As I was introducing the Prime Diet, I decided to pause for a monthly detour — an emotional checkpoint I call In·Sight.
This was part of the plan from the very beginning: to carve out a space where I could talk not just about science or strategies, but about how it feels to walk this path. The inner turbulence. The small wins. The defeats. And the often overlooked behavioral psychology behind it all.
Last month, I shared my thoughts on why we can’t seem to put down our phones.
This time, I want to talk about something just as intimate:
The tension between fast and slow — between short-term impatience and long-term conviction.
I crave speed.
Whatever I’m doing, I want it done faster. Faster output, faster results, faster progress, faster iteration.
As an entrepreneur, I love the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) mindset — not just because it works, but because of the raw, kinetic energy behind it. Get something out. Throw it into the world. See if it sticks. Move.
It makes me feel alive. In motion.
But if I really sit with it, this obsession with efficiency often carries an emotional undercurrent — a subtle but constant urgency.
It’s as if there’s a manic little voice in my head, always one milestone ahead. Finish one thing? Move to the next. Fall behind? Spiral into anxiety and self-doubt. If I don’t see visible progress for a while, I begin questioning the entire path — and sometimes, even myself.
Worse, that sense of hurry starts to bleed into everything: Rushing to succeed. Rushing to prove. Rushing to judge others. Rushing to dismiss, to despair, to self-attack.
I remember, as a kid, spending hours on the floor by my dad’s bookshelf, getting lost in books I only half-understood. Now I find myself even wanting to watch movies at 1.5x speed. I barely let something unfold before deciding: too complicated, not useful, not worth it.
This is the second In·Sight in the Prime Lab series. And today, I want to look at this feeling of hurry.
But I’m not here to tell you to “let go,” or “make peace,” or “live in the now.” That path exists, sure — but it’s not the only answer.
Because like many Prime Lifers, I’m still deeply curious about the world. I still expect things of myself. I still have things I want to do.
So maybe the question isn’t how to let go of desire, but how to transform it — from short-term anxiety into long-term resolve.
And that… is hard.
Because our brains are wired to crave instant feedback. Immediate results. Quick hits of dopamine. Long-termism, by contrast, is like a foggy mountain trail. It’s uncomfortable. Often lonely.
But here’s what I’ve come to realize:
Everything truly worth having is… slow.
Good investments? Slow. Meaningful work? Slow. Health and longevity? The slowest of all.
Painted by AI
The Investment Perspective: Compound Interest Needs Time
If you were to capture Buffett’s investing wisdom in a single sentence, “You have to allow yourself to get rich slowly” would be near the top of the list.
He meant it.
That line sums up his entire belief system — his lifelong faith in the force he once jokingly called the eighth wonder of the world: compound interest.
Compound interest is to wealth what photosynthesis is to plants. It looks slow. But hidden within is a quiet power of exponential growth.
Let’s run a quick thought experiment.
- Suppose you invest $10,000 at an annual return of 10%. After 50 years, you’ll end up with $1.17 million. Over 100x your initial investment.
- But what if you’re Buffett? If you average a 25% return over 50 years (roughly his rate from 1950–1990), what do you get?
Answer: $700 million. That’s 70,000x your original investment!
This is the math of exponential growth. The slow pace is just the surface. The deeper truth is the curve — compounding over time. That’s the magic behind “getting rich slowly.”
But human brains are terrible at recognizing this. We’re wired for linear thinking, not exponential gains. That’s why even those who know about compounding often can’t resist short-term trades or trend-chasing. It feels like doing something. It feels safe. In control.
Buffett often quoted his mentor Benjamin Graham: “In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.” It’s a truth he built his entire investing philosophy upon. What he measures is not emotion — it’s value.
And value takes time to weigh.
Health Is the Same Game — Just with a Different Currency
Unlike money, adult health operates under a kind of negative compound interest. Metabolism, muscle mass, cognitive speed, cardiovascular function, immune resilience — they all slowly decline after a certain age.
For example:
After the age of 40, muscle mass declines by an average of 4–5% every decade1,2.
Atherosclerotic plaques, which are largely irreversible, may begin accumulating silently from a young age3. Data compiled by the WHO/ISFC from multiple countries indicate a significant rise in the area coverage of raised lesions (a clinical precursor to plaques) as early as the 25–34 age group. For example, the raised lesion area in the abdominal aorta (AA) increases from approximately 0.35% in the 5–14 age group to around 5% in those aged 25–34. In the right coronary artery (RCA), the area increases from ~0.5% to ~4%, with a 2–3x increase every additional decade[3–5].
Cognitive processing speed also naturally declines with age. Data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA) provide specific gradients: from around age 20 onward, simple reaction time slows by approximately 0.5 milliseconds per year, while choice reaction time slows by about 1.6 milliseconds per year. The age-related differences become even more pronounced in complex cognitive tasks[6–7].
These aren’t just numbers. They’re the ticking of a biological clock inside us.
So here’s another thought experiment:
Imagine someone has a “health index” of 100 at age 18. By age 80, it drops to 1 — a kind of death threshold. That’s a compound annual decline of -7.15%.
Now suppose we intervene — through diet, exercise, sleep, supplements, or medicine — and manage to slow the decline to -6%.
What happens?
Their lifespan increases by 12 years — from 80 to 92.
