Mark: A 2010 study found that judges grant parole 65% of the time in the morning, but that number drops to nearly zero by the end of the day. Michelle: Whoa. That’s terrifying. Mark: It is. And it’s not about justice, or the law, or even the prisoners. It’s about what the judges had for lunch. It’s about decision fatigue. Their biology is making the choice, not their rational mind. Michelle: That’s the invisible world, isn't it? The stuff happening under the hood that dictates our lives while we think we're the ones driving. Mark: That is the entire world we are exploring today. And it's the central idea in Dave Asprey's book, Game Changers: What Leaders, Innovators, and Mavericks Do to Win at Life. Michelle: Right, this is the 'Father of Biohacking' himself. The guy who went from being a 300-pound tech exec struggling with brain fog to founding Bulletproof Coffee. His whole life is basically one giant personal experiment. Mark: Exactly. And for this book, he interviewed over 450 world-class performers—scientists, artists, CEOs, Navy SEALs—to find the hidden patterns behind their success. What he found is that winning isn't about more hustle. It’s about hacking your own biology. Michelle: It’s a fascinating premise, but also one that's gotten mixed reviews. Some people swear by his methods, others are more skeptical. Mark: And that's what makes it so interesting to dive into. He argues we’re all running on this primitive biological software—he calls it the 'MeatOS'—that's programmed for just three things: fear, food, and reproduction. To be a game changer, you have to rewrite that code. Michelle: Okay, so where do we start? How do you rewrite your own brain? Mark: It starts with the mind. And the first rule is you have to throw out one of the most common pieces of self-help advice you’ve ever heard.

Mark: Michelle, how many times have you been told to work on your weaknesses? That to get better, you have to identify what you’re bad at and fix it. Michelle: Oh, I don't know, only every performance review I've ever had? It’s the foundation of most self-improvement, right? Find the flaw, grind it out. Mark: Well, Asprey argues that is fundamentally wrong. One of his core laws is that focusing on your weaknesses actually makes you weaker. It drains your brain's finite energy on tasks that give you minimal returns and, frankly, make you miserable. Michelle: That sounds a little too convenient. Like an excuse to not do things I'm bad at. Mark: It does, but he gives a great personal example. Early in his career, he knew he was terrible at project management. So, he decided to conquer this weakness. He spent a ton of time and money, got certified, and became… perfectly average at it. And he hated every minute. Michelle: I can relate to that. The soul-crushing effort just to be mediocre. Mark: Exactly. He realized all that energy could have been spent becoming truly exceptional at something he was already good at and enjoyed. The real game-changer is to identify what you’re bad at and stop doing it. Delegate it, delete it, or find a workaround. Michelle: Okay, but isn't that just giving up? How do you distinguish a weakness from a skill you just haven't developed yet? Mark: That’s the key question. Asprey talks about the "competence-confidence loop." You get a little good at something, which gives you confidence, which makes you want to do it more, which makes you better. You should be chasing that feeling. This leads to his most powerful idea in this section: you don't discover who you are. You decide who you are. Michelle: That’s a big statement. What does that actually look like on a Tuesday morning when you're feeling completely unmotivated? Mark: It means you stop waiting for inspiration and start with intentional action. It's about the language you use. Asprey points out these "weasel words" we use that sabotage us, like 'try'. He references Yoda: "There is no try. Only do." When you say you'll 'try' to go to the gym, you're giving yourself an out. You're pre-programming failure. Michelle: It’s like you’re already writing the story of why it didn’t work out. Mark: Precisely. And the power of words to program reality can have life-or-death consequences. He tells the story of JJ Virgin, a health expert whose teenage son, Grant, was the victim of a hit-and-run. He was in a coma, with multiple skull fractures, and the doctors gave him almost no chance of survival. They told her he'd likely never wake up, and if he did, he wouldn't be the same. Michelle: Oh, that's every parent's worst nightmare. Mark: Absolutely. But JJ made a decision. She refused to use negative language around her son. She banned the doctors and nurses from saying "if he wakes up." She insisted they only say "when he wakes up." She would lean over his bed and whisper to him, "You will recover to 110 percent." She was programming his environment, and his subconscious, for healing. Michelle: Wow. So what happened? Mark: Against all odds, Grant woke up. He started to read, then walk, then run. He made an incredible recovery. JJ Virgin is convinced that the words, the unwavering belief she projected, played a critical role. She didn't 'try' to be positive; she decided he would heal. Michelle: That gives me chills. It takes the idea of 'positive thinking' and makes it an active, powerful force. Okay, so deciding who you are, using intentional language... I can get behind that. But the book takes a much sharper turn from there, right? Into territory that feels... a little more controversial. Mark: It absolutely does. Because once you've started to hack the conscious mind, Asprey says you have to go deeper. You have to hack the biological hardware itself.

