Codex: willpower and suffering, late bloomer, creatine, IQ
Learn if creatine works, how to increase your willpower, how heritable personality is, and more.
Dear learners,
I hope you’re all doing splendid!
I’ll send a separate email about this later, but we now have a new SQL course live, and two more on SQL on the way shortly! We will also be ending the $9 early access program at the end of January and moving to a $15 month standard subscription, so if you want to lock in the low price for life (or just support us!) please go subscribe now here.
On to the Codex!
January 6th, 2024 Learn Arena Codex
I typically don’t share podcasts here unless they are stellar, and boy oh boy is this one good. If you never listen to another piece of media about motivation and willpower and becoming who you want to be, then make this the last one.
Scientists have found conclusive experimental proof that beliefs related to drugs influence their own response to the drug in a massively impactful way. Life hack: believe a drug will work and it will probably work better. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/01/240103130840.htm
Perhaps you’re in the older segment of the Codex audience and feel like you’ve missed out on life? Have no fear, late bloomers are more common and more impactful than you think! The best day to begin living the life you want to live was yesterday. The second best day is today. Get after it. https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2019/10/the-case-for-late-bloomers/
For the sake of your family and your children, keep your young children off of social media completely.
The evidence is growing that creatine works to help build muscle, although it’s not a very strong effect. https://www.lookgreatnaked.com/blog/6867-2/
Brilliant RCT shows that, contrary to bro science, progressive overload works BOTH for increasing the weight on the bar over time OR increasing repetitions over time at the same weight. https://www.lookgreatnaked.com/blog/do-you-have-to-add-load-to-the-bar-to-build-muscle/
A recent study looking at genetically identical twins has found that most personality traits are extremely genetically determined. Like 80% of some personality traits are heritable, leaving only a 20% variation explained by environment. Another point on the scoreboard for determinists. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1002/per.760
Here’s an absolute heater, maximally controversial but well researched article for you, from our resident most hated troll Hanania: an honest reading of the research on IQ at least seems to show that men actually are genuinely smarter than women on average. Epistemic status: low confidence, but funny if true. Did you know IQ test makers adjust IQ tests to eliminate any questions that show a gender difference for ideological reasons? Insane!
Moving reflections on death, love, and meaning in this article.
Just as acquiring anything of value (not just money or accomplishments, but also love, commitment, and intimacy) necessitates some degree of suffering and struggle to attain, losing anything of value entails some degree of suffering upon its departure. It can be difficult to fully accept that love could not exist without grief, but we wouldn’t want it any other way (imagine losing a loved one and then just going about your day because the loss had no effect on you). The intensity of grief is not a mere measure of pain, but a reflection of the love and the value that the deceased brought into your life. It is a testament to what was lost.
Ending on a fun note, Freddie DeBoer absolutely excoriates those in favor of online censorship of right wing views, even though Freddie himself is extremely left wing.
