Master your environment, master your mind, and how to become the master of your choices
069 |ANEWWITHHUE: A monthly Saturday listicle to spark joy, creativity, and curiosity in you!
I hope you’ve had a great week.
This is the only thing you’re receiving from me this week—because we’ve got lots to cover. I promise, I tried my best to keep it concise, but I wanted you to get as much out of reading, as the hours I spent listening, re-listening, and taking these notes for you!
I know I am not alone when I say this—warning: THIS MAY SOUND ABSTRACT—but, I believe humanity is in the midst of a historic crucible. One which future historians will mark as a transformative period, much like how we see Europe’s Enlightenment.
This isn’t simply about changes due to AI or technology alone, what we’re witnessing is a seismic shift in the invisible systems that govern our world—think: financial systems, nation-states, and the global frameworks we’ve all relied on as status quo will never look the same again.
I know I sound hyperbolic. But, I’ve accepted that the world is going to feel and look so different from our previous decade—if it’s not already feeling that way already. My hunch is, it’ll go way beyond remote working, so what I am in deep contemplation about is: how do I want to participate in this new world? Because it’s the decisions I make today that will set me up for the future we can no longer assume.
But, before we explore why our everyday decisions matter more than ever, the video below is a relevant primer. If you engage with one thing from this month’s edition, make it Peter Leyden’s “Why 2025 is the single most pivotal year in our lifetime.” It’s a compelling argument, especially his final argument (here), which I marveled over three times through.
I’ll let you decide for yourself, as while Leyden’s argument centers around America, I feel, our world is too globalized for such major shifts to stay isolated. In his words: “the quicker we start to wrap our heads around that challenge and kind of the scale of invention we’re up to, the better off we’re all going to be.”
Podcast. Unexplainable. Vox. The metabolism myth. After decades of dieting, supplements, and guilt, health journalist Julia Belluz spent 23 hours in a metabolic chamber to investigate her “slow metabolism”—only to find it was perfectly normal. Puzzled. This revelation unraveled everything she thought she knew about weight and metabolism: from 18th-century experiments to, the now infamous American TV show: The Biggest Loser, studies revealed that those who lost the most weight ended up slowing down their metabolism the most. Because the truth is metabolism isn’t your enemy, neither is it something to hack with special teas or supplements. It’s simply the chemical miracle of converting food into energy for every heartbeat, breath, and every other cellular function in you. Metabolism is an essential function in us, if we’re healthy, then our metabolism will operate soundly like how our respiratory system works without our active micromanaging. The real culprit behind the obesity epidemic and the struggle for weight loss? Our food environment. Engineered for overconsumption, hyper-palatable processed foods override our biology and willpower. As sensing, social creatures, we’re shaped by what surrounds us. Your body isn’t the things that’s broken, it’s our food environment that is. So, stop turning eating into a morale issue, forget quick fixes, and start paying attention to what actually matters—your energy and decisions. I used to blame myself for my lack of discipline, but in fact what science shows us is how our food environment and food systems are not setup in our favor, knowing this, how will you choose differently tomorrow? Also, in case you’re interested, Belluz has co-authored a new book: Food Inteligence: The Science of How Food Both Nourishes and Harms Us.
Podcast/Youtube. The Drive, Peter Attia. Training for longevity: A roundtable on building strength, preventing injury, meeting protein needs, guidance for women and youth athletes and more. Dr. Peter Attia brings a masterclass roundtable together: Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, Jeff Cavaliere (of Athlean-X), and Mike Boyle to explore why—despite overwhelming evidence that resistance training extends and improves quality of life—people still resist regular strength training. This is why Dr. Lyon champions “muscle-centric medicine,” where skeletal muscle acts as the foundation to drive metabolic health, regulate blood sugar, and protects against frailty. Boyle, who’s trained clients from children to 89-year-olds, preaches sustainable programming over punishing workouts, while Cavaliere highlights a simple truth: you can build a great body with six simple exercises (if you can excuse the boredom. In his experience, complexity discourages consistency, while simplicity helps to sustain progress. The panel also challenges conventional wisdom, particularly around barbell squats and deadlifts for non-athletes (here), and addresses critical barriers that discourage women from strength training, despite it’s essential role in post-menopausal health. Their prescription is straightforward: work with your circumstances, as even two one-hour sessions weekly can dramatically improve metabolic health. Focus on progressive overload, consume adequate protein (at least 100g daily), and build a supportive community for accountability. Because, the key insight here is: exercise—especially for skeletal muscle composition—is the single most powerful intervention for lifespan and healthspan. Personally, though I am not looking to live forever, what I care about is: how do I stay disease and injury free, for as long as I can?
