May 1, 2019

Keith Rabois: Can you view stress as a motivator instead of as a disease? – Crazy Wisdom

A little stress is good for you
- Don’t let stress be something you fear
To succeed as a creative, sure quality matters, but so does quantity
- A lot of the great artists and inventors of our time succeeded by producing a TON of output, and it just so happened that some fraction of their output was incredibly valuable
What you measure, you can optimize – sleep, exercise, and diet

Keith Rabois (@rabois) is a General Partner at Founders Fund
Check out the:
- Podcast Notes from Keith’s appearance on Venture Stories
- Podcast Notes from Keith’s appearance on The North Star Podcast
- Podcast Notes (Part 1 and Part 2) from Keith’s appearance on This Week in Startups
- Podcast Notes from Keith’s appearance on Invest Like the Best

A little stress is good for you – the more you challenge yourself, the better you become and the more you accomplish in life
- Keith highly recommends the book The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It by Kelly McGonigal
If you think stress is good for you and a challenge to look forward to, your body will respond much more positively than if you have the attitude that stress is something you should totally to avoid
- People who have this attitude perform better in school + job interviews
“Being a little stressed is actually a great way to live your life”
Keith likes to have a lot of his plate to keep him occupied
- Having too much to do will quickly teach you how to prioritize your most important tasks
But we can’t forget sleep – it’s important
- Make sure you get your 8 hours
- Keith highly recommends the book Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

The most creative people on the planet generally succeed by producing more works of art than less creative people
- A lot of the great artists and inventors of our time succeeded by producing a TON of output, and it just so happened that some fraction of their output was incredibly valuable
- The more you produce, the higher the chance you have of one of those creations being great

Keith is a big fan of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) – short periods of intense anaerobic exercise
- One of the best indicators of a person’s health is to measure how long it takes for their peak heart rate to drop back to their resting heart rate after intense exercise (known as your 2-minute recovery time)
HIIT, intermittent fasting, and caloric restriction all help in extending your lifespan
Keith loves Barry’s Bootcamp and goes there almost every day
- It’s a group HIIT workout led by a coach so you don’t have to memorize workouts/ create a workout plan
  - “It’s really invigorating”

In the work environment, think of work as a competition and stress as feeling that pushes you to do better
- “Your health, meaning how long you live, is actually better if you have more stress”
  - People that have no stress in life, live shorter lives than those with a reasonable/moderate amount of stress
How do you recover from too much stress?
- If you’re introverted like Keith, spend a couple of hours alone
- If extroverted, spend time with other people to recharge

Find opportunities in life where you can use leverage to become successful
What you measure, you can optimize – sleep, exercise, diet
- Measure it all and optimize
One of Keith’s superpowers is to find young and rising stars – usually recent grads or college students

These notes were edited by RoRoPa Editing Services