4 ms·

I encourage everyone I discuss healthspan with to read the Blueprint protocol docs from Bryan Johnson (founder of Braintree/Venmo)[0]. He hired a team of specia

by L_226 3y ago

I encourage everyone I discuss healthspan with to read the Blueprint protocol docs from Bryan Johnson (founder of Braintree/Venmo)[0]. He hired a team of specialists to make him as healthy as possible - it is his full time job to be a "professional rejuvenation athlete". Part of his protocol is caloric restriction coupled with very specific exercise and intermittent fasting. According to his published health data he is extremely healthy! His YT channel [1] is also pretty interesting, if mildly cult-like. [0] - https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com/ https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com/ [1] - https://www.youtube.com/@BryanJohnson/videos https://www.youtube.com/@BryanJohnson/videos

Icko 3y ago
I can't get a read on this guy. I have strong bullshit feelings, but I'm not 100% sure. 1. He seems to have an awful lot of referral links - $60 for a bottle of olive oil? 2. He has not posted why is his regime like that - e.g. "Here is a paper about iron deficiencies, so I'm taking an iron supplement". 3. 90% of his website is "look at how dense my bones are", "look at how healthy my liver is" - bro I just wanted to see the actual regime, and you can't even post that.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- tomalaci 3y ago
  It is on https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com site. For example, his fitness routine: https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com/#fitness https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com/#fitness Personally, I have taken few things from his routine and double-checked it with other sources and more importantly found much cheaper products/things locally than the ones that are advertised (even though, most of them are fine anyways such as in Skincare he uses standard Cerave stuff). Do note that this is -one- guy trying basically everything that seems plausible. It would likely result in frequently switching up things that are not researched well.
  - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
    > I have taken few things from his routine Any you feel comfortable sharing?
  - pcstl 3y ago
    The issue is that he never explains why he does particular stuff, what specific results particular stuff he tried had, what worked and especially what didn't. His website is full of "look at my amazing results!", which makes for good marketing talk but does not good science make and is not good nor helpful for people who are trying to separate what works from what doesn't - but is great for Mr. Johnson' budding supplement business's baseline.
- gloryjulio 3y ago
  > $60 for a bottle of olive oil? Looks like just another scam artist to sell stuff
  - wouldbecouldbe 3y ago
    I don't think he needs te money tbh
    - pcstl 3y ago
      As an entrepreneur myself, I can tell you that "needing the money" stops being a significant motivation after a while, or at least takes a back seat to the thrill of just getting people to buy the thing.
    - gloryjulio 3y ago
      Well a lot of the scam artists are rich. It's not like they have stopped scamming
  - joenot443 3y ago
    With a very, very short amount of research you'd find he has a pretty seasoned track record, having sold Venmo's parent company to PayPal for $800m in 2013. Not exactly the drop-shipping repackaged olive oil salesman you're painting him to be. Personally, I try not to throw out accusations about people when I'm this unfamiliar with their background. I'd encourage you to consider a similar habit :)
    - pcstl 3y ago
      So he's a successful businessman. How does that background translate to any kind of scientific competence? Because his website is heavy on the buzzwords and the Silicon Valley "glorious future"-talk and remarkably light on anything resembling responsible science. He clearly doesn't want to advance knowledge about longevity, he wants to be the world's top longevity marketer and salesman. It's just a business long shot to him. And yes, that is perfectly congruent with his background.
    - 3y ago
- radu_floricica 3y ago
