Ben Mann Monthly January: debunk everything, enterprise sales, sleep apnea, sauna
Purpose
An index for my memory
An menu of topics for my next conversation with you
A faster way to share what I’m excited about without the barrier of writing a complete blog entry on it
A way to spread content I found valuable
It’s meant to be skimmable. If there’s anything you want to see more or less of, please let me know!
Experiments and experiences
30 mi bike ride in South Bay
Just the right length for no training.
40 bpm heart rate
Recently, I woke up and felt extremely tired despite 8 hours of sleep. On a whim, I checked my heart rate using my pulse oximeter. It was around 40! After a little Googling, I found this is a symptom of sleep apnea. Indeed, my nose was a bit stuffy and I remember waking up a few times with difficulty breathing. Apparently sleep apnea causes the mammalian diving reflex to slow the heart rate and send more blood to the internal organs to protect them from hypoxia. I’ve since propped my head up and my heart rate returned to normal (50).
Sauna every day
Most obvious observable effect: time to sleep onset goes almost to zero (supporting research)Talked to lots of founders
It seems to take ~18 months to get traction. What you end up doing is almost never what you started doing, but it’s usually adjacent. You find the adjacency by talking to users and listening. Endurance is key.
Hot cocoa brownie recipe
Life updates
Finished Minna (swipe on food app) on Android and iOS, but out of Maps API quota, so didn’t publish. Quota will refresh mid Feb.
Started and stopped dating someone
In the middle of the enterprise sales cycle for planetarium.ai
Sensation returned to my lower lip after 4 months of numbness! It’s amazing how long some things take to heal.
Experimented with deep learning for long term weather prediction, but decided to abandon the project
Wrote 5 product exploration docs. Can’t share details out of deference for idea originators.
Content
5 point Likert ratings for “I would recommend this content to a friend"
Born a Crime 4/5
A fascinating look into growing up under Apartheid with some very strong characters in the mix.
Why We Sleep 5/5
I thought I wouldn’t learn much reading this. Of course sleep is important! I learned a lot though. I didn’t realize how critical it is to get at least 8 hours every night. Sleep is the best drug ever. I do want to fact check a bit since the tone was often very pop-sci.
“Emotional intelligence” as a static property of a person’s perception isn’t well supported by modern neuroscience. The biggest surprise for me was the claim that there’s no divide between our “lizard brain” vs cortex. Instead, it’s a bad metaphor overused by pop-sci authors to make a point. You can train to become better at recognizing emotions in yourself and others.
The author of Peak and researcher who inspired the 10k hour rule is pretty inconsistent with his conception of deliberate practice. If you think about it at all, the message that “anyone can become world-class if they put in the time” seems wrong. But it should be possible to get better
Book Review: Zero to One 5/5 (if you are interested in entrepreneurship)
I love Scott Alexander’s perspective. He doesn’t take anything he reads at face value; this case is no exception. He points out that the thesis can be boiled down to “find ways to violate the efficient market hypothesis.” He also notes that being 60 vs 90% effective at carrying out each step of a multi-step process and that makes all the difference when you compound across steps. I hope I’m in the 90%!
This felt somewhat similar to Thiel’s Zero to One. Don’t compete, focus on your marginal advantages.
It took a long time and a lot of failure before success.
Solo founder, dropped out of grad school, talked to a lot of users waiting for public transit. They didn’t like his original idea but inspired him to pivot into Mint.
Fifty VCs said no before one said yes
Founding team was from a hiking group for entrepreneurs he started.
How we can use light to see deep inside our bodies and brains | Mary Lou Jepsen 5/5
Openwater is working on non-invasive high resolution medical imaging that will make MRI obsolete
If it works, it could be our best hope at brain machine interfaces, though that’s unlikely to be the first application
A Mindset "Revolution" Sweeping Britain's Classrooms May Be Based On Shaky Science 5/5
Growth mindset claims appear to be significantly overblown! I still like the concept, but the effect sizes are not even realistic.
Cindy Mi and Qi Lu Share Advice for Entrepreneurs Building Global Companies 3/5
Start with an obvious market inefficiency: only 27k American English teachers in China
First student was from cofounder, next 3 were from investors. Getting your initial customers can be super hard.
Disintermediation isn’t a problem if you are automating enough of the ancillary tasks
Iterated with 20 teachers and 200 kids for 18 months
Focus on customer success over all else