The Digest Issue #18


Boost Your Workouts With Caffeine, Even if You Chug Coffee Daily

The New York Times | Gretchen Reynolds

Caffeine improves athletic performance. This is a truth almost universally acknowledged in exercise science.

But scientists, coaches and athletes also have thought that to gain any performance boost from taking caffeine before an event, an athlete had to abstain from the stuff for days or weeks before a big event.

A new study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology intimates, however, that these ideas about caffeine and performance are out of date and that someone can swill coffee every day and still get a caffeine performance buzz when needed.

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How to Maintain, Or Even Improve, Your Memory As You Age

The Washington Post

As you age, some slowdown in memory and processing is to be expected. That can mean a forgotten birthday, an accidentally retold story, a temporarily misplaced wallet.

Such run-of-the-mill forgetfulness may increase over the years but is usually not — as you may fear — a sign that you’re on the road to a condition that can seriously impair memory and thinking, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Still, small thinking slip-ups are inconvenient and can sometimes be early warning signs of a more significant problem. So it’s natural to want to take mind- and memory-protective steps.

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How to Live on 24 Hours a Day: Arnold Bennett on Living a Meaningful Life Within the Constraints of Time

Farnam Street Blog

Despite having been published in 1910, Arnold Bennett’s book How to Live on 24 Hours a Day remains a valuable resource on living a meaningful life within the constraints of time. In the book, Bennett addresses one of our oldest questions: how can we make the best use of our lives? How can we make the best use of our time?

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The Gospel of Hard Work, According to Silicon Valley

Wired | Nitasha Tiku

Silicon Valley's emphasis on work-life balance may be evolving, but its priesthood still values a very particular kind of grit. This ideological tension came to blows earlier this week in a marathon Twitter fight that started on Memorial Day, with anecdotal evidence and closing arguments still trickling in days later.

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