  I knoooow, it was exactly my feeling. He has a lot of referral links... but over half of them are out of stock. If he gave a shit about making money he'd have updated the links. Overall I think he's legit, but also weird. It could be "rich guy weird" or "on the spectrum weird", doesn't really matter. Either way, I'm mostly taking him seriously now, with caveats. The biggest caveat being, of course, that it's a study with a sample size of 1. A very in-depth study, but the applicability is limited. For example if you look at the list of supplements, there are quite a few which are obviously there because he's a vegan. This is also related to why his protocol isn't explained in detail - it's ongoing and result-based. He may try something, see if it works, and stick it in the protocol. Supporting studies are useless for this modus operandi - he's not trying to convince you that particular supplement is good for you. All he's doing is risk-benefit calculations for his particular case. Which means that yes, he'll have a bunch of stuff which maybe work for everybody, or maybe work for him, or maybe random noise just made them look like they work for him but are actually useless. Or worse, stuff which can be actively harmful, but he was lucky or just very healthy otherwise and didn't see the damage.
  - pcstl 3y ago
    I'd agree with you if it weren't for all the cultish red flags present here. This is clearly a man who wants a cult-like mentality to form around him. If he were just going ridiculously in-depth with his self-research and being open and honest about this, I'd actually admire him a lot, but it's all the grandiose talk about "Zeroth principles thinking" and "Aligning with what the 25th century would want" together with implying his detractors must be weak, scared and lacking in self-control that turns me off heavily.
paul7986 3y ago
In the ABC interview I linked to below he looks really weird no matter how much bright light they shine on him for the interview (lighting is everything). He doesn't look healthy to me! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw2H_j81_50&t=75s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw2H_j81_50&t=75s
- unsupp0rted 3y ago
  He does look strange- it's mainly his hair I think. It looks fake and alters his whole look. His body is outwardly in great shape.
  - gnicholas 3y ago
    Yeah, my thought was hair (looks like implants, but what do I know) and manicured brows. And then the skin that looks like it doesn't see much sun, so it's undamaged but also a bit pallid/grey.
  - irjustin 3y ago
    Kind of reminds me of Data.
  - joncrocks 3y ago
    I believe he dyes it. This could make the colour look a little off.
- steve1977 3y ago
  He looks a bit like Data from Star Trek TNG
  - amoss 3y ago
    Leaning hard into what would the 25th century value, but on limited data.
  - paul7986 3y ago
    I agree yet these older pics he looks so different and normal ..his look changed substantially https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fnetstorage-briefly.akamaized.net%2Fimages%2Fbfa5ed2c7c02d338.jpg%3Fimwidth%3D900&tbnid=QMMrnZp1qVFZeM&vet=1&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbriefly.co.za%2Ffacts-lifehacks%2Fcelebrities-biographies%2F162295-how-biotech-ceo-bryan-johnson-money-what-billionaire%2F&docid=6uPniolu6CBtJM&w=1000&h=667&hl=en&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim%2Fm4%2F3 https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fnetstorag...
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
amval 3y ago
I encourage everyone to ignore Bryan Johnson, whose not-so-secret goal is to sell supplements to gullible people and has nothing to do with actual science.
gniv 3y ago
Is there somebody as dedicated to healthspan as him, but who does not ostensibly sell anything?
- AlexSneedMiller 3y ago
  He does sell a product, but that product is very optional and seems like it could be valuable for those who really like his free stuff (podcast and free newsletter)
pcstl 3y ago
