being attached to the past might be the worst thing that one could do in terms of being able to make good decisions in this context, because if we have a kind of a playbook of what's worked and what hasn't worked, but you actually talk about this, there's a passage in the book that I'll just read it, to be aware of the assumption that the way you work is the best way, simply because it's the way you've done it before.

I sat with this page for almost 10 full minutes, which is not something I do very often. Maybe you could elaborate on this a little bit. I mean, we want to have mechanisms and routines we can trust. But this is, I think, an important warning. When something works, it's easy to be fooled into believing that's the way to do it or that's the right way.

It's just a way, and it's just a way that happened to work that time. And this plays into when you get advice from people who have more experience than you. You explain your situation. They tell you their advice. The advice that they're giving you is not based on your life or your experience, it's based on their life and their experience.

And the stories that they're telling are based on experiences they've had that have very different data points than yours. So maybe they're giving you good advice, but maybe they're giving you good advice for them and not giving you good advice for you. And it's easy when we try something and have a result, a positive result, thinking everybody can do this.

The way I was vegan for a long time, 22 years, and then I started eating animal protein, and then eventually changed my diet a few times to the point where I lost a lot of weight. The way that I did it worked for me. Right before that happened, I did something that I was told that everyone else who did what you did, they all lost weight for whatever reason I didn't.

So the idea that we know what's right for someone else, I think it's hard enough to even figure out what's right for ourselves. And if we do somehow crack the code of what's right for us, be happy we have it, and then still know, I wonder if that's the only way.

Maybe there's an even better way that we're not considering. Not to get comfortable with thinking we know how it works, just because we get the outcome we want. I was raised in science with a principle. It was literally dictated to me as a principle, almost like a rule of religion, which was that the brain is plastic, it can change and learn until you're about 25 and then the critical periods end and that's it.

And this was a rule, essentially it was dictated a Nobel prize, which was very deserved, given to my scientific great-grandparents, they deserve it. But I was told there was no changing of brain structure function in any meaningful way after age 25 or so. Turns out that's completely wrong. Sorry, David and Torsten, but they knew it was wrong.

Wow. That's interesting. Yeah. And so the competition was suppressed because of the competitive nature of prizes and discoveries at that time. And a guy named Mike Merzenich and his student, Greg Reckin's own, were showing that adult plasticity exists. And only now is this really starting to emerge as a theme, right?

Just crazy. Like there were so many reasons and the textbook said it, we were all told it, and it changed our behavior. Now we know this to be completely false. There's plasticity throughout the lifespan. There's limits to it here and there, but it's just far and away a different story.

So why would that be the only time that ever happened? Right, exactly. But the field was run by a very small cabal of people at that time. All fields are run by a very small cabal of people who have an investment in things being the way they are now because they're in charge.

And one of the great things about getting older is that, well, fortunately, everyone eventually ages, and I hope that, you know, David, unfortunately, passed away. He was lovely. Torsten's lovely. He's still alive. And they would say, I think Torsten would say, yeah, we should have been a little more open or kind in allowing these other ideas.

But I think that- But just think about all the years that were wasted with this misunderstanding. Absolutely, absolutely. And it went beyond that. And there were BBC specials that helped propagate this. And, you know, one of the goals of the podcast has been to try and shed- shine light on ideas that at first seem crazy, like, I know you and I are both semi-obsessed with the health benefits of light.

And you hear about this stuff like negative ion therapy. Sounds crazy, right? Sounds like something you would only hear about at Esalen or in Big Sur. Turns out negative ionization therapy for sleep and mood is based on really amazing work out of Columbia by a guy named Michael Terman.

The Nobel Prize, I think it was in 1916, was given for phototherapy for the treatment of lupus. Like this idea that certain wavelengths of light can help treat medical conditions is not a new idea. But somehow we see a red light. We're not used to seeing red lights except in sunsets and on stoplights.

And somehow it bothers people or it makes them feel like- Until it undermines a business model that doesn't take red light into consideration. Right. Until it does. And then it was- and then it's co-opted there. And the place that- what I look to is acupuncture. You know, for a lot of years people said, well, acupuncture, this is like no mechanism, no mechanism, no mechanism.

There's a lab at Harvard, a guy named Chufu Ma, who I know reasonably well, whose laboratory is dedicated to trying to figure out the biological mechanisms of acupuncture. And they're discovering what everyone has known for thousands of years, which is that incredible effects on anti-inflammation, the gut microbiome. So- I have a friend who was having a terrible back problem.

And I suggested that he see an acupuncturist. And he went to the acupuncturist that I suggested. And his back problem completely healed almost instantaneously. And I asked him, you know, have you been keeping up? Because he had another flare-up, he's like, no, I can't go back there because acupuncture doesn't work.

I said, well, you saw it work for you. He's like, yeah, but there's no science. Wow. Yeah. He's got it. There is- now there's good science. And published in premier journals, it- you know, what's interesting is- this is a little bit of science editorial, but since we like to exchange information about health and things of that sort.

The editorial staff of a journal dictates what gets published and what doesn't. And the premier journals have an outsized effect on what the media covers. And so the beautiful thing is the journal staff now is of the age that they grew up hearing about acupuncture. Hypnosis has a powerful clinical effect if it's done right, Yoga Nidra and similar practices.

And so the tides are changing, but I sometimes like to take a step back and think, what are we confronted with now that seems crazy? That in 10 years, the kids that will be the- because to me, they're kids- will be journal editors. I'm like, oh yeah, absolutely. You know, I'm making this up, but putting tuning forks against your head or something like that, like sound wave therapy.

I think when one adopts a stance of like, we have to filter everything through the limitations of our biology, but also through the sociology of like the way culture goes. It becomes a different story. How do you deal with that? Not just in terms of health, but in terms of thinking about anything.

Sounds like you don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about what people are going to think is cool or not. No, I can't. You're a punk rocker at heart. Yes. You still are. Yes. I can't. I just know what I like and what I don't. I know what works for me and what doesn't.

You know, I try things and I'm constantly looking for new, better solutions to anything. And wherever they come from, it doesn't matter. It could come from Stanford or it could come from the guy talking to himself on the street. If it works, I'm good. You know, it doesn't really matter to me at all.

I don't hold any of it tightly. It's just a matter of time.