Greetings, SuperFriends!

Today I had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Bertalan Mesko, Ph.D., The Medical Futurist and the Director of The Medical Futurist Institute, which analyzes how science fiction technologies can become reality in medicine and healthcare. As a geek physician with a Ph.D. in genomics, Dr. Mesko is also an Amazon Top 100 author. He is also a Private Professor at Semmelweis Medical School, Budapest, Hungary.

Let me tell you, I really enjoyed this conversation, and I learned a lot about what is standing in the way of making us literally SuperHuman using technology. The answer will actually surprise you!

During the episode, I learned what we can do to advance the agenda of using technology to improve human lives, and we had a really interesting conversation about all the different ways that technology is already improving our health.

If you are listening to this episode for no other reason than the devices and hacks that Dr. Mesko uses in his own life to measure everything from his sleep to his happiness, and beyond, it will have been well worth your time. I know you are going to enjoy this episode as much as I did!

-Jonathan Levi

This episode is brought to you by Ambronite's AmbroGreens! Click here to grab your exclusive 5-Day AmbroGreens pack now, and treat your body to a full serving of the most powerful greens, veggies and berries nature has to offer.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Who is Dr. Bertalan Mesko, what does he do, and how did he get here? [4:20]
• What is Dr. Mesko most excited about in the technology world? [7:45]
• The power of being able to test yourself on all medical aspects [10:15]
• Is having to manage your own health a burden for people? [13:00]
• What can we expect in the next years when it comes to health technology? [18:15]
• What can we do to feel SuperHuman and help usher in this revolution of health technology? [27:55]
• Dr. Mesko's system for quantifying his life [32:35]
• What tools is Dr. Mesko using to track everything? [39:20]
• Books that Dr. Mesko recommends [44:10]
• Dr. Bertalan Mesko's[45:45]

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• medicalfuturist.com
• Supermeat
• My Health: Upgraded: Revolutionary Technologies To Bring A Healthier Future by Bertalan Meskó
• The Guide to the Future of Medicine: Technology AND The Human Touch by Bertalan Meskó
• Rescue Time
• Our previous episode with Cedric Waldburger
• Fitbit Ionic
• Polar Chest Strap
• Pip
• Headspace
• Atlas Biomed
• Elevate App
• Kardia
• MyFitnessPal
• Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
• 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
• Solaris by Stanisław Lem

Favorite Quotes from Dr. Bertalan Mesko:

Transcript:

Welcome to the award-winning superhuman Academy podcast where we interview extraordinary people to give you the skills and strategies to overcome the impossible. And now here's your host Jonathan Levy.

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All you have to do is visit Amber night.com superhuman. That's am. BR o ni ite.com superhuman and you can try the product out for just $19.90. So go ahead and visit that link to try out Amber greens today. This week's episode which is lovingly crafted. Thanks to a pretty funny review from t7p 7 in the United Kingdom who says.

Really great content would be so much better. If Jonathan cut down his Wow's while I want to tell you that I've been working on it ever since I read this review. I really do appreciate the feedback. I didn't know how much I said. Wow, but you are absolutely right and I am working on it. So thank you very much T 7p 7.

I do love some good constructive criticism on to today's episode, which is hopefully mostly wow free today. I had the pleasure of chatting with dr. Burton mesh Co a PhD the medical futurist and the director of the medical futurist Institute, which analyzes how science fiction Technologies can become a reality in medicine.

And Health Care, he's a geek physician his words not mine with a PhD in genomics a top 100 author on Amazon a private professor at semmelweis medical school and much much more. Let me tell you I really enjoyed this conversation and I learned a lot about what is actually standing in the way. Of making us literally superhuman using technology and the answer will actually surprise you I learned about what we can do to advance the agenda of using technology to improve human lives.

And I just had a really interesting conversation about all the different ways that technology is already improving our health if you listen to this episode for no other reason than for the list of devices and hacks that doctor mesh go uses in his own life to measure everything from his sleep to his happiness and Beyond it will have been well well worth your time so I know you're going to enjoy the podcast episode here is dr.

Burton, Mishka.

