I grabbed this book off the library shelf out of sheer gravitational force. I studied leadership for a long time, and the cover of the booked looked eerily similar to many that used to occupy my office shelves; my hand was inexplicably drawn to it. But, my self-study is about significance, so I almost put it back. As I turned around to do so, the book flipped open to a page in the introduction, where the author, Dave Asprey, was discussing the people he interviewed as preparation for writing the book: "Their answers were unanimously far more focused on the things that have allowed them to contribute meaningfully to the world that what may have helped them attain any typical definition of success" (p. xiii). That line hooked me, and here we are.
I have to start by saying, in what is likely a politically incorrect way, that Dave Asprey is a complete wackadoo. He openly discusses his personal goal to live to 180 years old and details his quest to "biohack" himself in order to achieve this. Apparently, he has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars travelling the world to implement every strategy possible to ensure his longevity. There's something to be said for persistence, I suppose.
Anyway, Apsrey's book is focused on the things you can do to improve your physical and cognitive performance in order to make an optimal impact in the world. In some weird, round-about way this book is about significance, but it's so off the wall that I suspect it would be virtually inaccessible for most people. As you read on, Asprey's eccentricity is actually endearing at times, but his blatant ignorance of his own privilege is definitely not. He implies that, in order to become a high performance human who can make a significant difference in the world you must be able to do things like get stem cell injections, purchase your own EEG machine to monitor your brain's electrical impulses, go to Burning Man, and invest in the opportunity to do full-dose psycheldeldic drugs in a therapeutic setting.
And that's only the tip of the iceberg. You also have to have lots and lots of sex but only orgasm once a week, learn how to visualize, "hack" your meditation practice, track your sleep, take a bevvy of performance-enhancing vitamins (including vitamin C injections), use a high-tech sun lamp to orchestrate your bio-rhythms, fix your bad marriage, become a minimalist, stop worrying about money, transform your diet, run a marathon (but don't push your limits), heal all of your trauma, and make illness "optional." Asprey says he has arrived at these conclusions by doing a statistical analysis of interview responses from over 400 "game changers" and the results from this analysis indicate that you must become smarter, faster, and happier in order to enact significance in your life.
Well, of course. No problem. No need to consider how things like systemic social injustice and inter-generational trauma might inhibit your engagement in these kinds of activities. Not to mention that an EEG machine costs substantially more than a good cup of coffee.
Also, Asprey never once mentions how he conducted the statistical analysis, or what his interview protocols were like, or how this "research" might be replicated by someone else. I find this frustrating because, as a big-time podcaster and blogger, Asprey is having a tremendous influence on public opinion and no one can be sure whether or not what he says is actually well evidenced. Also, his advice is not backed by any do-able, pragmatic steps to implement or resources beyond his own podcasts. While there are lots of tidbits that might actually be great for someone (like me) trying to carve out a life of significance--like doing a consistent yoga and meditation practice--Asprey offers his readers no place to begin.
I did learn one key thing from reading this book: that the idea of a life of significance is interpreted in vastly different ways from one person to another. In a way this is reassuring because I can hold tight to a belief that I can sort it out for myself. But, are there any ways that significance is real--consistently real--to a broader range of people beyond myself?
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