Good Life Project - The Danger of Hindsight | Exercise Your DNA

Episode Date: November 2, 2017

Good Life Riff: Ah, hindsight! As they say, it really is 20-2o. When we look back at some decisions, we think, "wow, that was such a great call, I'm pretty smart." But, then there are those other decisions. You know, the ones where a year or two down the road, you look back and think, "what is wrong with me?! That was a terrible decision. How could I not have seen this terrible outcome coming?"Then, there's THE TRUTH. We did the best we could "at the time." But, we don't see that, because of a quirky cognitive bias known as "Outcome Bias." In this third episode in our series on cognitive bias - aka - the weird things out brains subconsciously do to make us do thing that make no sense - we dive into this one particular quirk that leads up mired in self-doubt and crippled confidence.Incidentally, you can check out the two earlier episodes in the Cognitive Bias series here and here.Well, it turns out, there's funky little cognitive bias thatGood Life Science: And, in our Good Life Science segment, we're diving into some fascinating new research on how exercise activates your genes, turns on and tunes up those sparkly little power-plants of the cell -- the mitochondria -- that we tend to shed with age (causing all sorts of not-good things). Turns out, especially for those a bit later in life, moving your body in a very specific way just might them back on, grow a bunch of new ones and light up your genes in a good way. And, as always, for those want to go to the source, here's a link to the full study.Rockstar Sponsors: Are you hiring? Do you know where to post your job to find the best candidates? Unlike other job sites, ZipRecruiter doesn’t depend on candidates finding you; it finds them. And right now, GLP listeners can post jobs on ZipRecruiter for FREE, That’s right. FREE! Just go to ZipRecruiter.com/good.ShipStation: Do you sell on Amazon? Ebay? Shopify? Your own website? Then you need ShipStation. It’sthe fast and easy way to manage and ship your orders- all from one place. Now, you can try ShipStation FREE for 30 days, plus get a special bonus. Visit ShipStation.com, click on the microphone at the top of the homepage and type in GOODLIFE.Casper is a sleep brand that continues to revolutionize its line of products to create an exceptionally comfortable sleep experience, one night at a time. Get $50 toward any mattress purchase by visiting casper.com/GOODLIFE and using GOODLIFE at checkout. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey there, it's Jonathan. So, over the last 24 hours or so, I have had texts, emails, friends, voice messages from people that I know from around the world actually asking if I'm okay. The reason is because I live in New York City, and we had a terror attack here yesterday. And I am a long-time New Yorker. I was here during 9-11. I was in the city yesterday. I have friends in the city. I am raising a family in the city. And it's always horrifying to hear things like this, to see things like this on the news, to have experienced large-scale things like this in the past. I was in Vegas a couple of days after what happened there just a month or so ago. And first, I am okay. My family's okay.

As far as I know, my friends are okay. Okay in terms of we're physically safe. We weren't involved in anything emotionally, psychologically okay. I don't know. It just, it hits you on so many different levels. As a human being who feels the loss and wants to extend sympathy and empathy and just hold anyone who's affected by this as a husband and a father who lives literally just a few miles from where this happened and is raising a kid in a city who wanders all over, as a New Yorker who is connected to the pulse of this place and the

people here, as a human being who just wants to see the suffering stop on so many levels, I don't have answers. I honestly wish I could say, here's what I recommend, here's what to do. I don't know anymore. I honestly don't. And there are people a lot smarter than me, a lot more studied than me, that probably have better advice. All I can say is that for those who have felt it directly or indirectly or in some way touched by this or feeling the anxiety, the uncertainty, the concern, the rage, whatever it may be, you're not alone.

And however you need to share that and express it in a way that's constructive, I think it's just important to know that you can reach out to people in your community, in your family, in your friendship, and have the conversations you need to have so it doesn't stay bottled up. And in some way, maybe that will lead to conversations that start to try to understand each other a little bit more, try to see the humanity in each other a little bit more, and try to celebrate and embrace that which is the same within us rather than to embrace that which separates us and leads to anger and rage and violence. That's all I can really say right now,

but I feel like I can't just leave this unaddressed. Yeah, that's what's on my mind. So we're going to dive back into our regularly scheduled programming here and explore the topics of the day. But I just felt like I needed to speak to this the same way that I did just a few weeks back after I got back from Vegas. All right. And on today's Good Life Update, we have a continuation of our series on cognitive bias, meaning the wacky things that we do and the decisions that we make without really even realizing that we're doing them and how they can sometimes mess with how we feel about ourselves and how we live our lives. And we're going to weave in a science update as well. This week, in our cognitive bias world, we're talking about something called the outcome bias. And it's something that sort of traps us in a hindsight mode, and very often leaves us fiercely judging

ourselves in a very unfair way. In the science update, we're talking about some pretty interesting new research on how different forms of exercise turn on or off different switches in our body, genetic and energetic switches. So that's where we're headed. I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is Good Life Project. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist,

whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required. Charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised.