Mr. Burton, and mishko. How are you? My friend? I'm really feeling quite well. Thank you so much for asking. How are you? Yeah, I'm doing pretty well. I had a really interesting meeting that prepared me for this interview today. I met with the founders of Super Meat which is a cellular AG company doing you know cellular kind of all kinds of crazy Technologies for tissue engineering and I feel like that prepared me for all the medical futurism.

We're going to talk about today. Well, I don't look forward to it. Awesome. So birth on tell us a bit about who you are what you do and and what's really interesting and what I couldn't cover on the intro by myself how you got to be the medical futurist. Wow. At the age of 6, I fell in love with the scientific method.

So then that time I knew exactly what I wanted to devote my whole life to doing research and Science and that's why I went to medical school and I finished my PhD in clinical genomics because I wanted to be a geneticist precisely and when it happened I was 26 that time I felt that something was missing from my life and that.

Thing was me being a geek living all my life with Technologies and through Technologies and by Technologies and somehow that's missing from researchers life. And you do research in genetics. And what I found out was that I had to somehow mix two branches of science together one is life sciences, and the other was futuristic studies, which is under social sciences, which I haven't even found an example for a model for that.

Someone would have done it already. Therefore I had to start this journey on my own and that's how I became the medical futurist now, even the The Academy of Sciences you my country in Hungary. Acknowledges this job title or you know subfield of science the medical futurism and and that was the time about eight years ago when I started building a team around myself so we can help people get the context around changes due to Medical Technologies and to understand better how artificial intelligence the use of Health sensors or augmented reality could change healthcare for the better and how we can prepare for that.

So now I have a. Keep a team of 12 people in the medical futurist where we communicate about half a million people worldwide and we work with governments and medical organizations to get. Something out of these technological changes and to help them understand that digital health is a cultural transformation just initiated but not driven by Technologies.

And also I launched the America futurist Institute where we do the same but in peer-reviewed research so very shortly. That's how I became the magical creatures. Wow, that's a lot to unpack and it's incredible and you know it and I almost tongue-in-cheek asked. You know, how do you become the medical futurist and I loved it the answer came back.

Well, you kind of create something new that hasn't been created and you merge you know, I have a theory that all creativity and all genius comes from combining existing things in new unique and novel ways, and it sounds like that's exactly what you did mating technology with with medicine. What can you do when you can't put yourself in a box that everyone knows and you know that even if you could do that, you would not be.

Content for your entire life, you would not really be satisfied by a job. And as a researcher I have responsibility for the people will do research for but and also at the same time I have to make sure that I keep myself inspired and motivated for you know, 70 years from now. I shoot for leaving until a hundred and boarding a spaceship to Mars then on my own legs and for that I have to make sure that I enjoy what I do literally every day.

Wow, so I have a million different questions and I certainly feel like just to sit quietly in the corner of your office for a day would blow the average human beings mind as to just what kind of Technologies are coming down the pipeline for us, but I guess what I would like to ask is what are you most excited about right now that you are seeing in the Technologies you're working with.

I would limit the question and say with regards to helping us become superhuman given that's the title of the podcast but I think it's probably the case that almost everything that comes across your desk involves in some way improving The Human Experience. For me for the most exciting thing these days.

It's not a particular technology or Trend but a direction that these Technologies make patients the point of care and while I know it is sentence doesn't sound like an attractive and sexy sentence focusing on Technologies. But this is simply the biggest milestone in the history of medicine. We patients you're not be just an element in the healthcare system and then we have to go we have to.

You know, we have to ask someone to let us into the Ivory Tower of medicine to get help and then they tell us what to do. And then we go home and better we comply with that or not is our decision, but that that has been the role of being a patient for two thousand years since hypotheses, but what's changing now in the 21st century due to accessible really Advanced Technologies is that we are becoming the point of care where I am I can get.

Diagnosis I can get treatments in a customized in a augmented way and I can use all my data to make better decisions with my caregivers and medical professionals. So that notion that that I have a freedom of choice that I can obtain data in the same way as only medical professionals could beat in the Ivory Tower of medicine again for 2000 years.

I think this is. Simply exciting that we have a new player in this board game that we call Health Care and I also firmly believe that this is the I mean patients are the best resources we can we could ever hope for to to get as a new player in this game. So every rule every model every strategy that we have had for 2,000 years now have to change because of that and it makes me really excited for the future.

