseas...

So, vanishingly rare. Enough to be an irrelevance.


...I mean, they could have stipulated organic fair-trade vegan. That would be nonsense. You can't very well claim veganism isn't a significant dietary choice with knock-on effects to one's health, though (albeit whether those are negative depends on whether and how you deal with the lack of things in your diet that most of us get mainly/entirely from animal products - vitamin B12, iron etc)


You can't claim we know the knock on effects outside of calorie restriction.

If anything calorie restriction seems to dominate all other variables in all contexts but people don't like that answer.


Not claiming anyone knows what any effects might be, positive or negative. Unlike the usual kinds of nonsense woo, though, there might actually be effects. That is my entire thesis.


None of those actually make you 18 in any appreciable form?


...I do get a fair bit of rhetoric about going vegan from 18-year-olds ;)


Fun fact, the "essential" in essential oil actually refers to the fact that it emits a scent (essence), not that it is something important for your body to have.


Hmmm... Are there any other examples of a suffix of "ce" transferring to "tial" to mean "about that thing"?

Presence -> Presential

Governance -> Governantial

Fence -> Fential

Evanescence -> Evanesential

The latter is at least the best conceivable name for an Evanescence cover band.


I think it's pretty common, you're just not reaching for the right set of "-ence" words.

Residence -> residential, Evidence -> evidential...

Jurisprudential, existential, penitential...

The only thing is that about half have become "having characteristics related to the thing" instead of "about the thing". Words like consequential, pestilential, preferential have a common usage in this realm but still can be used in the "discussion about a thing" sense.


Ah yeah these are good.


Since you're curious: in the original Latin you'd be looking for words of 3rd declination that have "ent" and, depending on case, end with -ens (contraction of ent+s), -entis, -entia or something like that.

I guess English took (ens -> ence) and (entia + l -> ential).


Reference -> Referential Difference -> Differential Prudence -> Prudential (now I understand the origin of this name)


Regular sleep and intermittent, focused exercise are obviously good things. Balanced vegan diet (assuming you get all your nutrients) is also an obviously (if only slightly less obviously) good thing.


There is no reliable scientific basis to claim that a vegan diet is good from a general health and longevity perspective. No one has ever performed a proper long-term randomized controlled trial. The error bars on the studies we do have are very wide, with multiple uncontrolled confounding variables and low-quality subject reported data.

You can find plenty of vegan junk food packed with sugar.


I tried to phrase my comment precisely to avoid this sort of comment. See my parentheses in the GP.


Say what you will about essential oils but peppermint oil has saved me from needing Tylenol/Advil on many occasions with a headache.


Sounds like giving up 30-40% of your prime living years to live an extra 20% at the tail end. If you're hobby is trying to live forever, then sounds pretty neat, but if you'd rather do other things, not so much.


Maybe not about living extra time but having more health longer (health span extension vs life span)


It’s wonderful that someone is pushing their diet to the limit and sharing that with the world. Contrary to the other comments, life isn’t just about eating for every individual on the planet. He can derive pleasure from other sources. It doesn’t necessarily mean he fears death either, he could be maximizing time spent with loved ones. He could be passionate about experimentation.


I think the thing to critique is the goal. The stated goal isn't to be as healthy and happy as possible at 45, it's to look 18. That's a fools errand and puts focus on the wrong things.


> “What I do may sound extreme, but I’m trying to prove that self-harm and decay are not inevitable”

Taken literally, it seems that he is starting from the conclusion and working backwards, and may be thoroughly disappointed. The question posed in scientific terms would be more akin to "Are self-harm and decay inevitable?"

It's also a little bit pathetic how some of the ultrawealthy seem to have the hardest time confronting their own mortality.


The wealthy are the only people who meaningfully can, and they're the only people who have a reason to. Being poor sucks. There's no point to life; if I was hit by a bus or jumped in front of a car while on break today at my miserable, entry-level job, it'd be okay for the world and I wouldn't feel like it was a loss for me. It'd actually be better. I wouldn't be wasting all daylight hours working a job I can't stand and being too exhausted when I get off of work to even read.

