Tocqueville Paradox, Reducing Stress, Lessons from 75 Hard
Thursday Three: Episode 1
read time 3 minutes
Here are three interesting ideas you won’t find doomscrolling.
TL;DR
The Tocqueville paradox: a reason why society is so unhappy and dissatisfied
Huberman’s tip for how to instantly reduce stress
Lessons learned 39 days into 75 Hard
The Tocqueville paradox: a reason why society is so unhappy and dissatisfied
Morgan Housel’s new book, Same as Ever, is a banger. TL;DR, he breaks down certain things that don’t change in the world—and likely never will.
One that stood out to me was the Tocqueville Paradox which says:
People’s expectations rise faster than living standards, so a society that becomes exponentially wealthier can see a decline in net happiness and satisfaction. There is virtually nothing people can’t get accustomed to, which also helps explain why there is so much desire for innovation and improvement.
For example…
Adjusted for inflation, John D Rockefeller would be worth half a trillion dollars. But he didn’t live a life with the luxuries we have today: the internet…penicillin…sunscreen.
However, if you asked the average American if they’d swap lives with one of the richest men who ever lived, MOST would jump at the opportunity—even if there was a strong likelihood they could die from a bacterial infection (or boredom from not being able to check their phones every 30 seconds).
So why would most people swap lives with Rockefeller?
Because the technologies we live with today have become the baseline that we have accepted. We don’t think about how crazy it is that we can video chat with someone halfway across the globe. It’s just Facetime.
The takeaway here?
You can go through a period of life where everything becomes better: healthcare, technology, the economy and you still might not feel any better off because those things subtly become our baseline expectations. Something to keep in mind.
Huberman’s tip for how to instantly reduce stress
Was listening to a podcast with Tim Ferris and Andrew Huberman a couple of weeks ago, and Huberman dropped his protocol for reducing stress:
Double inhale, followed by an extended exhale. Do this 2-3 times and it will bring your levels of stress down very, very fast—kind of like this:
I don’t quite understand the science behind it other than the fact that I’ve tried it a few times the past month and definitely noticed a difference.
So, I don’t know. Maybe try it out the next time you’re feeling stressed and let me know how it goes.
Lessons learned 39 days into 75 Hard
We’re 39 days into 75 Hard. If you’ve never heard of 75 Hard, check out this link. It will explain it better than I ever could.
Here are a few things I’ve learned now that we’re greater than half way:
A consistent bedtime and wake time equates to better sleep, in the long run—even if that means reducing your total sleep time
It’s always better to hit your more strenuous workouts in the morning because if you wait until later in the day, it can mess with your sleep—pretty sure Huberman had mentioned this in one of his podcasts
Take a walk after dinner or your largest meal of the day
I’ll be writing a more in-depth post on this after the challenge—so if you’re not subscribed and you want to get that in your inbox—you know what to do.
Austin’s Recommendations
There’s nothing I nerd out on more than personal finance. Okay, maybe CrossFit… But I love jamming on personal finance too.
If you’re semi-interested in personal finance, you’ve heard of Mint—Intuit’s budgeting app they recently decided to shut it down, which left me scrambling to find a new app!
Luckily, my boss is a huuuge personal finance guy and recommended I check out Monarch Money. So I used it for a month and fell in love with it. They make it super easy to categorize transactions and track your net worth.
I actually like it better than Mint.
If you want to try it out, Monarch is is offering a free 30 day trial. Grab it below and let me know what you think.