I completely agree with you. I think it's it's so empowering and that's a word that I use a lot. It's so empowering when a person can measure their own sleep. They can buy a device all the albiet were still in the Primitive stages a device that can measure their own brain waves and they can send out for their own labs and get their own microbiome tested.

It's so empowering to come to that conversation educated and informed. Absolutely, and that's why for the last maybe a decade or so. I've been trying to become the patient from the future without having any symptoms or diagnosis. But I've been trying to live like someone would leave and you know normal person would live in 5 or 10 years from now and I tried everything that's on the market.

As a physician as a patient to be able to tell other people how these work and what the challenges and the benefits are. So I had my genome sequenced. I had my microbiome sequenced. I've been tracking my sleeve for more than 10 years. Now I use a Smart sleep alarm. So I know when to wake up at the best time from light sleep and deep sleep.

I've been tracking my. My exercises and I make myself exercise for 30 minutes on average per day, but I've been tracking my cognitive Health my emotional health my physical health but altogether, I've been trying to to put on some good habits. So yeah, this is empowering. Also it comes with a good dose of anxiety.

Yes when you're when you're about to receive your genetic testing report. You know that you might receive some data some results that that make you uncomfortable and varying make you varied about a future, but that's why you have a freedom of choice and you can choose if you want to know for example, your risk for Alzheimer's disease or Huntington's disease.

This is your choice still, but I I believe in the. The other side of the story that we need more data. I have a better chance and simply I have a better chance for a longer and healthier life. So as medicine is not linear, even if they could measure everything about you and around you your Vital Signs and half a matters and do a body MRI and pet scans everything.

We want to be would still not be able to. Provide you with the words in the most perfect report about what might happen to your health in the next decades or so because that's not how it works. Therefore even just imagine how many how much effort and time and money I've had to put into this to become the sort of patient from the future and the only thing I've gained is just maybe a bit higher chance for living a long and healthy life.

Now you talked about this idea of how we all can be so much more informed and involved in our in our health care and in our health and I want to ask do you feel that that now puts a not a burden but a responsibility. On your average person. I'll give you an example. I personally believe that in order to vote in a country.

You should demonstrate that you understand the laws and history of that country that you're making informed decisions. Is it the case that the patient of the future is really going to we're going to have to expect that they have a basic.  competence a basic understanding. Of the human body of their health of the options before them in a way that they maybe didn't in yesteryear when you go into the doctor and do whatever the doctor said.

It's amazingly issue. It's very important question. I I believe in the the importance of the freedom of choice. See if you're a patient who wants to remain the same as you have been behaving in healthcare that you are passive component. And when you have a symptom or disease, then you go for help and then medical professionals tell you what to do.

If you are fine with that model you should have the choice to keep on living that way. But actually all of those patients who are like that have that choice now regarding everyone else like myself, I guess yourself who would love to use data and Trekkers and Technologies and also Physicians who are Partners in this so we can as a medical team make the best decisions even preventive ones for the sake of our health.

We don't have that choice now, I it's true that when we do have the choice we will have anxiety. We will have more responsibility about that because with more data comes more choices range of issues you have to face and and you will have to deal with those yourself. But as long as I'm the one deciding.

How much of this freedom of choice or how much of my privacy I'm feeling to exchange? I'm willing to give up in exchange for a chance for a long and healthy life. I should be. All right, and that's right. Now we have to fight for the rights of these people because they don't have that chance in.

Today's Healthcare Systems. Yeah. Yeah. I think you're absolutely right and personally, I believe. You know what I do for a living, I teach people how to use their minds and I believe if you have one you should know how to use it and and I to some extent believe the same is true of the body that I think I think we should be teaching people how to maintain their bodies and how to take good care of themselves.

Among many other things that unfortunately, we don't we don't teach in basic education, but I do love that idea of you know, you have you have the right to not know. It's not amazing Point imagine that we learn about, you know, the economy of countries and important historical my stones and all these subjects, but I don't remember learning extensively about how to take care of myself at the right.

It should be a key component of everyone's live. At least you know what you should do. It doesn't mean that you do it. But at least you should you should know you have the knowledge the basic knowledge about what health means and how we can keep it that way or what to do when you know something different happens, but that's just not part of any normal.

