1% Smarter Newsletter No. 010
What I'm reading, listening to, and learning from the week ending 1/30/22
I changed my mind this week about stress.
Until recently, I had thought stress was something to be avoided, minimized, or mitigated. I have oriented my lifestyle to be as “stress-free” as possible. Right now, for example, I have a relaxing jazz mix playing in the background while a nearby diffuser releases peppermint-infused mist. I am clad in the Covid-19 winter collection of a sweatshirt, sweatpants, and slippers. A stressful environment, this is not. Periods of my life where I have faced stress have been unpleasant at best—and I have been blessed with a heretofore especially fortunate life. Why would I want to embrace stress if I have spent so much time and effort avoiding it?
Two pieces of content this week made me reconsider: one was Andrew Huberman's podcast, and the other was the Academy Award-winning 2013 film Gravity by Alfonso Cuarón.
In Huberman’s podcast, he interviews psychologist Dr. Alia Crum to discuss the power of mindsets. Her work builds on the popular research of Dr. Carol Dweck, best known for popularizing the concept of a “growth mindset.” That is, individuals who believe they can reach success through self-improvement, learning, and tenacity outperform those who believe their success is determined by unalterable “fixed” characteristics, like innate intelligence.
Crum has investigated how different types of mindsets lead to different outcomes in myriad environments. What most interested me was her research on mindsets related to stress. She claims that one can adopt a mindset that stress is a debilitating hindrance to high performance, or conversely that it enhances focus and awareness and improves performance. According to a study she conducted with Navy SEALs candidates, the mindset one chooses has a causal impact on their success through the rigors of training:
Following 174 Navy SEALs candidates, we find that, even in this extreme setting, stress-is-enhancing mindsets predict greater persistence through training, faster obstacle course times, and fewer negative evaluations from peers and instructors.
Crum is quick to point out that she does not encourage people to seek out stress. Rather, when faced with the inevitable stressors of modern life, she recommends a simple three-step framework:
Acknowledge stress. See it, own it. (In my personal experience, meditation helps enormously with this.)
Welcome stress. We only stress about what we care about, so welcome the stress as a reminder of what we value and prioritize.
Utilize stress. Short-term stress raises adrenaline levels, narrows our attention, and improves our focus. Use these physiological responses to help us to take action and achieve success.
I finally watched the highly acclaimed film Gravity this week, only 8 years or so too late. In it, astronauts Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) are in orbit above earth, making repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope. An unrelated explosion thousands of miles away sets off a chain reaction, sending space debris hurtling towards them, endangering their mission and their lives. What follows is a Shackelton-esque journey to return to safety.
Aside from the visual and audio effects, which are mesmerizing, I was struck by the countless misfortunates Stone faces: the wreckage of her spacecraft, running out of oxygen, running out of fuel, a fire, losing communications with ground control, operating a spacecraft with only Russian instructions, operating a separate spacecraft with only Chinese instructions, and (spoiler!) the psychological trauma of seeing everyone else on her mission perish. That is a lot of stress to encounter over a couple hours, which, according to Cuarón, is intentional: “We use the [space] debris as a metaphor for adversity…In the end, the story is about rebirth as a possible outcome of adversity.” Initially, Stone handles the adversity terribly, unsustainably gulping oxygen from her limited supplies and helplessly relying on her fellow astronaut, Kowalski, for crisis management. However, over the course of the film, she becomes more capable and resilient in the face of the cavalcade of setbacks.
I start a new job on Monday, joining the startup Ness as their Head of Credit. In anticipation, I have felt pangs of stress. As we work to bring our first product—a credit card that rewards our members for being healthy—to market, I expect to face plenty of adversity and even more stress. That, like space debris flying towards me, is inevitable. What I control will be my response. I choose to accept the stress, recognize it arises because of my passion to build something that I will be proud of, and channel it to elevate my performance.
In closing, I invoke Henry Ford, surprisingly an early proponent of the power of mindsets:
Whether you think you can, or think you can't…you’re right
💡 Featured Content
My top picks this week
🎧 Dr. Alia Crum: Science of Mindsets for Health and Performance by Andrew Huberman
📺 Gravity (2013) by Alfonso Cuarón
🖥 Web3
📄 Is This Public? by Elena Burger
📄 The everything bubble & TINA 2.0 by FTX
🧪 Science
🎧 What to Eat and When to Eat for Longevity by David Sinclair
🎧 Exercise, Heat, Cold & Other Stressors for Longevity by David Sinclair
💰 Money & Investing
📄 Larry Fink's Annual 2022 Letter to CEOs: The Power of Capitalism by Larry Fink
📄 Credit Risk Trends in the COVID Era (PDF) by Syed Raza, Aaron McGuire, and Scott Barton
📄 The Perils of Liquidation Waterfall: Part 1 by Sonit Agrawal
📄 The seven 2021 fintech trends that will shape 2022 by Peter Renton