11.1.15

Subreddit's opinion on Dave Asprey (The Bulletproof Executive)?

What's this subreddit's opinion on Dave Asprey (The Bulletproof Executive)? : Nootropics



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What's this subreddit's opinion on Dave Asprey (The Bulletproof Executive)? (self.Nootropics)
submitted by grarl
I've
been looking around on bulletproofexec.com and I have to say I don't
quite buy it. On longecity and a 4 month old AMA, I don't see a strong
consensus either way (calling him a charlatan or legit), so I wanted to
get some more input from /r/nootropics.



I don't particularly care about his claimed physical enhancements,
but I'm highly skeptical of and interested by his claim that he managed
to raise his IQ by 20 points, which by all scientific accounts sounds
like fantasy.



Is there really anything more to it than his testosterone replacement therapy (TRT), provigil, and adderall?



Might any IQ advances merely be the result of better performance
after adapting to the test? Or did he use different tests (i.e. RAPM
then Weschler) or wait 2-3 years in between using the same type of test?


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[–]ZombieChalmers 12 points  
He
reminds me of someone with OCD/anxiety looking at PubMed trying to find
things that might kill him. There are many scary things out that, but
it's not at all clear to me that obsessing over toxins in your diet is
actually going to help anything. He may be going two steps backward for
every step forward, ex: cutting out or processing kale to avoid
oxalates.



Dave's in-vitro level approach would be correct if we had a
comprehensive understanding of human biochemistry, epigenetics, etc. But
we don't. So there's a large possibility of fooling yourself into
thinking you're doing something better when you're actually doing it
worse. If you try enough radical alterations to your diet in an attempt
to improve things I think there's a substantial possibility of stepping
on a landmine that you didn't know existed.



So I look at him basically the same way I look at most people who
have stacks that are 20 supplements long, 15 of which don't have human
research on them.



I think he believe his own hype. I've seen plenty of people on here and longecity saying similar things with similar logic.


[–]EnLilaSko 12 points  
He's a salesman. Don't take anything he says serious, but do your research. Some things are probably fairly good.


[–]Syndetic 0 points  
I
doubt he's doing it to make money. He's the CEO of a big company and is
already very rich. If he wanted to make more money he could do better
than selling coffee over the internet.


[–]EnLilaSko 9 points  
Just
because he is rich doesn't mean he don't want more. He is also selling
way more than just coffee, some things which cost thousands of dollars.


[–]Arkanj3l 1 point  
Those things may mainly cost thousands of dollars due to economies of scale not yet reducing the price. For example, the Upgraded Focus Brain Trainer is essentially a company of one; you can see an interview of that one guy here.
The devices are hand-made until Jonathan Toomim figures something else
out. I don't know Toomim personally but I've seen him around in the
cognitive enhancement community for a while now. He's helpful, knows his
stuff and means well, and Upgraded Self is as good of a distribution
channel as any to take advantage of a large and existing audience, even
if the claims within the brand are suspect. I wouldn't be surprised if
some of these products were sold at break-even, although that's harder
to believe with others.



I wonder if with enough patent-mining and know-how it would be
possible to reverse-engineer the schematics of the more expensive
objects, and create cheaper DIY versions of these objects while still
keeping costs low. DIY could also give perspective on how much a product
actually costs to manufacture and thus how much nickel-and-diming is
done by Bulletproof Exec.



You have a point about there being no reason for Asprey not to try
and make more money, though. If I was in his place I know that I would
continue to hustle, especially if it was on a topic I couldn't get
enough of AND people ate it up.


[–]FromThatOtherPlace 7 points  
Dave is a good guy and he means well, just don't buy his overpriced coffee.


[–]marriedtobacon 10 points  
Or
MCT Oil. "Upgraded" my ass! His plastic bottle makes the MCT taste like
plastic and MCT is cheaper on Amazon...and prime eligible (2day free
shipping FTW!).


[–]mkith 1 point  
ha....he
is a good salesman then, I've been tempted to try his coffee just to
see what the difference is compared to regular good organic coffee you
can buy in the stores. I think he advertises his coffee as green
coffee...the same in fat burners these days.



I see he tells people to fast till 2PM on his bullet proof coffee and
MCT. If you read his forum it's been said some people can't do that and
still get hungry... well, the reason Dave can probably easily pull that
off is because he is on modafinil which kills your appetite, but he
never mentions that. Dave is on adderall too?? He must have one awesome
doctor to be prescribing him both drugs.



I kinda like him though, his approach to diet is similar to mines... I
try to eat all unprocessed foods, organic when I can $$$, but I also
take racetams and other manmade drugs. Think the thing is keeping your
body healthy so those drugs can work their best.