Absolutely, right? And it's mind-blowing how few people understand how their you know, nutritional needs are being met or how much sleep is enough. And what does it mean to get good sleep and what's happening in my brain if I'm feeling down or depressed, you know, I you and I geek out on these things.

We enjoy learning these things, but I think everyone can benefit from learning. Exactly. And even when I want what what do they do when they find out that well, I would love to learn about these things. They go online and do to us do some searches and what you find there. Wow. It's a jungle little any health information.

And without someone like an expert who can help you like a good position like a primary care physician is a partner in this it's really easy. To feel left out of the system and to be on your own with these range of decisions to be made. So yeah, that's why I think data can help. So when I started bringing my genomic reports and microbiome reports and everything else to the primary care physician.

I had well I have now my third GP and I found the one she is excellent and she told me that she became a primary care physician because. Patients like me and she wants to have a good impact on my life for decades. And I know that's why I she's a physician and sometimes she said she answered my question saying I don't know, but you know what?

Let's just sit next to me and let's find out together. And that's that's the attitude now that we teach in medical school at semmelweis Medical School in Budapest that it's okay for a physician to say, I don't know you don't you cannot know everything out there when there are 31 million medical studies and new technological innovations every day or so.

So it's okay to say I don't know but you need to know about the methods through which you can find Solutions and with the patient even by evolving the patient. You can find Solutions together even building the relationship that you have in them. Yes now. Burton and you've written two books that I know of one my health upgraded revolutionary Technologies to bring a healthier future and the second the guide to the future of medicine technology and the human touch, you know, perhaps more than anybody what's coming down the pipeline and and what Optimal Health is going to look like when all of these Technologies.

Art become available to the rest of us outside of the bleeding edge. What can we expect to see in 5 years 10 years and 20 years time before we all board our spaceships to Mars. I think that it the kind of vision that we have about the future doesn't happen when these Technologies become available, but when the cultural transformation that we call digital hell finally takes place, so I'm trying to.

To explain what? I mean by that a lot of people even working in healthcare decision makers governments think that that 21st Century Technologies initiated changes in healthcare and everything. We see about the changing doctor-patient relationship the patient empowerment movement and so on all these things take place because we have now Advanced Technologies, but we think that these changes were initiated by Technologies, but are not driven by them.

Because if we arm a hospital today with really state-of-the-art Innovations the best AI based algorithm the best smart sensors everything that you can imagine that that come out in the news every day or so. I guarantee that the quality of care. But not get better but even by today not even by three months or six months because people work in the system and we are slow in adopting these technological innovations.

So we think that while we can't take Technologies out of this discussion or conversation. We have to focus on ourselves to understand how we relate to these Innovations. So if I tend to overhype a certain technology or if there are technologies that make me fearful about a future then I have to work on that and not the exact technology because the way we people in healthcare adopt or reject Technologies, or the way, we discuss their importance.

These are just much more important things than which microchip comes out next year. So we had the medical futurist. That's what we work on all the time to help policymakers governments medical associations and patient organizations understand and acknowledge that this cultural transformation is the key and if you can get through that then adopting Technologies.

With that knowledge is going to be a piece of cake, but if you focus on microchips and the next SmartWatches, then I'd be guarantee that we will see no changes. No significant changes in health care. The Health Care system is very divided. So answering your question division we have is that patients are becoming the point of care is that hospitals will remain similar to the dose that you see today, but their role is going to be different.

When there's like we have to use big Radiology machine that you cannot use a thumb obviously have to go to a place where they can do it, but you can scan you but for most. Primary Care health issues for most health questions that patients have today. We think that the the initial line of primary care will be around really based around Technologies.

So it will be a luxury for you to be able to ask a simple question about your having a cold for up to know to a primary care physician, but you will first talk to a chatbot or some sort of an algorithm because 5 million healthcare workers are missing worldwide and evil never trained. As many as we need so what we are trying to do is you are trying to build these Visions by extrapolating from today's Trends as future is do they are also trying to understand the Practical reality of healthcare and coming from the eastern part of Hungary seeing the you know, the the really challenged regions.

