Book Summary: Serotonin by Michel Houellebecq
The book in three sentences
Life is short. Western society has become less happy, less erotic and more alienating. Without sex or love, (although there’s a heavy emphasis on sex), there is not much left of a man.
Selected Quotes
Redundant Men
- “Men in general don’t know how to live : they have no true familiarity with life , and never feel entirely at ease in it.”
- “It’s amazing how quickly men let themselves go.”
- “since his divorce two years previously he had lost a lot of his motivation with regard to property , and lots of other things too.”
Solitude
- “My reality had become untenable , no human being could survive in such strict solitude.”
- “It was just a bit of a shame to be alone.”
- “If you’re going to a country - house hotel on your own you might as well blow your brains out.”
The fall of the West
- “No one in the West will ever be happy again.”
- “Paris was made to generate loneliness”
- “society was a machine for destroying love”
- “the disappearance of the Western libido.”
Sex
- “I needed love, and love in a very precise form”
- “with sex everything can be resolved , and without sex nothing can.” Work
- “a career is a more considerable whore and one that doesn’t give you any pleasure.”
- “the more I try to do things correctly, the harder it gets to make ends meet.”
Food & Drink (extremely French voice)
- “a double espresso with some bread and jam , and perhaps even a ham omelette.”
- “potato omelette and three glasses of Leffe”
- “large draught beers and rillette sandwiches.”
An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away
Over a billion people use the iPhone to manage their daily life and work. Millions are tracking their caloric output with the apple watch. What about the caloric input?
If Apple is taking on healthcare, could they tackle nutrition too?
Although there’s no clear path, I wanted to outline a few areas that you might expect Apple to look into.
Is Obesity a disease?
Tim Cook has predicted a surprising legacy: “(Apple’s) greatest contribution to mankind will be in health.”
Healthcare is a large, expensive and inefficient industry. There’s no shortage of problems that Apple could tackle, including one big one, obesity.
In the U.S., more than 70% of adults aged 20 and older are overweight, and nearly 40% in that same age group are obese. *
Shockingly, obese children will soon outnumber the underweight for the first time. *
Since the pandemic, things have gotten worse. In Ireland, people “drink more, smoke more, have gained weight or reported a worsening of their mental health in the past 12 months”. People with obesity are 113% higher chance of being hospitalized by COVID.
The problem(s) with weight loss
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” is decent advice but the reality is a stew of emotion, diet, genetics, money and social environments.
Historically, software that helps you to eat healthier (and lose weight), has done so by facilitating calorie tracking. Calories in, calories out.
But, it’s 2022, and calorie tracking is old hat. Although it’s effective, it’s very manual – and users lose interest. Apple recently tested a pilot app called HealthHabit but it has ‘struggled with low engagement’.
Finally, when it comes down to suggesting what you should eat, diet research has always been tough to evaluate and overall the science has had it rough, potentially opening Apple up to unnecessary controversies.
A medical device on your wrist
You can’t talk about Apple and health without talking about the watch.
Released in 2015, the Apple Watch has been successful ($13B+ in sales), accurate and useful (blood oxygen, body temperature, balance).
Blood sugar, currently missing from the watch’s repertoire could be game changer. Imagine an alert that shows you clearly what, when and how your body is impacted by that second donut at 11am.
This is bigger than weight loss too. Measuring blood glucose levels is vital to managing conditions such as diabetes, but it’s a pain (literally).
A redditor describes his current struggle: “I have 4 apps… 2 that log glucose, insulin and carbs and print different reports for my doctor, a medication logger with reminders, and a BP and weight tracker.”
It’s a seriously hard technical problem but it’s not impossible. Many new nutrition/health startups are looking past calories to genomic, microbial and metabolic data markers.
Fitness +++++
Lastly, there’s a few other ways nutrition could seep into the Apple ecosystem.
Apple is a services company, with an increasing share of their revenue stemming from people paying a little money every month to be “entertained, informed, connected, and inspired”. It’s easy enough to imagine an extension of fitness+ to include cooking classes or daily lessons to be more mindful about eating. Meals could be recommended based on your fatigue, and timing after different types of workouts (protein heavy recipes, rehydration after a long run).
The best calorie counting apps already rely on ‘less manual’ input methods like using the camera to scan labels and barcodes or voice to quickly log food. Apple is getting really good at recognizing and learning from these inputs. Again, Apple isn’t alone here. Snap lets users “parse and understand foods and ingredients you have right in front of you” with Google and Amazon not far behind.