The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die.. January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him, we need him. Y'all need a pilot.

Flight Risk. And today we are in our third, our third element, our third section installment in our series on cognitive bias. If you have not heard the prior two in the last two weeks, just jump back and listen to those episodes where we talk about the anchoring bias and also the truth bias or the illusory truth bias. These are all things that we do without realizing that we're doing them that mess with our brains and make us feel certain ways and very often lead us to make decisions or to not make decisions that not infrequently are not too good for us. And we have no idea that we're being

controlled by something that is completely irrational. and we often end up judging ourselves for the outcomes. Funny that I use that word outcome because today we are talking about something called the outcome bias. And man, this is something that I have been quite guilty of myself many, many times over. What is this thing called the outcome bias? Well, as is the case when we're talking about bias very often, it's easiest to first describe with some kind of scenario. Let's say you're thinking about changing jobs or changing careers. And so you start going out, you're in the marketplace, you're having interviews, and it comes down to two or three different options. And you're kind of like making your, you know, you make your plus list, your pro list, your con list. You're like, well,

this is awesome. This is awesome. This is kind of sketchy. This is questionable. And then you just, you know, you're sort of using your intuition also. How do I feel about it? What's my quote, soft data. And you do this analysis, you talk to friends, and you really work hard to make the best possible decision that you feel like you can make. You feel pretty solid about it. And you choose one particular new gig. And you go in, you accept the job, everything's great. You go into your current place, and you let them know that you're going to be leaving. You give your notice. And then a couple of weeks later, you find yourself at work in this new place. And for the first 24 hours, your head spins a little bit as you get settled, but you're

really excited. The work is great. The topics are great. The tasks are great. The culture and the people are awesome. You totally buy into the mission. And then you start to actually do the work. And you're hanging out there and a couple of days pass.

And you're just kind of finding your way, kind of unsettled, but that's pretty normal for a new job. Then a couple more weeks pass and you feel like, okay, so you're still kind of unsettled. Then a couple more weeks and maybe even a couple of months pass and you start to have this sinking feeling that things aren't what you thought they would be. And maybe a couple of more months pass and you start to realize that you're actually pretty miserable at this new job. And then you start to realize, you think to yourself, wow, these people are not who I believed them to be. And the culture here is totally different than

what I thought it was. And the actual job that I thought I was being hired to do, the one on paper, that, you know, where I was like, oh, this is a hell yes for me. I can't wait to do this. Turns out I'm actually doing something kind of different than what was described. And the commute, you know, I thought I'd actually be okay with it, but it's kind of really wearing on me. And you realize there's this light bulb moment and you realize, wow, you know what? This actually was not a good decision at all. And here's where things get a little bit screwy because now you start to think

to yourself, wow, when I was making all my to-do lists and stuff like that, you know, four or five, six months ago, and I decided to choose this job, I made a terrible decision. I made a, this was a huge mistake. I made an awful decision. And then you start to layer shame and blame and judgment on top of that. You're like, how could I have done this? The signs are so obvious. They're all over the place. You know, there, there must be something wrong with me. I must've just completely ignored things. And you start to feel terrible about yourself. And then you start to question your own judgment and your own intelligence. How could you have done that? that. This is a prime example of this thing called outcome bias at work. Outcome bias is when we think about a decision that we made at some point in the past, and we judge whether it was a good

or bad decision based not on the best information and intuition we had back then when we made it, but based on the outcome that we now have in the present moment, which sometimes we could have known. Sometimes we did, in fact, ignore conveniently signs. But very often, we actually made a good decision in the past based on the information that was available to us. But we forget that. And instead, we look back and we're like, oh my God, I was an idiot. How could I ever have made that decision? And the problem is, we're making that judgment based on what we now know today rather than based on what we knew back then. And that is bad because it starts to layer our lives with shame and blame. And it starts to make us question our own intelligence and our own judgment. And it starts to create an expectation