I was only afraid of death when life had hope. Now that I'm pretty much poverty-trapped, at least for the next few years, I'm fine with death.

Death is for the miserable people in the world. If you have the means to avoid it, your life is good enough to justify avoiding it. Life is great when you have time and low stress, so there's no reason not to try and preserve it.


"The wealthy are ... the only people who have a reason to".

IME what matters more than wealth is having health and energy. Exploring ways to reduce your exhaustion might be the best use of your time. You can increase your energy by getting a "win" in some way. That can be as simple as successfully introducing one new good habit in your life.


Wow....

> Now that I'm pretty much poverty-trapped, at least for the next few years, I'm fine with death.

If you're poverty trapped for the next few years, I'll warn you now that death is fairly long term. Longer than a few years for sure.

I really hope you get the break you need, internet friend.


>Life is great when you have time and low stress

I don't think anyone has those, even the rich.


The more I make the more I have to think about is it worth my time to do stuff myself vs spending the money to save the time.

I'm not gonna say it's ruined my hobbies and forms of recreation as my career progresses but having that range of decisions to make instead of just being able to default to low cost doesn't make them more enjoyable.


Depends on kind of rich. If you inherited your wealth it won't be strange if you've nothing to worry.


Everyone I know of this ilk is utterly miserable (n=4).

They may never need to work, but their life's work is just coping with that fact (or something)


I wouldn't be so sure 1) managing correctly your free time isn't easy.

2) each time you meet someone you don't know if he/she's after your money..


> There's no point to life; if I was hit by a bus or jumped in front of a car while on break today at my miserable, entry-level job, it'd be okay for the world and I wouldn't feel like it was a loss for me.

There have been a couple of times when I felt that way in my life, but then I remember this is the only life I will get, and then I'll cease to exist. I was lucky to be born among the dominant species of this planet, so I better enjoy it while it lasts.

Eventually, against my initial expectations, life got gradually better.


> There's no point to life; if I was hit by a bus or jumped in front of a car while on break today at my miserable, entry-level job, it'd be okay for the world

the world would be OK, regardless of anyone going missing. Don't think anyone has such importance that they would cause the world to not be OK by dying.


This is untrue for some definitions of "world." For me, "world" can consist of a few things.

"World" can mean your immediate environment. Plenty of people can claim their death would not be "OK" for those in their immediate environment.

"World" can consist of your society at a regional or national level. Again, plenty of people can claim their death would be harmful at this level. Look at the Huey Long assassination, or the spike in suicide rates after Robin Williams ending himself due to dementia.

"World" can consist of all the people in the world. If Stanislav Petrov died prior to him preventing the end of (most of) the world, this level of the "world" would not be OK. If Gates had died decades ago, millions more each year would be dying of malaria. His death would leave the "world" "not OK."

"The world will always be okay" as a mindset is only true if your idea of the world is the rock itself. I find it hard to care about the rock itself.


This isn't meant to trivialize what you're saying here, or to deny that a lot of parts of life can be pretty miserable for people who are poor. But what you're describing here sounds only partly like "I'm poor and life is hard": a lot of it also sounds like some pretty significant mental health challenges. Not that I'm in any way a professional! But if a friend of mine were talking this way, I'd encourage them as strongly as I could to find an expert to work with to help them find more positive ways of engaging with life.

Being poor does genuinely suck, and a lot of modern society seems to deliberately lean in to that. But I know quite a few poorer folks who still find joy in life, each in their own way. Human beings have always been resilient in difficult circumstances: I don't think we would have lasted through generations of evolution if a difficult life routinely led to despair.


> It's also a little bit pathetic how some of the ultrawealthy seem to have the hardest time confronting their own mortality.

Putting one's resources to best use isn't "pathetic".

If you do anything to maintain your health and longevity, proportional to your resources, then you are doing the same as a rich person with a private doctor.

I expect natural biological death won't be so inevitable long before the end of the century. Sometimes rich people are like everyone else, but living just a little further into the future.


I think a certain proportion of the rich and poor alike fear death. But only the rich have the means to (try in vain to) do anything about it. And of course only the rich pay news outlets to write puff pieces about themselves.


