Life update 2016

Hey,
So you sold two companies for 7 and 8 figures? May I ask what those companies were / what they do and what your take was? What are you working on next?

Am interviewing with a few companies and looking for a new job (unfulfilled at current job) and I remember you being a pretty good MTTer.

How ya been

save me

On October 12 2016 02:29 jchysk wrote: Travel - This is a new category for me. I was and am very much a workaholic. Vacation and travel wasn't in my books very much, so a life change for me was realizing how important this truly is. Just this year I've traveled out of the country several times and even some new cities within the US. I've made a greater effort on exploration and leaving my comfort zone. Just a small amount of travel really does stretch your perception and understanding of just how tremendous a scope the world provides. This is something I plan on very much doing more of with a trip being planned for Japan and Korea in January. I'll put Burning Man in this category as well. This year I attended my first one. I would say it was worth it and I am willing to go again, but I'm not sure if I would go out of the way to attend again.

You should put some more thought and focus into traveling, especially since you can afford it.

Traveling opens your eyes and mind to a myriad of new sights, food, and people. And, not that you need any extra motivation but, traveling gives you something to work toward -- think of traveling as a way to treat yourself for accomplishing/completing something you've been wanting to do for awhile and finally got it done.

As someone who has traveled to 7 different countries, I can tell you that most of my fondest memories are from the times I traveled around Asia and was able to see a lot of cool stuff that most of my friends and family will probably never see in their lifetime.

Good luck with your future endeavors.

Wow! I'd like to jot down my life like that.

Totally with you on the exercise and diet part.

GL with everything

1. with such a strong focus on optimizing your time, it seems like it would be almost impossible to have a girlfriend or any relationship with females that's similar to that. what has your experience been as far as dealing with that?

2. aside from sleep/diet/exercise, is there anything you've found particularly helpful in terms of forcing yourself to efficiently do things that are boring/mundane but necessary? is it just staying focused on the long goal?

3. how much do you blame Asian parents for making you like this?

You're gravely mistaken if you think you can replace food with Soylent. There's a lot more to food and health than the micro and macro nutrients listed on the back of a product (and there are issues with those in Soylent too). Bottom line is, this is a very processed food product, devoid of many health-promoting components found in whole foods such as antioxidants, polyphenols, flavonoids, lignans, probiotics and prebiotics and hundreds if not thousands more we don't know much about yet. The biggest problem I see with their latest formulation is that it's very deficient in fiber and all of the sugar in Soylent is in the form of added sugar. You don't need to know much about nutrition to know that this is not good.

But really, all of these isolated nutrients have not been shown to work well when they are isolated from whole foods, and many of them can wreck havoc on the body. For instance, the main source of protein used, isolated soy protein, is well known to increase IGF-1 promotion which is linked to increased cancer risk. On the other hand, whole soy foods have been shown to protect against cancer. Also, the consensus among nutrition experts is that vitamin supplements are a waste of money. The most recent meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials on multivitamins and mortality has found no effect on mortality risk. Soylent is pretty much a glorified multivitamin supplement mixed with empty calories.

I'm personally baffled that someone would choose to make that a big part of their nutrition regime when there have been no studies whatsoever demonstrating its effects on health. I certainly get the appeal to go for meal replacements when you have a busy schedule, but Soylent is clearly all marketing and not a good food product.

Also, super curious to your companies you sold for 7 and 7 figures

On October 12 2016 02:42 chris wrote: So you sold two companies for 7 and 8 figures? May I ask what those companies were / what they do and what your take was? What are you working on next?

The sales were not considered successes by my investors who are looking for the 100x wins. My percentage was also fairly small. I'm a multi-millionaire though so there is some financial progress being made. I don't know what's next yet, but I have a lot of ideas.

On October 12 2016 05:54 PuertoRican wrote: You should put some more thought and focus into traveling, especially since you can afford it. Traveling opens your eyes and mind to a myriad of new sights, food, and people. And, not that you need any extra motivation but, traveling gives you something to work toward -- think of traveling as a way to treat yourself for accomplishing/completing something you've been wanting to do for awhile and finally got it done. As someone who has traveled to 7 different countries, I can tell you that most of my fondest memories are from the times I traveled around Asia and was able to see a lot of cool stuff that most of my friends and family will probably never see in their lifetime. Good luck with your future endeavors.

Thank you for the advice. Once I get full into the swing of working again it won't be feasible to do long vacations, but what I will do is actually take some time when I travel to other places for work-related events. Normally I would fly in at the last possible moment and fly out as soon as possible instead of staying for an extra day or two to actually explore the area.