that if we are not in fact psychic on some level, if we do not have the ability to forecast every possible thing that could have happened six months out in advance, which nobody can, that somehow there's something wrong with us. And it starts to shut us down. It starts to make us question our decision making. And that layers a level of sort of like psychic heaviness on us that we don't need. And that's unfair. So why do I talk about all the cognitive biases that I've been talking about over the last few weeks, two reasons. One, because it's kind of important to start to get a beat on the weird ways that our brain works and makes decisions that we're not aware of. But also because very often, these cognitive biases, they lead to decisions that we end up down the road judging ourselves

fiercely for, and then layering shame and blame, because the outcomes that we lead up down the road judging ourselves fiercely for, and then layering shame and blame, because the outcomes that we lead to are not what we wanted. And when we do that, it's not fair. It's not fair to us. It's not fair to the people around us. It's not fair to our circumstances. And we end up creating pain that we don't need to be creating.

Whereas if we understand that our brains often work in irrational ways, and that we are simply doing the best that we can, and then becoming aware of these biases, we are more likely to then understand how to make better decisions from the beginning. And then in retrospect, understand why we made them and understand that it's actually pretty normal. And instead of shaming and blaming on top of decisions that didn't work out, right? We can actually forgive ourselves and say, okay, so I'm human. I get it.

I understand why I did this and I'm going to learn from it and move forward. So the outcome bias is a prime example of this, right? On any given day, we do our best to make the best decision that we can based on the information that we have. Just because six months or a year, five years down the road, something didn't work out the way that we wanted it to work out does not mean that the decision that we made at the moment we made it was a bad decision. It just means that we had different information when we made it, often incomplete information and often necessarily incomplete information because you couldn't get the true information

until you had actually made the decision and you were in it. This goes for jobs. This goes for entire career paths. This goes for starting businesses. This goes for personal relationships, friendships, life partner relationships. This goes for commitments to any particular path. Because when we make decisions, we have part information and part leaps of faith. It must be that way. So rather than judging yourself when in hindsight, the outcome is different, just know that at the moment in time, you made the best decision that you're capable of making based on the information you had and the assumptions that you had to make. And if you look back and you say, you know, there was actually clear signs that would have pointed me in a different direction, then you can kind of go back and say, okay, so how can I learn from this?

But take the shame and blame out of it. Take the judgment out of it and know that outcome bias is a real thing and judge those decisions based on where you are, who you are, the information you had, and the gaps that you necessarily had when the decision was made. That's what I'm thinking about. And that wraps up our series on cognitive bias. Now, does that mean that I have identified every cognitive bias out there? Not even by the smallest of long shots or the longest of small shots. There are seemingly a a growing laundry list of funky ways that our brain deceives us and leads us to do things and

make decisions that are very often not rational and that we don't know are even at play. So if you want to learn more, by all means, spend a little bit of time playing with this idea of cognitive bias. And you'll find that it pops up in all aspects of life. Some really fascinating research comes from the work done by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who are some of the sort of the leaders of the field of behavioral economics, which has done a lot of work on the various different types of cognitive bias that are out there, how they control us. And so for further reading, I would definitely pick up almost anything from those guys. Also, Dan Ariely has done some really fascinating work on this as well. And really excited to head into our Good Life Science update today, where we are talking about particular types

of ways that we move our body and how that affects both our genetic expression and our energy, especially when we get a little bit further into life. We'll be right back. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum.

Compared to previous generations, iPhone Xs are later required. Charge time and actual results will vary. And we're back with today's Good Life Science update, where we kind of explore a little bit of citizen science around some interesting research that in some way touches on our ability to live good lives. Now, for long-time listeners, you know that I kind of geek out, especially on research around movement and vitality practices. And we've done a series of segments on how exercise affects your brain over the last couple of months. This is kind of a fascinating new study about how very

specific exercises done at different ages affect you differently, in particular, your activation of genes and DNA. Now, sometimes I share the actual name of the study. And as always, we provide a link in the show notes to the actual study report for fellow science nerds who want to actually dive in and read the details. The name of this particular study is kind of fun because I'm going to read it to you. It's titled Enhanced Protein Translation Underlies Improved Metabolic and Physical Adaptations to Different Exercise Training Advanced protein translation underlies improved metabolic and physical adaptations to different exercise training modes in young and old humans. So I think the field of science may need a copywriter. This stuff would be so much more interesting, I think, if it were in more human terms.

But I guess in part, that's part of what it's about. I've had interesting conversations with researchers over the years who have done a lot of work to try and make their research shareable on a mass scale. And there's this really interesting tension between keeping things fiercely academic and language in a very academic way and making them popularly comfortable to digest. But that's a whole different conversation. Today's experiment basically is fascinating because researchers split groups of people into two different groups. And they had a group that was 30 years and younger. And then they had a group that was in their mid-60s and older.

