The Path of Least Resistance Is Shortening Your Life

Almost every innovation is designed to make life easier for people.

The benefits might be direct (like having your food delivered to your house) or indirect (the innovations from putting a man on the moon cascaded into the device you are using to read this post).

My grandparents in North Dakota lived in their small house until the early 80's with no indoor plumbing.

So yeah, innovation is a good thing. We are all better off because of it.

But might some of this innovation be creating an unintended consequence?

As life gets easier, we need to manufacture physical and mental challenges to keep growing.

You don't need to remember phone numbers, directions, recipes, or how to perform time value of money calculations (ok, I don't miss that one). Your phone can do all of this and more.

We outsource lawn care, snow removal, house cleaning and food prep.

Recess and gym class no longer exist (or are greatly diminished) and school lunches are processed garbage. Is it any surprise 1 in 5 American children has obesity?

And have you heard about semaglutide, a once-weekly injection, for chronic weight management? Never mind changing your lifestyle, just get this shot and watch the fat melt away.

A lot of innovation (most?) for improving health is a result of people being unwilling to simply change their lifestyle.

The U.S. spends the most per capita on healthcare in the world, life expectancy for Americans is declining, and 75% of adults are overweight or obese.

We invest more than any other country, get horrible outcomes, and continue to do the same things. If this was a mutual fund or a stock, would you invest?

Innovation, a/k/a the path of least resistance is shortening lives in the U.S.

So what can be done about it?

How do we become Harder to Kill?

Awareness is the first step.

Look in the mirror. Do you see a man who could have thrived 100 years ago?

That guy didn't have a 40" waist, didn't need a blue pill to get aroused, wasn't on 3+ meds and had a military background so he could still drop and give you 20.

And if he weighed over 200 lbs, he was probably 6'4" or taller. If he wasn't 6'4", he was probably built like a brick shithouse and could still bench his body weight for reps.

So when you look at that reflection in the mirror, do you have an awareness that maybe things could be better?

Once you have awareness, the next step is taking action:

Take the path of most resistance.

Cook your own meals with ingredients you can pronounce.

Lift weights and get stronger.

Drink a gallon of water a day.

Sleep like the dead.

Skip the cocktails.

Read more books, stream less mindless garbage.

Park as far away from the Costco entrance as you can.

Shovel your driveway.

Join or create a band of brothers who want the same thing.

And watch the image in the mirror change.

Do this long enough and a paradox emerges:

The path of most resistance makes life easier.

And you become Harder to Kill.

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