Apple will continue spiking into health and don’t be surprised if food & nutrition find their way into the product. Blood sugar is a great example where Apple could make a huge impact in the food/nutrition space - all with something that happens with their device, quietly in the background.
Really Expensive Shampoo & Other Future Shocks
Like most people, I prefer not to think about bad things happening.
If a war broke out, I would refuse to believe it until troops had boots on the ground.
But over the last few weeks of traveling, I’ve been forced to consider some worst case scenarios.
So, presenting a non-exhaustive list of shocks to consider for the next 10-20 years…
Pandemics
As I write this, several conversations float into my ears from nearby travellers. “Do you think you got it in New York, or Mexico?” O is everywhere, in hotels, your local bodega and instagram stories. I’ll leave it at that. The virus spreads differently depending on climate, town, country, so when you visit a new place you are spinning the virus dial.
Where is all the stuff?
For about a week, every shop in the small beach town I lived in was clean out of the following: milk, cheese, most vegetables. No one seemed to mind, and I assumed this was normal. We’ve all waited for furniture, toilet paper and eggs on occasion, but have you stared at (1) (50ml) bottle of shampoo for ($4 USD)? It’s suddenly easy to imagine what a real, sustained supply shock looks like. “Excuse me, do you know when the next shipment of Panadol is… ah forget it.”
Money Is Not Scarce
Here is what is not scarce these days: Money in the bank or held in government securities, which you can think of as simple capital, not attached to special ownership rights.- Tyler Cowen, Average is Over (2013)
I spent a week without a debit card and it was painfully hard to do anything without cash. The US dollar is famously strong and is not going away anytime soon, but with rising inflation, insane debt levels, crypto volatility, where is your money truly safe AND liquid?
Owning nothing
“In today’s global economy here is what is scarce: Quality land and natural resources.” - Tyler Cowen, Average is Over (2013)
Travellers by definition don’t have a home. Usually, you only stay somewhere for a few days. You borrow a room, a hammock, maybe a bike or surfboard. Then, you return it all. And when the money runs out, so does the space where you can live. So, as a traveller, you find yourself walking a weird line, between huge freedom of movement and almost no freedom at all. If everything you use and experience is borrowed, you are never fully in control.
Vaccine refugees
Like most Australians, I got vaccinated. But out here I’ve met several travelers who either didn’t want it, or got up and left their country entirely. German yoga teachers who have dropped too much acid are certainly outliers but if there is stricter policies in the future will more people flee? And importantly, what countries will remain relatively open, friendly and discreet?
Over-enthusiastic Government
While I lived in Canberra, Australia, a WHOLE YEAR passed without a single case of COVID. I don’t know if that’s impressive or embarrassing. Maybe a bit of both. Despite the overwhelming safety, the ACT (the surrounding state) was not immune to travel restrictions.
Here’s a small selection:
July 3, 2020: Those who have been in a Melbourne hotspot are required to quarantine for 14 days after entering the ACT.
July 8, 2020: At 12:01 am, Victorians will be denied entry to the ACT.
Feb 12, 2021: From 12:00 pm, the ACT border with Vic is closed.
May 11, 2021: Anyone in the ACT who has been in Greater Melbourne on or after 5 May 2021 and has attended a close contact exposure location must quarantine for 14 days from the time they were there.
If you live a sheltered life, it’s easy to take things like freedom of movement, safety, prices, access to fresh food for granted. But these things can break. And when they break, they break badly.
After all, I don’t want shitty stuff to happen, but the worse thing you can do is not at least prepare for them.
Olas de Miedo
Surfing can be scary.
Angry locals. Rips. Sharks. Drop-ins. Infected wounds.
And that’s before you even catch a wave!
My fears, when it comes to surfing, can be summarized with a few different scenarios.
Scenario A: A big wave rolls in. A surfer, deep on the inside, either gets on the wave and runs over me or has to swerve around me causing him to crash and hurt himself.
Scenario B: A big wave rolls in (you can see the theme already). I’m in the middle of a packed lineup, we’re all caught off guard. I paddle hard, but the wave breaks directly on me. I can’t dive enough and either my board flies away and hits someone, or someone lets their board fly into me. Some sort of group collision thing.
Scenario C: A big wave rolls through, picks me up and throws me into a rock. Death. Or grievous bodily harm.