  >And of course only the rich pay news outlets to write puff pieces about themselves...
Which comes across as tempting fate, to me.

"Hey, international press, I'm spending millions every year, so I can live forever!"

[Cut to hooded figure, sharpening scythe]

<small caps>REALLY?</small caps>


While I do agree that this much fear of mortality likely warrants mental rather than anti-aging therapy, commercial applications like these are likely to motivate more research that generates actionable insights for your average person.


> It's also a little bit pathetic how some of the ultrawealthy seem to have the hardest time confronting their own mortality.

The man has the money and the time to do this and believes in open-sourcing his 'recipe', good for him.

Also on mortality you can accept that your time is finite and still wish to have a disease and pain free old age, the two are not contradictory.


Not that he wrote the headline, but: he certainly doesn't have the face of an 18 year old. I'd actually peg it > 40.

One of the distinct pleasures I remember from the ages of 18 - 25 is _hanging out with other people that age_. They're not going to fall for it, you'll just be a creepy old guy with a ripped body.


How do you do, fellow kids!

Of course I think the point isn't to look 18, although I'm sure they'd pay an extra million of that was an option. I myself feel I understand the desire to want to stay youthful longer, but I'd only want to do so if I could enjoy it. I question how many of these ultra-wealthy are actually enjoying life as much as a nobody who gets to spend most of their time fishing in their boat and not be bothered by anyone.

If I was a billionaire, I'd be more interesting in having some aspect of my brain rebooted. Some aspects of ageing can be staved off through diet and exercise, so I feel like spending millions to not even look younger is of limited value. What I would like is to experience that "spark" of being a young inexperienced brain that's capable of learning new things fast and finding novelty in the world. If I was a billionaire and I could pay to trigger a new "critical period" in my brain, I'd probably do it.


I'm not sure, but it could be impossible to separate that "spark" you're looking for from nativity and inexperience generally. The affinity for new info in young brains and the absence of prior knowledge may be inextricably linked.


Not advocating one way or the other, but this is often the reason people give for enjoying the rare/occasional use of things like LSD or psilocybin. By temporarily attenuating the "default model" established in early adulthood - which allows our brains to operate more efficiently by setting much of sensory input and perception on autopilot - one might approach and consider the mundane with the proverbial "fresh set of eyes".

I don't mean to argue that this is an ideal way to achieve this effect, but it's definitely a major part of the appeal.


100% agreed. Oftentimes it seems people try to break out of a 'rut' by placing themselves in a new city, forcing to make new friends, visit new places etc in hopes of finding a spark towards ... Life.

The above mentioned chemicals can certainly help provide that new interest and appreciation and I'd call it the next day "clarity" without leaving your lawn.

I'd advocate in a reasonable, responsible , manner for sure (with perhaps a 'babysitter' for reasons).

If you seem to be stuck in a loop, eyes will be opened.


Oh, he looks weird ! It's going to be a long time until any anti aging tech can pull someone out of the uncanny valley.


Exactly, just accept it amd grow old with grace



Thank you. People keep posting paywalled articles, thanks for linking the alternative.


1. Create a bookmark in your browser -- preferably on the toolbar for easy access. Name it anything you want.

2. For the URL field, copy/paste this:

  javascript:location.href = '//archive.ph/newest/' + location.href.split('?')[0];
3. Save it.

4. Visit a paywalled site. Click the bookmark button you created above.

5. Enjoy reading the full article.


Oh wow. Excellent. Thank you.


Neat! Thanks


There are a lot of HN comments crapping all over Bryan.

As stated in the article and on his site, this is a personal hobby of his.

If it's not your thing, don't crap on him, just move onto the next story.

It may be hard for you to believe, but other people enjoy doing things you might not enjoy.

They are having fun.

This is their idea of having fun.

Whenever it comes up that I run really long races, I always hear "Oooh, I could never do that."

All I am thinking is "Yeah. That's probably why you're not doing that. You don't enjoy it. duh."