[–]FromThatOtherPlace 1 point  
I
think Dave only uses adderall on study nights where he probably crams a
ton of information, just like a student would. He talks about his
modafinil use openly, he's just done it so much he prefers other topics
now. I was tempted to try his coffee too, just to test it, but I don't
really have alot of money to burn. Besides, coffee makes me jittery and
anxious, and I'm afraid to stain my teeth :D


[–]mkith 1 point  
I
still love my coffee... some xylitol in a bottle of water drank through
out the day, everyday is the answer to prevent stained teeth. If you
aren't against fluorides zellie's method is pretty good.


[–][deleted] 15 points  
Not
really a fan. He extrapolates a lot of his ideas from indirect studies,
and when challenged about it he usually starts playing the "studies are
really expensive" or "studies have shown a correlation" angles on why
he doesn't have direct information. A key example of this is his whole
Bulletproof Coffee thing. He's claims about mycotoxins hasn't really
been backed up and he doesn't even provide proof that his extremely
expensive coffee beans are as mold and toxin free as he claims.



He's into some really interesting stuff, but he's a salesman first and foremost.


[–]marriedtobacon 7 points  
I
liked his blog when I first found it because, unlike many resources, he
cites his references. Unfortunately, I have found many times that he
cites a reference that either a)doesn't support the claim he is making
in the anchor text or b)one would have to have a wild imagination to
interpret the studies results in that way. I have reached out to him
about some of these issues with no response, and last I checked he did
not make some of the suggested corrections.


[–]cicero12 2 points  
Agreed.
When I first found it, it was much more of a value added approach; now,
its more sales oriented. The upgraded coffee is worth it though, I had a
tendency of feeling pretty shitty sometimes with some coffee but his
does me okay.



He flipflopped on his views of decaf coffee when he started selling it, and only cited vague information from one study.


[–]TheLiberalSoup 7 points  
A
little knowledge is a dangerous thing. He's got a little knowledge
about everything. And he's virulently anti-vegan because he's convinced
himself that it's a core part of his identity to be anti-vegan.


[–]YankDownUnder 7 points  
He's
a shyster through and through. He'll go on and on "natural" this and
"organic" that, spew the usual leftie three-bong-rip pablum about GM
food, and how "the corporations" are putting fluoride in your water from
some imagined nefarious purpose, but also says he's taken modafinil
daily for years and never sleeps more than 4 hours per night. I want
someone to ask him what's "natural" or "organic" about that.


[–]FactsBeatOpinions 7 points  
I
think he's not nearly as bad as some like to make him out to be.
However, his advice and recommendations do not all have the same amount
of evidence to back them. Several articles on his site have lots of
great NIH studies linked to them. I personally find I benefit from
following some of his advice. His dietary advice and what's good/bad to
eat is pretty on target. He has a lot of valuable insights. I consider
him like an awesome dude that has done a shit load of independent
research and experimentation. That does not mean it applies to me every
time, or that he is always correct. He does initiate lots of interesting
research of my own, and has inspired me to look WAY more into things I
never knew about though!



I do not know how much I would spend on his stuff, unless I had money
to burn. I consider a lot of his stuff subjective, and just like
Nootropics, I'm sure there are some people who find they benefit, and
some who dont, from his products. Personally, I've stopped drinking
coffee altogether, because I did notice a difference, even long before I
even knew about him or mycotoxins. Sometimes coffee makes me feel like
shit... Often, in fact. So, I drink no coffee now. I drink tea, and I
feel way better! I thought it was just my gut being a bitch. He helped
me realize that I should be paying attention to food's effects on my
body and sense of wellbeing. I am very grateful to him for that....



I have not purchased his coffee instead though, and until I'm
independently wealthy or there's a lot more supportive evidence for some
of his stuff, I may not invest in trying some of his stuff myself.



He's definitely interesting, and worth staying up to speed with. He's
not an idiot, and he's not just trying to screw people with snake oil
either. He believes what he says. Just like you and I do. We have all
found out later on, in many moments I'm sure for all of us, that we were
wrong, or we came to conclusions without all the evidence. That doesn't
make us bad people deserving of vitriol and condescension from
internet anons or anyone for that matter.


[–]Tsarj 1 point  
Are you Dave Asprey?


[–]FactsBeatOpinions 2 points  
Lol.
No. Haven't even met the guy. I'm just not a fan of people jumping from
deciding someone isn't right, to someone is malicious...



The wisest words ever shared with me, from a Jesuit Priest that works
at Fermilab, no joke: "Never allow yourself to assume that the negative
outcomes due to someone's ignorance, are due instead to maliciousness."
Which was his polite, Jesuit way of saying that 90% of the time when
someone is fucking things up for you, they're just too stupid to know
any better, let alone smart enough to actively stymie your efforts in
the world.



