Jack Dorsey Is Experimenting With Asceticism

Editor’s Note: This is a work in progress.

Who would have ever thought?

I might actually have a lot in common with people like Jack Dorsey:

“Twitter founder and CEO and billionaire Jack Dorsey has more money than he could ever need — but he’s not acting like it. Unlike the self-made wealthy folk of years gone by, Dorsey and a growing number of top-earning tech entrepreneurs aren’t swilling vintage champagne and banqueting in their free time. Instead, they’re practicing an extreme form of self-denial that has me both troubled and puzzled.

Dorsey recently appeared on the Ben Greenfield Fitness podcast to explain his monkish lifestyle in more detail than the 240 character blasts he’s known for sending out to the less biologically enlightened universe. He says he eats only one meal a day in the week and doesn’t let any foodstuff pass his lips at the weekend. He also starts every day with an ice bath. “Nothing has given me more mental confidence than being able to go straight from room temperature into the cold,” he says. And, rain or shine, he walks the five miles from his home to his office. It’s all part of his ever-evolving quest to keep his brain functioning at maverick CEO level. And, I suppose, outlive anyone silly enough to think that eating regular, balanced meals is sensible. …

It’s also curious, and a little chilling, that this rewrite of the tech elite lifestyle has come about at a time when powerful influencers and innovators are seeing their inventions harnessed by terrible people who do and say terrible things. In Dorsey’s case, he’s created a platform that has allowed populists, alt-right types, and Russian bots to spread their messages to vast new audiences, creating more chaos than he could possibly have imagined. …

Stoicism is different. It asks that its followers dispense with all the sparkle, deliciousness, and fluff, and get back to humble basics. It’s a sort of reverse elitism that could also, potentially, blame-proof a tech billionaire’s legacy. “I may have invented Twitter,” Dorsey might say. “But I walk to work and vacationed at spiritual retreats that look like refugee camps!”

Dorsey getting his monk on publicly is winning him as many detractors as fans. Still, if the negativity gets too much, at least he can come home and relax in a nice cold bath. …”

I also have these “monkish habits.”

Just a few weeks ago, I had a lot of the commentators worrying about my mental health, which is understandable because I really wasn’t writing as clearly then as I am now. Unfortunately, I gained a lot of weight back while trying to elect Blompf as president from 2015-2016, and I have spent the last year using a combination of low-carb dieting, weight lifting and intermittent fasting to get back in excellent shape. A well known side effect of fasting is spiritual and mental clarity.

Keto Savage from Arkansas is one of my favorite YouTube channels:

This experience of becoming so much physically stronger over the past year has inspired me to include health and fitness as the eight plank of the 3.0 movement.