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Jack Dorsey is the co-founder and CEO of Twitter and the founder and CEO of Square.

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So I think you and I eat similar diets, at least I was...

First time anyone has said that to me, in this case.

Yeah, but it's becoming more and more cool.

So the intermittent fasting and fasting in general, I really enjoy, I love food, but I enjoy the, I also love suffering cause I'm Russian.

So fasting kind of makes you appreciate the, makes you appreciate what it is to be human somehow.

So, but I have a, outside the philosophical stuff I have a more specific question.

It also helps me as a programmer and a deep thinker like from the scientific perspective to sit there for many hours and focus deeply.

Maybe you were a hacker before you were CEO.

What have you learned about diet, lifestyle, mindset that helps you maximize mental performance to be able to focus for, to think deeply in this world of distractions?

I think I just took it for granted for too long.

Just the social structure of we eat 3 meals a day and there's snacks in between and I just never really asked the question why.

Oh, by the way, in case people don't know, I think a lot of people know, but you at least, you famously eat once a day.

By the way, what made you decide to eat once a day?

Because to me that was a huge revolution that you don't have to eat breakfast.

That was like, I felt like I was a rebel.

Like I abandoned my parents or something and became an anarchist.

When you first, like the first week you start doing it, it feels like you kind of like have a superpower.

And you realize it's not really a superpower.

But I think you realize, at least I realize, like just how much our mind dictates what we're possible of.

And sometimes we have structures around us that incentivize this 3 meal a day thing, which is purely social structure versus necessity for our health and for our bodies.

And I did it just, I started doing it because I played a lot with my diet when I was a kid and I was vegan for 2 years and just went all over the place just because I, you know, health is the most precious thing we have and none of us really understand it.

So being able to ask the question through experiments that I can perform on myself and learn about is compelling to me.

And I heard this 1 guy on the podcast, Wim Hof, who's famous for doing ice baths and holding his breath and all these things, he said he only eats 1 meal a day.

I'm like, wow, that sounds super challenging and uncomfortable.

So I just, I learn the most when I make myself, I wouldn't say suffer, but when I make myself feel uncomfortable, because everything comes to bear in those moments and you really learn what you're about or what you're not.

Like when I was a kid, I could not speak.

I had to go to a speech therapist, and it made me extremely shy.

And then 1 day I realized I can't keep doing this, and I signed up for the speech club.

And it was the most uncomfortable thing I could imagine doing, getting a topic on a note card, having 5 minutes to write a speech about whatever that topic is, not being able to use the note card while speaking, and speaking for 5 minutes about that topic.

But it just, it puts so much, it gave me so much perspective around the power of communication, around my own deficiencies, and around if I set my mind to do something, I'll do it.

This is something that was interesting, challenging, uncomfortable, and has given me so much learning and benefit as a result and it will lead to other things that I'll experiment with and play with but Yeah, it does feel a little bit like a superpower sometimes The most boring superpower 1 can imagine

The clarity of mind is pretty interesting.


Speaker 0: So I think you and I eat similar diets, at least I was...

Speaker 1: The first time I've heard this. Yeah, so I was doing it... First time anyone has said that to me, in this case.

Speaker 0: Yeah, but it's becoming more and more cool. But I was doing it before was cool. So the intermittent fasting and fasting in general, I really enjoy, I love food, but I enjoy the, I also love suffering cause I'm Russian. So fasting kind of makes you appreciate the, makes you appreciate what it is to be human somehow. So, but I have a, outside the philosophical stuff I have a more specific question.

It also helps me as a programmer and a deep thinker like from the scientific perspective to sit there for many hours and focus deeply. Maybe you were a hacker before you were CEO. What have you learned about diet, lifestyle, mindset that helps you maximize mental performance to be able to focus for, to think deeply in this world of distractions?

Speaker 1: I think I just took it for granted for too long. Which aspect? Just the social structure of we eat 3 meals a day and there's snacks in between and I just never really asked the question why.

Speaker 0: Oh, by the way, in case people don't know, I think a lot of people know, but you at least, you famously eat once a day. Yeah. You still eat once a day?

Speaker 1: Yep, I eat dinner.

Speaker 0: By the way, what made you decide to eat once a day? Because to me that was a huge revolution that you don't have to eat breakfast. That was like, I felt like I was a rebel. Like I abandoned my parents or something and became an anarchist.

Speaker 1: When you first, like the first week you start doing it, it feels like you kind of like have a superpower. And you realize it's not really a superpower. But I think you realize, at least I realize, like just how much our mind dictates what we're possible of. And sometimes we have structures around us that incentivize this 3 meal a day thing, which is purely social structure versus necessity for our health and for our bodies. And I did it just, I started doing it because I played a lot with my diet when I was a kid and I was vegan for 2 years and just went all over the place just because I, you know, health is the most precious thing we have and none of us really understand it.

So being able to ask the question through experiments that I can perform on myself and learn about is compelling to me. And I heard this 1 guy on the podcast, Wim Hof, who's famous for doing ice baths and holding his breath and all these things, he said he only eats 1 meal a day. I'm like, wow, that sounds super challenging and uncomfortable. I'm gonna do it. So I just, I learn the most when I make myself, I wouldn't say suffer, but when I make myself feel uncomfortable, because everything comes to bear in those moments and you really learn what you're about or what you're not.

So I've been doing that my whole life. Like when I was a kid, I could not speak. I had to go to a speech therapist, and it made me extremely shy. And then 1 day I realized I can't keep doing this, and I signed up for the speech club. And it was the most uncomfortable thing I could imagine doing, getting a topic on a note card, having 5 minutes to write a speech about whatever that topic is, not being able to use the note card while speaking, and speaking for 5 minutes about that topic.

But it just, it puts so much, it gave me so much perspective around the power of communication, around my own deficiencies, and around if I set my mind to do something, I'll do it. So it gave me a lot more confidence. So I see fasting in the same light. This is something that was interesting, challenging, uncomfortable, and has given me so much learning and benefit as a result and it will lead to other things that I'll experiment with and play with but Yeah, it does feel a little bit like a superpower sometimes The most boring superpower 1 can imagine

Speaker 0: now. It's quite incredible. The clarity of mind is pretty interesting. You

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Eating One Meal a Day (Jack Dorsey) | AI Podcast Clips