Martina and I have been intrigued by the biohacker community lately (me more than Martina, I guess :) ). We've enjoyed the holistic approach of techniques to make our lives a more energetic, sustainable and fulfilling ride.
However, we soon ran into a problem. Our ascetic lifestyle is not very consistent with acquiring all sorts of technological gadgets, expensive nutritional supplements, or other typical biohacker products. So we got to thinking - is it really necessary to spend half of our monthly income on biohacking?
My guess is no. I think that many people starting out with biohacking immediately jump on the most expensive tech gadgets, yet they are far from having figured out things they can start doing for free and immediately.
Let's start with the cheapest biohacking - Focus not on what new things to get, but instead on what things to cut out of your life. What things to stop buying. Who knows, you might even save money in the end.
Here are some ideas:
- Stop eating junk food.
Junk food is not only demonstrably unhealthy, but even prohibitively expensive. Junk food is the worst price/performance combination ever. At a high price, it will even give you negative performance. It harms you, it takes away your energy, it paralyses you. One of the worst business deals ever.
- Buy only water.
Flavored, over-sweetened sodas and alcohol also give you negative benefits at too high a price. By cutting out these things and replacing them with plain water, you not only save money, but also extend the quality and length of your life.
- Meditate.
That's a classic. One of the best free biohacks. Just sit back, breathe, and you're off.
- Exercise.
Exercise with your own body weight, do yoga, run... you don't need a gym membership or expensive equipment right away.
- Keep fasting.
Much has been written about the benefits of fasting. Moreover, this biohack is not only zero cost, but even negative. You actually make money from not having to buy any food at all and you get better antifragility and maybe even health.
- Go to bed on time.
Also, don't look at your phone before bed and get the best quality sleep you can. You'll have plenty of free energy the next day.
- Walk and cycle.
Need to get somewhere in the city? Ride a bike. You'll save money on public transport and get valuable extra exercise at the same time. And it's not too time-consuming either, you just need to make a small mindset shift: if you didn't bike, you'd still have to reserve the time later the day to get some exercise, right?
- Learn proper time management techniques.
Don't leave your phone on when you need to focus, schedule your day well, stop procrastinating and learn how to find flow states. It will save you a lot of time, energy, and mental health.
- Don't pay for Netflix.
You will save money and no one will try to steal your time that you can spend practicing or developing. Win Win.
- Don't go to Twitter, go to NOSTR
Not only will you move from a highly toxic environment with the mood of a post-apocalyptic, slowly disintegrating society to one that is building, enthusiastic and positive, but you can also make some money from it. Not only that. Zaps may not make you rich, but they have an excellent motivational ability to get you to write and also to think about whether what you're writing is of real value.
- If you can think of any other biohacking for free or with negative value, let me know in the comments :).
