Newsletter › #6
Buffett's Last Shareholder Letter | Trying One Meal a Day | Man's Search for Meaning | Ikigai
【What I've been up to】
Hi, Reader,
I hope you're safe and well after the typhoon.
Here's an interesting experiment I've been doing lately.
I'm challenging myself to eat just one meal a day for seven days straight, and tracking my energy.
Why this challenge?
I've done 16:8 fasting for two years, starting by skipping breakfast.
My mind became remarkably clear in the mornings.
But after lunch I'd want to sleep,
because digesting food takes energy and dulls the mind.
So I wondered: what if I skipped lunch too?
Could I stay clear-headed all day?
If I could live well on one meal a day, that would be wonderful.
Hence the experiment — and the results exceeded my expectations.
Without lunch, I don't get sleepy.
I save the time spent eating and napping, and my energy is better.
I gain 2–3 extra productive hours a day, without coffee —
full of energy from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
I even scheduled afternoon gym sessions to test my fitness.
Training on an empty stomach went even better than before: I could lift heavier and focus more.
Funnily enough, with all this extra time, I panicked a little at first — it felt strange.
But once I rearranged my schedule, I felt much better.
I'd dreamed of living like this for a long time; now that it's suddenly real, I'm thrilled.
I can use the time I save for more meaningful things, and I feel more in control of my life.
Here's a story from Tim Ferriss's Tools of Titans:
---
Naval Ravikant once shared with Tim Ferriss the story of Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha:
Siddhartha, a ragged monk, comes to the city and falls for a courtesan named Kamala. She asks him, “What do you have?” A wealthy merchant also asks him what he can give. Both times his answer is the same.
Merchant: “If you have nothing, what can you give?”
Siddhartha: “Everyone gives what he has. The soldier gives strength, the merchant gives merchandise, the teacher teachings, the farmer rice, the fisher fish.”
Merchant: “Very well. And what can you give? What have you learned that you can give?”
Siddhartha: “I can think. I can wait. I can fast.”
Merchant: “That's everything?”
Siddhartha: “I believe that's everything.”
Merchant: “And what's the use of that? For example, fasting — what is it good for?”
Siddhartha: “It is very good, sir. When a person has nothing to eat, fasting is the smartest thing he can do. When, for example, Siddhartha hadn't learned to fast, he'd have to accept any kind of service before this day is up, whether it may be with you or wherever, because hunger would force him to do so. But like this, Siddhartha can wait calmly, he knows no impatience, he knows no emergency, for a long time he can allow hunger to besiege him and can laugh about it.”
In the end, Siddhartha gets everything he wants.
Tim Ferriss often thinks about Siddhartha's answer this way:
“I can think” → having good rules for decisions, and good questions to ask yourself and others.
“I can wait” → being able to plan for the long term, play the long game and use your resources well.
“I can fast” → being able to withstand difficulty and pain, training yourself to be resilient and tolerant of discomfort.
---
If you can fast, it means you can endure hardship and pain — it trains your resilience.
Long-term fasting also helps improve insulin sensitivity.
In February last year my insulin was 3.8 uU/mL;
now it's 2 uU/mL, with an HbA1c (glycated hemoglobin) of 5.4%.
The lower your insulin, the higher your insulin sensitivity,
meaning your body uses insulin more effectively.
Your body doesn't need to release much insulin to keep fasting blood sugar normal,
and low, stable insulin levels help burn fat.
Overall, fasting seems to have made me a new person:
more energetic, more vital, more confident.
I highly recommend trying it.
There's plenty online about how to fast — find the approach that suits you.
But I suggest getting your family doctor's assessment first, to be safe,
because fasting isn't for everyone. People who shouldn't fast include:
1. pregnant or breastfeeding women
2. people with diabetes
3. people at risk of low blood sugar
4. people with eating disorders
5. people who are underweight or malnourished
Finally, here are my productivity heat maps for two weeks; days marked in yellow are dinner-only days.
Figure 1: November 3–9 | dinner only on Friday and Sunday
Figure 2: November 10–16 | dinner only
For energy management, here's a tool I'm using: a productivity heat map (thanks to Kim for sharing it).
Productivity heat map (make a copy to your own account first; in Chinese)
【Book share】
- Author: Viktor E. Frankl
- Title: Man's Search for Meaning
This book is very famous — many successful entrepreneurs recommend it — but I've only just read it.
The author created logotherapy. He was a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps, endured all kinds of cruelty, and survived.
It has two parts:
1. The first is his account of life in the camps, describing their inhumanity.
2. The second uses his expertise as a psychiatrist to explain why prisoners developed the psychological symptoms they did, along with psychological theory and research.
One story especially moved me:
In the week between Christmas 1944 and New Year 1945, the death rate in the camp rose sharply.
This wasn't because working conditions got worse, food got scarcer or an epidemic broke out.
It was because most prisoners had held on to a naïve hope that they'd be home by Christmas.
As Christmas approached with no sign of the war ending, their faith collapsed, their resistance weakened, and they died one after another.
Nietzsche said: “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”
Those prisoners lost their reason to live, and with it their lives.
So if you're enduring pain just to get by right now, what you need most is a reason to live.
The book also explores the ultimate meaning of life, with a deeply philosophical passage:
It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us.
We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life — daily and hourly.
Ultimately, the meaning of life means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks it constantly sets for each of us.
What we really need is a fundamental change in our attitude toward life.
I thought about this passage for a long time. I still can't say what the meaning of life is.
But I think that's exactly what the author wants readers to do — think.
A few days ago I visited a friend I hadn't seen in a long time. When she was young, her goal in life was to marry and have children.
Now she's past childbearing age and has no plans to marry; her only goal left is to be happy and enjoy life.
