Saturday 7

Published: Sat, 06/06/26

Updated: Sun, 06/07/26

Good morning!

Here's your Saturday 7 roundup!

🌍 Where are you from:

Ever wonder how we know the origin of our ancestors?

The story is hidden in DNA.

The story is also hidden in our ancestors' diets, and specifically in their teeth, which is the thesis of the book I'm working on, The Human Diet.

TL;DR

Pre-human hominins became human due to meat eating.

Early humans became modern humans due to increasing meat consumption.

Post-agricultural humans became sick and short due to inadequate meat.

Today humans become sick and fat due to UPFs.

🥩 How they lost fat:

A 1977 fat loss strategy before GLP-1s.

Steak, eggs, coffee, and one bottle of wine. 🤣

Before Ozempic, there was steak. Nature's way to stimulate GLP-1 and satiety.

😴 How much should you sleep:

Gold standard: 8 hours of sleep.

Right?

A new study found that people sleeping less than 6 hours showed signs of accelerated biological aging, AND people sleeping more than 8 hours did too.

Short Sleep

Less than 6 hours of sleep is a direct biological stressor. The body doesn't have enough time to repair tissue, regulate stress hormones, restore immune function, clear metabolic waste, and stabilize the nervous system.

Long Sleep

More than 8 hours of sleep likely isn't a problem. Rather, it's a sign there may be a problem. Inflammation, fatigue, depression, metabolic dysfunction, or an underlying disease state can make the body demand more time in bed.

This fits surprisingly well with hunter-gatherer sleep.

For example, when researchers studied traditional groups like the Hadza, San, and Tsimane, they found they typically slept ~7 hours, with sleep shaped by darkness, temperature, season, physical activity, social life, and strong circadian cues. (r)

TL;DR

The goal isn't maximum sleep, it's quality sleep. Too little is bad. Too much can indicate something is bad.

💡 What's the point:

What's the point in tiptoeing to the grave?

When tempted to play small, I ask myself if it makes sense to play it safe.

🧠 What quote I've been thinking about:

"The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way...

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."

– W.H. Murray, on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's couplet

📊 What impacts your retirement:

The 4% rule for retirement is being updated to 4.7%.

To ground this in reality, you can look at the Ribeye Inflation Index.

The same ribeye at the same store has nearly doubled in price since 2020.

The Fed prints money, then hides inflation via substitution to lower quality goods. But a ribeye-is-a-ribeye (for the most part) and an actual true measure of inflation.