Personal development is the act of improving the fundamental infrastructure of your life so that you can get the most out of every day. I want to be able to optimize my performance, mentally and physically, at every task I take on. Over the last few years, I’ve done numerous blog posts about personal development, and I’ve linked to the best ones here.
Systems for personal development:
- Nine fundamental things you should do if you want to improve your life This is a collection of several different personal development infrastructure posts. Together they form an interlocking framework of tools for making changes to your life.
- The surprising importance of self-tracking while you’re young and healthy
- “Personalized research methods for insomnia and other diffuse conditions” This is a talk I gave recently about a serious shortcoming of the medical system in treating a category of illnesses, and a simple, self-experimental approach that allows you to potentially treat these illnesses cheaply and easily.
- Creating my own alternative to religion
Health research:
- My talk on personal sleep research
- Why getting DNA testing is worth it
- How you can cheaply and easily check your blood sugar, and why everyone should do it, not just diabetics
- Understanding the true risks of sexually transmitted diseases, and how to minimize them
- My experience with Zeo’s sleep management system
- How I would fix the healthcare system
Exercise:
- Why indoor rock climbing is great exercise for geeky engineers who don’t like gyms
- The virtue of jockishness – why the “jock” approach to things, often mocked, has some redeeming qualities.
Thoughts on the mind:
- Why travel is good for your brain
- The biochemical underpinnings of willpower, and how we can increase it
- Why keeping a diary can be extremely important
- Why dating checklists and product requirements documents can be self-limiting
- Noticing myself develop intuitive yardsticks
- Why web surfing shouldn’t be channel surfing
- How to make open relationships work long-term
- Visual imagination, childlike wonder, and fresh experiences
Quick brain and body hacks:
Matt Bell 