#43: Why Are We Focused on Living Longer Instead of Living Better?

☀️  Is there a finish line?

You're scrolling through your feed when you see another longevity guru talking about their morning routine: 47 supplements, ice baths, red light therapy, and blood tests every month. They track every biomarker, optimize every input, and claim they've reversed their biological age by a decade.

And then you pause. What if they succeed? What if they live to 120?

Will those extra years be worth it if they spent the first 80 in a state of constant optimization, measuring, and monitoring instead of living? What if the obsession with not dying meant they forgot to actually live?

Could it be that we’re so focused on adding years to our lives that we might be forgetting to add life to our years? Tech billionaires are spending fortunes on anti-aging research while an 80-year Harvard study keeps pointing to the same boring truth: close relationships matter more than cholesterol levels, and happiness at 50 predicts health at 80 better than any biomarker.

Bryan Johnson wants to be immortal by 2039. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel insists he hopes to die at 75. Between these extremes lies a question that matters more than either answer: not how long can we live, but how well?

This edition is about that gap between lifespan and healthspan, between the years we chase and the life we might be missing.

📖 3 Articles to Spark Your Curiosity

1. Over Nearly 80 Years, This Harvard Study Has Been Showing How to Live a Healthy and Happy Life
   The longest study on adult development reveals that close relationships, more than money or fame, keep people happy throughout their lives. Satisfaction with relationships at 50 predicts physical health at 80 better than cholesterol levels. Loneliness kills as powerfully as smoking or alcoholism.
   → Read on Harvard Gazette

2. Live Longer or Live Better?
   The longevity movement has grown from scientific curiosity into a global obsession, with biohackers tracking every biological marker and tech billionaires funding anti-aging research. But in seeking to live longer, might we be squeezing the joy out of living itself? History is full of people who died young yet lived with extraordinary depth and purpose.
   → Read on The Wrinkle
   

3. It's Not Your Lifespan You Need to Worry About. It's Your Healthspan
   More of us are spending over a decade saddled with conditions that make daily life challenging. Longevity researchers are shifting focus to healthspan: the number of disease-free, active years. Centenarians don't just live longer; they're sick for a much smaller portion of their lives.
   → Read on National Geographic

🗞️ 3 Headlines Worth Exploring

1. The Push to Turn Longevity Research Into Real Drugs
   BioAge Labs is translating promising aging research into actual pharmaceuticals, developing drugs that target inflammation, muscle loss, and cardiovascular disease. Big Pharma is leaning in hard: Eli Lilly, Novartis, and GSK are investing billions in longevity targets.
   → Read on TIME

2. Longevity Biotech in 2025: The Expert Roundup
   Industry leaders report that Big Pharma's interest in longevity exceeded expectations in 2025. The success of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs proved that preventative medicines can be blockbusters. Meanwhile, replacement therapies for aging organs and AI-driven drug discovery are gaining serious traction.
   → Read on Lifespan.io
   

3. Biohacker Bryan Johnson Says He Will Be Immortal in 15 Years
   The 48-year-old who spends $2 million annually on anti-aging protocols claims he'll achieve immortality by 2039, when he'll be chronologically 62. He points to AI-driven innovation and nature's "immortal" species like jellyfish as proof it's possible.
   → Read on Daily Mail

☀️ 3 Actions to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

1. Schedule One "Useless" Social Activity
   Having the Harvard Study in mind, try to schedule one purely social activity with no productivity goal. Coffee with a friend, dinner with family, a phone call with someone you miss.
   

2. Take Your Measurements Off Autopilot
   If you track health metrics (steps, sleep, calories, screen time), turn off notifications for one week. Experience your body without the constant feedback loop. Notice whether you feel more or less healthy when you're not quantifying everything.
   

3. Ask the 75-Year-Old Question
   Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel chose 75 as his acceptance marker not because he wants to die, but because it forces him to live intentionally now. Ask yourself: if you had a fixed endpoint, what would you stop putting off? What would you prioritize differently?

⚡ 6 Quick Resources

🎥 To watch: Doctor Answers Longevity Questions
Dr. Dan Belsky tackles questions about aging: Could a cure for aging be discovered in our lifetime? What's the upper limit of human lifespan? Which longevity treatment will go mainstream first?
→ Watch on WIRED

📖 To read: A Decade After Saying He'd Die at 75, This Penn Doctor Still Means It
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel declared he'd be ready to die at 75. Now 67, he hasn't changed his mind. His argument: life's purpose isn't extending it indefinitely but living meaningfully and then letting go.
→ Read on Philadelphia Magazine

🧘 To check: What is Biohacking?
An introduction to the movement: from cold plunges and fasting protocols to wearables and supplement stacks. The line between optimization and obsession, explained.
→ Read on Calm

🔬 To explore: 3 Bizarre New Gadgets Biohackers Are Excited About
The latest longevity tech includes devices that measure cellular aging, wearables that track deep health metrics in real time, and gadgets claiming to boost mitochondrial function.
→ Read on New York Post

🧠 To know: If You Are Happy and You Know It, You May Live Longer
Research from Harvard shows optimistic people have longer lifespans and better cardiovascular health. Happiness isn't just a nice bonus; it's a protective health factor.
→ Read on Harvard Health

✈️ To plan: Why the Pursuit of Longevity Is the New Reason to Travel
Longevity tourism is booming: wellness retreats focused on healthspan, destinations with Blue Zone diets, and travel experiences designed around the principles that help people live disease-free longer.
→ Read on Condé Nast Traveller

🎲 This week’s wonderfully random corner of the internet 

📊 Life Stats

A visualization tool that shows you how many days you've lived, and puts your lifespan in different perspectives. It's confronting in the best way: a gentle nudge to spend your finite time on what actually matters.

→ Contemplate your life at neal.fun/life-stats

📝 Word of the Week

Memento Mori (Latin) - Well, this one is quite straightforward. It’s a reminder that our lives are finite. 

In ancient Rome, a slave would stand behind victorious generals during triumphal parades, whispering "memento mori" to remind them of their mortality even at the height of glory. When you remember that your time is limited, you make different choices about how to spend it.

The longevity industry sells the opposite promise: forget that you'll die, optimize as if you won't. But the paradox is that accepting mortality might be what actually makes us live well. Not longer, but better. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel embraces memento mori. Bryan Johnson fights it. The Harvard study suggests that neither extreme matters as much as the people we choose to spend our finite time with.

🧘‍♀️ Question of the Week for Introspection

If you could add 10 healthy years to your life but had to spend 2-3 hours every day on optimization routines (supplements, tracking, treatments, protocols), would you take the deal? And if not, what does that tell you about what actually makes life worth living?

See you next Sunday! Until then, keep your eyes open, your questions big, and your sense of wonder alive.

Your curious internet friend,
Ruxandra