At 5:30 AM in a minimalist apartment in SoMa, a tech executive wakes up, checks his sleep architecture on a titanium ring, consumes a precisely measured cocktail of nootropics, and begins a 20-minute sequence of red light therapy and meditation. He is not sick. He is not preparing for the Olympics. He is simply going to work.
The self as system
This is the new religion of the Valley: extreme optimization of the self. The underlying philosophy views the human body and mind as a machine with inputs and outputs. If you feel sad, your dopamine pathways need recalibrating. If you feel tired, your mitochondrial function is sub-optimal.
The cost of control
There is an undeniable allure to this worldview. It promises control in an increasingly chaotic world. But when every meal is a macro-nutrient calculation and every walk is a step-count exercise, the qualitative experience of life is hollowed out.
