#1909 “The Loftier the Building”

I’m typing this while working on my Notes for Peter Attia’s great book Outlive.

This is the 706th Philosopher’s Note I’ve created.

As you can imagine, having read and distilled THAT many books into Philosopher’s Notes (1,000 here we come! 🎯), I’ve developed a process.

My process starts while I’m reading the book.

I read, as Twyla Tharp puts it in The Creative Habit, ARCHAEOLOGICALLY.

I’m digging for great Ideas I can share with you.

Now…

When I find a Big Idea that I know I want to share in the Note, I underline and asterisk the passage then I fold the page over in half. These days I’m looking for FIVE of what I consider the most interesting, practically relevant Ideas that I will share in the Note.

When I find a great quote or a piece of wisdom that’s fantastic but doesn’t quite make it up to the “Big Idea” standard, I fold the top corner of the page over. That wisdom will become a sidebar quote in the Notes. (It will ALSO appear in our Quotes database on the site and in the app. We have 9,510 quotes I’ve personally typed out over the last couple decades.)

Then…

When I’m working on the Note, I’ll often START by going through the book, finding the folded corners, and typing out the quotes to get a feel for how I want to approach the Note.

Which brings us back to Peter Attia’s book.

It’s a 411-page book.

And it has another 40 pages of references.

It’s PACKED (!!!) with wisdom.

Here’s a snapshot of a handful of the “sidebar” quotes I just typed out then we’ll get to the one that made me want to create this +1…

Attia tells us:

“The conundrum we face is that our environment has changed dramatically over the last century or two, in almost every imaginable way—our food supply and eating habits, our activity levels, and the structure of our social networks—while our genes have scarcely changed at all.”

“It turns out that peak aerobic cardiorespiratory fitness, measured in terms of VO2 max, is perhaps the single most powerful marker for longevity.”

“The fittest people had the lowest mortality rates—by a surprising margin. … This study found that someone of below-average VO2 max for their age and sex (that is, between the 25th and 50th percentiles) is at double the risk of all-cause mortality compared to someone in the top quartile (75th to 97.6th percentiles). This poor cardiorespiratory fitness carries a greater relative risk of death than smoking.”

“The healthier and more efficient your mitochondria, the greater your ability to utilize fat, which is by far the body’s most efficient and abundant fuel source. This ability to use both fuels, fat and glucose, is called ‘metabolic flexibility.’”

“I am so persuaded of the benefits of zone 2 that it has become a cornerstone of my training plan. Four times a week, I will spend an hour riding my stationary bike at my zone 2 threshold.”

“I push my patients to train for as high a VO2 max as possible, so that they can maintain a high level of physical function as they age. Ideally, I want them to target the ‘elite’ range for their age and sex (roughly the top 2 percent). If they achieve that level I say good job—now let’s reach for the elite level for your sex, but two decades younger. This may seem like an extreme goal, but I like to aim high, in case you haven’t noticed.”

(Note: Those VO2 max blurbs are why my current #1 Energy Target is going from Superior in my VO2 max (top 5-10%) for my age to ELITE then to ELITE for someone two decades younger.)

Now…

Each one of those blurbs could be its own +1.

But…

For now, as promised, we’ll get to the one that made me want to create this +1.

Here it is…

At the beginning of one of his chapters on the art and science of training, Attia quotes Thomas à Kempis who tells us: “The loftier the building, the deeper the foundation must be laid.”

I LOVE that.

One of my favorite slides in my go-to keynote has a JUMBO FONT title that says:

GREATNESS = CONSISTENCY ON THE FUNDAMENTALS

Then, in smaller font, I have:

Wooden’s Socks
Tall Buildings
McRaven’s Bed

“Wooden’s Socks” references Coach John Wooden’s practice of teaching his players (the greatest athletes of his generation!) to do the SIMPLEST things with excellence: How to put on their socks!

“McRaven’s Bed” references Admiral William McRaven’s #1 Pro Tip for those of us who want to change the world: Make your bed!!

And…

That Thomas à Kempis quote will be my new go-to quote for the wisdom I always share regarding “Tall Buildings.”

I usually say: “You want to see how tall a building is going to be? Look at how deeply they’re digging the foundation!! A single-story house doesn’t need much of a foundation. A skyscraper needs an INCREDIBLY deep foundation.”

In other words…

“The loftier the building, the deeper the foundation must be laid.”

That’s Today’s +1.

How’s YOUR foundation?

And…

How can you dominate your fundamentals just a little more?

Get on that.

Let’s dig deep.

And activate our Heroic potential.

TODAY.