Helps me a lot in seeing reality compared to science fiction and then we are trying to build or bridge bridge these gaps between the two so I'm not interested in the future 10 15 20 years from now. I'm interested in in seeing a vision about the future of Health Care in five or ten years and then finding out today what's needed to get there.

That's why we work with these organizations and governments and we are trying to pressure them to make the right decisions for the benefits of patient and in all of these this process the most important stakeholder is the patient and patients have been left out of all the major decisions in healthcare and now the Food and Drug Administration in the US.

Has a patient Advisory board and some Pharma companies now Point patient advisory boards, and we stress quite heavily for these medical organizations worldwide that without involving patients at the highest level of decision making they can possibly think that they can create or develop anything useful for them.

So fascinating and you know, I admit I came into this conversation thinking we were going to talk about Nanobots and DNA sequencing and all kinds of crazy stuff. But if I'm understanding you correctly really what we need to be thinking about is how are we as a culture and specifically we as patients.

How are we learning about adopting developing these Technologies to work in synchronicity with our needs and our culture? So that it's not just another fancy technology that no one knows how to use and therefore doesn't actually make an impact on our lives. Exactly and to provide a real life example from my own experience for that.

I could have my genome sequenced about a year ago. It was quite a fast service Italian company did that I received the comprehensive report and as a you know, someone coming from genetics, but I had a good eye. On looking at the results and interpretation so I could see which parts are really useful clinically for me and which parts are not but when I brought that to my primary care physician who is supposed to be able to help me with that.

The first one told me that he simply doesn't have the knowledge to do anything to report so I should not bring that report to him. I look for another one. The second one said that even though he could try to learn some tricks and get some knowledge about this. He won't have the time even even if he had the time.

He couldn't upload any of this information into my medical records there for these. Useful piece of information that we affect the future of my health like medication sensitivity these points of information simply do not exist in my medical reality. So when I found my my the third position for GP I have now, she told me that she would try.

To upload part of it into my medical record systems. She has some knowledge about that but lets you know, as I mentioned before let's find out together how this or that information could help us create a better preventive planned for myself. So while I had the technology already and it worked and everything went well, the cultural components were missing from me being able to enjoy the benefits of using the technology.

That's a great example. And that's even an example where all the regulatory stuff has been cleared out of the way so that you could actually even do that test imagine, you know, when we get to Nanobots and and the regulation that's going to have to happen the the restrictions the understandings the education the standardization to make it so that I can just you know, go and get an injection of whatever new technology is going to help me.

And it's even a bigger issue than it sounds this is the part of the whole equation that makes me really worried about the future. When when you saw the when the Mark Zuckerberg had the public hearing, you know, we live our lives as digital Geeks so we know you know, we use social media and and all the benefits of the internet and seeing those policymakers not being able to us.

Normal question not even good ones, but just normal questions about how Facebook works then how can you expect them to regulate nanorobots living in our bloodstream artificial narrow intelligence algorithms supporting medical decisions or you know, mixed reality devices helping surgeons prepare for us or for an operation and while.

It's hard to expect that they would be able to do that. Someone has to do it. Otherwise, we won't be able to use these Technologies. So that's that's the biggest fear. I have about digital Health future. Yeah. No, you're absolutely right. I mean I know for a fact the reason that the whole world is on the dietary plan or most of the world of Western world is on the dietary plan that they're on is because.

In the 1970s the US set up the McGovern commission and got a bunch of Representatives to sit on a commission and decide what was right for the average American to eat and many other countries followed suit and we ended up, you know, eat as much sugar and carbohydrates as you want stay away from fats and you know white bread is great eat as much of it as you want and look where we ended up exactly.

So. Doctor Mexico, you you have an audience here of many many thousands of people who are enthusiastic and passionate about their health. Otherwise, I don't think they would have stuck with us for 260 episodes. What would you like for them to do going forward to act on this information to be part of this bleeding edge?

I mean, what can we do? One to feel superhuman to reach the age of a hundred plus on our feet as you said, but also to help Usher in this revolution of patient LED care.  Well, I don't want to sound like someone who is too romantic about the future, but I guess I am a bit but what I would love everyone in the word say out loud at least first acknowledge that they have a freedom of choice.

