[Icko]

I can't get a read on this guy. I have strong bullshit feelings, but I'm not 100% sure.

1. He seems to have an awful lot of referral links - $60 for a bottle of olive oil? 2. He has not posted why is his regime like that - e.g. "Here is a paper about iron deficiencies, so I'm taking an iron supplement". 3. 90% of his website is "look at how dense my bones are", "look at how healthy my liver is" - bro I just wanted to see the actual regime, and you can't even post that.

[radu_floricica]

I knoooow, it was exactly my feeling. He has a lot of referral links... but over half of them are out of stock. If he gave a shit about making money he'd have updated the links.

Overall I think he's legit, but also weird. It could be "rich guy weird" or "on the spectrum weird", doesn't really matter. Either way, I'm mostly taking him seriously now, with caveats.

The biggest caveat being, of course, that it's a study with a sample size of 1. A very in-depth study, but the applicability is limited. For example if you look at the list of supplements, there are quite a few which are obviously there because he's a vegan.

This is also related to why his protocol isn't explained in detail - it's ongoing and result-based. He may try something, see if it works, and stick it in the protocol. Supporting studies are useless for this modus operandi - he's not trying to convince you that particular supplement is good for you. All he's doing is risk-benefit calculations for his particular case. Which means that yes, he'll have a bunch of stuff which maybe work for everybody, or maybe work for him, or maybe random noise just made them look like they work for him but are actually useless. Or worse, stuff which can be actively harmful, but he was lucky or just very healthy otherwise and didn't see the damage.

[pcstl]

I'd agree with you if it weren't for all the cultish red flags present here.

This is clearly a man who wants a cult-like mentality to form around him.

If he were just going ridiculously in-depth with his self-research and being open and honest about this, I'd actually admire him a lot, but it's all the grandiose talk about "Zeroth principles thinking" and "Aligning with what the 25th century would want" together with implying his detractors must be weak, scared and lacking in self-control that turns me off heavily.

[tomalaci]

It is on https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com site. For example, his fitness routine: https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com/#fitness

Personally, I have taken few things from his routine and double-checked it with other sources and more importantly found much cheaper products/things locally than the ones that are advertised (even though, most of them are fine anyways such as in Skincare he uses standard Cerave stuff).

Do note that this is -one- guy trying basically everything that seems plausible. It would likely result in frequently switching up things that are not researched well.

[pcstl]

The issue is that he never explains why he does particular stuff, what specific results particular stuff he tried had, what worked and especially what didn't.

His website is full of "look at my amazing results!", which makes for good marketing talk but does not good science make and is not good nor helpful for people who are trying to separate what works from what doesn't - but is great for Mr. Johnson' budding supplement business's baseline.

[JumpCrisscross]

> I have taken few things from his routine

Any you feel comfortable sharing?

[gloryjulio]

> $60 for a bottle of olive oil?

Looks like just another scam artist to sell stuff

[joenot443]

With a very, very short amount of research you'd find he has a pretty seasoned track record, having sold Venmo's parent company to PayPal for $800m in 2013. Not exactly the drop-shipping repackaged olive oil salesman you're painting him to be.

Personally, I try not to throw out accusations about people when I'm this unfamiliar with their background. I'd encourage you to consider a similar habit :)

[pcstl]

So he's a successful businessman.

How does that background translate to any kind of scientific competence? Because his website is heavy on the buzzwords and the Silicon Valley "glorious future"-talk and remarkably light on anything resembling responsible science.

He clearly doesn't want to advance knowledge about longevity, he wants to be the world's top longevity marketer and salesman. It's just a business long shot to him. And yes, that is perfectly congruent with his background.

[gloryjulio]

Like taking nutritional advice from a successful entrepreneur, and startup advice from doctors?

It seems that Jobs is way more successful than him. Should we follow his fruit diet?

[wouldbecouldbe]

I don't think he needs te money tbh

[pcstl]

As an entrepreneur myself, I can tell you that "needing the money" stops being a significant motivation after a while, or at least takes a back seat to the thrill of just getting people to buy the thing.

[gloryjulio]

Well a lot of the scam artists are rich. It's not like they have stopped scamming