Now, with each one of these two groups, they assigned those people to one of four different exercise conditions. The first one, as always happens in experiments like this, would be the control group, meaning they pretty much hang out and watch TV. They do nothing. There's no exercise that's part of their life. The second group within each one of these two bigger groups is assigned just sort of like straightforward aerobic exercise, like 30 minutes of riding on a bike, pretty consistent pace. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg.

You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him. We need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight risk. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever.

It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10, available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary. The third group in each one of these two age groups is assigned a blend of moderate intensity resistance training. And the fourth group is assigned something called high intensity interval training, also known as HIIT, H-I-I-T, which is kind of pretty hot in the exercise world these days, right? So you've got a bunch of 30 and under folks who are split into these four

different groups and a bunch of 64, 65 and older people who are split into these four groups. And then people went and they did their different protocols for 12 weeks. And at the end, muscles were biopsied and a couple different things were measured. The researchers were looking at the state of the mitochondria in the muscles. Now, mitochondria, we probably all remember from our high school biology days, were known as the power plant of the cell. They are sort of like the critical lifeblood, the energy suppliers of the cell. And the thing is, they decline in functionality and in density as we age. It's sort of a natural process. And that has a negative effect on us.

So one of the things that they were looking at was, at different age levels, do the different types of exercise affect the presence and the density and the activity of mitochondria? Like more directly, can different exercises increase the activity and the density of the mitochondria? Because that would be an awesome thing. Could it reverse the age-related decline as well? And they're also looking at how the expression of different genes that would be positive are affected. Here's what they discovered. In the couch-sitting control group, not surprisingly, pretty much no change across the board. In the groups that included any kind of exercise, there was a positive benefit,

both in the mitochondria and the resistance. And of course, in the resistance training groups, there was an increase in muscle strength and muscle size. In a group where they were doing heavier lifting or heavier, higher intensity resistance training, there was more of that. But here's where it gets interesting. In the group that was 30 and under,

there was an effect in mitochondria and in gene activation, as was there an effect in the group that was 64 and over. But the effect was much more pronounced in the 64 and over group. So with the younger group, for example, who did the high intensity interval training, which was where the biggest gains across the board were seen, there was increased activity levels in about 274 of the genes. Interestingly, and that's awesome, right? And the increased mitochondria. But in the group that was the 30, excuse me, in the group that was the 64 and older group, they actually had increased activity in almost 400 genes and increase in mitochondria density and activation. So it's interesting

in that the same high intensity interval training had the greatest effect in conditioning, and it also had the greatest impact on genetic activation and mitochondria activation. And what's really fascinating in addition to that is that the effect was much more pronounced in the 64 and older group. And you got to ask, why is that? There's no real clear explanation here. But what makes sense potentially, is that by the time that you're 64, there has already been a very substantial deactivation and diminishment in mitochondria density and activation. So there's actually much more room to grow. You know, you've sort of, you've shrunk the capacity and shrunk the beneficial

states pretty substantially over that 34 plus year window between 30 and 64. So there's a lot more space to fill in the good stuff when you're a little bit older. Now, do I know that's the explanation? No, but that's some of the idea that's sort of been bandied around. What's the big takeaway from this? The big takeaway is that as you age, the assumption has very often been that everything declines slowly, especially in the muscle, that muscle density, muscle strength, muscle capacity, just kind of like declines that mitochondrial density and the ability to produce energy declines. It's a part of aging. What this research shows is that that is not in fact the case, that you can do substantial reversal and then even rebuilding in these things. And that even in your 60s and older,

this can have a very substantial effect. And looking at four different approaches to exercise, the thing that hands down had the biggest impact on this was the high intensity interval training. And just as a final bow on this, the training that was used was doing intervals on an exercise bike. So it doesn't even have to be fierce or high impact. It can be a matter of taking a couple minutes and exercising it, spinning harder and faster, and then slowing down for a few minutes and rotating between that a handful of times. So that's what I'm thinking about.

As always, we're looking for ways to fill our vitality buckets because that allows us to function and to live better in the world. Hope you found that interesting. I will be back with you guys next week. I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is Good Life Project. who help make this show possible. You can check them out in the links we've included in today's show notes. And while you're at it, be sure to click on the subscribe button in your listening app so you never miss an episode. And then share the Good Life Project love with friends.

Because when ideas become conversations that lead to action, that's when real change takes hold. See you next time. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch,

getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone Xs are later required. Charge time and actual results will vary.