{"text":[[{"start":5.8,"text":"If you were to ask an AI model to spit out a parody of two earnest, do-your-own-research-touting, fitted-black-T-shirt-wearing bro-casters in conversation, it might sound a lot like Steven Bartlett talking to Chris Williamson about alcohol on an episode of the former’s smash hit podcast, Diary of a CEO. (The latter hosts the marginally less popular and equally pontificatory Modern Wisdom.) "}],[{"start":30.75,"text":"“It’s one of those areas where you don’t understand the hidden cost until you really give it up for a while,” Bartlett says soberly, explaining that he had ditched the booze aged 30 (he’s only 33 now) and then tried drinking again a year later. Now he “could really A/B test it”."}],[{"start":47.8,"text":"“I had a couple of glasses of wine, didn’t get drunk — it ruined three days of my life because of the domino effect it caused,” Bartlett explains. “Because I got worse sleep that night, I ate more poorly the next day because my dopamine system or whatever, the cortisol system, was all messed up.” Quite literally stroking his beard, the Love Island star turned modern-day sage Williamson chimes in: “That’s resilience, yeah.” "}],[{"start":72.3,"text":"“And I could track all of this on my Whoop, hashtag ad, hashtag sponsor, hashtag investor, whatever,” Bartlett continues. (A Whoop is, in fact, a fitness-tracking device that sponsors and invests in Bartlett’s show.) "}],[{"start":86.64999999999999,"text":"The exchange, from a podcast episode originally released last December, made headlines this week after a BBC radio host Greg James shared his thoughts on it, in a social media post that was also a plug for his “anti-Bartlett book”, All the Best for the Future. “My issue with it is this endless optimisation and measuring of everything, to the point where it starts to make you feel a bit miserable if you don’t quite hit your own targets,” James said. “Optimisation is killing fun. We need to absolutely rail against that. So phones down today, go and have a nice time. And don’t log it.”"}],[{"start":120.69999999999999,"text":"Hard to disagree with him there. I can’t open X without being confronted by a 20-post thread about what CEOs do between 4am and 7am (it’s not sleep, alas) or how to use AI to make my life more streamlined and productive. I can’t open Instagram without being offered ideas for how to eat my body weight’s worth of protein for breakfast. "}],[{"start":142.85,"text":"It is all rather joyless, self-serving and lonely. And it is, I believe, borne out of late-capitalist, utilitarian thinking (the same sort that gave rise to the “effective altruism” movement — remember Sam Bankman-Fried anyone?). Don’t worry about living your life in a joyful or virtuous way, just focus on the goal even if you never actually get there. If you do, though? Keep optimising! "}],[{"start":168.5,"text":"Anyway, my experience is often the opposite to Bartlett’s: had several martinis, got drunk, and it made my month because of the domino effect that it caused. I’m not the only one. A close friend is about to have a baby with a man she met at a party I hosted in 2023 during which I plied her — and everyone — with white negronis. Would she have had the audacity to ditch the date she had turned up with for the man who would become her partner had she not been absolutely sozzled? She says no: that would have been uncivilised. "}],[{"start":198.25,"text":"I should say this column is not intended as a paean to alcohol. Plenty of friends and family members are living better, healthier, more fulfilling lives having given up drinking. As I write, I am struggling with a hangover brought about by a long liquid lunch promptly followed by a liquid supper, which I slightly regret. "}],[{"start":216.8,"text":"I also think that there are sometimes classist undertones in some of these discussions; it’s not very old-money to give up drinking, or to protein-maxx, or even to go to the gym too often. And turning your body into a lean, mean, muscle machine is one of the few areas in which socio-economic status does not matter. "}],[{"start":235.35000000000002,"text":"But the fact is that we are over-optimising, over-streamlining and forgetting about the things that matter the most. Research suggests that the top regrets of the dying are things like not having spent enough time with loved ones, not having allowed oneself to be happy or authentic and not having worked so hard. Your Fitbit might be able to tell you that you got to bed too late and that you haven’t moved your body for five hours straight, but it doesn’t tell you that you were busy laughing your head off or that you just met the love of your life. "}],[{"start":265.20000000000005,"text":"“No pleasure is worth giving up for the sake of two more years in a geriatric home at Weston-super-Mare,” said the late Kingsley Amis. Quite. And no night out with friends is worth giving up for a couple of extra points on your daily readiness score. "}],[{"start":284.30000000000007,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1780810930_1791.mp3"}