Is the meaning of life to enjoy it?
For me, it doesn't seem to be — though I don't know the answer yet.
Think Like a Monk suggests beginning with the end in mind to think about life's meaning:
imagine the day you die. How would you like the people at your funeral to remember you?
“He was so rich.”
“He lived in a mansion.”
“He drove a sports car.”
None of these seem to matter to me, and I wouldn't want to hear them.
I'd much rather hear:
“He influenced me — I started creating too.”
“He was a kind person.”
“He taught me how to manage money and changed my life.”
When I realized that what I value are inner qualities and positive influence, not outer possessions,
I let go of my attachment to things from that moment on, and my life became clearer.
I suggest you try this thought experiment too.
The book is thin, but it carries a heavy weight of life experience.
I recommend it to two kinds of people:
1. those who feel life is hard
2. those who feel life has no meaning
I hope you enjoy it.
【Learning resources】
Buffett's last shareholder letter: choose your heroes carefully, and become the person you look up to
This is Warren Buffett's last letter as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. After reading it, I felt it was well worth sharing.
Buffett is not only wise but very humble.
Here's a Chinese translation of the full letter:
If you don't have time to read it, you can listen to this video:
youtube.com/watch?v=Sk3xkjJUPIU
And if you really can't be bothered to read or watch it,
I used AI to pull together 30 valuable life lessons from the letter. I meant to cut a few,
but couldn't find any that weren't important, so I kept them all for you to decide.
Notably, number 14 lines up with this issue's book share.
1. On luck and humility
1) Acknowledge the huge role of luck
Buffett repeatedly stresses how much of his life came down to luck — being born in America, healthy, white, male, into a good family.
He reminds us: many people are born into unfairness; don't credit all your success to yourself.
2) Don't ignore your luck, and don't show off your success
Leaders and the wealthy often get more luck than they care to admit.
3) Don't assume luck will always be on your side
With age, luck runs thinner and risks multiply. Stay clear-headed and grateful at every stage of life.
——
2. On aging, health and attitude to life
4) Aging is inevitable — Father Time never loses
You may age later than others, but it will come.
Accept decline without complaint.
5) Good luck with health matters — but don't take medical care for granted
Local doctors saved Buffett's life three times; he's grateful to live with good medical care.
6) You can keep contributing into old age
At 95 he still goes to the office every day to work and think. Age is no reason to stop learning.
——
3. On mistakes and personal growth
7) Don't punish yourself for past mistakes
“Don't beat yourself up over past mistakes — learn at least a little from them and move on.”
8) You can always get better, even in your nineties
He says the second half of his life has been better than the first.
——
4. On choosing your heroes and who to learn from
9) Choose the right role models and life gets simpler
“Choose your heroes very carefully and then emulate them.”
10) Don't follow heroes of fame and fortune — follow heroes of character
He names Tom Murphy as his greatest role model.
——
5. On kindness and how to treat people
11) Kindness costs almost nothing but is priceless
“Kindness is costless but also priceless.”
12) The cleaning lady is as much a human being as the chairman
Whatever their position, everyone deserves to be treated as an equal.
13) You can help the world in a thousand ways
“If you help someone in any of thousands of ways, you help the world.”
——
6. On the ultimate purpose of life
14) Imagine your obituary, then live the way you want to be remembered
Design your life actively, rather than regretting it only as death approaches.
15) Don't measure greatness by money, fame or power
The real measure is whether you've made a real contribution to the world.
——
7. On family and legacy
16) Don't try to control your family from the grave
“Rule from the grave” works badly; he opposes complicated wills designed to control.
17) Trust the next generation's judgment rather than setting limits
He trusts his children and accepts that they'll adapt their strategies to a changing world.
18) Teaching children how to do things matters more than leaving them wealth
He let his children practice using money to help the world through charitable foundations that grew year by year.
——
8. On work and career
19) Work with people who share your values
All his life he looked for honest, hardworking, long-term people.
20) Don't work with greedy or vain people
He criticizes CEO culture driven by comparison, and showy management.
21) Find a working environment you'd stay in for life
Since 1956 he has stayed in the same city, with the same rhythm of life.
22) The bigger the business, the more limited its growth
“In 10 or 20 years, there will be many companies that have outperformed Berkshire.”
23) Expect the market to fall 50%, but don't panic
“Berkshire's stock has fallen 50% three times. America will recover, and so will Berkshire.”
——
9. On leadership and governance
24) Choosing an honest successor matters more than anything
He speaks very highly of Greg Abel.
25) Leaders should avoid chasing flashy wealth and early-retirement dreams
A CEO should put the company's long-term interests first, not think “I'll retire at 65.”
26) Deal with an ailing CEO early; don't delay out of sentiment
He admits he and Munger made this mistake.
27) Don't raise pay unnecessarily because of comparison
“Envy and greed walk hand in hand.”
——
10. Practical wisdom for living
28) Be grateful for opportunity
He notes America has its flaws, but opportunity is still plentiful.
29) Wish happiness even to those who are jerks
“Happy Thanksgiving — even to the jerks; it's never too late to change.”
30) Use your time well, and accept that you won't live forever
Aging makes time more precious; focus on what truly matters.
This week's episode
#51 | Find your ikigai: build a meaningful life from intrinsic motivation
What ikigai is, why passion is the only truly intrinsic motivation, the three needs of self-determination theory (autonomy, competence, relatedness), and my 30/7 passion list to find your direction in a week.
Read the full show notes in English › (the episode is in Mandarin Chinese)
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That's it for this issue of the FIRE Life Weekly.
If you have any questions about the show,
or suggestions for the newsletter,
just write to me at doug@firetw.com.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Have a lovely weekend,
and see you next week.
Doug