Whenever I hear stories like this, I can't help but think that there must be a risk of suffering liver damage from taking excessive supplements. Even obsessively getting colonoscopies as he does carries a small risk that something will go wrong such as a perforated intestine.


Yes but if your liver can't handle some supplements you probably weren't going to live to 100 anyway


"The dude is way beyond ripped. His body fat hovers between 5% and 6%,"

Not in the photo in the article, he isn't. Pro bodybuilders get to that for a hours/days during a competition and feel like absolute shit the whole time. He looks about 10%-ish in the photo.


He has a video on YouTube where he is measuring himself with what appears to be a normal scale, and he says 6% there as well, with 22.2 BMI:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_3p81GmHEg&t=22s


Those scales are fairly inaccurate. What is best is a float test and caliper test.


Actually a DXA scan is now considered to be more accurate than a float test or caliper test.


Scales use bioelectrical impedance to measure body fat percentage. They have an accuracy of +/- 5 points of the actual reading. Meaning the value is 1-5 points higher or lower than the real value, so a reading of 6% on the scale could mean a real value of 1%-11% (not 5.7%-6.3%).


> Each month, he also endures dozens of medical procedures, some quite extreme and painful, then measures their results with additional blood tests, MRIs, ultrasounds and colonoscopies.

Ah yes, nothing keeps the body young like performing frequent invasive experimental medical procedures.


He doesn't look 18 in the photo. Also there's nothing remarkable in the article, just the usual cosmetic procedures and diet/exercise crap. It's funny, these people must think they're the first person to do whatever their preferred diet/exercise combo is, since they never seem to stop to think, if this actually worked, and someone else tried it, why didn't they live to 120 (or longer)?


There was an episode of Tales From the Crypt with this plot. To seduce a young attractive woman, an old rich man gives more and more money to trade his old features with those of a good looking bodybuilder. Of course, it ends with him being good looking and poor and her marrying the guy he swapped places with while everyone laughs at him.


Interesting tidbit about that episode ("The Switch"): it was directed by Arnold Schwarzenegger (who also appears at the beginning)!


Why do people put up with titles like this? This is a rich tech person doing typical diet, exercise and sleep routines combined with experimental unproven therapies like pressure chambers and supplements that tom brady endorses. No one is getting their body "rebooted", no one is 'becoming 18 again', it's just nonsense.


Exactly. I think the thing to critique is the goal. The stated goal isn't to be as healthy and happy as possible at 45, it's to look 18. That's a fools errand and puts focus on the wrong things.


> His body fat hovers between 5% and 6%

Either the journalist hasn't a clue, or they were given false information by the person the story is about

Body fat at 5-6% for an extended period of time is decidedly _not_ healthy.


Looking at his pictures I would estimate him at around 12-14% BF. Go on google and search "5% body fat", the difference between what he looks like and what 5%-6% BF would look like is stark. People often get BF % very wrong so I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.


Moreover, while achieving a sub-10% body fat is achievable (see bodybuilding weigh-ins), it KILLS libido, energy, and general vitality / well-being.


Is there a way I can test for this at home?


It all made me feel a little sad. This person’s fear of death stops them living. It’s like buying a Porsche and never driving it for fear of damaging it.


i mean, your definition of living doesnt have to equal his. he's a retired centimillionaire, he's spending say 10-15 hours a week doing this stuff (ok the penis-measurement-during-sleep thing is weird af) and the rest of it is still his own time to do whatever he wants.

thats still more "living" than the rest of us working class. and perhaps no stranger a hobby than some of us have.


It depends what he does. Maybe he's living a lot less than a lot of much poorer people. Maybe his obsession with death stops him living at all.


> he's a retired billionaire

Not even. He's a "middle-aged tech centimillionaire."


I think they really meant hectomillionaire?

“Centi” means one hundredth. In other words he is worth in the order of $10,000.


I think centi can mean either a hundredth or a hundred. It was appropriated by the metric system to mean a hundredth, but that doesn't obliterate the other sense.


No need to get defensive. Can I help viewing things through the lens that I do? Is it really such a problem for me to express my views?


