Welcome back to the 1st Law Newsletter - Friday Edition.

In this email:

• Why we can't trust the past

• How to sleep better and feel more rested

• A quote about information overload

Black Swan Events

The patterns of the past cannot and do not predict the future. However, the past is all we have to make decisions from and often the past serves as a decent and acceptable tool for making decisions. Occasionally however, the present takes an unexpected and unprecedented turn of events that has never happened before. These rare, unexpected events are called Black Swan events and they exemplify why we cannot base the future off the past. Black Swan events are most commonly studied for financial applications.

Examples of negative Black Swan events that caused the stock market to crash:

• Black Monday in 1987.

• 9/11 in 2001.

• SARS outbreak in 2003.

• 2007-2009 global financial crisis.

• COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.

Potential black swan events that could occur going forward:

• Collapse of the US dollar/ Bitcoin becoming the World Reserve Currency.

• World War 3/ nuclear weapon events/ any acts of war.

• Natural disasters/ deadly virus outbreaks.

Black swan events shape our world; minor events allow us to continue with the status quo and what we were doing before, while drastic events force change. Remember that a black swan event is a short term panic followed by a long term recovery to the norm (or the new normal established by the event). The short term crisis always leaves room for long term opportunity.

Tips for Better Sleep

Quick facts about sleeping.

• You sleep in 90 minute cycles of NREM and REM sleep .

• NREM sleep has three stages: N1 (transitory state from wakefulness to light sleep), N2 (light sleep), N3 (deep sleep).

• It is imperative to maximize deep sleep (N3) and REM sleep, and to do this you should aim for 7-8 hours of quality sleep.

• Sleeping 8-10 hours is ok if you are a recovering athlete, but otherwise it can actually be detrimental to sleep more than 8.5 hours a night.

Tips for improving sleep quality

• Get enough blue spectrum light during the day by going on a 15 minute walk in the sun.

• Exercise daily and ease muscle tension with massage, stretching, sauna or yoga.

• Improve air quality in your room with an air purifier or plants near your bed.

• No bright or blue spectrum light for 1 hour before sleep, try to avoid screens during this time.

• Empty your mind by writing a to do list for the next day, journaling, or meditating before bed.

• The liver is most active between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m., and wakefulness at this time can be a sign of dehydration.

Waking up

• Use a wake up light that mimics sunlight in your room. This can be as simple as turning the lights on in your room when your alarm goes off, or having smart lights that turn on in conjunction with your alarm.

• Drink at least 500ml of water within 30 minutes of waking up and add lemon/ lime juice and a little salt to jump start some bodily functions.

• Do headstands or handstands to improve circulation and boost your adrenal glands.

Ideas from Biohacker's Handbook by Olli Sovijarvi, Teemu Arina and Jakko Halm

Quote I Want To Share

In order to increase the quality and span of my attention span, I have recently taken some somewhat drastic measures to undermine my biggest content addiction. I have implemented a child content blocker for YouTube on both my laptop and my phone, and I had other people make the password, so I can't even access it if I wanted to. If I want to get on YouTube and waste my time and attention, I have to go through these people and let them know I wish to break a promise to myself, which is a big deterrent.

Consider adding a system like this for your biggest time suck and weakness you have on your phone...Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, the list goes on.

Thanks for reading!

Lucas