For being a priest, he was extremely intelligent, and very hostile
towards those he perceived as less intelligent. This kind of became his
mantra to remind himself not to be punitive towards people just because
they were stupid...



It's always stuck with me ever since.


[–]nicLlaus 6 points  
I'm
always weary of these sorts of individuals who search PubMed to support
argument X, publish argument X on their blog, and repeat that process
indefinitely



They're missing a crucial step: peer-review, or arguing/reasoning
with others about it. This can be done formally, as with academic
journal peer review, or informally, like discussing with or reading the
opinion of other's holding an opposing opinion.



So, Dave Asprey, Mr Bullet-Proof. He's convinced mycotoxins and
gluten are evil. He searches Pubmed for studies supporting this view,
and then publishes that information through his blog. That's fine,
whatever.



But what's not fine is neglecting to take a step back to argue
(open-mindedly) with others who disagree. I'm pretty sure the prevailing
scientific opinion is mycotoxins aren't as bad as Asprey suggests, so
it should be hard for Asprey to find these people and discuss. If
everyone goes into the debate with an open-mind, I think the truth wins
out in the end.



It's a good lesson for everyone. A little bit of knowledge is a
dangerous thing. It's even more dangerous to reason on your own. Proper
reasoning should not be done alone, but in a social context. We can
convince ourselves of very wacky things. It's imperative that an
individual finds other groups or individuals with the opposite opinion.
Then discuss and argue it out. At the end of this group-reasoning
process, the "truth wins".


[–][deleted] 4 points  
I usually question everything he claims until it can be backed by direct research.


[–]hakczar 5 points  
He's
found several things that improve his state of being...but he has
raging confirmation bias and likes to make decisive conclusions from
inconclusive studies. I would say I like his goal though...trying to
systematically improve human performance...definitely noble.


[–]milkywaymasta 2 points  
Yeah,
I was able to find a source for what seems to be the same coffee for
half the price and bought the MCT Oil on Amazon for a discount. I don't
see anything wrong with him charging extra though. I just finished
watching this presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eZLSzLE_Vs
and I've heard most if not all of his biohacks from other sources. He
says he made $6 million by the time he was 26 and spent $250,000 on
biohacking himself and has connections with people we can only dream of
having.


[–]indoordinosaur 6 points  
I
listened to Joe Rogan's podcast once when Asprey was on it and he
started talking about how soldier's can "sense" when there's a sniper
sight on them from some sort of magnetic field sent out by the sniper's
eyes LOL.



Before I saw that podcast I thought he sounded pretty legit but then I
realized a lot of his stuff can't really be backed up with real
science.


[–]ohsnapitsnathan 4 points  
Pretty
much everything on the site is just his hypotheses about things.
There's very little empirical backing for most of the claims he makes.



Now, that's not the worst thing ever because, as he mentions, studies
are expensive, and some of the hypotheses are pretty reasonable (i.e.
that eating more omega-3 fats might improve your mood). However, some of
them are complete pseudoscience.
In particular, he seems to be obsessed with the idea that we're all
exposed to various kinds of mysterious "toxins" which impact our health
in mildly annoying ways. So YMMV.


[–]shrillthrill 6 points  
In particular, he seems to be obsessed with the idea that we're all
exposed to various kinds of mysterious "toxins" which impact our health
in mildly annoying ways.


Mycotoxins are real, but whether his concerns are warranted and
whether quality control is stricter in some countries/brands over others
are questions worth considering compared to the hype. I think it's
hype, not so much quackery.



If you're interested in the science behind it, I posted a review of mycotoxins to /r/FoodNerds a few weeks ago.



It canvasses many different toxins (these are by-products of
microorganisms) and reports on sources and average consumption by
country. Coffee isn't the only concern, nuts, baby formula and other
foods all contain them in some form. China is the worst country to be
living in or sourcing food from (without strict quality controls).
Poorer countries seem to have higher incidences of mycotoxin
contamination in foods which might explain higher incidences of health
problems.



That said, I don't encourage anyone to buy Asprey's coffee based on his claims alone.


[–]DukeBerith 2 points  
Nothing more than a snake oil salesman.


[–]Snareface 2 points  
Dave
Asprey is a clown wearing the suit of an educated person. He had
successfully, and unfortunately, broken into the self improvement
community consciousness with his sophistry. I still can't fucking get
over his "bad coffee is bad, has toxins, and makes you cry" argument to
buy Bulletproof coffee.


[–]Elowin 1 point  
His Bulletproof diet is just a variation of the Paleo/Primal Diet.



His Bulletproof coffee is great though. That, along with Modafinil,
are the two single biggest improvements in my cognitive life.


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