On my hand, I encourage everyone I know who is interested in longevity to stick to actual scientific research and stay away from Mr. Johnson as much as possible. There are more red flags around this man than in the entire People's Republic of China. Let's make a small, non-exhaustive list of them: 1. First of all is that he talks significantly more about the supposed results of his program than he does about why his program is like that or even what does his actual program consist in. You will notice that nowhere at all is the actual "program" explained or even described in its entirety. As has been mentioned, all of his content is about "wow, look how amazingly strong I am" or "wow, look at my amazing metabolism" but none of it is actionable content beyond telling people to buy his shit. 2. Speaking of "telling people to buy his shit", once you get beyond the amazingly extensive wall of "wow, look how amazing my results are", his website looks remarkably like every single other unproven supplement peddler out there. I am looking at his website right now as I write this and the number of supplements he sells himself has, in fact increased greatly. He has gone from the $60 olive oil which was his original product to a branded line of spreads, drink mixes, and whatever else to the point that he's starting to look a lot like the Liver King (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKpmAGZQetc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKpmAGZQetc), if more "creepy 50 year-old trying to look like a teenager" than Liver King's "creepy 50 year-old trying to look like a jacked piece of salami" 3. While I admire Mr. Johnson's willingness to self-test unproven treatments supposedly in order to figure out if they actually work for himself, his website is remarkably light on warnings on which treatments are actually unproven and which might actually carry some level of danger. The amount of warning on unproven and unlicensed therapies in his website amounts to a single footnote very well hidden under a gigantic wall of "wow, look how amazing my test results are and how impressive my wall of supplements is!" 4. Speaking of his test results, early on Mr. Johnson actually used to talk about challenges, things that went wrong or even just "not so great". As time went on, it's all rah-rah "look at how amazing I am! My measurements are better than an Olympic athlete!!". And while I truly do hope Mr. Johnson's (unexplained, just-so) protocol is just that great, it does seem a lot like peddling his olive oil and whatever else would suffer if he were to say that anything he did was anything beyond perfect. 5. Oh god, the "philosophy" parts. I really want to talk as little as possible about this one, because it's all vapid bullshit and even talking too much about it helps it spread - in fact Mr. Johnson is well-known for actively courting Twitter drama as a way to strengthen his brand. (It should be a well-known fact by any human being living in the 21st century that controversy will make grifters stronger in the short run). His rant on how he is somehow going from "First Principles thinking" to "Zeroth principle thinking", which is "the base of genius" can compete with anything written by any "motivational guru" who talks about "quantum healing" to large audiences... Including a part where he says that anyone who doubts him and his protocol must be weak, miserable, scared of being left behind, afraid of change, and lacking self-control. Wow. 6. Now, let's look at what all this high-minded philosophical talk builds up to. Well, it seems that somehow Mr. Johnson's protocol will help you resist "corporate profiteering at your detriment" and also stop us from "destroying the biosphere" by "aligning us with what the 25th century would value". Huh. Ok, seems pretty great. How can we get there, Mr. Johnson? It would have been hard to predict the books that would be written with the introduction of the printing press; or what the internet would enable. The same principle applies to what the human race can become when paired with the torrid wave of technological and scientific progress. We can take baby steps as we work on stretching our imaginations: Week 1: drink the Green Giant (GG) daily. Week 2: GG + Super Veggie (SV) daily. Week 3: GG + SV + Nutty Pudding (NP) daily. Week 4: GG + SV + NP + supplements daily. Oh, ok, we just need to buy his shit. I rest my case.
kuhewa 3y ago
I would skip him and go to Peter Attia, who I have my nitpicks with, but he also has a research team, and is transparent about the whys
2716057 3y ago
Remember to watch a Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting after Johnson to learn how nonagenarians actually eat ;)
robin-whg 3y ago
The caloric restriction and the low body fat percentage resulting from it is not maintainable without the use of steroids. The body doesn't produce enough testosterone, which, among other things, means you'll feel tired all the time, have no motivation and no sex drive. But if I recall correctly, he's transparent about his steroid use.