Mark: Asprey argues that to truly understand your own programming, you have to step outside of it. You need to get into an altered state of consciousness to see the patterns that are normally invisible. Michelle: And when he says "altered state," what exactly are we talking about? Meditation? Mark: Meditation is a big part of it, but he goes further. He tells this incredible story about being invited to a dinner party at a $20 million penthouse in SoHo, New York. The room is filled with titans of industry, finance, art—incredibly successful people. Michelle: Okay, I'm picturing a scene from the show Succession. Mark: Pretty much. And in the middle of this dinner, he asks the table, "How many of you have used psychedelics for personal development at least once?" Michelle: Oh boy. I bet you could hear a pin drop. Mark: You'd think so. But every single hand at the table went up. Every single person, from 25 to 75, had used these tools to gain a new perspective, to work through trauma, or to spark creativity. Michelle: Hold on. This is where some people might check out. We're talking about illegal substances. How is this practical advice for the average person? It sounds incredibly risky. Mark: And Asprey is very clear about the risks and the legality. His point isn't a blanket endorsement. It's about the underlying principle: the value of getting outside your normal thought patterns to see what’s really driving you. He argues for "medical freedom"—the right to make informed decisions about your own biochemistry. But he also highlights other, more accessible ways to achieve this. Michelle: Like what? What's the non-psychedelic version of this? Mark: One powerful tool is breathwork. He tells the story of Dr. Stanislav Grof, a psychologist who was researching LSD in the 1960s for therapy. When the government banned it, he needed a new way to help his patients access those deep states of healing. So he developed something called holotropic breathing. Michelle: How does that work? Mark: It’s a specific pattern of accelerated breathing that, as Grof found, can induce a state very similar to a psychedelic experience. It allows people to access and process deep-seated traumas. Asprey himself did it and had a profound experience, reliving the moment he was born and understanding a core belief about being alone that had shaped his entire life. Michelle: So the breath itself can be a tool to unlock these hidden parts of our programming. Mark: Exactly. Because what are we trying to unlock? We're trying to get to the root of fear. Asprey argues that fear is the ultimate mind-killer. It's a biological program that keeps us in survival mode. And this is where it gets really fascinating at a cellular level. He references the work of Dr. Bruce Lipton, a cell biologist. Michelle: Okay, bring on the science. Mark: Lipton did this experiment where he took a single stem cell, let it divide into thousands of genetically identical cells, and then put them into three different petri dishes. He changed the culture medium—the environment—in each dish. In one, the cells became muscle. In another, they became bone. In the third, they became fat. Michelle: The exact same cells, with the same DNA, became totally different things based on their environment? Mark: Precisely. And Lipton's conclusion is that our thoughts and emotions—especially fear and trust—are the culture medium for our own bodies. When you're in a state of fear, you release stress hormones like cortisol into your bloodstream. Your cells are bathed in a "fear" environment, and they shift from growth and repair to survival mode. Your immune system shuts down, your digestion stops, your prefrontal cortex—the smart part of your brain—goes offline. Michelle: So fear isn't just a feeling. It's a chemical instruction to every cell in your body to stop thriving and start hiding. Mark: That's the biohacker's perspective. Fear is a program. And if it's a program, it can be debugged.

Mark: And that cellular response to fear brings us to the final, and maybe most powerful, game-changer. If fear is the mind-killer, what's the antidote? Asprey argues it's gratitude. Michelle: Gratitude. It sounds so much... softer than psychedelics and holotropic breathing. Mark: It sounds softer, but biologically, it might be even more potent. His law is "Gratitude is stronger than fear." When you are in a state of gratitude, your nervous system is bathed in cues of safety. It's the biological "all-clear" signal that tells your cells it's safe to go back into growth and repair mode. Michelle: So it's the direct chemical opposite of the fear response we just talked about. Mark: Exactly. And this is why he says being rich won't make you happy, but being happy might make you rich. He tells the story of Shazi Visram, the founder of the organic baby food company Happy Family. She grew up in a motel room, deeply afraid of not having enough. She built her company and sold it for a reported $250 million. Michelle: That should solve the 'not having enough' problem. Mark: You'd think. But even with all that money, the fear remained. She found herself wanting to risk it all to double or triple it, still driven by that old scarcity program. She had to consciously learn to decouple her happiness from her net worth and focus on joy and contribution. She realized happiness wasn't the reward for success; it was the fuel for it. Michelle: So it's a feedback loop. Gratitude creates a feeling of safety, which turns off the fear response at a biological level, which frees up energy, which makes you more productive and successful... which gives you more to be grateful for. Mark: It's a complete upward spiral. And the effects are measurable. One study he cites found that people who practiced gratitude just once a week ended up exercising an hour and a half more than a control group, without even being told to. They were just... happier, and that happiness translated into healthier actions. Michelle: That’s amazing. It’s not just a mindset; it’s a behavioral driver. So how do you actually do it? How do you make gratitude a practice and not just a nice idea? Mark: Asprey shares his own very simple, actionable practice from the afterword of the book. Every night, he and his wife ask their kids for three things they are grateful for from that day. And they add one more thing: one failure they are grateful for. Michelle: A failure? Why a failure? Mark: To teach them, and himself, that failure is not an end point. It's a data point. It's a lesson. By being grateful for the failure, you reframe it. You extract the wisdom and let go of the sting. It's the doorway to forgiveness—forgiving others, and forgiving yourself. It reprograms your nervous system to stop reacting to past traumas. Michelle: That’s incredibly powerful. You’re not just listing good things; you’re actively transforming the bad things into fuel. Mark: You're turning poison into medicine. And that, he argues, is the ultimate game-changing move.

Mark: When you put it all together, it's a three-pronged attack on our own limitations. First, you stop trying to find yourself and start building yourself with intention, using your words and focus as your tools. Michelle: You decide who you are, you don't wait to discover it. Mark: Second, you recognize that fear is just a biological program, a leftover from our 'MeatOS'. And you can use tools—some conventional like breathwork, some less so—to get outside that program and debug it. Michelle: You see the code so you can rewrite it. Mark: And third, you install a new root program to replace fear: gratitude. You practice it until it becomes your default state, creating a biological environment of safety that allows for growth, creativity, and true performance. Michelle: It’s a surprisingly holistic system. It starts with the mind, goes deep into the body's chemistry, and ends with the spirit. It makes you wonder, what's the one 'law' you're unconsciously living by that's holding you back the most? Mark: That is the question, isn't it? And it’s one we’d love to hear your thoughts on. Find us on our socials and share the one game-changing idea from this discussion that really resonated with you. What's the one thing you might try to change? Michelle: We'd genuinely love to know. Mark: This is Aibrary, signing off.