Latest posts 5
Consistency.
One thing that keeps striking me since I started working alongside the very best: their consistency. Small daily efforts, repeated again and again. Small sacrifices that can seem trivial. And never losing sight of their goals. Consistency. Discipline.
Others bet on a different strategy: a huge effort once their back is against the wall. The way I used to learn "everything" for an exam the night before. So who's right?
For learning, at least, science has a clear answer.
The forgetting curve: we forget fastest in the first hours after learning something, then more slowly. Ebbinghaus first described it in 1885, and it was replicated in 2015. [1]
In one experiment, 1,354 people learned 32 facts, then reviewed them either the same day or 3 weeks later. Tested 70 days on, the "3 weeks" group recalled 111% more, with the same total study time. [2] The best gap depends on how long you need to remember: about a day for a test in a week, about 3 weeks for a test in a year.
A review of 317 experiments points the same way: spacing out practice beats cramming. [3]
Limits: the 2015 curve comes from a single person, and these studies used facts and words, not in-game skills.
A little, often. Beats a lot, once. Be consistent.
Sources:
[1] Murre & Dros (2015) doi.org/10.1371/journa…
[2] Cepeda et al. (2008) doi.org/10.1111/j.1467…
[3] Cepeda et al. (2006) pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16719566/
One thing that keeps striking me since I started working alongside the very best: their consistency. Small daily efforts, repeated again and again. Small sacrifices that can seem trivial. And never losing sight of their goals. Consistency. Discipline.
Others bet on a different strategy: a huge effort once their back is against the wall. The way I used to learn "everything" for an exam the night before. So who's right?
For learning, at least, science has a clear answer.
The forgetting curve: we forget fastest in the first hours after learning something, then more slowly. Ebbinghaus first described it in 1885, and it was replicated in 2015. [1]
In one experiment, 1,354 people learned 32 facts, then reviewed them either the same day or 3 weeks later. Tested 70 days on, the "3 weeks" group recalled 111% more, with the same total study time. [2] The best gap depends on how long you need to remember: about a day for a test in a week, about 3 weeks for a test in a year.
A review of 317 experiments points the same way: spacing out practice beats cramming. [3]
Limits: the 2015 curve comes from a single person, and these studies used facts and words, not in-game skills.
A little, often. Beats a lot, once. Be consistent.
Sources:
[1] Murre & Dros (2015) doi.org/10.1371/journa…
[2] Cepeda et al. (2008) doi.org/10.1111/j.1467…
[3] Cepeda et al. (2006) pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16719566/
1:11
Sauna.
Even if it takes us a little away from performance and the mind, I couldn't leave Sweden without talking about it. Personally, finding a sauna in the hotel when we travel is one of the things that makes my job so enjoyable. I love it.
People say the Nordic countries are ahead of us thanks to this tradition: in Sweden alone, some 10,000 public saunas were built in the first half of the 20th century. [6] I can only agree. But looking into it, I realized it's far from that simple.
The most solid
- Heart and longevity. 2,315 Finnish men were followed for about 20 years. Those using a sauna 4 to 7 times a week had a 40% lower risk of death than once-a-week users, and a 50% lower risk of fatal cardiovascular disease. [1]
- Blood pressure. In 102 adults, a single 30-minute session lowered systolic blood pressure from 137 to 130 mmHg and reduced arterial stiffness. [2]
The less solid
- Endurance. 6 runners added sauna sessions after training for 3 weeks: their time to exhaustion rose 32%. [3]
- Mood. In 30 adults with depression, one session of whole-body hyperthermia reduced symptoms more than a sham. But it was a medical device, not a sauna. [4]
- Sleep. 83.5% of 482 sauna fans say they sleep better. Self-reported, by enthusiasts. [5]
Bottom line: a pleasant, plausible tool, with real signals for heart health. Not a miracle. Either way, if it does you good, don't deprive yourself!
Sources:
[1] Laukkanen et al. (2015) doi.org/10.1001/jamain…
[2] Laukkanen et al. (2018) doi.org/10.1038/s41371…
[3] Scoon et al. (2007) doi.org/10.1016/j.jsam…
[4] Janssen et al. (2016) pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27172277/
[5] Hussain et al. (2019) doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim…
[6] The Local (2021) thelocal.com/20211123/swedi…
Even if it takes us a little away from performance and the mind, I couldn't leave Sweden without talking about it. Personally, finding a sauna in the hotel when we travel is one of the things that makes my job so enjoyable. I love it.