On October 12 2016 07:43 bigredhoss wrote: 1. with such a strong focus on optimizing your time, it seems like it would be almost impossible to have a girlfriend or any relationship with females that's similar to that. what has your experience been as far as dealing with that? 2. aside from sleep/diet/exercise, is there anything you've found particularly helpful in terms of forcing yourself to efficiently do things that are boring/mundane but necessary? is it just staying focused on the long goal? 3. how much do you blame Asian parents for making you like this?

1. It is difficult to have a relationship. I did date someone for most of this year who I fell completely in love with. We only broke up recently because there isn't a long term future that could make her happy. I'm not ready or willing to settle down and although I was enjoying the relationship it really is a distraction from my primary life objectives. I'd like to think I can have it all, but it's really difficult.

2. This question is a bit tough for me. I suppose I'll try to explain the way I see it. If something is boring/mundane but necessary I would try to hire someone to fill that task. With a lot of tasks it isn't something you would easily hire for or would be ridiculous to hire for, but is still necessary. I don't particularly enjoy some of those tasks, but I also wouldn't consider most of them boring/mundane. Those tasks will often require a level of accuracy that requires me to take it on to begin with and even if that isn't the case it's something that is directly contributing and progressing at least my short term goals.

You could say I'm motivated by moving progress bars.

3. I actually don't have asian parents. I was adopted. I'm not anything like my parents in interests or personality.

On October 12 2016 07:48 Loco wrote: You're gravely mistaken if you think you can replace food with Soylent. There's a lot more to food and health than the micro and macro nutrients listed on the back of a product (and there are issues with those in Soylent too). Bottom line is, this is a very processed food product, devoid of many health-promoting components found in whole foods such as antioxidants, polyphenols, flavonoids, lignans, probiotics and prebiotics and hundreds if not thousands more we don't know much about yet. The biggest problem I see with their latest formulation is that it's very deficient in fiber and all of the sugar in Soylent is in the form of added sugar. You don't need to know much about nutrition to know that this is not good. But really, all of these isolated nutrients have not been shown to work well when they are isolated from whole foods, and many of them can wreck havoc on the body. For instance, the main source of protein used, isolated soy protein, is well known to increase IGF-1 promotion which is linked to increased cancer risk. On the other hand, whole soy foods have been shown to protect against cancer. Also, the consensus among nutrition experts is that vitamin supplements are a waste of money. The most recent meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials on multivitamins and mortality has found no effect on mortality risk. Soylent is pretty much a glorified multivitamin supplement mixed with empty calories. I'm personally baffled that someone would choose to make that a big part of their nutrition regime when there have been no studies whatsoever demonstrating its effects on health. I certainly get the appeal to go for meal replacements when you have a busy schedule, but Soylent is clearly all marketing and not a good food product.

I didn't start using the product without research. Unless you can provide a source otherwise, the consensus across the board is that while soylent may not be near the healthiest diet choice you could make, it is still going to be better than fast food which is the only meal I've replaced from my regular diet.

Right now I have 2 of my daily meals prepared by my chef on weekdays and 400 of my calories each day come from Soylent. The other meals are usually delivered from restaurants or leftovers. On weekends I eat mostly at restaurants and sometimes leftovers from the week if there are any.

Ideally, I shouldn't be just satisfied with improving my diet especially if it is marginally so and should focus on actually getting it to somewhere good. I'm making strides, because I would say my diet is the healthiest it has been in the past 11 years, but I will come up with a strategy for crafting a goal and figuring out how to achieve it.

On October 12 2016 17:33 jchysk wrote: 1. It is difficult to have a relationship. I did date someone for most of this year who I fell completely in love with. We only broke up recently because there isn't a long term future that could make her happy. I'm not ready or willing to settle down and although I was enjoying the relationship it really is a distraction from my primary life objectives. I'd like to think I can have it all, but it's really difficult. 2. This question is a bit tough for me. I suppose I'll try to explain the way I see it. If something is boring/mundane but necessary I would try to hire someone to fill that task. With a lot of tasks it isn't something you would easily hire for or would be ridiculous to hire for, but is still necessary. I don't particularly enjoy some of those tasks, but I also wouldn't consider most of them boring/mundane. Those tasks will often require a level of accuracy that requires me to take it on to begin with and even if that isn't the case it's something that is directly contributing and progressing at least my short term goals. You could say I'm motivated by moving progress bars. 3. I actually don't have asian parents. I was adopted. I'm not anything like my parents in interests or personality.

thanks for the answers, i thought i saw a pic of you once where you looked Asian so that's why i mentioned Asian parents but i guess i was mistaken.