by L_226 3y ago

Icko 3y ago

I can't get a read on this guy. I have strong bullshit feelings, but I'm not 100% sure. 1. He seems to have an awful lot of referral links - $60 for a bottle of olive oil? 2. He has not posted why is his regime like that - e.g. "Here is a paper about iron deficiencies, so I'm taking an iron supplement". 3. 90% of his website is "look at how dense my bones are", "look at how healthy my liver is" - bro I just wanted to see the actual regime, and you can't even post that.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
tomalaci 3y ago
It is on https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com site. For example, his fitness routine: https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com/#fitness https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com/#fitness Personally, I have taken few things from his routine and double-checked it with other sources and more importantly found much cheaper products/things locally than the ones that are advertised (even though, most of them are fine anyways such as in Skincare he uses standard Cerave stuff). Do note that this is -one- guy trying basically everything that seems plausible. It would likely result in frequently switching up things that are not researched well.
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  > I have taken few things from his routine Any you feel comfortable sharing?
- pcstl 3y ago
  The issue is that he never explains why he does particular stuff, what specific results particular stuff he tried had, what worked and especially what didn't. His website is full of "look at my amazing results!", which makes for good marketing talk but does not good science make and is not good nor helpful for people who are trying to separate what works from what doesn't - but is great for Mr. Johnson' budding supplement business's baseline.
gloryjulio 3y ago
> $60 for a bottle of olive oil? Looks like just another scam artist to sell stuff
- wouldbecouldbe 3y ago
  I don't think he needs te money tbh
  - pcstl 3y ago
    As an entrepreneur myself, I can tell you that "needing the money" stops being a significant motivation after a while, or at least takes a back seat to the thrill of just getting people to buy the thing.
  - gloryjulio 3y ago
    Well a lot of the scam artists are rich. It's not like they have stopped scamming
- joenot443 3y ago
  With a very, very short amount of research you'd find he has a pretty seasoned track record, having sold Venmo's parent company to PayPal for $800m in 2013. Not exactly the drop-shipping repackaged olive oil salesman you're painting him to be. Personally, I try not to throw out accusations about people when I'm this unfamiliar with their background. I'd encourage you to consider a similar habit :)
  - pcstl 3y ago
    So he's a successful businessman. How does that background translate to any kind of scientific competence? Because his website is heavy on the buzzwords and the Silicon Valley "glorious future"-talk and remarkably light on anything resembling responsible science. He clearly doesn't want to advance knowledge about longevity, he wants to be the world's top longevity marketer and salesman. It's just a business long shot to him. And yes, that is perfectly congruent with his background.
  - 3y ago
radu_floricica 3y ago
I knoooow, it was exactly my feeling. He has a lot of referral links... but over half of them are out of stock. If he gave a shit about making money he'd have updated the links. Overall I think he's legit, but also weird. It could be "rich guy weird" or "on the spectrum weird", doesn't really matter. Either way, I'm mostly taking him seriously now, with caveats. The biggest caveat being, of course, that it's a study with a sample size of 1. A very in-depth study, but the applicability is limited. For example if you look at the list of supplements, there are quite a few which are obviously there because he's a vegan. This is also related to why his protocol isn't explained in detail - it's ongoing and result-based. He may try something, see if it works, and stick it in the protocol. Supporting studies are useless for this modus operandi - he's not trying to convince you that particular supplement is good for you. All he's doing is risk-benefit calculations for his particular case. Which means that yes, he'll have a bunch of stuff which maybe work for everybody, or maybe work for him, or maybe random noise just made them look like they work for him but are actually useless. Or worse, stuff which can be actively harmful, but he was lucky or just very healthy otherwise and didn't see the damage.
- pcstl 3y ago
  I'd agree with you if it weren't for all the cultish red flags present here. This is clearly a man who wants a cult-like mentality to form around him. If he were just going ridiculously in-depth with his self-research and being open and honest about this, I'd actually admire him a lot, but it's all the grandiose talk about "Zeroth principles thinking" and "Aligning with what the 25th century would want" together with implying his detractors must be weak, scared and lacking in self-control that turns me off heavily.

paul7986 3y ago

In the ABC interview I linked to below he looks really weird no matter how much bright light they shine on him for the interview (lighting is everything). He doesn't look healthy to me! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw2H_j81_50&t=75s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw2H_j81_50&t=75s

unsupp0rted 3y ago
He does look strange- it's mainly his hair I think. It looks fake and alters his whole look. His body is outwardly in great shape.
- gnicholas 3y ago
  Yeah, my thought was hair (looks like implants, but what do I know) and manicured brows. And then the skin that looks like it doesn't see much sun, so it's undamaged but also a bit pallid/grey.
- irjustin 3y ago
  Kind of reminds me of Data.
- joncrocks 3y ago
  I believe he dyes it. This could make the colour look a little off.
steve1977 3y ago
He looks a bit like Data from Star Trek TNG
- amoss 3y ago
  Leaning hard into what would the 25th century value, but on limited data.
- paul7986 3y ago
  I agree yet these older pics he looks so different and normal ..his look changed substantially https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fnetstorage-briefly.akamaized.net%2Fimages%2Fbfa5ed2c7c02d338.jpg%3Fimwidth%3D900&tbnid=QMMrnZp1qVFZeM&vet=1&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbriefly.co.za%2Ffacts-lifehacks%2Fcelebrities-biographies%2F162295-how-biotech-ceo-bryan-johnson-money-what-billionaire%2F&docid=6uPniolu6CBtJM&w=1000&h=667&hl=en&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim%2Fm4%2F3 https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fnetstorag...

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

amval 3y ago

I encourage everyone to ignore Bryan Johnson, whose not-so-secret goal is to sell supplements to gullible people and has nothing to do with actual science.

gniv 3y ago

Is there somebody as dedicated to healthspan as him, but who does not ostensibly sell anything?

