Lucas Miller: Becoming Superhuman, How Neuroscience Can Make Us Better Investors

Talking Billions with Bogumil Baranowski

As investors, we keep looking for new advantages. A better use of our brain, a great gift that we already have, might be a very intriguing path worth pursuing. My guest today has incredibly insightful advice for all of us. Lucas Miller is a cognitive neuroscientist, author, and human performance researcher, as well as the youngest faculty at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. At Berkeley, Lucas teaches MBA students and is best known for his course called "Becoming Superhuman: The Science of Productivity and Performance". He also co-runs the Becoming Superhuman Lab, which conducts research on how to help busy leaders and their teams get their most important done, in less time, with less stress. We talk about: the mismatch between modern work habits and our brain's natural inclinations, why early rising isn't suitable for everyone, insights on long-term brain health, emphasizing the importance of sleep, regular sun exposure, and the power of meditation. https://www.becomingsuperhuman.science/ Show notes / references below (with specific timestamps). 6’34’’ -- Lucas’s book on Amazon - Beyond Brilliance: The Blueprint for Learning Anything: https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Brilliance-Blueprint-Learning-Anything/dp/1540421236 8’15’’ -- Becoming Superhuman MBA course at UC Berkeley: https://newsroom.haas.berkeley.edu/classified-becoming-superhuman-course-teaches-the-science-of-productivity-performance-and-wellness/ Lucas’ training and consulting company Becoming Superhuman: https://www.becomingsuperhuman.science/ 17’59’’ -- The impact of the ‘open’ workspace on human collaboration (Bernstein, 2018): https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2017.0239 20’18’’ -- Stanford researchers identify four causes for ‘Zoom fatigue’ and their simple fixes: https://news.stanford.edu/2021/02/23/four-causes-zoom-fatigue-solutions/ 25’01’’ -- Brain Brain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity (Ward, 2017): https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/691462 44’00’’ -- Discover Your Chronotype: www.mychronotype.com Use code “TALKINGBILLIONS” (to bypass the paywall and access the assessment for free) 1:18’39’’ -- Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness (Lazar, 2005): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1361002/ Enhanced brain connectivity in long-term meditation practitioners (Luders, 2015): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053811911006008 Stress reduction correlates with structural changes in the amygdala (Hölzel, 2010): https://academic.oup.com/scan/article/5/1/11/1728269?login=false ---- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Crisis Investing: 100 Essays⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - My new book. NEVER INVESTMENT ADVICE.