It's not that this is the healthcare that you receive and that's all no. No, you have you have a range of choices to make when it comes to your diet your health plan your preventive plan your treatment your monitoring and so on and for those who are not into this who don't want to quantify anything about them.

We just who are just okay with going to a doctor when they have a symptom. I would love them to say out loud that it's fine for them if their lives depend on Pure Luck. I know it sounds like an aggressive sentence, but but that's the case. If if I have if I get the right diagnosis in time there if they use the right tests if the right information is obtained about me and so on I might get cured or treated if that's enough for them.

That should be. All right for me. That's not enough. And for my and to know that the lives of my loved ones depend on the same kind of pure luck. I'm just not okay with that. So I want to get involved and engaged as much as I can. I don't want to take the role of my medical professional, but I want to become an expert of my own health and disease management and with that expertise.

And with their expertise about the medical profession, I truly believe that we together can make the best decisions for me. Even if it's about a preventive plan or a treatment decision and sound so that this is the first thing I think everyone should do to acknowledge that they have a range of choices to make and then the way I started I didn't first.

Reached out to Technologies immediately but instead I at the age of 14. I realized that you know, it's a teenager part of your life. We are we have a an emotional roller coaster every day and I got quite fed up with that. So I thought that if I. Try to quantify some parts of my life. I might be able to draw some conclusions from that.

So the age of 14 I started giving a score between 1 and 10 to my physical help. So how healthy I feel to my emotional health how happy I am and to my cognitive Health how much I can focus and learn that day and after that and I've been doing that. Since then so for 21 years and not one day is missing.

I know I sound like an obsessive person because I am but not one day is missing and in two weeks. I learned my personal algorithm which is if I can exercise today. Then I can learn Focus just cognitively work better today and tomorrow and if I can do that for a few days or a week, then my emotional health gets surprisingly better.

That's my personal algorithm. And since then of course with a few gadgets and devices, I've been fine-tuning that model. No, I know that what kind of Sleep Quality I need and what I can do to make sure I get it 9 out of 10 times. I know what kind of mistakes I can do to go against it. My smart sleep alarm.

Make sure I wake up at the best time and all these little tricks take me about five or ten minutes a day, but I feel like I'm in control in about many things in my health. And I don't even want to think about how many things I have. You'll never be in control in my life. And so these are the things that I can look at.

I can measure data about I can share with my primary care physician or my caregiver. It does. I hope that we can make better decisions on the long-term. So just by. Being curious about ourselves and looking into ourselves find out what parts of our lives our lifestyle we should work on and I don't see how someone can find this out without measuring any kind of data.

I think that that could be a very good second step 4. That is one of the smartest things I've heard in a long time. I want to know more to do you write this in a journal. Do you put this into a spreadsheet with other variables? How are you tracking data to get to the root of why you have either a 1 or Y.

You have a ten. I think you would laugh at me because I reached out to the the most ancient method. As a researcher it comes from my blood. It's an Excel spreadsheet for more than a decade. Now. I've had an Excel spreadsheet. I have a very simple system that I give scores too many things like I mentioned before but every year I decided to work on some habits.

So for example, exactly a year ago. I started going to a professional chess trainer to become at least. You know assemble semi professional chess player in a few years because I believe I have a theory that the language of artificial intelligence is not a programming language as the programmers language, but the language of AI is anticipation and the best way to learn the skill of anticipation not forecasting is by playing a game where anticipation.

Plays a huge role. So I have to choose between chess or go. And as chess is more rational and strategy based Vigo is more emotional and intuition base time for the time. I had to choose I chose chess. So every day I measure exactly how much how many minutes I spend. Time with learning chests or going to adjust Rain or playing chess.

I quantify my sleeve quality. I it's very important for me to fall asleep. So before going before falling asleep, I want to read a paperback book and it's it has to be paperback now digital. I also want if I that of course my weight is a futurist. I have to dedicate enough time for forecasting and envisioning.

Futuristic scenes, it's not that scientific. It's more like daydreaming but based on the trends. I learned and the studies I read every day. I have to be able to you know, break out of the of the cage of today's reality and. And proactively think about futuristic scenario. So I have to play with the what if question for 20-30 minutes everyday must be part of my job, even though again, it's not a scientific method is just like great day to evening and I also tried to measure how much time I spend in flow.