The comment you replied to doesn't look defensive to me. Many people view the world through their own perspective and don't understand that what they might feel like a drag or depressing is enjoyable (or not a big deal) for others. You should try to view things through other's perspective.


Everyone views the world through their own lens. We are individuals. Why would I express someone else’s view?

Spending your life trying to outsmart the inevitability of death is a futile waste of a life. Money isn’t the issue, but it does afford one the ability to indulge delusions like immortality to a ludicrous degree.


The comment you're responding to didn't read to me as defensive, more just refuting your point. I think the idea that somehow he isn't really living is just a cope


The idea that every single very, very rich person is necessarily "living" is cope as well, albeit in the other direction.


Stop coping. Nobody claimed every single very rich person is necessarily living. Someone who is healthy, fit, rich and is doing whatever he is into at the time and your first thought is "maybe he's not happy" lol cope


I’ve no doubt many billionaires are happy, but thinking you can outsmart the grim reaper is a tad sad. It doesn’t matter how rich or poor you are, we all have to learn to accept the inevitably of death. I learned to cope with death a long time ago, we all have to at some point.


You're coping. It wasn't "my first thought". I read the whole article and came away thinking "pretty sad and strange man". You can't take it with you, and his solution is apparently to try and escape death. It's sad. I don't find many very very rich people sad, but I do find this one to be.


I wouldn't do it, but find the experiment worthwhile. Will look for the results in 20 years time.

What do other wealthy people spend their money on? Big houses and boats and hookers and blow or simply getting more money they don't actually need at the expense of others? Or "saving the world" which often actually causes more problems?

This seems as valid a use of time and wealth as anything. It wouldn't be for me, but I don't find it the least bit sad.


If the data is released it may be helpful for other medical research in the future as well. It's a daily/weekly/monthly graph of many measurable things.


Is it not like a clinical trial with a sample size of 1 and no control group? Seems no less self indulgent than a big house or boat.


The particularly interesting take-away for this audience is probably Bryan's Blueprint website at https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.co/


Im thinking about my health and lifestyle and how i really really want to live too.

For me its more like a mix of my sourrundings and a sustainable life style with more work (physical) and also complementary sport to simulate more like a japanese lifestyle of working for a long time but 'work' will be formed by myself.

Basically having enough money to actually spend my life on myself and not for someone else and this life then should be sustainable.

Extending my skillset through playing (games, lego etc.), art (drawing, sculptering etc.), learning (math, refining english etc.), music & playing an instrument.

And the work part will be a peace of land which allows me to always have a project which has a physical representation. Like it makes a mental difference if i create a 3d character or a game or a program vs. i'm planting a plant and enjoying the fruit.

I'm pretty sure for him and his money is easy to do it like he does and i'm pretty sure the project is unique enough to keep him busy, i'm just not sure though how he is earthing himself and if he doesn't just throw money at something which might not give him the mental enlightment he might search.

Fortunate for me, as soon as i have enough money together to buy a broken down castle/chateue/farm and starting my journey, i will already be at a very natural and hopefully mental positive environment.


So he's dieting, exercising regularly and getting a full night's sleep.

This, they measure, is beneficial.

Not exactly shocking here. The only big change in "biological age" is the lung capacity, but obviously anyone who exercises daily and does high intensity workouts is going to have drastically better lung capacity than the average joe on which "biological age" is based.

They seem to have no real results beyond the obvious healthy living techniques humans have known for millennia.


There is data that shows that exercise can reverse-aging, I forget the mechanism. Calorie-restriction can do the same, through a different mechanism. It's reversed up to a limit of course, the sands of time continue on.


Calorie restriction beyond the point of having a normal BMI has never been shown to reverse aging in humans. It's more likely to have the opposite effect due to increased risks from sarcopenia and immune system dysfunction.


Lindyman on twitter has covered this topic - the Payoff space (people whose income is decoupled from time) want to live forever and the 4HL (salaried people) want to go into retirement and sunset.

Any man with $10 million in the bank is looking for ways to extend their life and if possible experience youth while at it.

This is where the money is folks.. the tech era has formally ended it will walk a decade but slowly.. the life extension era is in full swing.

Welcome to Elysium!


