David's Blog

My favorite discoveries from 2024.

Previous best-of posts are available here.

Books

• The Deep Places
  • A NYT writer gets a crippling disease that officially doesn’t exist and has to go looking for a cure outside of mainstream medicine. No surprise: it takes him to some pretty crazy places. Humble, fascinating. There’s even a little conspiracy thrown in there. Could not put it down. H/t Rob D.
• Outlive
  • This hit on so many different levels. Incredibly informative, super practical, and surprisingly moving. It led to a personal discovery that without exaggeration might add decades to my life.
• Being Mortal
  • A look at end-of-life care and why medicine is uniquely bad at doing nothing, even when it’s in everyone’s interests. H/t Jack M.
• Zero to One
  • A classic for a reason. This deeply resonated with me after the last year and a half working on a startup. As soon as I finished it I read it again.
• Never Split the Difference
  • How the FBI weaponized human psychology to win hostage negotiations. Unexpectedly and unironically a very useful book for parenting. H/t to Tom W., Jack M., and Matt D. for recommending it.
• Idea Factory
  • Fascinating look at one of the most intellectually productive organizations in the 20th century, with lots of insight into why it was so productive.
• Run Fast Eat Slow
  • Shalane Flanagan (legendary marathoner, the last American to win NYC) wrote a cookbook with all of the meals she ate while she was training. This really changed how I’ve eaten over the last year and helped me a great deal.

Articles

• Why Does Ozempic Cure All Diseases?
• Young men are happily playing video games instead of getting jobs
• The efficient startup hypothesis, or: why there are no low-hanging startup ideas (h/t Matt D)
• Breaking up prolonged sitting to improve cardiometabolic risk
• Why did it take us so long to invent the bicycle?
• Recent studies show that saturated fat does not cause heart disease and a group of well-placed individuals don’t want people to know (h/t Matt D)
• Pixar’s rules for storytelling
• Norman Borlaug, the man that saved 1 Billion lives
• Patricia Snow’s conversion story, Part I and Part II (h/t John S.)
• It is not human nature to invent, entire societies were bad at it, it has to be learned
• You don’t have to solve hard problems (to do good and be fulfilled)
• Postmortem on a beloved product, Triplebyte (h/t Liam M)
• The natural state of a wood frog in winter is to be completely frozen, without a heartbeat, without nervous system function, unresponsive to stimuli, without metabolic function, yet fully alive
• How photos were transmitted by wire in the 1930s
• Clever tips and tricks to maintain motivation as a solo engineer
• AI is going to change how software is priced, this might be one of its biggest effects (h/t Matt D)
• Going critical, or: why the density of ideas is so much higher in cities (h/t Matt D)
• Is cloud computing the final computing paradigm? (h/t Matt D)
• List of principles of a startup founder
• Alternative year-in-review that I really enjoyed
• Life advice that resonated with me

Products/Purchases

• Glasses with prism
  • Solved a super annoying double vision issue I’ve had for 4+ years, after seeing 6+ doctors. The key was to go to the eye doctor in the afternoon when my eyes were tired and at their worst
• Semantic search across all of Reddit
  • Nothing comes close to this when you’re doing product research or looking for recommendations.
• High-quality, (relatively) cheap blender
  • After nearly a year I still use this 4+ times a week
• Bluetooth radio/podcast/audiobook player for kids
  • The kids use this quite often. I’ve been really impressed with the quality, not only of the device, but of the content as well. We’ve discovered a number of really great artists through it. David Gibb is probably my favorite.
• Merino wool running shirt
  • Expensive, but I love it. Warm when it’s cold, cool when it’s hot, doesn’t smell, doesn’t chafe, nice enough to be worn as a regular shirt.
• Dollywood
  • Not cheap, but the best amusement park I’ve ever been to, by a wide margin. Not overly crowded even during peak season, a mobile app that was actually useful, tons of free filtered water stations, exceptional live musical talent, thoughtfully designed layout (there was something for everyone in each section), and incredible staff (one worker scooped out $40 of free ice cream because my kids didn’t get off their ride before their cones started to melt). I would go back in a heartbeat.
• Lp(a) and APO-B tests
  • Cheap (~$30 each), can be ordered by anyone, and results can change your life.
• Great app for building movie lists
  • Bet you didn’t know I loved lists.
• Convert google docs to markdown
  • by copy/pasting, no ad-ons or creepy permissions required

Podcasts

• All-In on Ohalo
  • Most exciting product pitch I think I’ve ever heard (link to exact section)
• Peter Attia on Rucking
  • What it’s actually like to go through Special Forces training. Why it’s hard when you leave a Special Forces team. Starting a business after. Just a really interesting story.
• Jordan Jonas on Lex Friedman
  • Expert survivalist talks about his life story and how he got so dang good at living in extreme conditions without supplies.
• How to Avoid Death by Comfort
  • Tons of very good practical health tips in here. H/t John B. for this one.

Movies

• The Judge
  • Sad Dad film of the year.
• The Green Knight
  • This really impressed me. The performances, the music, the cinematography, the writing. I expected much, much less: basically a super shallow fantasy/action movie, not the artful retelling of a classic that this was. The twist in the last 5 minutes was particularly clever. H/t to my brother and Jeff P. for this one.
• The Deepest Breath
  • Stunning cinematography, beautiful original score, fascinating subject matter, twist of an ending.
• Rebel Ridge
  • Bad name, but a great mystery with a genuinely good hero. Surprisingly measured, had me on the edge of my seat. H/t to my wife.
• 3:10 to Yuma
  • Runner up Sad Dad film of the year. H/t Rob D.

TV

• 30 for 30: Oscar Pistorius
  • An incredible story, everything about it. I thought this was basically going to be “OJ Simpson but in South Africa” but it wasn’t. It’s hard to imagine something being equal parts beautiful/moving and awful/horrifying, yet it is. It had me in tears multiple times. I cannot recommend this highly enough. H/t to Nikki D.
• Clayton Young’s Paris Olympics docuseries
  • As a kid I dreamed about being in the Olympics. Getting to see what it’s like to get selected and actually go to the Olympics brought back all that excitement. It’s just a really special sporting event. Also, Clayton Young is a special guy. H/t my wife.
• Alone, Season 6
  • Jordan Jonas (see podcast above) in action. Shocking how much better he was than anyone else.
• Tour de France: Unchained, Season 2
  • This time with Pogacar!

Health/Running

• 2x weekly VO2 max sessions increased my speed like nothing I’d done before
• Benefits of a really high carb diet (lower fasted glucose, doubled my sleeping HRV, better cholesterol numbers, unless you’re tracking your meals you prob have no idea how many carbs you’re actually eating, unless you’re wearing a continuous glucose monitor you probably have no idea how you respond to what you’re eating). I will write a blog post about this at some point.
• Timing even very high carb intake (+100g) with light exercise every 25 minutes eliminates crashing
• Consuming saturated fat blows up LDL cholesterol numbers for 30% of people, I am one of them
• Lp(a) is easily and cheaply tested and knowing your number could save your life
• Mg threonate 1 hour before bed dramatically increases deep sleep
• Being intentional about relaxation – I can push myself beyond my limits and a warning sign that I’m doing so is decreased sleep quality (extended wakeups, very little rem, waking up early and not being able to fall asleep)
• You can prevent over-brushing by just holding your toothbrush between your thumb and index finger
• People drink baking soda and it makes them faster
• Talking about anxiety reduces it
• Caffeine increases anxiety
• Early morning caffeine wasn’t directly reducing my sleep quality, as I thought last year; my sleep quality was lower because caffeine allowed me to push myself much harder