Push it further to -5%? You’re now looking at a life that comfortably clears 100.
That’s what I mean by the compound interest of health — or rather, reversing negative compounding through the Prime Life approach.
The same principles apply:
- Start early. Compounding takes time.
- Small gains matter. Every improvement multiplies.
- Don’t panic when progress feels slow. Allow yourself to get better — slowly.
Because over a long enough timeline, slow is fast.
Painted by AI
The Entrepreneur’s Lens: Greatness Comes from Non-Consensus
Professor Zeng Ming once said: “Excellence is the enemy of greatness.”
He wasn’t being contrarian just for the sake of it. He was pointing to something fundamental:
Excellence happens within consensus — it’s about outperforming others in games everyone agrees are worth playing.
Greatness, on the other hand, is forged outside consensus — it’s about believing in something others don’t yet see, and making it true.
An excellent entrepreneur finds the right market, builds a good product, executes well, and wins more resources. It’s hard, but doable. And the rewards are recognized by mainstream standards.
But that’s exactly the trap.
Because excellence draws a crowd. You’re not just winning — you’re fighting a horde of other excellent people, competing for the same attention, capital, and validation. What looks like a wide highway is often just a narrow bridge, overcrowded and suffocating.
Greatness is different.
It tends to emerge in the wilderness — on roads no one else wants to take. You’re the only one who believes. You may even stop believing in yourself. And still, you have to persist. To iterate. To quietly stack momentum in a world that gives you no feedback, no applause. Until one day, the world shifts, the consensus catches up, and your once-lonely belief has grown into a towering tree.
Even Warren Buffett — arguably the greatest investor of our time — was a contrarian. His famous line, “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful,” is nothing but a call to bet against the crowd, and be right over time.
Every trillion-dollar company — Google, Apple, Alibaba — has walked through that same dusk: the murky, skeptical, doubted phase before the light breaks.
I’ve had my share of that.
Over a decade of entrepreneurship has taken me through both — the noisy overcrowded bridges, and the quiet muddy swamps. And I’ve learned this:
In the game of life, there are no guarantees.
The excellent don’t always win the consensus game — there’s always someone more excellent.
The contrarian doesn’t always reach greatness — sometimes they’re just wrong, wandering deeper into the cold, quiet fog.
Every entrepreneur knows the emotional cycle: from the Peak of Inflated Confidence to the Valley of Despair.
Truth is, we go through that cycle daily.
We don’t always know where we’re heading. But we can try to hold our state — stay more centered, avoid constant breakdowns. Because over the long arc, it’s all dialectics.
The way moves in reversals.
– In moments of buzz, ask: Am I walking into the narrow gate of mutual burnout? — In moments of loneliness, remind yourself: Maybe you’re quietly building unseen momentum.
Move slowly. Watch slowly. Heal slowly.
Let yourself get better — slowly.
Because greatness, always, takes time.
Painted by AI
Prime Life: The Slow-Burning Power of Personal Agency
All of this — the cycles, the contradictions, the chaos — has only deepened my reflection on what a Prime Life really means.
Because outcomes — success, praise, recognition — are never fully in our control.
But what is in our control? Perhaps just this handful of things:
– Our daily emotional state. Rather than swing between euphoric confidence and crushing despair, we can cultivate a deeper sense of presence, clarity, freedom, and groundedness.
— The length of the game. If you know there are many more rounds to play, you don’t panic over one bad hand. You reset. You adapt. Maybe even reinvent your playstyle.
— A healthy, energized body. Our body is our agent — our interface with the world. Strengthen the agent, and we reclaim our agency.
In the pursuit of a Prime Life, we don’t have to become better right now.
We just have to allow ourselves — to slowly become better.
Intervention recommendations are geared toward generally healthy individuals. If you have existing health conditions, always follow your doctor’s instructions.
References7
[1]Mitchell, William K., et al. “Sarcopenia, Dynapenia, and the Impact of Advancing Age on Human Skeletal Muscle Size and Strength: A Quantitative Review.” Frontiers in Physiology, vol. 3, 2012, p. 260.
[2]Volpi, Elena, et al. “Muscle Tissue Changes with Aging.” Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care, vol. 7, no. 4, 2004, pp. 405–410.
[3]Mendis, Shanthi, et al. “Atherosclerosis in Children and Young Adults: An Overview of the WHO/ISFC Study on Pathobiological Determinants of Atherosclerosis in Youth (1985–1995).” Prevention and Control, vol. 1, 2005, pp. 3–15.
[4]Nicholls, Stephen J., et al. “Effect of Evolocumab on Progression of Coronary Disease in Statin-Treated Patients: The GLAGOV Randomized Clinical Trial.” JAMA, vol. 316, no. 22, 2016, pp. 2373–2384.
[5]Nissen, Steven E., et al. “Effect of Very High-Intensity Statin Therapy on Regression of Coronary Atherosclerosis: The ASTEROID Trial.” JAMA, vol. 295, no. 13, 2006, pp.
[6]Fozard, J. L., et al. “Age Differences and Changes in Reaction Time: The Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging.” Journal of Gerontology, vol. 49, no. 4, 1994, pp. P179–P189.
[7]Hardwick, Robert M., et al. “Age-Related Increases in Reaction Time Result from Slower Preparation, Not Delayed Initiation.” Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 128, no. 3, 2022, pp. 582–592.