One thing I've wondered about if someone were to actually succeed at making themselves look and feel 18 is how our legal system would react.

Imagine trying to buy a house when your face says 18 and your ID says 78.

Getting a drink at a bar? Showing ID to vote? Withdraw money from that 78 year old's account? Collect social security?

You're going to get denied at best, and likely accused of identity theft/fraud.


You might enjoy the sci-fi film In Time. It’s about a society that has turned time into money, literally, allowing those wealthy enough to live forever while still looking like twenty-five year olds.


If it's only available to a few people then those people will be rich enough to not care about any of these things. If it's available to the masses then people will get used to a portion of the population looking young.

Either way, I don't think this will cause serious inconvenience.


There was this youtube video on the channel titled something like "* in the hay" where they did an interview with a guy in russia who actually looks like a 16 y.o. or something, but he is like 30. Some interesting stories in there.

May look up the link if you want.




Zolman's website really makes the whole thing feel like the beginning of a multilevel marketing scam. With the "get certified" training school pop-up, the random leaderboards, and the sketchy random supplement.

Oh, and that supplement is dried French red wine. I love that they specify it's French.


Let's see, I could have a tremendous amount of fun spending 2 million dollars a year with my friends because YOLO or I could spend all my waking hours obsessing about my body so I can live a few more years obsessing about my body. I know what I would choose.


> There are some obvious signs that Johnson is at least healthier than most 45-year-olds. The dude is way beyond ripped. His body fat hovers between 5% and 6%, which leaves his muscles and veins on full display. But it’s what has happened inside his body that most excites his doctors. They say his tests show that he’s reduced his overall biological age by at least five years. Their results suggest he has the heart of a 37-year-old, the skin of a 28-year-old and the lung capacity and fitness of an 18-year-old. “All of the markers we are tracking have been improving remarkably,” says Toll.


> ...he’s reduced his overall biological age by...

Without even looking, I'm almost certain the way they technically define "biological age" is misleading, and it resembles what most people think of when they hear "age" like an apple resembles an orange.


Certainly the "lung capacity and fitness of an 18 year old" that's the headline feature is a VO2Max score which is extremely variable, responsive to training and doesn't decline that steeply. Looking at his posted "18 year old" score in comparison with reference charts, it's a bit above average for someone in their mid twenties (who probably doesn't work out much), well into the "very good" range for someone about to turn 40, and yes it's excellent for someone who's 47... but it's an upper percentile score for someone in an upper percentile of fitness obsession, not a miraculous teenage body.


> I'm almost certain the way they technically define "biological age" is misleading

I'd be curious how you came to that conclusion - considering that there's currently no known way to objectively measure biological age. Best thing that any researcher can do right now is just measure everything, and that's what they're doing.


>> I'm almost certain the way they technically define "biological age" is misleading

> I'd be curious how you came to that conclusion - considering that there's currently no known way to objectively measure biological age. Best thing that any researcher can do right now is just measure everything, and that's what they're doing.

I came to that conclusion because, if they have a definition, they're almost certainly measuring things they can easily measure and perhaps influence, which aren't really the things people speak about when they talk about age. I don't care how fit this guy is, he's not living to 140 by doing the stuff he's doing.


You can see for yourself the things that they're measuring: https://archive.is/TADr1#bryan-johnsons-blueprint


> All of the markers we are tracking

You know what they say about measures: they stop being useful when you try to aim for them.


One day you wake up, put on your glasses, and they don't work. Most people will get used to the idea it'll sometimes take their eyes a few minutes to boot. Even with glasses. Even with eye drops. They won't like it, because it's completely absurd, but they'll learn to live with it.

I'm not sure sure about this guy.

But maybe his absurd ideas will counteract just enough of the absurdity of reality, at least in his own mind. Nevertheless, I think his income taxes are too low.


> Most people will get used to the idea it'll sometimes take their eyes a few minutes to boot. Even with glasses.

I'd be concerned that cyber-eyes would suddenly start showing you "offers from trusted partners".


