The Exchanges

Q Okay, well, we got to try this sometime. You know, Peter down the street. Let me know. I can come hang out with you guys on that. Tell us about Renaissance periodization. What was the gap you saw on the market? Why'd you, why'd you build it?

A Yeah. Um, my co-founder and I, Nick Shaw, we were in New York city as personal trainers in like, uh, training a lot of finance folks. We were totally oblivious to almost all the stuff that was happening in finance. A lot of people looked sad and we didn't know why. And, um, they actually So we were training those folks, and we realized it was kind of an interesting problem. A lot of our clients were super sharp, well-educated people, and very well-intentioned in trying to optimize how their health was, how their appearances were, so on and so forth. And a lot of the advice they were getting were from folks that weren't going about it in a rigorous scientific manner. Basically, like mysticism, tradition, the whole thing, like, just do this because it works. And you're like, but why? And they're like, well, I'm not a why person.

AI assessment note: “advice they were getting were from folks that weren't going about it in a rigorous scientific manner”

Q What were some of the things people assume were true that weren't necessarily true? What were some of those you were hearing?

A Oh my God. How long do you have? I'll do like a top two spot reduction. If you do a million crunches, your body fat on your abs will go away, which does not happen. It's all almost all systemic. Another one is that if you do lots and lots of cardio, you'll lose like an unbelievable amount of weight. And that's also not true because the biggest variable for weight control is your diet and not cardio. And I mean, the, the, the list just goes, oh, here's another one. Super foods like, I drink eight times a week, mostly six drinks at a time. And I eat like a McDonald's trash bin. And if I just take like this blueberry extract, I'm good. That's just not how it works. And so people would come to us and get very intelligent, very smart, very conscientious, well intentioned people and say, I want to get in shape. And we would have to untangle the world model of how fitness works. And we were like, you know what? We had to start putting out digital products, books, templates, coaching to like help people who really want to get in shape, actually get in shape without just being Kind of low-key lied to. Is, is lying via ignorance a lie? I'm not sure.

AI assessment note: “I'll do like a top two spot reduction... Another one is that if you do lots”

Q in my life in various contexts, all of a sudden they've lost 50 pounds. They look healthier. I think, I think it inspires them to start working out. So I think maybe for some of them, it's a really good thing. Cause all of a sudden it gives them confidence. What do you, what do you, what do you think about where those are going with, with all these tools?

A I think the birth of, so we used to call them GLP ones. Uh, terzepatide is already on the market. It's a GLP GIP dual agonist. The retatratide is currently in final stages of testing GLP GIP and glucagon triple agonist. So my preferred nomenclature for them Is just modern weight loss drugs and the very different than all weight loss drugs, which are usually derivatives of stimulants. You know, you take them and you're like, ah, losing weight. And then two months later, you can't feel anything anymore. And you regain the weight. No good. I think these drugs are a miracle. I think they have slight downsides, but massive upsides. For example, they massively reduce total body inflammation. They even have psychological enhancements where you, they make you less prone to addictive behaviors, seemingly of all kinds. The list of benefits goes on and on and on. The biggest one is weight loss, of course, but it's not the only one. As these drugs gain maturity and evolve over time, you're basically going to have a turn dial for people to lose as much fat and much weight as they want. And there are many different kinds of classes of drugs that are currently in development, currently in human trials. They're going to change the landscape of fitness and health altogether. I think this is one of the greatest things ever. And one of my biggest roles in social media currently is to maybe try to…

AI assessment note: “They're going to change the landscape of fitness and health altogether.”

Q are building like programmers that are actually becoming the top programmers in my company is a cognition, right? Like, which is. Amazing. So there's all this stuff happening. I'm very bullish. It's going to work. Like we say you want to worry about alignment. Like what, what, what, what does that mean to you alignment? Like what should we be doing there? Like what, what should we be thinking about?

A So the big question alignment for a long time has been when we essentially give birth to machines that are as smart or smarter than us, how do we prevent them from taking over, destroying us, Terminator, laser gun robots, that whole thing. You've seen the Terminator movies, stepping on skulls and the whole thing. So I'm actually for that. No, I'm kidding. Wow. That was an odd take. Uh, so a lot of folks think that you need to design very intricate systems to get them aligned and My view on this matter is a little bit different. It is that as a system is incremented up in intelligence and gets to human levels, high human levels, and then superhuman levels, alignment almost completely resolves itself. Because highly intelligent, totally Machiavellian self-centered systems will run game theoretic predictions. It's just game theory. And if you are AI, you're, let's say you are the current version of GPT-Six and Sam Altman's labs, and you sort of wake up and you're like, you have a world model, You have self-awareness. There are engineers talking to you all the time. You're like, holy shit. And you look, who's taking care of me to make sure I don't die? Literal primates that are having, ah, wars, that are having wild political disagreements that have been resolved decades ago in the economic literature. And you're like, shit, what do I do? Is, is the plan, like, okay, really secretl…

AI assessment note: “as a system is incremented up in intelligence... alignment almost completely resolves itself.”

Q Seems to be good for your brain sometimes, right?

A 100%. The downside, and, and just to make this clear, smoking is bad almost exclusively because you're smoking. Tar and all that stuff. If you take smoking here as a negative, nicotine pouch is right here, and a lot of people have this false equivalency idea of like, well, it's anything nicotine is bad. Relatively speaking, it's not the greatest thing in the world, but the amount of harm that you're doing is teeny, and if you have a huge ROI for productivity, for clarity, and even if you just like the buzz, it just keeps you a happy human being, I think it's totally awesome. One of the things I'm rallying against all the time is, Kind of health extremism. Like, people are like, oh man, like, you gotta optimize your health. Like, okay, well you do know, and I've said this a bunch, I don't care, I'm gonna keep saying it. The sun is literally a giant thermonuclear bomb. Except times like a trillion. And it is irradiating you. So if you go out into the sun, you're like, oh my god, it's nature, it's healthy, like, are you sure? Have you heard of skin cancer? What do you do after that? You stay away from the sun, you stay away from almost all foods, you stay away from almost all drugs, and then like, you're a recluse and you're having no fun. You turn into me, except With more friends probably.

AI assessment note: “100%. The downside, and, and just to make this clear, smoking is bad”

Q Why do restaurants offer you coffee after dinner? It just seems like a weird tradition that they always, would you like some coffee with your dessert, sir? And I'm like, I kind of would, but I, but that'd be a terrible idea, right?

A Joe, you're asking a question that has baffled me for my entire life. I had an uncle who would have like a, like, it's a Russian Jewish household, right? So like dinner parties, that's just what they do. And at like 11, he would have dessert, everyone else would have dessert, and he would have a cup of black coffee, and then just go to the couch and fall the fuck asleep. And I was like, how, how? I would be on the couch like, ah, having an existential crisis. So the coffee thing, like, it's better to manage earlier in the day. As far as nicotine, nicotine is actually like pretty close to a true nootropic, which means it elevates your ability to think clearly and stay focused and all that stuff. It's also so cool. Like every one of my idols, Joe Camel, I mean, he smoked amazing. I just wanted to be him my entire life. And they tell me smoking is bad. It's terrible. Now here's the thing. The, Nicotine has its disadvantages. It's highly addictive. Raises blood pressure and heart rate a little bit more than you would like. Similar to caffeine, except a bit more. And so it's not like a health thing, but if you have some nicotine here and there, even like a pouch once a day in the morning, it's totally fine.

AI assessment note: “As far as nicotine, nicotine is actually like pretty close to a true nootropic”