I had a lot of fun this week playing with ChatGPT to help me build out this next phase of my dieting and training plan. It is an amazing tool when leveraged properly.

The Body section of this week’s newsletter focuses on a utilization I think everyone can enjoy. The section is a little longer than our typical entries, so I wanted to keep the intro short this week. So I leave you with this to start the week, a passage from James Clear:

“All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger. Roots entrench themselves and branches grow. The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us. And the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower, one day at a time.”

Brain - Harnessing Neuroplasticity for Good

One of the most powerful mechanisms of the human brain is that it can change itself. This ability (known as neuroplasticity) is the process by which the brain forms and reorganizes synaptic connections in response to experience, learning, and even deliberate practice. Dr. Andrew Huberman often describes neuroplasticity as the brain’s capacity to adapt like “wet clay,” shaped by both what we focus on and how consistently we repeat those actions.

Science shows that neuroplasticity is strongest during childhood, but it never disappears. Instead, it becomes more “use it or lose it.” Meaning, the pathways we reinforce through attention and behavior get stronger, while the ones we neglect weaken. For adults, this is great news. It means we are not locked into old habits, mental ruts, or skill limitations. We can deliberately train our brains to learn new skills, improve focus, or unlearn destructive behaviors.

So how do we tap into this? Here are a few evidence-backed strategies:

1. Deliberate Learning in Focused Blocks
   Neuroplasticity is triggered when the brain encounters effortful learning. Short, focused periods of deep work, 20–90 minutes without distraction, activate neuromodulators like acetylcholine, which mark new pathways as “important” for retention.

2. Pair Learning With Rest
   Huberman emphasizes that neuroplasticity doesn’t solidify during the learning itself but during rest and sleep afterward. Taking breaks, practicing non-sleep deep rest (like meditation or yoga nidra), and getting 7–9 hours of quality sleep are critical to wiring in change.

3. Embrace Errors as Signals
   Frustration or mistakes aren’t failures; they’re signs your brain is destabilizing old patterns and attempting to rewire. Staying with the discomfort is what allows new circuits to take hold.

4. Use Repetition With Emotion
   Repeating behaviors or skills with genuine engagement (rather than mindless drilling) accelerates plasticity. Adding emotion - curiosity, excitement, or even urgency - strengthens the “stickiness” of new pathways.

5. Break Bad Habits by Redirecting, Not Just Resisting
   The brain doesn’t simply erase old habits; it prunes them by replacing them. Each time a trigger arises, deliberately choosing a new action (even a small one) weakens the old pathway while strengthening a new one. Over time, the balance tips.

I share this particularly this week to reiterate to us all - you are not hardwired. Whether you want to sharpen focus, learn a new skill, or finally step away from routines that hold you back, neuroplasticity is your brain’s built-in mechanism for transformation. By being intentional with your focus, rest, and repetition, you can literally reshape the way your brain functions, and with it, reshape the trajectory of your life.

This is a great episode from Huberman if the topic intrigues you

Body - Your New Macro Tracker

One of the hardest parts about losing weight is ensuring that you not only have a properly defined calorie limit (that is accurate), but then subsequently monitoring your calorie and macro-nutrient intake from that point on a daily basis.

Most people start off super motivated - download MyFitnessPal or another macro tracker - and then get tired of manually entering things and fall off the wagon.

Here at The Superset, the name of the game I like to play is take something hard and find ways to make it feel easier. In 2025, that first box to check always seems to be “How could AI help me here?” - Enter ChatGPT, your new macro coach.

MyFitnessPal is amazing, and after a bunch of time spent in the app, it can also be really easy to use. The most difficult component I have found for people who aren’t loony like myself and eat a lot of the same meals is the variety of entries. Having to search for different foods every day, changing portions, etc. So how could ChatGPT help us solve that?

I have laid out the prompts to help us solve just this problem. As a test-use case, I tracked my diet for a day, just using type prompt entries. Here was the starter:

“You are my personal nutrition coach who specializes in helping people lose weight and maintain muscle mass. I want to monitor my macro nutrients for the day. Can you help me? For breakfast today, I had an 8-oz KC strip, cooked in a couple sprays of olive oil, with 4 eggs, and then 1/4th of a sweet potato diced up.”

It answered with this:

Here’s the macro breakdown for your breakfast:

• Calories: ~881 kcal

• Protein: ~71 g

• Fat: ~61 g

• Carbs: ~8 g

That’s a very protein-heavy and lower-carb start to the day. Want me to keep a running log for today so we can track each meal and snack as you go?

I told it a running log would be great.

Book - “Katabasis” - The Latest Novel From RF Kuang

R. F. Kuang - author of The Poppy War trilogy, Yellowface, and Babel - is considered one of the greats of contemporary speculative fiction and one of my favorite authors. Tomorrow, August 26, a book I have been looking forward to all year releases, titled “Katabasis”. It is already slated for TV adaptation at Amazon MGM Studios.

Here’s a quick synopsis pulled from the site on this book:

“In this dark academia fantasy, two Cambridge PhD candidates -Alice Law and her scholarly rival Peter Murdoch - literally descend into Hell to rescue their deceased mentor, Professor Grimes, whose recommendation could set the trajectory of their academic futures. Hell, however, is no mere infernal cliché: it mirrors the academic world with twisted logic, unbearable pressure, and systems designed to crush curiosity.”

The Guardian calls it “a scathing yet imaginative critique of the academic world… cloaked in a darkly comic and mythological narrative.” The journey through eight courts of hell becomes a potent metaphor for the precarity, exploitation, and existential hunger of grad school life.

RF Kuang’s “Babel” is one of my favorite fantasy novels of all time. For the same reasons I like to read Brandon Sanderson, Kuang has this innate ability to take complex societal issues and weave their topics into fantasy world settings with unique plots and magic systems. If my personal recommendation isn’t enough, here’s a quick sales pitch:

“Babel” is set in an alternate 1830s Oxford where translation is literal magic. Kuang weaves a razor-sharp story of privilege, colonialism, and the cost of revolution. It’s intellectually thrilling, emotionally devastating, and unforgettable in how it asks what we’re willing to sacrifice for justice. Babel isn’t just a novel - it’s an experience that will leave you questioning power, language, and history long after you close the final page.”

I will be reading Katabasis by the end of the week. In typical dork fashion, I will be going to the store to get my copy of this one, as I do for any other anticipated releases. There is still something special about the anticipation of a great book, and that moment coming to fruition in stores. Please let me know if you pick this one up too.