Hey friends,

Welcome back to another issue of Thought Caffeine, a weekly newsletter where I share my favourite productivity tips, random party facts, and other interesting finds throughout my week.

By the way, for those of you new here - 👋🏽 I'm John, a junior doctor currently living in Bali. On the side, I write about health and psychology, and run a small coffee shop in campus. Oh and I also take photographs for restaurants 📸

📕 Book: A Million Miles in a Thousand Year

I raced through this book in 3 days, in part because I only had 2 hospital shifts this week, but mostly because I couldn't really get myself to stop.

It’s not written like most books, and so it does not read like one. The plot develops very slowly, and one might even argue that the narrative arc is a little flat, but the author's radical candor and internal transformation encapsulates the truth about life like no book can.

I smiled, laughed, slept, and teared while reading this book. If I learnt anything, it's that every moment is a moment to cherish. You and you alone, are responsible for the stories you write for your life.

Here’s one of my favourite quotes from the book:

“The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won’t make a story meaningful, it won’t make a life meaningful either.”

🧠 Rory Sutherland on behavioural economics

Rory Sutherland is a master of behavioural marketing. I love reading his books and listening to his TED Talks, even though they hardly have anything to do with my profession. His prose and witty humour showcases his marketing finesse, and he executes so with unparalleled showmanship.

Here's an example of his many analyses of the modern marketing playing field. As potential targets of these sometimes deceitful ploys, you'd want to always have your radars on high alert.

"One of the great contributors to the profits of high-end restaurants is the fact that bottled water comes in two types, enabling waiters to ask ‘still or sparkling?’, making it rather difficult to say ‘just tap’. I had the idea of turning up at an apartment with five smoke detectors; the fire officer was to casually carry in all five, before saying, ‘I think we can make do with three here . . . How many would you like, three or four?’ We are highly social creatures and just as we find it very difficult to answer the question ‘still or sparkling?’ with ‘tap’, it is also difficult to answer the question about ‘three or four’ smoke detectors with with ‘one’. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb remarks, ‘the way a question is phrased is itself information’."

🌱 The best diet according to science

I can’t say the results are surprising, but according of O’Keefe’s paper in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the pesco-Mediterranean diet paired with elements of intermittent fasting could be the healthiest diet science has to offer to date.

In essence, he suggests to go plant-based (so veggies, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds, and all that good stuff), and add in some fish & seafood into the mix. He adds that “modest helpings of dairy products, poultry, and eggs are allowed, while red meat should be eaten sparingly or avoided.”

O’Keefe expands that time-restricted eating is recommended, whereby intermittent fasting is done for 12 to 16 hours each day, allowing for a daily eating window of 8 to 12 hours.

🏎 Invest in speed

Invest in things that streamline your day-to-day necessities. Take your internet speed, for example. It's something you utilise on an hour to hour basis. Increasing its speed by just a fraction will amount to a significant collective improvement in the long run, without us probably ever realising. Time is the only known limiting constraint in human life, be absolutely mindful with how you spend it.

🗒️ Article: How A Second Language Alters The Brain

This week's article is a very short 3-min read on the beneficial long term cognitive effects of introducing a second language to your little one from very early on. Plus, they'll be better equipped for life as well.

Click here to read more

📖 Quote of the Week

“And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth”

From Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. Resurfaced via Readwise.

🐦 Tweet of the Week

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Have a blast of a week! 🚴🏽‍♂️

John