Head Strong: The Bulletproof Plan to Activate Untapped Brain Energy to Work Smarter and Think Faster-in Just Two Weeks Kindle Edition

The media could not be loaded.  This book makes the case that optimizing your Mitochondria is the ultimate performance enhancing Biohack because your Mitochondria are the fundamental energy generation mechanism that underlie everything else.Mitochondria are billions of tiny, ancient bacteria that power your individual cells. You've probably heard of them before, I'll explain more in depth later what Mitochondria are but for now I think a Star Wars metaphor will suffice. In Star Wars the Jedi have their powers because of the midichlorians, which are a microscopic life form that are shared by all living things, that give the life force to all living things. That's not far off from what Mitochondria actually are!There's an important point I want to you to remember...Mitochondria are to genes what free will is to predetermination.This idea of Predetermination seems to be very popular, this is this idea that every molecule in your body and indeed every atom in the universe is bound by laws of physics and mathematics.You can often predict quiet accurately what a given atom, molecule, cell, organism, group, species, environment or even planet is going to do based upon established natural laws.We know, almost exactly, where Mars in going to be in 6 months.We know when a species is going to do their seasonal migration.We often know what's going to make a tumor of cancer cells grow and take over a vital organ.It would seem that the universe is quite predictable maybe even predetermined, with one exception, us humans.We seem to make some very random decisions that sometimes totally surprise everyone. From the insides of our own heads it certainly seems like we have free will doesn't it?We will debate back and forth with ourselves on decisions and finally go with the option that was seemingly quite unpredictable.Making a big decision we will write down a big list of prose vs cons to help us decide carefully between options.As I write this very article I make decide between the words, prose and metaphors that will best communicate the ideas my mind is refining.So this presents a big question, perhaps the biggest question, do we have free will or are we just playing out script that's already been written for us?Religion, since time immemorial, did a pretty good job at addressing this seeming paradox.In religion, god knows what you are going to do.God knows what's going to happen in the future.God has laid out of a path of challenges and lessons for us so that we can ultimately end of leaving this world better than we found it.Yet, in most religions god gives us free will or agency.God encourages us to be moral.God offers us incentives to be better people or communities but ultimately leaves the decision up to us.But, as many atheists have pointed out, this is on the surface a contradiction. Well, it's a contradiction that's reflective of the paradox of free will vs predetermination that profoundly confuses astrophysicists, neuroscientists, quantum physicists and social scientists and philosophersHere's my take on this...It would seem that, at scale, we have very little free will.Here's what I mean by this...When you get a statistically significant, similar group of people together you can quiet accurately predict what they are going to do. If you get a group of people with a specific IQ range you can quite accurately predict how many of them will get jobs, how much money they will make, if they will get married, have kids or go to jail. At scale, viewed as group, they have disappointingly little free will.Similarly, if you look at the grand course of your life, at scale, predetermined factors seem to really limit what you'll do and what you can become.For example; I was one of these ambitious young adults that was really determined to became a millionaire by the time I was 30 and I read a lot of books about what this was going to take and tried really hard, yet I totally failed. Now I probably have a pretty average net worth of an male, American 30 year old. Despite all my agency, I ended up quiet average.So even though we seem to have quiet a lot of micro-agency or free will in our short term, moment-to-moment, day to day decisions long term, at scale, you will likely end up being statistically quiet average for...Your sexYour raceYour heightYour attractivenessYour intelligenceThe social class you were born intoThese predetermined factors define almost everything about how your life is going to go.And what is the programming that fundamentally underlies these things?Your genes. More than anything else, your genes determine whether you are going to be really successful, happy or end up in jail.Your genes are your destinyThis is an uncomfortable and politically incorrect truth that...The self help gurus won't admit to you because it undermines their transformation via positive thinking, self esteem or just be confident messaging.The genetic researchers and scientists won't admit to you because politically incorrect opinions can get them fired from their institutions or get their funding denied.Politicians certainly won't admit this to you because they sell you the illusion of free will and self determination via democracy.Even the companies that sell Biohacking products and Mitochondrial supplements won't admit this to you because they don't want to insult their potential customers.Defy your genesSo if everyone in your family, is really successful and happy then that's a good sign that you have the kinds of genes that will lead you inevitably to become successful and happy. But if not, if your family is kind of a disaster, then it's going to take really herculean energy, discipline and motivation for you to defy your genes and resist this gravity of epigenetic trauma that is powerfully and subtly pulling you down a path of mediocrity.If you've ever felt like you kind of repeat the same mistakes and the same relationships and no matter how hard you try it doesn't seem like you can reach escape velocity of momentum away from the black hole that is your past then that's good sign that your genes are running your life.Genes vs MitochondriaThe good news is that you can overcome your genes with your Mitochondria, sometimes in a quiet literal way, where fully functional Mitochondria allows us to overcome epigenetic trauma, it switches off vestigial defense mechanisms in our genes and psychology that don't serve us.And having our Mitochondria working right gives us the energy and motivation to consistently practice helpful habits because, ultimately we are what we repeatedly do.About Head StrongLike Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss, the book is a refined version of Dave Asprey's podcast, you could learn everything in this book by just listening to the Bulletproof podcast.So you could of course save yourself the $12 and the 9 hours of reading by just listening to all his podcast episodes, but this book does a really great job of summarizing the best Biohacks discussed in the podcast and putting them in a holistic context of optimizing your Mitochondria. I don't recommend you buy and read every book I review, but this book I really do!