Some things never change. People will go to extraordinary lengths to avoid confronting their own mortality.


this article is sad.

imagine spending your best years trying to return back to your teen years. how unfortunate.


nandrolone decanoate for joint when I will be older maybe but steroids is the old way to hide senecence…

testosterone make your body burn to death faster, also grow hormone… imho the only proper way to stay young is genetic engineering


Is it just me or does he look like Christian Bale from American Psycho?


> I live in the American Gardens Building on West 81st Street on the 11th floor. My name is Patrick Bateman. I’m 27 years old. I believe in taking care of myself, and a balanced diet and a rigorous exercise routine. In the morning, if my face is a little puffy, I’ll put on an ice pack while doing my stomach crunches. I can do a thousand now. After I remove the ice pack I use a deep pore cleanser lotion. In the shower I use a water activated gel cleanser, then a honey almond body scrub, and on the face an exfoliating gel scrub. Then I apply an herb-mint facial masque which I leave on for 10 minutes while I prepare the rest of my routine. I always use an after shave lotion with little or no alcohol, because alcohol dries your face out and makes you look older. Then moisturizer, then an anti-aging eye balm followed by a final moisturizing protective lotion.

> There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman. Some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me. Only an entity. Something illusory. And though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours, and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable, I simply am not there.


Live to be a 100 but don't actually live a single day


Some people might not feel bad but actually enjoy doing that. I myself enjoy things that most people would find depressing. It's a matter of perspective.


Do you have any examples?


People's obsession with diet is very strange. There are other things that are important for health. like sleep and work-life balance. And I think these are more important than eating vegetables.


You would be wrong though


People can be healthy eating little or no vegetables indefinitely (I am not recommending this). But zero sleep will kill you within weeks. Everything matters, but on the scale of relative importance we should absolutely rank sleep above diet.


I know diet is important. I also try to watch what I eat. but if there are problems with things other than diet, I think they should be focused on. because if you can't solve them, diet doesn't make any sense to me.


to live longer dont work that’s the hard truth


> Novak Djokovic, age 35 .. gives pep talks to glasses of water, hoping to purify them with positive thinking before he drinks them.

Is this real? Then again he's anti-vaccine so that makes sense.


> Is this real? Then again he's anti-vaccine so that makes sense.

He isn't anti-vaccine. He doesn't want to personally get a covid-19 vaccine.

  In his conversation with BBC media editor Amol Rajan,
  Djokovic insisted he "completely disagree[d] with"
  anti-vaxxers and said he decided not to get vaccinated
  because he had "always supported the freedom to choose
  what you put into your body". [1]
[1] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-15/novak-djokovic-vaccin...


It's weird how all the people who have been consistently taking all the usual prescribed vaccines, but decided the weird experimental mRNA treatment was sketchy, have been automatically labeled antivax. It's kinda too bad that some people have lost the ability to have a nuanced opinion.


They were experimental for decades. They’re some of the most widely used and studied vaccines in existence now.


They're only "widespread" as a result of the last couple years, when their effect on human populations was studied at large and in the wild. They weren't widespread before 2020, when they'd barely entered human trials. "Some of the most widely used and studied vaccines in existence" is gonna need something to back it up, because we've been studying classical vaccines for decades and using them on cumulatively far more people.

It's perfectly reasonable for someone to decide that they don't want to use a novel therapy. What's weird is when other people claim that that decision means they're anti-vaccine.


Nice defense from a PR firm for a guy who's talking to water. He's paused his professional career at times to make this point. Publicly thrown out of a country, etc. Do you think anti-vaxxers agree with him? Does it matter that he doesn't agree with them, if he still furthers their cause?


Why does it matter whether anti-vaxxers agree with him? People are allowed to have their own opinions about what they put into their own bodies. That's a fundamental right that we all inherit be being born.


Does it matter that he doesn't agree with them, if he still furthers their cause?


Obviously. You asked a question that was already answered. Please don't play rhetorical games like that.


He is top athlete that controls what goes into his body and decided that potential that his heart loses even few percent of it's performance is not worth it. I think he had twice Covid and barely had symptoms, so for him doesn't make sense. He voiced that and got crucified over it.


Yikes.




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