These scenarios are vivid in my mind. A fin slicing through the water towards me. Water draining off an urchin covered rock. So, I react. I sit wider. I sit further away. I paddle earlier. I avoid. I talk myself off waves.
But thanks to spending A LOT of time in the water over the past month, like possibly more time than the past 3 years combined, these scenarios are fading in importance.
Here I posit a few solutions to what some might call over enthusiastic catastrophizing.
Exposure therapy
At one of the more famous and ‘localized’ breaks in Central America, Punta Roca, I let go of my board. I know this is bad form, but sometimes unavoidable if your board is too big or you can’t get under the wave in time. When I came to the surface I was greeted by a silent crowd and a really pissed off local. I was shouted at and kicked out like a dog who ate something it shouldn’t. That smarted but I learnt a lesson and lived to surf another day. Big waves have sent me hurtling into sand and rocks, hard. I cut my feet, leg, fingers, hands, back. I’ve been in the way. I’ve paddled too slow. But the more diverse and challenging situations you experience, the more your competence builds. More importantly, you realize that your imagination can spin small things out of proportion.
Comrades, not competitors
Surfing is a solitary sport, but most surf spots are crowded, and lineups can get toxic and extremely hierarchal. The bigger the wave, the more pronounced the pecking order. What’s helpful, and healthy, is to reframe the competition into co-operation. Recognize that everyone around you has their own fears and concerns, likely more than you think. Rather than doubting the surfers around you, trust everyone and treat everyone equally. Put some good back into the system. One of the best stress relievers is cheering for a friend as they drop down a massive wall of water.
Let it go
Finally, come to terms with the fact that you will feel some fear or anxiety out there, it’s a given. Notice a negative thought or emotion but let it pass. Don’t react. Intrusive thoughts are simply a small part of the tapestry of your consciousness. Along with sounds, smells, sights and all the rest of your brain activity. We have thousands of these thoughts every day. Don’t let a couple of negative images get in the way of a good session.
2021 Reading List
I read 51 books this year, up from 21 in 2020.
Some thoughts & themes:
After I moved back to Australia last year, I cancelled my Amazon prime membership. I realized it was harder to quickly order new and used books. In July, I borrowed a Kindle, and after years of drinking the ‘paper is better’ kool aid, I was hooked. I especially loved turning my ‘wish list’ into samples. In December, I bought the new Paperwhite which reads beautifully.
More fiction. For every non-fiction I read 3 fiction. This wasn’t intentional. I found myself attracted to stories rather than facts. I started the year with Bryson’s “The Body”, and although I found it interesting, I moved through it glacially. That’s a signal that it’s not the right kind of book for me right now.
In general, I opted for shorter reads. Especially during the latter half of this year. This led me to discover different kinds of books. I read, and loved, short stories, novellas and collected essays.
Here’s the books. *: 5 stars ∞: Re-read
Started, didn’t finish
- Fuzz - Mary Roach
- Weapons of Math Destruction - Cathy O’Neil
- Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart
- Live More Think Less - Pia Callesen
Anti library
- Bowling Alone - Robert D. Putnam
- My Promised Land - Ari Shavit
- The History of Money - Jack Weatherford
- Let my people go surfing - Yvon Chouinard
- Klara and the sun - Kazuo Ishiguro
- The Score Takes care of itself - Bill Walsh
- How to Kill a city - Peter Moskowitz
- Portnoy’s Complaint - Philip Roth
- Interior Chinatown - Charles Yu
- The Essence of Software - Daniel Jackson
- Bullshit jobs - David Graeber
- Winter in Sokcho - Elisa Shut Dusapin
- Play It as It Lays - Joan Didion
December
- Nightbitch - Rachel Yoder
- How to Be a Leader - Plutarch
- How to Be a Bad Emperor - Suetonius
- On Tennis - David Foster Wallace *
- Project Daily Mary - Andy Weir
- A Selfie as Big as the Ritz - Lara Williams
- Johnno - David Malouf *
- Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri *
- Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket - Hilma Wolitzer
November
- A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing - Jessie Tu
- New Animal - Ella Baxter
- Comfort Me With Apples - Catherynne M Valente
- Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? - Raymond Carver *
- Chemistry - Weike Wang
- Witchita Stories - Troy James Weaver
- Cult of Loretta - Kevin Maloney
October
- Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata *
- Earthlings - Sayuka Murata
- Weather - Jenny Offill
- Dept. of Speculation - Jenny Offill
- Flush - Virginia Woolf
- Problems - Jade Sharma
September
- Bewilderness - Karen Tucker
- Vagabonde - Anna Dorn
- Survivor - Chuck Palahniuk
- My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh
- The Undoing Project - Michael Lewis
August
- Go to work and do your job - Noah Cicero
- Creative Blindness - Dave Trott
- Body High - Jon Lindsey
- Leave Society - Tao Lin
- The Ice Cream Man - Sam Pink
July
- More Tales of the City - Armistead Maurine
- The 99% Invisible City - Roman Mars
- You Can Find Inspiration In Everything - Paul Smith
June
- Chaos Monkeys - Antonio Garcia Martinez
- Uncanny Valley - Anna Wiener
- Whiplash - Joichi Ito
May
- No friend but the mountains - Behrouz Boochani
April
- Circe - Madeline Miller
- Jews Don’t Count - David Baddiel
March
- The Rider - Tim Krabbé ∞
- The Salt Path - Winn Raynor
- Frankenstein - Mary Shelley *
February
- Surely You’re joking - Richard Feynman
- Past the Shallows - Favel Parrett
- Honeybee - Craig Silvey
January
- Revolution in The Valley - Andy Hertzfeld
- The Tiny MBA - Alex Hillman
- The Body - Bill Bryson
Bitcoin Beach
In September, 2021, El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender.
This means that you can use bitcoin to pay for stuff like a torta, haircut or yoga class.
Usually, El Salvador trades and pays with the US dollar. In fact, it’s hard to get much done with a large bill like a 20 or 50, let alone a credit card.
Cash is important. I would know, since I’m in El Salvador with no cash.
And I really needed this bitcoin thing to work.
I had lost my debit card, my only way to access those sweet, crisp dollar dollar bills. I called the bank, but they had already cancelled the card and sent it to my old flat in San Francisco. It could be weeks for it to arrive here.
Now I’m sweating. Well, to be fair I was already sweating.
Luckily, I have an incredible idea. I could buy bitcoin, and exchange it back to cash via one of the many bitcoin ATM’s.
Maybe I could really wander around using a bitcoin wallet for all my transactions and never use cash again?
At an ice cream stand, I ask if I can pay with ‘Strike app’, pointing to the sticker in the shop window. Nodding his head, “yeah just download the app”. I tether to his phone (no data), and the app trickles down from the App Store onto my iPhone.
The onboarding starts simple enough. 2 factor authentication via my email address. Then things get weird. It asks me to select from two countries, United States or El Salvador. However, it won’t let me select United States. I’m offered a free SIM card, and we are able to verify an El Salvador number but it wants an El Salvador phone number, address and drivers license. Both of us are now craning over my phone to see the screen in the midday sun, struggling to verify a drivers license from the wrong country. Insanity slowly seeps in. Sweat keeps pouring off my forehead. Strike is out.
“Bitcoin Beach” is another acceptable wallet in El Salvador, where you can store bitcoins and (I believe) use it for payments to vendors. The UI and branding look like it was knocked up in 20 minutes but worth a shot.
Android only. El Salvador App Store only.
Ok. Final try.
When the President of El Salvador kicked off this bitcoin thing, they rolled out a government wallet named ‘Chivo’, and loaded on $30 of bitcoin for all citizens who use it.
But again, you need an El Salvador license to use it. It would be like an American citizen trying to use the Australian governments ‘myGov’ platform.
In the end, using QR codes, I sent a few hundred dollars in bitcoin to Eli’s (the shopkeeper) wallet (“Bitcoin beach”). He then used a Chivo ATM to take out the amount in USD. There may have been a slight exchange difference. I ended up paying about $3 in fees, no worse than a touristy atm.
This all feels pretty strange to me. Coinbase is an app I trust, but there’s so many platforms, new technologies and concepts that I need to learn before I can ‘grok’ even something simple like paying for a can of beer. What went into that transaction. Is it something special or stupid?
It’s hard to say what are the positive outcomes here. How can we measure successs? If the only thing this project can achieve is improving financial literacy, that’s a win.
Yet, can you really expect bitcoin to take off here as a payment of choice when most Salvadorans can’t afford a smartphone, internet data plan or when the electricity frequently goes out? How could you possibly keep track of the price of bitcoin for one thing?
Hopefully the government here ensures that with innovative ideas and bets like bitcoin they are also focused on the primary needs of the citizens.