In a World Where Everyone Feels Mediocre, Incremental Advantages Become Overvalued
We are buying $50 nootropics to fix sleep ruined by $0 habits. In a culture obsessed with "optimization," we have forgotten that the biggest gains come from the boring basics, not the expensive margins.
We are obsessing over the 1% gains because the 99% feels too hard. But you can't supplement your way out of a bad lifestyle.
Inspiration: Watching the "Optimization Porn" on YouTube and realizing that everyone is trying to hack their biology, but no one seems happy.
Open YouTube or Instagram. What do you see?
"The Morning Routine for Peak Performance." "The Supplement Stack for Focus." "How to Sleep Faster."
Everyone is trying to optimize everything. We feel inadequate. We feel mediocre. And in a world where everyone feels mediocre, incremental advantages become dangerously overvalued.
Majoring in the Minor
We are obsessed with the "1% gain" (marginal gains). But we apply it wrong.
I see people taking expensive Nootropics to "hack" their focus, while sleeping 5 hours a night. I see people doing cold plunges for "dopamine regulation," while doomscrolling for 3 hours a day.
We are buying $50 vitamins to fix problems caused by $0 habits. We optimize the margins because the basics—sleep, sunlight, movement—are boring.
The GLP-1 Acceleration
Then came Ozempic (GLP-1s). This changed everything.
It proved that you can buy your way out of biological reality. It removed the need for willpower. It validated the idea that if you have enough money, you don't need discipline; you just need the right chemistry.
This accelerates the trend. If you can buy thinness, what else can you buy? Focus? Happiness? Longevity?
The "Optimization Industrial Complex"
Brands noticed. They aren't selling products anymore; they are selling Control.
Eight Sleep ($2,500 mattress). Oura Ring ($300 + subscription). Whoop. Bryan Johnson’s Blueprint.
They monetize our anxiety about performance. They turn sleep—the most natural thing a human does—into a competitive sport with a leaderboard.
"My sleep score was 89. Yours was 82. I am winning at unconsciousness."
AI as the Mirror
AI is about to make this worse.
It gives us visibility into data we never had before. It turns the human body into a dashboard. "Your HRV dropped 3 points. Your glucose spiked after that apple."
What gets measured gets managed. But what gets measured also gets obsessed over. AI will look at our data and tell us, every single morning, that we are suboptimal.
Conclusion: The Return to Reality
We are drowning in data and starving for wisdom.
The incremental advantage of a $100 supplement is zero if your foundation is broken.
My Prediction: The pendulum will swing back. We will see a counter-culture movement of "Raw Dogging" reality—people who reject the tracking, the hacking, and the optimizing, simply to feel human again.
Because being "Optimal" is not the same thing as being "Alive."