“What do you think explains the disconnect, between the fact we have this incredible tool: that will lengthen your life, improve the quality of your life, make you look and feel better, and yet, 5-10, at most 15% of people engage in it?”
—Peter Attia, MD.
Podcast. Hidden Brain. Winning the Battle Against Yourself. Emily Falk, author of “What We Value: The Neuroscience of Choice and Change,” explores “how do we collaborate with ourselves in order to make the choices that feel good now and feel good later?” Falk unpacks the science behind our self-sabotaging tendencies. She explains how our brains are biased toward our value systems which often favors immediate rewards over long-term benefits, so when faced with a split-second decision, the brain will usually favor the tangible immediate pleasures that’s right in front of us versus the abstract rewards of the future. I just want to be able to claim my choices as mine— rather than the product of external pressures or societal expectation, what about you? Our “social relevance system” is another factor that influences choice, which can operate subconsciously without our awareness. Falk shares how to first, think about working with your brain, rather than against it by reframing choices to emphasize on the immediate rewards versus relying on willpower. For example, instead of ‘green beans will make me healthier,’ think ‘green beans are deliciously crunchy to enjoy now.’ Second, connect goals to identity: instead of thinking you’re not an athlete, if you value discipline, attach that identity—being a disciplined person—to helping you maintain a regular exercise routine. Third, leverage social proof, because you’re a social creature, no matter how much you want to try and deny it.
Podcast. The Decision Education Podcast. Episode 034: The Systems That Shape Us with Seth Godin. We assume decision-making is intuitive—like walking—but Godin argues good decisions are like a learned skill, often counterintuitive but can be highly structured. Godin reveals how we’re never actually making decisions in isolation, as we’re always operating within invisible systems designed to exploit our biases. Like the food system in the above example, the medical system, which treats illness rather than creates health, or credit card companies profiting from our worst habits— once you see these unseen forces, you cannot unsee them. Godin’s framework: understand what you’re up against— systems (the gravitational forces shaping our choices), games (the players and rules at play), time (thinking in horizons, not moments), and empathy (recognizing others operate from entirely different maps). What resonated most was his insight on tribal belonging, “People in the tribe care more about our actions than our beliefs. If you want to commit an action that’s contrary to the dominant action of the tribe, you are voting, at some level, for a kind of succession.” This conversation with Annie Duke completely reframed how I think about decisions—in particular, observing the systems that shape my choices. “When you’re in a tribe, how do you make decisions that go against what they think?” Because while divergent behavior can feel risky, it’ll be an asset to master, if I can create an effective strategy to help me apply it for the unpredictable future we have ahead.
“Systems don’t necessarily want what they do, they want the reason they do it. So where there is room for us to find agency to make new decisions, is to continually reiterate what the system we’re part of, what the tribe wants, but to go about it in a slightly different way.”
Substack. Sideroad 38. the quiet path to getting noticed by Ines Lee, PhD. In Lee’s words: “Maybe the only way to build a lasting professional reputation isn’t by shining a spotlight on yourself. It’s by doing work so exceptional that other people want to shine the spotlight on you” because “when everyone else is chasing the spotlight, maybe the most radical act is to quietly become exceptionally good at what you do and let your brand build itself.”
Book. Yellowface by R. F. Kuang. (2023). Author context: she’s an alumni of Cambridge, was a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University, and has a PhD from Yale University. It’s hard not to find her impressive, but her novel is one not to miss. It’s an ingenious commentary on culture appropriation and the complicated dynamics of friendships and rivalry. A book filled with intrigue and thrill, the story is easy to follow, but the depth of her characters and themes are what will leave you irresistibly engaged. I highly recommend this book!
Wisdom. RIP Jane Goodall. She’s a woman I admire for her lifelong dedication to the message she advocates—why are we destroying our only home? She was a maverick, not only of her generation, but up to the last day she lived. The question she stirs in me is: why am I spending so much energy and resources accumulating more things that I don’t need and in many ways also participating in the destruction the only home we know? What more can I do to help reverse this troubling momentum?
“Is it because there’s a disconnect between this clever brain and the human heart—which is love and compassion?”
—Jane Goodall
I’ve realized I can either stay neutral, drift with the world’s currents, or be intentional about every choice I make (as best I can)—down to the foods I eat. There’s of course, always a gap between the ideal and the practical, but what I am striving for is to preserve the autonomy over my mind.
As much as I want to believe I am a free-thinking individual, it’s clear there are powerful forces, both subconscious and conscious—algorithms, AI, tribes, and media—which impress on my perspective.
What I am most concerned with now, above all else, is the autonomy over my mind. What about you?