AlexSneedMiller 3y ago
He does sell a product, but that product is very optional and seems like it could be valuable for those who really like his free stuff (podcast and free newsletter)

pcstl 3y ago

On my hand, I encourage everyone I know who is interested in longevity to stick to actual scientific research and stay away from Mr. Johnson as much as possible. There are more red flags around this man than in the entire People's Republic of China. Let's make a small, non-exhaustive list of them: 1. First of all is that he talks significantly more about the supposed results of his program than he does about why his program is like that or even what does his actual program consist in. You will notice that nowhere at all is the actual "program" explained or even described in its entirety. As has been mentioned, all of his content is about "wow, look how amazingly strong I am" or "wow, look at my amazing metabolism" but none of it is actionable content beyond telling people to buy his shit. 2. Speaking of "telling people to buy his shit", once you get beyond the amazingly extensive wall of "wow, look how amazing my results are", his website looks remarkably like every single other unproven supplement peddler out there. I am looking at his website right now as I write this and the number of supplements he sells himself has, in fact increased greatly. He has gone from the $60 olive oil which was his original product to a branded line of spreads, drink mixes, and whatever else to the point that he's starting to look a lot like the Liver King (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKpmAGZQetc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKpmAGZQetc), if more "creepy 50 year-old trying to look like a teenager" than Liver King's "creepy 50 year-old trying to look like a jacked piece of salami" 3. While I admire Mr. Johnson's willingness to self-test unproven treatments supposedly in order to figure out if they actually work for himself, his website is remarkably light on warnings on which treatments are actually unproven and which might actually carry some level of danger. The amount of warning on unproven and unlicensed therapies in his website amounts to a single footnote very well hidden under a gigantic wall of "wow, look how amazing my test results are and how impressive my wall of supplements is!" 4. Speaking of his test results, early on Mr. Johnson actually used to talk about challenges, things that went wrong or even just "not so great". As time went on, it's all rah-rah "look at how amazing I am! My measurements are better than an Olympic athlete!!". And while I truly do hope Mr. Johnson's (unexplained, just-so) protocol is just that great, it does seem a lot like peddling his olive oil and whatever else would suffer if he were to say that anything he did was anything beyond perfect. 5. Oh god, the "philosophy" parts. I really want to talk as little as possible about this one, because it's all vapid bullshit and even talking too much about it helps it spread - in fact Mr. Johnson is well-known for actively courting Twitter drama as a way to strengthen his brand. (It should be a well-known fact by any human being living in the 21st century that controversy will make grifters stronger in the short run). His rant on how he is somehow going from "First Principles thinking" to "Zeroth principle thinking", which is "the base of genius" can compete with anything written by any "motivational guru" who talks about "quantum healing" to large audiences... Including a part where he says that anyone who doubts him and his protocol must be weak, miserable, scared of being left behind, afraid of change, and lacking self-control. Wow. 6. Now, let's look at what all this high-minded philosophical talk builds up to. Well, it seems that somehow Mr. Johnson's protocol will help you resist "corporate profiteering at your detriment" and also stop us from "destroying the biosphere" by "aligning us with what the 25th century would value". Huh. Ok, seems pretty great. How can we get there, Mr. Johnson? It would have been hard to predict the books that would be written with the introduction of the printing press; or what the internet would enable. The same principle applies to what the human race can become when paired with the torrid wave of technological and scientific progress. We can take baby steps as we work on stretching our imaginations: Week 1: drink the Green Giant (GG) daily. Week 2: GG + Super Veggie (SV) daily. Week 3: GG + SV + Nutty Pudding (NP) daily. Week 4: GG + SV + NP + supplements daily. Oh, ok, we just need to buy his shit. I rest my case.

kuhewa 3y ago

I would skip him and go to Peter Attia, who I have my nitpicks with, but he also has a research team, and is transparent about the whys

2716057 3y ago

Remember to watch a Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting after Johnson to learn how nonagenarians actually eat ;)

robin-whg 3y ago

The caloric restriction and the low body fat percentage resulting from it is not maintainable without the use of steroids. The body doesn't produce enough testosterone, which, among other things, means you'll feel tired all the time, have no motivation and no sex drive. But if I recall correctly, he's transparent about his steroid use.