Episode 397: Michael Easter on The Comfort Crisis: Is Optimizing Life Making Us Weaker?

Habits and Hustle

Jen Cohen

Entrepreneurship, Education, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness, Business

4.5 • 818 Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is our obsession with optimization actually making us weaker? In this episode of the Habits and Hustle podcast, I am joined by Michael Easter, author of "The Comfort Crisis" and "Scarcity Brain," to explore how modern society's relentless pursuit of wellness and optimization might be backfiring. We discuss the possibility that the more requirements we add to basic human functions (like sleeping, exercising, or working), the more fragile we become. We also dive into elaborate morning routines, sleep-tracking devices, how subtraction, not addition, might be the key to building real resilience in our overly-comfortable world, and the best way to end a day of intellectual work. Michael Easter has made a career as a New York Times bestselling author by traveling the world to uncover practical ideas that help people live healthier, happier, and more remarkable lives. His research spans from war zones to the Arctic to the Bolivian jungle, where he's interviewed thousands of experts including Nobel laureates and world-class athletes. Easter shares these science-backed insights in his books, including Scarcity Brain and The Comfort Crisis, as well as in his newsletter, Two Percent with Michael Easter. His work has been adopted by professional sports teams, Fortune 500 companies, and elite military units to transform their approaches to physical health, mental well-being, and performance. What We Discuss: (00:00) Book Authors Discuss Success and Integrity (08:27) The Scarcity Loop in Behavior Psychology (15:34) Behavioral Psychology and Impulse Control (28:16) Unpredictability and Stimulus Seeking (42:21) Efficiency Through Resource Subtraction (50:30) Daily Habits and Mental Stamina …and more! Thank you to our sponsors: AquaTru: Get 20% off any purifier at aquatru.com with code HUSTLE Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off TruNiagen: Head over to truniagen.com and use code HUSTLE20 to get $20 off any purchase over $100. Magic Mind: Head over to www.magicmind.com/jen and use code Jen at checkout. BiOptimizers: Want to try Magnesium Breakthrough? Go to https://bioptimizers.com/jennifercohen and use promo code JC10 at checkout to save 10% off your purchase. Timeline Nutrition: Get 10% off your first order at timeline.com/cohen Air Doctor: Go to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code HUSTLE for up to $300 off and a 3-year warranty on air purifiers. Find more from Jen: Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagement Find more from Michael Easter: Website: https://eastermichael.com/ Books: https://eastermichael.com/books-v2-wip/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michael_easter/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it.
0:06.9	Okay, so this is the book. This has been out for a year, the scarcity brand, yeah?
0:11.7	Yeah, year tomorrow, actually. Wow, happy anniversary. And this one is the comfort crisis,
0:17.1	which is I really enjoyed this one too. Oh, thank you. This is your first one. Yep.
0:22.2	I'm going to ask you a couple questions from that, too, because I really, I noticed something,
0:26.8	which I found to be very interesting in it. You talk about in that book, I just did a TED talk.
0:32.5	Let me just get back up three days ago. Nice. Awesome. Thank you. Part of that TED Talk was me talking about this cool concept of like how boredom has been a lost
0:44.3	feature in our world.
0:46.1	And because of that, I think mine was much more about kids and how building mental strength
0:52.8	and toughness has been, it's becoming a problem in a very soft
0:56.8	world. And I think a big part of it is because of boredom. We've lost that ability. And then you
1:03.3	talked about that a little bit, which is an interesting, I didn't realize, I didn't realize,
1:07.9	like, I was like, oh my God, I really like this guy now. Like, you kind of make, you kind of make mention of it also, like what the benefits of boredom are and like how the world has evolved to not having it anymore. Yeah. Well, we'll have to talk about that. I know. Let's talk about it. Go ahead. We're starting. All right. We're starting. That's how we start here. We go right into it. I like it. Awesome. Well, I'm glad to be here. Thank you for having me.
1:30.6	Thank you for having.
1:29.6	Thank you for start here. We go right into it. I like it. Awesome. Well, I'm glad to be here. Thank you for having me.
1:29.6	Thank you for having. Thank you for being here. This is Michael Easter. He's in a two-time, a New York Times bestseller. Did the Scarcity Brain become a New York Times bestseller? Yeah, so Scarcity Brain was New York Times bestseller. Comfort Crisis wasn't because Comfort Crisis had this like,
1:44.7	what? So Comfort Crisis was interesting because it was one of those books that it came out,
1:49.1	you know, had a decent opening week and then it kind of sat and it just needed to like, it was kind of
1:54.3	like the virus where, you know, two people to four to eight to 16 word of mouth. And so now,
2:00.8	I mean, at this point, three years later,
2:02.1	we're selling a lot more per week than we were, like, even in week three of the release. So it just
2:07.5	kind of word of mouth took over. That happens. That actually happened with like a couple things,
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