People say the Nordic countries are ahead of us thanks to this tradition: in Sweden alone, some 10,000 public saunas were built in the first half of the 20th century. [6] I can only agree. But looking into it, I realized it's far from that simple.
The most solid
- Heart and longevity. 2,315 Finnish men were followed for about 20 years. Those using a sauna 4 to 7 times a week had a 40% lower risk of death than once-a-week users, and a 50% lower risk of fatal cardiovascular disease. [1]
- Blood pressure. In 102 adults, a single 30-minute session lowered systolic blood pressure from 137 to 130 mmHg and reduced arterial stiffness. [2]
The less solid
- Endurance. 6 runners added sauna sessions after training for 3 weeks: their time to exhaustion rose 32%. [3]
- Mood. In 30 adults with depression, one session of whole-body hyperthermia reduced symptoms more than a sham. But it was a medical device, not a sauna. [4]
- Sleep. 83.5% of 482 sauna fans say they sleep better. Self-reported, by enthusiasts. [5]
Bottom line: a pleasant, plausible tool, with real signals for heart health. Not a miracle. Either way, if it does you good, don't deprive yourself!
Sources:
[1] Laukkanen et al. (2015) doi.org/10.1001/jamain…
[2] Laukkanen et al. (2018) doi.org/10.1038/s41371…
[3] Scoon et al. (2007) doi.org/10.1016/j.jsam…
[4] Janssen et al. (2016) pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27172277/
[5] Hussain et al. (2019) doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim…
[6] The Local (2021) thelocal.com/20211123/swedi…
1:11
Excitement.
Today, we play our first official matchs in @Envy colors. High stakes, high expectations. And I can already feel it: the heart beating a little faster, the mind running through every scenario. Pressure is part of high-level competition. Unavoidable. And yet, what a joy when you manage to use it to elevate yourself and bring out your best. So today, I won’t try to calm it down. I’ll call it what it can be: excitement.
In 2014, Alison Wood Brooks (Harvard Business School) ran 3 experiments. Before each task, participants either said or read that they were excited, tried to stay calm, or got no instruction.
• Karaoke: 81% singing accuracy after “I’m excited”, vs 69% with no statement.
• Public speaking: those who said “I’m excited” were judged more persuasive and confident, and spoke longer (167 s vs 132 s).
• Math test: 3.6 correct answers out of 8 vs 2.9 for “try to remain calm”.
The idea: anxiety and excitement are both high-arousal states. Relabeling may be easier than forcing yourself to calm down.
In 2025, the speech experiment was re-run: people still felt more excited, but observers saw no difference in performance. Singing and math haven’t been re-tested yet.
Sources:
[1] Brooks (2014) doi.org/10.1037/a00353…
[2] Poynter & Pasqualini (2025) doi.org/10.58734/plc-2…
Today, we play our first official matchs in @Envy colors. High stakes, high expectations. And I can already feel it: the heart beating a little faster, the mind running through every scenario. Pressure is part of high-level competition. Unavoidable. And yet, what a joy when you manage to use it to elevate yourself and bring out your best. So today, I won’t try to calm it down. I’ll call it what it can be: excitement.
In 2014, Alison Wood Brooks (Harvard Business School) ran 3 experiments. Before each task, participants either said or read that they were excited, tried to stay calm, or got no instruction.
• Karaoke: 81% singing accuracy after “I’m excited”, vs 69% with no statement.
• Public speaking: those who said “I’m excited” were judged more persuasive and confident, and spoke longer (167 s vs 132 s).
• Math test: 3.6 correct answers out of 8 vs 2.9 for “try to remain calm”.
The idea: anxiety and excitement are both high-arousal states. Relabeling may be easier than forcing yourself to calm down.
In 2025, the speech experiment was re-run: people still felt more excited, but observers saw no difference in performance. Singing and math haven’t been re-tested yet.
Sources:
[1] Brooks (2014) doi.org/10.1037/a00353…
[2] Poynter & Pasqualini (2025) doi.org/10.58734/plc-2…
1:04