The Cult of the Optimizer

Huberman et al and the individual quest for control

It seems to me that everyone and their dog has been talking about Andrew Huberman lately. Executives and colleagues at work, half the internet, and of course guys at the gym. Huberman has shot to fame across the intenet thanks to his podcast appearances and general media strategy. He is a neuroscientist and one of countless men who are interested in optimizing their health. Huberman is to me one face of modern secular religion we see evolving. He is a prophet of the Optimizer.

The Optimizer seeks to fine tune his life in an attempt to fill the emptiness that haunts him. He is a driven Last Man. A man looking for a solution. He has been convinced that marginal gains should be sought out in all areas. He is convinced that science and the latest research always has an answer.

Huberman’s latest big moment seems to be his secular materialist crusade against alcohol. From Marc Andreessen’s mega tweet to multiple people at work it seems that everyone is now listening to Huberman’s autistic scientific materialist message about alcohol. His message is thus: alcohol of any amount is bad for you, don’t do it. That’s it. That’s the message. In our hollow materialist age of loneliness this message is somehow the one people want to hear. The reality of course is that even prior to the pandemic years of shuttered bars and pubs drinking has trended downward. In spite of the fear mongering most humans meet together to drink, to socialize, to experience the highs and lows of life. People don’t tend to drink alone (although the normalization of cannabis consumption alone seems to parallel these trends) they drink together. Even during the pandemic happy hours moved online and people could feel like they were artificially together with their alcohol consumption.

This anti-alcohol optimization is just the most visible face of this new secular cult. Like all cults that impact society people adhere more or less to it but the influences spread outwards. This is about individual control and it speaks to the death of community. Imagine hosting a dinner party today what you could encounter:

• The vegan

• The keto dieter

• The carnivore

• The gluten free

• The 6 hour eating window guy

• The non-drinker

The above diets are common, we encounter them all the time and mock some of them. Yet think about how difficult a normal menu to plan is. Take a hallmark of meme culture. “I just want to grill” instead of just buying some buns, burgers and brats 40 years ago and knowing that everyone you invite will be happy with that and whatever sides the wives bring today to be a good host you’d be buying asking each guest about dietary restrictions and planning around them. Next time you think about hosting and want to cook something your wife reminds you “Carol is a vegetarian remember” and you evaluate inviting them at all…

We tend to think of homogeneity in racial terms because this has been the greatest disruption to our way of life but alongside that is the death of our own cultural bonds. We now live as a multitude of individuals many of whom are engaged in some form or quest for optimization of their health which imparts restrictions on the basic social activities that tie humans together: food and drink. To live in a homogenous society is not just to see people who look like you but to know they also live like you and you can engage on the same level with them.

This rise of the individualist and their micro control lifestyle has been surfacing in the media at the same time as a disturbing number of air safety incidents. A near miss in Austin between a cargo plane and a commercial flight, another miss at JFK, and now more recently a near miss between a private jet and a commercial flight at Boston-Logan. Talk to most people afraid of flying and it is because of the ‘loss of control’ of course surrendering control to specialists in a functioning society is not that risky.

What happens though as standards slide, as intelligence declines, as we hire for diversity instead of competency, as systems complexity increases as investment falls. Trust falls from institutions, it has fallen all over the West. Rightfully so, just look at the insanity promoted by the institutions in charge of dietary health. They have been shown time and again to be frauds, their vegetable oils are poison, their crusade against animal fats and salt are lies built upon lies. Is it any wonder that people retreat to what they can individually control - the cult of the body?

Huberman et al represent part of this - they are science believers and data cultists. They seek optimization for marginal gains as if they were Olympian athletes at the top of their sport - in reality most followers or consoooomers of this content are distinctly average stuck in a society that is unraveling. This is a form of cope, a form of flagellation, of denial of what is good. Life streamlined. The cult of the optimizer will be one that increases in popularity as the descent continues, as people search for a modicum of control as disorganized individuals.