I use meditation before that also counts, but I have to be able to do nothing without any purpose at least for you know, 20 minutes a day. Because that helps my mind to stay creative not just in my job, but also in my everyday life, so depending on what habits I'm working on. I also quantify those and I have a I grew up.

Yeah, I always grew up with video games. So I have these thresholds that I have to reach with this course. And if it's above the threshold like it's now is the 12th of December. If an if a score is above threshold, then it's a green one if it's below it's a red one. So I know which which ones I should focus on I guess describing this in that many details.

It might sound like it. This is an obsessive and time-consuming behavior, but it's really not it's like five minutes a day. But I think I know what I have to focus on. I know which things are reach types of hobbies make me have a happier life or just feel myself. No, you better write audience here because I track absolutely everything that's happening on all my digital devices.

So I was able. I use a tool called rescuetime to automate a lot of it, but I was able to look back and compare and it's we're now recording in the end of 2019 and I said okay in 2018. I felt like I was on slack too much exactly. How many minutes that I spend on slack in 2019 and did I reduce it by enough or do I need to work on it more?

I spent a total. I think it was 78 hours on email the entire year, which I'm very very proud of so I track these things what I like is at the end of the day you are looking at the spreadsheet and you're going okay. I'm let's just say I'm feeling particularly ecstatic happy energized motivated and you can look at the spreadsheet and go oh, of course because I worked out for 45 minutes a day this week and I slept you know better and and you can just see the proof in the pudding.

I love that and it also does another segment to it. If I I do functional training mostly and when I know that if I will have 60 Minutes for that today, but if I could just. Stay out for 50 more. Then my average would get above the threshold so it will be green for at least a day or two and that's smart motivation big enough for me to stay at every if that's the only purpose why I'm using this spreadsheet to sometimes stay out for 15 minutes more.

I'm still okay with that, but this one helps me so much in in seeing my life on the long-term to be able to zoom in and zoom out. I just zoomed out yesterday. I just checked some of my data and it turns out that I spend 900 hours playing chess and learning chess this year which transmits the red frightening.

It's a frightening number having a little kid at home and you know having a family life and traveling to give speeches, but I know that that's dedicated. I am to become a good chess player and to understand the language of EI better. So. Looking at this looking back at this is comes with a bit of anxiety.

But also I have to be proud because I when I when I made that decision to go into it, I haven't given up. I don't not even planning to do that. I have been dedicated to that for for over a year now. So let's keep on doing that in 2020 as well. I really love this idea. I'm tempted to ask you if you would send me a blank version without the data so that I could use it as inspiration for 2020.

Of course. I thought bleach the blank. I will send you the link. Oh, wow. I've described all these details and what I've learned over the last year and I also published a blank access, but it's really simple black shape it of you, you know. That's fantastic introduce your life. If you don't already know Cedric Vault Burger.

I should introduce the two of you because he tracks every waking minute of his life. He's built a short cuts on his Apple watch and iPhone that he can just track tag every minute and see how his time is being spent and I think you two would really geek out together. He's also in the futurism space.

Ha ha it sounds very now I also want to ask I would be remiss because you are at the intersection of technology and medicine. I very much be remiss if I didn't ask you what tools you are using. You mentioned you use a sleep tracker. I want to know which one what are you using to track your workouts?

What devices do you like? What services are you using to do genetic testing, I would. Nothing more than if you'd share like what are the tools given your Vantage Point and and how much knowledge you bring to the table which are the devices and services that you just can't live without. Of course, I will be happy to I have to know that I have tested over 150 digital sensors and I have no stuck in either of those companies unfortunately, but if I love something I say out loud that's why I'm a independent researcher Fitbit.

Ionic is the Smartwatch I'm using for more than two years now and that's the smart watch I've used for the longest time ever and I've used many I use that mainly for know just basic Fitness tracking every day. But there is a smart sleep alarm function that position to use last year. And since then I've been tracking sleep with different sensors, but now I can use my feet with ionic to provide maybe the smart sleep sensor and that's just perfect for Fitness tracking when I exercise.