On October 13 2016 06:17 bigredhoss wrote: thanks for the answers, i thought i saw a pic of you once where you looked Asian so that's why i mentioned Asian parents but i guess i was mistaken.

To clarify. I am asian. I just don't have asian parents.

Nice life. Any plans on breeding and producing offspring with a highly qualified female? The earth needs more people like you lol
Trump might win because of this mouth-breathing populace

what fields are ur businesses in

On October 12 2016 17:33 jchysk wrote: Show nested quote + On October 12 2016 02:42 chris wrote: So you sold two companies for 7 and 8 figures? May I ask what those companies were / what they do and what your take was? What are you working on next?   On October 12 2016 07:48 Loco wrote: You're gravely mistaken if you think you can replace food with Soylent. There's a lot more to food and health than the micro and macro nutrients listed on the back of a product (and there are issues with those in Soylent too). Bottom line is, this is a very processed food product, devoid of many health-promoting components found in whole foods such as antioxidants, polyphenols, flavonoids, lignans, probiotics and prebiotics and hundreds if not thousands more we don't know much about yet. The biggest problem I see with their latest formulation is that it's very deficient in fiber and all of the sugar in Soylent is in the form of added sugar. You don't need to know much about nutrition to know that this is not good. But really, all of these isolated nutrients have not been shown to work well when they are isolated from whole foods, and many of them can wreck havoc on the body. For instance, the main source of protein used, isolated soy protein, is well known to increase IGF-1 promotion which is linked to increased cancer risk. On the other hand, whole soy foods have been shown to protect against cancer. Also, the consensus among nutrition experts is that vitamin supplements are a waste of money. The most recent meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials on multivitamins and mortality has found no effect on mortality risk. Soylent is pretty much a glorified multivitamin supplement mixed with empty calories. I'm personally baffled that someone would choose to make that a big part of their nutrition regime when there have been no studies whatsoever demonstrating its effects on health. I certainly get the appeal to go for meal replacements when you have a busy schedule, but Soylent is clearly all marketing and not a good food product. I didn't start using the product without research. Unless you can provide a source otherwise, the consensus across the board is that while soylent may not be near the healthiest diet choice you could make, it is still going to be better than fast food which is the only meal I've replaced from my regular diet. Right now I have 2 of my daily meals prepared by my chef on weekdays and 400 of my calories each day come from Soylent. The other meals are usually delivered from restaurants or leftovers. On weekends I eat mostly at restaurants and sometimes leftovers from the week if there are any. Ideally, I shouldn't be just satisfied with improving my diet especially if it is marginally so and should focus on actually getting it to somewhere good. I'm making strides, because I would say my diet is the healthiest it has been in the past 11 years, but I will come up with a strategy for crafting a goal and figuring out how to achieve it.

There is no such consensus among health experts. Unless you're talking about the people who were paid by Soylent to advertise or recommend their product. How could there be such a consensus when no studies were performed? You need data to claim that something is better than something else. There's nothing to review, so you're taking a leap of faith by including it into your diet. The consensus is that there is no such thing as 'health in a bag' and that multivitamin supplements should not be expected to work well in our bodies (I've linked you to that). Even when you research meal replacements and look for the opinion of dieticians about them (who are themselves often way too reductionistic) they still agree that Soylent is not the best option (usually stating what I said, low fiber, added sugars, lack of whole food phytonutrients). Of course nothing replaces real food, but there seems to be better alternatives in the way of convenient meal replacements. I'd research it more if I were you.

I must add that I can't believe someone with the means you have couldn't go grab some ready-made foods that are healthy without having to depend on the cheapest, most nutrient-deficient fast food there is. Is it really challenging to go grab a bean burrito at Taco Bell for instance? Beats Soylent any day of the week. 'Fast Food' is a very broad term. If you mean McNuggets and trans-fat ladden French Fries, then sure, Soylent's likely better than that. But Fast Food can also be throwing a sweet potato in the microwave and putting it in your pocket before you leave the house. There are many places where you can get "fast food" that is actually food, made with at least some whole foods, fiber and phytonutrients, and not empty calories with a multivitamin added. I think people go on the Soylent kick because they imagine it can replace food, it's convenient, and it carries a certain attitude of the busy, successful entrepreneur. What's happening in reality can be explained by this picture:

On October 14 2016 03:49 Loco wrote: There is no such consensus among health experts. Unless you're talking about the people who were paid by Soylent to advertise or recommend their product. How could there be such a consensus when no studies were performed? You need data to claim that something is better than something else. There's nothing to review, so you're taking a leap of faith by including it into your diet. The consensus is that there is no such thing as 'health in a bag' and that multivitamin supplements should not be expected to work well in our bodies (I've linked you to that). Even when you research meal replacements and look for the opinion of dieticians about them (who are themselves often way too reductionistic) they still agree that Soylent is not the best option (usually stating what I said, low fiber, added sugars, lack of whole food phytonutrients). Of course nothing replaces real food, but there seems to be better alternatives in the way of convenient meal replacements. I'd research it more if I were you. I must add that I can't believe someone with the means you have couldn't go grab some ready-made foods that are healthy without having to depend on the cheapest, most nutrient-deficient fast food there is. Is it really challenging to go grab a bean burrito at Taco Bell for instance? Beats Soylent any day of the week. 'Fast Food' is a very broad term. If you mean McNuggets and trans-fat ladden French Fries, then sure, Soylent's likely better than that. But Fast Food can also be throwing a sweet potato in the microwave and putting it in your pocket before you leave the house. There are many places where you can get "fast food" that is actually food, made with at least some whole foods, fiber and phytonutrients, and not empty calories with a multivitamin added. I think people go on the Soylent kick because they imagine it can replace food, it's convenient, and it carries a certain attitude of the busy, successful entrepreneur. What's happening in reality can be explained by this picture:

You seem to feel pretty strongly about this subject, which is probably my largest problem. Even though it's directly related to my health, I just haven't cared enough to learn the basics. My knowledge is so shallow on the subject of food and diet that it feels like everything I've read conflicts in one way or another and there's really a lot that isn't known about it. Conversations even between people that take nutrition very seriously often show conflict in practice. This may upset you, but while I was playing online poker there was an entire year where I literally ate delivery Chinese food or delivered pizza except for major holidays. I felt like that was likely not great from a health perspective and have been very slowly trying to improve ever since.

I've always been very healthy from a visible standpoint, only getting something minor like a cold for a few days each year if even that. When I get my blood work run things come back swell. If I want to become physically fit, I exercise a little bit.
Now, if I were told there is something wrong and it can be fixed by doing something, it becomes easy to justify research and make the changes necessary.

Preemptive health is surely the smarter play, but I feel like I would be diving into a pretty large ocean when thinking of what there is to learn and not knowing to what extent the benefits would come.

My definition of fast food is nuggets and fries at McDonalds, or the munchie meals at Jack in the Box. I don't know what the health is on those items, or if I eat out at a restaurant what the health is at those places. So really I'm just taking a leap of faith with all food I eat. You treat it like common sense, but I don't know why a bean burrito would be considered any healthier than nuggets and fries.

Also you've compared Soylent to a multivitamin, which I hadn't really thought of until you mentioned it. If I think of it like that, multivitamins don't have any good evidence that they're helpful. Then there are varying qualities of multivitamins in the sense of how much absorbs based on the binding agent and other factors. I've taken boat loads of nootropics and it was kind of a similar problem where you would take a stack of a dozen items that each had controversial or scattered research on the benefits and just kind of hope that at least one of them was actually providing some kind of benefit and that the others weren't harmful even if not useful. I've stopped taking all those except for the ones that from personal experience I found to have a direct and noticeable impact.

With food, I've been eating it my entire life, and there are some basic patterns that I've discovered from ingesting certain foods and the after effects, but for me I've never noticed a significant correlation between diet and brain function, mood, or physical fitness.

You are a smart successful entrepreneur but you can't see how a tortilla with some beans and cheese inside is healthier than deep fried French fries and McNuggets? Cmon man.

Common knowledge you can't physically feel your arteries slowly blocking as you consume more and more bad cholesterol. You can be sure it happens regardless.

On October 14 2016 16:43 traxamillion wrote: You are a smart successful entrepreneur but you can't see how a tortilla with some beans and cheese inside is healthier than deep fried French fries and McNuggets? Cmon man. Common knowledge you can't physically feel your arteries slowly blocking as you consume more and more bad cholesterol. You can be sure it happens regardless.

From your comment and loco's I assume that the burrito is healthier than the other, but if I spend time trying to analyze why I don't understand. One seems to be a bread, fruit, and dairy while the other is a vegetable and chicken. I'm aware that method of cooking can remove nutrients from food and I assume that's the major difference unless burritos are fried as well. If that's the case then a lot of people just have what they consider common sense on which food items are healthier than others. That seems like fallacy too because any single food item by itself isn't enough to be considered healthy.

I plan on doing research on this topic this weekend. Any good primers? I don't think going into a Wikipedia hole for 5 hours would really be that effective.

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-eating-plate/