I've been following Dave's podcast and Facebook (and applying his advice) for a couple of years now, so I wasn't sure how much new information I'd find in this book. In fact, I ordered it mainly out of gratitude to Dave because the information he's disseminated has been largely responsible for giving me my life back. After a couple of concussions and disabling post-concussion syndrome, extreme food sensitivities, and mysterious and severe cognitive problems that had plagued me for the last decade, applying Dave's advice from Bulletproof Radio and social media posts has been THE difference between being totally debilitated and being able to function. I truly don't even want to imagine where I'd be if I hadn't discovered Dave's work by watching his TED talk two years ago.That being said, I was surprised and impressed at the amount of hacks and information in this book that I'd never heard before. Several bits of info he gives about how the body functions on a cellular and mitochondrial level explained patterns I'd noticed in my health that had previously been a mystery to me. I've been trying some of the hacks he presents, and have noticed a significant improvement in how I feel and function. This book finally convinced me to try two things I'd been putting off for a while. One is the Wim Hof breathing method, which Dave explains succinctly and clearly; I've been doing it every morning for a few days and I'm amazed at how much it energizes me and clears my head. The other is true Bulletproof coffee - Head Strong contains an explanation for why actually blending the butter and oil into the coffee (rather than just gently mixing it all together by hand as I usually do) makes it more effective. So this morning I broke out the blender, and blended one tablespoon each of XCT oil (I haven't graduated to Brain Octane quite yet) and pastured, cultured butter with mold-free coffee. Now I finally see why Dave's always talking about Bulletproof coffee. I feel like I can take on the whole world this morning. This is definitely my new daily breakfast.I found pretty much all of the information in the book extremely helpful; even the parts that were review for me were presented so well that I felt I gained a new understanding of them. Everything in this book should be common knowledge, and hopefully the book will help that happen. The book's focus on mitochondrial health makes the biohacks it contains relevant to and useful for pretty much all health problems, not just cognitive ones. Dave is a fantastic writer as well; I struggle with reading comprehension as part of my lingering post-TBI issues, but Head Strong was so coherently written and well-organized that I found it easy and quite enjoyable to read. He intersperses little jokes throughout the more technical information that keeps it light and reader-friendly, which I appreciated. The bullet points at the end of every chapter are quite useful as well. It's clear that Dave put an immense amount of effort into this book, really values the readers' time, and genuinely wants to help others live life on a higher level.I don't normally review books, but this one inspired me to write this lengthy and glowing review. That's how much I value it and hope it gets widely read and distributed. My sister, who has fibromyalgia but is resistant to trying anything that might improve her condition, even decided to read this book since she's heard me mention Dave's work so many times. I'm positive that applying almost anything in this book will help her. As someone who's steadily conquering my multitude of health problems one by one using the information in this book and following the Bulletproof lifestyle, I sincerely and emphatically recommend Head Strong to anyone who wants better health.

Quite a few very useful insights into our contemporary lifestyles, nutrition, behaviour, psychology. I feel that reading this book helped me to improve myself and most importantly feel better happier and more resilient to stress. I recommend this read from a point of nutrition most of all because Dave's research into our food and eating habits are most important takeaway in my opinion. It's up to you if you want to buy his products (I personally choose alternative solutions based on own additional research) but rather do own homework how to hack your body! Enjoy

Headstrong is about energy, health and vitality and how to build a life that supports more and makes more of all 3. It's the best book out there at the moment on the subject, and Dave has endangered his health at times, testing for the best methods (hacks) for all of us. Good bloke, and his supplements pack one hell of a kick too. From MCT oil to Ozone therapy, from liposomals to which lights to fit at home, it's refined, jam packed, and arguably a tad obsessive. If you did 50% of the program though, properly you would feel 100% improvement.

Head Strong is in many ways an uncomfortable read, since it highlights the everyday damaging factors in our environments. But thankfully, the book also comes jam packed with simple and practical solutions to put into action straight away - and they work! Even if you'd only implement a single one of the tips in this book, it has the potential to change the rest of your life for the better. Asprey's advice helped me recover from ill health a couple of years ago and thus I can't recommend his books enough, especially Head Strong since it's got his latest and most powerful hacks.

This book literally brought me to tears. I never realised anyone else felt this way, or that there were things I could do to feel better. This book has given me an amazing amount of hope that I can improve my life and turn it around. It has changed everything for me: it has totally changed the way that I look at my life. I cannot recommend this highly enough to everyone.

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