phat

[Andrej Karpathy @karpathy]

# on shortification of "learning"

There are a lot of videos on YouTube/TikTok etc. that give the appearance of education, but if you look closely they are really just entertainment. This is very convenient for everyone involved : the people watching enjoy thinking they are learning (but actually they are just having fun). The people creating this content also enjoy it because fun has a much larger audience, fame and revenue. But as far as learning goes, this is a trap. This content is an epsilon away from watching the Bachelorette. It's like snacking on those "Garden Veggie Straws", which feel like you're eating healthy vegetables until you look at the ingredients.

Learning is not supposed to be fun. It doesn't have to be actively not fun either, but the primary feeling should be that of effort. It should look a lot less like that "10 minute full body" workout from your local digital media creator and a lot more like a serious session at the gym. You want the mental equivalent of sweating. It's not that the quickie doesn't do anything, it's just that it is wildly suboptimal if you actually care to learn.

I find it helpful to explicitly declare your intent up front as a sharp, binary variable in your mind. If you are consuming content: are you trying to be entertained or are you trying to learn? And if you are creating content: are you trying to entertain or are you trying to teach? You'll go down a different path in each case. Attempts to seek the stuff in between actually clamp to zero.

So for those who actually want to learn. Unless you are trying to learn something narrow and specific, close those tabs with quick blog posts. Close those tabs of "Learn XYZ in 10 minutes". Consider the opportunity cost of snacking and seek the meal - the textbooks, docs, papers, manuals, longform. Allocate a 4 hour window. Don't just read, take notes, re-read, re-phrase, process, manipulate, learn.

And for those actually trying to educate, please consider writing/recording longform, designed for someone to get "sweaty", especially in today's era of quantity over quality. Give someone a real workout. This is what I aspire to in my own educational work too. My audience will decrease. The ones that remain might not even like it. But at least we'll learn something.

[Dr. Rhonda Patrick @foundmyfitness]

If you want to meaningfully impact aging in America, start with obesity—few things erode longevity and quality of life as profoundly, accelerating the biological aging process and fueling nearly every major chronic disease.

Obesity alone is linked to 13 types of cancer and cuts life expectancy by 3–10 years, depending on severity. It promotes DNA damage and accelerates our fundamental aging process—often measured by epigenetic age. It’s one of the principal differences between the U.S. and many of the world’s longest-lived nations.

We’re overfed but undernourished. 60% of all calories Americans consume come from ultra-processed foods that:

• Fail to induce proper satiety, pushing us to overeat.
• Remain cheaper than whole foods, economically incentivizing the least healthy choices.
• Hijack our dopamine reward pathways, reinforcing addictive eating behaviors.

This trifecta—no satiety, low cost, and built-in addictiveness—keeps us in a cycle of poor health outcomes and runaway healthcare costs.

But caloric excess is only part of the problem—we are also nutrient-deficient.

Low omega-3 levels—affecting 80 to 90% of Americans—carry the same mortality risk as smoking. Vitamin D deficiency—easily corrected—compromises immune function, cognition, and longevity. Nearly half of Americans don't get enough magnesium—impairing DNA repair and increasing the risk of cancer.

We are not solving these problems—we are medicating them. The average American over 65 takes five or more prescription drugs daily—stacking interactions that compound in unpredictable ways.

We must start treating physical inactivity as a disease. It carries the same mortality risk as smoking, heart disease, and diabetes. Going from a low cardiorespiratory fitness to a low normal adds 2.1 years to life expectancy.

By age 50, many Americans have already lost 10% of their peak muscle mass. By 70, many have lost up to 40%.

This isn’t just about looking strong. It’s about survival.

• Higher muscle mass means improved insulin sensitivity - it means a 30% lower mortality risk.
• Grip strength is a stronger predictor of cardiovascular mortality - the number one cause of death in the United States - than high blood pressure.
• The strongest middle-aged adults have a 42% lower dementia risk.

And yet, we treat resistance training as optional. It is not. It is the most powerful intervention we have against aging including increasing muscle mass, strength and bone density.

Hip fractures alone kill 20–60% of older adults within a year. This is a death sentence we can prevent with resistance training - which has been shown to lower fracture risk by 30-40%.

The current RDA for protein is too low for older adults.

Studies have shown when it's increased by half this reduces frailty by 32%, while doubling it, combined with resistance training, increases muscle mass by 27% and strength by 10% more than training alone. If we want to prevent muscle loss and frailty, we must update our protein recommendations and prioritize strength training.

We must foster a culture of American exceptionalism built on daily, effortful exercise. Not as an afterthought. Not as a luxury. But as a non-negotiable foundation for aging, but also clear thinking, resilience, and even leadership.

The body and brain are not separate. The consequences of poorly regulated blood sugar, sedentary living, and muscle loss are not just physical—they affect cognition, judgment, and resilience.

We cannot medicate our way out of what we have behaved our way into.

Grateful for the chance to share my voice at the Senate Aging Committee (@SenateAging). A special thank you to Senator Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) for making this opportunity possible.

[Kane @twtkane]

I’ll never forget when Dom pulled up to help the Avengers

[Alex 👋 @Dubs408]

This Warriors fan is energized lmao 🔥 https://t.co/QKUAfrhLw7

[chris evans @notcapnamerica]

WAIT - Elon exposed his burner account and has been responding to himself on both accounts?

[Cameron Salerno @cameronsalerno1]

Mike Brown after the first quarter: “We told them that the refs aren’t going to call the game in our favor.”

[Isaiah Thomas @isaiahthomas]

That’s not a T!!!!! He was grabbing his leg.

[Eddie Huang @MrEddieHuang]

If he grabbed the leg, u must acquit

[Maxwell Meyer @mualphaxi]

So apparently the $2 processing fee on recreation dot gov to book entry to a national park goes directly to Booz Allen Hamilton. They’ve made nearly $200 million in just four years.

This contract is garbage! https://t.co/79G47Bq0Ci

[kache @yacineMTB]

BALENCIAGA harry potter has done more for AI safety than the lex fridman sam altman podcast

[Michelle Fang 🌁 @michelleefang]

men used to go to war now they're all on a waitlist for API access

[TTI @TikTokInvestors]

10/10

[Odysseus | phylax.systems @odysseas_eth]

Seneca on the shortness of life:

"[...] Expectancy is the greatest obstacle to living, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today. You are arranging what lies in Fortune’s control, and abandoning what lies in yours. What are you looking at? To what goal are you straining? The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately."

[𝓡𝓲𝓭𝓮𝓼 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓽’𝓵𝓵 𝓑𝓮𝓪𝓽 𝓨𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓐𝓼𝓼 @ass_beaters]

remind me never to take this exit in Seattle

[wonder weird @wonder0xweird]

Imagination is more important than knowledge

Thought experiments are more important than lectures

Give people room to dream and the freedom to pursue what they wish in order to dream their best

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

If she had only retired four years ago, though, moments like this could have been avoided 👀
https://t.co/1Q8FhmSD9P

[Randy Cruz @randyjcruz]

No phones out vs all phones out

[sanjiv @SanjivSanghavi]

Everyone should have a friend who has no idea what your job is and doesn’t care.

[Cade Onder @Cade_Onder]

May 3rd, 2024.

#SpiderMan4