I use a polar chest trip which provides really detailed analysis about really everything every aspect. About my functional training sessions. So use that one. I tried to measure stress before with the device code pip PID but it turns out when I measure stress it gets twice as high so I thought I should not focus on that much but that one so much I use the atlas biomed for good basic genetic testing service, and I also use them for microbiome.

So I still receive recommendations about the types of food. I should consume week by week based on the content of my microbiome. I use the headspace app if I want to meditate properly and on purpose I use a game called elevate. For cognitive training. I know that cognitive training apps have not been shown by scientific studies to be that useful in improving any skills or memory, but I still find them very useful in my personal life.

I use for I like once a month. I do an ECG measurement with the device code cardia because the cardia has the highest number of medical studies in the background. So they have pretty good evidence behind them and I count calories on MyFitnessPal the application. Yep. I think these are the basic apps and devices that use I've tested many but I stopped using them after a while because I saw no reasoning, you know, keeping using them and the same way I get a lot of really cool devices sent to me in the mail and I'd say I end up using less than 20% of them and I end up recommending less than 10% of them.

Under the one rule I have four apps is that I his receive zero notifications on my smartphone only a telephone call and text message can come through but literally nothing else not even messenger Gmail nothing. So when I dedicate time to that I sit down and do work, but otherwise, I don't want to be.

You know interrupted all the time by these messages because the fear of missing out the way harder described in his book how models I think I found that to be perfectly represented in my life and I felt very sorry for myself about that. So I just don't want to feel. The fear of missing out and I don't want to be engaged all the time plus if I get engaged all the time and I get many questions online side if I just ask the questions, I could spend eight hours a day with that and it'll be great because I love that but still I would never have the chance to just you know, really contemplate about life and think about things in Vision futuristic scenarios or just play the what-if question because my my.

Original story or my origin story comes from science fiction as a I being a science fiction geek for my whole life. I've watched that I think over a thousand science fiction movies. I read the science fiction book, but I think at least three or four times a week and and sci-fi is my. Basic resource for inspiration.

So I need to keep on playing with the what if question as a part of my job to fantastic now on the topic of books. Are there any books that you would love for members of the audience to read? Wow, of course, I mean I can't I can't say I would love them to read their but if they want to have a certain experience, then it would make sense to read those.

I think the best book in recent times. In science fiction was ready player one, not the movie strictly not the movie. But the book the book is I almost missed a flight because of that Bloody book because that's how perfect it is. I was born in eighteen in the in 84. Therefore what the time the book describes is just perfect for me and I understood every tiny detail of it.

But the old-time my all-time favorite is obviously 2001 A Space Odyssey. In that case both the book and the movie obviously, but the but the book is also an amazing resource. Maybe these are the two ones that I would love everyone in the world to read at least once in their lives. Plus that the science fiction book that put me on the path of becoming a science fiction geek was Solaris from stanislaw Lem.

I think about third 25 years ago. So the Solaris is still I think the mother. Of all science fiction books. Well, that's great. And for anyone listening we're going to put all those in the blog post as well as all the recommended medical devices and services, but it's on I want to thank you so much for coming on the show.

But before I let you go, I do want to ask the last question. I always ask which is if people take away one big message from this podcast episode and they carry it with them for the rest of their lives. What would you hope for that to be? That there is hope that the way someone comes across the healthcare system and the way they receive care or the way, they keep themselves healthy for a long time before receiving care.

It's about I know that it's tricky and it's not Innovative and the way we live a life. Through these gadgets you don't come across those science fiction like things at the point of care, but there is hope that with the advancement with the introduction of Technologies and through the cultural changes that we see that we call digital Health.

It's going to be all right, we will feel like. Being cared for in a science fiction movie like how positions could use medical tricorders from Star Trek or how we could use Radiology machines like the ones in Elysium That Could Just Kill cancer cells in an instant. That is hope that Health Care will be like that.

I'm so glad to hear you say it and I look forward to it and I look forward to hanging out potentially on Mars.

Thanks for tuning into the award-winning superhuman Academy podcast for poor great skills and strategies or for links to any of the resources mentioned in this episode visit superhuman dot block while you're at it. Please take a moment to share this episode with a friend and leave us a review on iTunes will see you next week.