Read & Run
🏃🏽♀️ But not at the same time... 🏃🏾♀️
“You'd be amazed at…how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I'm a book with a couple of legs sticking out.” -Charlie Munger
Let’s say you are a frequent reader of Moneyball Judaism but think you can publish a better newsletter than me.
If so, you’re probably right.
(Writing this newsletter is not rocket science.)
But let’s say you wanted a piece of advice on how to beat me at my own game; here’s my first piece of advice:
Read.
Everything.1
It's like Three Days of the Condor (only different in every way):
This is not a surprise; if you keep reading, you stay curious. And when you stay curious, you always find surprising new things to share with others.
However, if you asked me for the second most essential skill, I would say:
Run.
I love exercise; it’s my second favorite leisure activity besides reading. And this week, as we reach the end of summer, I want to convince you, dear readers, that if you're going to raise the bar and bring Moneyball to your leadership, after reading, there is nothing more important than exercise. I’m agnostic about the kind of exercise, just that you do it (every day, if possible.)
Nothing will thank you more than your brain.
Neurogenesis
“They asked Rabbi Levi Yitzhak: “Why is the first-page number missing in all the tractates of the Babylonian Talmud?2 Why does each begin with the second?” He replied: “However much a man may learn, he should always remember that he has not even gotten to the first page.”3
If you’re a growth mindset person, I suspect you love this text because you always want to improve and believe you can. For our purposes, it’s time to learn the scientific reason why we can always get better: neurogenesis. Here’s how it works:
Each of us only gets one brain (said Captain Obvious).
However, our understanding of whether and when our brains change underwent a recent scientific revolution.
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), “until recently, most neuroscientists…thought we were born with all the neurons we were ever going to have.”4
Because neurons are the “nerve cells that send messages all over your body,”5 a finite number of neurons would suggest that, at a certain point, we would be severely limited in our ability to learn new things.
For those familiar with a “fixed mindset,” this was a scientific assumption underlying that belief system. If the brain stops creating a pathway for new knowledge, it would suggest that we are simply stuck with the mental capacity we’ve been given at birth.
All of this changed with the work of Joseph Altman and Gopal Das.
In a 1965 article, Altman and Gos describe a series of experiments on rats in which “a large proportion of the short-axoned neurones present in various brain structures are formed after birth.”6 If the brain creates new neurons after birth, that suggests that we are not born with all of the neurons we will ever receive, and these neurons open the possibility for pathways in our brains to change over time.
While people today disagree about how often or how many new neurons are created, the consensus from NINDS is that the creation of new neurons, known as “neurogenesis,” “is a lifelong process.”7
Returning to reading, neurogenesis is one of many reasons skilled leadership practitioners are constantly reading; leaders know that their brains can continually evolve.
What does this have to do with exercise?
For that, we will need to meet John Rattay.
Spark
Just because our brains constantly create new neurons does not necessarily mean we will take advantage of this. Many people know they should read but don’t and say they will “when they have the time.” And, of course, just because a person can learn more does not mean they will.
However, if you love to read but can barely jog five blocks, you may discover that your learning potential retards when you don’t exercise. If you need proof, read John Ratay’s Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.
Ratay is a neuropsychiatrist who argues that “exercise provides an unparalleled stimulus, creating an environment in which the brain is ready, willing, and able to learn.”8 When we engage in physical activity, “sparks [of] biological changes…encourage brain cells to bind to one another.”9 If we know that new neurons can be created throughout our lifetime and those neurons create pathways that enable us to learn and create, then we need to do things that will make it easier for those neurons to thrive. And while reading is mentally stimulating, it does not, on its own, create the kind of bodily stimulation that exercise does.
Spark dives into various areas where our brains benefit from exercise, including anxiety, learning, and aging. In each case, Ratay argues that they share that exercise keeps our brains in balance, and keeping your brain in balance can change your life.”10 Ratay writes:
“...exercise improves learning on three levels: first, it optimizes your mind-set to improve alertness, attention, and motivation; second, it prepares and encourages nerve cells to bind to one another, which is the cellular basis for logging in new information; and third, it spurs the development of new nerve cells from stem cells in the hippocampus.”11
Reading is the fuel for better leadership. But if our bodies are not loose and relaxed, then it is likely that the fuel will not be able to function at peak capacity. In this sense, exercise becomes the pathway to maximizing the potential of neurogenesis.
And so Spark is a fascinating way to merge learning, exercise, and leadership into a reinforcing system that allows a person to pursue excellence. People who want to achieve great things and maximize their potential do many things; maybe we need to start by working up a sweat.
Travis Macy and John Rattay
100 Billion
Typical number of neurons in the brain of a newborn baby.
What I Read This Week
The Tyranny of the Penny: Sam Seaborn should have encouraged President Bartlett to adopt the Legal Tender Modernization Act. The penny is way more interesting than I imagined.
Multitasking Doesn’t Work- Why Do We Keep Trying?: Let it be said again- there is no such thing as multitasking.
The Day the Dinosaurs Died: What do dinosaurs have to do with Moneyball? Not much. But the professional shenanigans outlined in this article are epic, and so is the topic.
Depression Biotypes: Adam Grant posted this article, and when Adam Grant posts something, I take notice. Quickly. You should, too.
How to Make Millions as a Professional Whistleblower: Maybe it is time for a career change? Or not…
Yes, even The Magic Touch. Those who get it get it.
Quick Lesson on Talmud: If you’re new to Talmud study, instead of the front and back of a page being numbered as new pages (i.e., 1, 2, 3, etc.), one page in the Talmud is made up of sides A and B so that the numbering would be 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, etc. This is why “pages” of Talmud are really “folios” of Talmud; folios refer to the front and back, as opposed to one page.
Additionally, in this pagination, the first page of a section of the Talmud is 2a, not 1a. I highly doubt Levi Yitzhak’s answer is factually correct; in all likelihood, the numbers have to do with Lithuanian print shops. Nonetheless, it is still a beautiful answer.
Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim (New York: Schocken, 1991), 232.
Ibid.
See Footnote 4.
Ibid.
Ibid., 38.
Ibid., 53.