Lessons from my relationship with acne
My acne story, Netflix documentary on Cambridge Analytica, a book on Charisma, and brain-computer interfaces
Hi friend!
This week, I've been in San Francisco getting some errands done. And by errands, I mean an acne laser appointment that's de-commissioned me from any photos and outdoors for the next few weeks.
(Warning: acne photos below)
I've dealt with a lot of acne growing up. It started in around 2004 and persisted for almost 10 years. During this time, my family insisted that it was just my puberty. I was pressured to stop being "so vain," and my family refused to bring me to a dermatologist.
As the acne on my face became more prominent and more numerous, my self-esteem decreased more and more. It was pretty painful, literally and figuratively. The cysts were always swollen, feeling bruised. Strangers would give me unsolicited hygiene advice, thinking that my acne was caused by issues with cleanliness.
I decided to go on Accutane in 2012, and it would be the start of healing my face. To get to where I am today, it has taken me four rounds of Accutane, and a complete revamp of my diet and lifestyle. An almost fully-clear face with the occasional breakout here and there.
I learned a few things along the way:
Pharmaceuticals can't heal everything. Accutane was a significant first step, but I ultimately had to treat deeper issues: stress management, leaky gut, and diet. In fact, Accutane is a powerful steroid that damages liver and kidney functions to stop oil production, which often leads to increased body inflammation and susceptibility to auto-immune disorders.
Acne is the body pushing out toxins. Generally, it's a sign that we are intaking substance (food or even pharmaceuticals) that is not agreeing with our body. It may also be a sign that our internal biome and GI is exceptionally damaged or filled with poor gut bacteria. By viewing acne as a process of the body healing itself, I could start building a more compassionate relationship with the zits and use it to identify where healing needed to occur.
We are all different, requiring individual solutions. Factors including personal ethnicity, genome, childhood diet, and lifestyle patterns (when our GI developed) all impact the way that we respond to treatment. Instead of following what's the most popular or what's trending, seeking what works best by trying various methods diligently to bring us closer to our individual solution. It took me almost 10 years to figure out that what worked for me was unique to me.
Lastly, we live in a superficial society where beauty (unfortunately) affects strangers' first impression. This one I absolutely hate. As my face started clearing up, I noticed a change in how strangers responded to me. At first, I loved the influx of new unsolicited attention. But as I got older, it was disturbing to realize how innately vain people are. Looking back, I am absolutely humbled with my acne experience, and I attribute a big part of developing my character and empathy through it. Now, I avoid photoshopping my face and zits in all of my photos (only color grade) and I don't wear any concealer or foundation in my day-to-day. To each their own (more power to you if you use photoshop & makeup) but for me, this helps to keep me grounded and centered away from an unhealthy relationship with vanity.
My treatment recently has been on acne scar therapy working on clearing the divots and grooves from the years of deep and painful acne. It's hard to tell in photos, but when I am under a direct spotlight, you could see all the craters on my face from past acne trauma.
Fractioning uses light to emulate an intense sunburn to peel off a layer of my skin, taking with it some of the old scar tissue. The glaze on my face is the healing ointment I've had on all week. Over the next month, the treated skin will darken and then peel off. Not the best look for going outdoors, right? 😂
I could go on forever with acne stories and tips, but that's it for now. My week in a nutshell.
Of course, feel free to reach out if I can help you out with acne or any skin issues. It was a big journey and still is a significant part of my life.
A Documentary That's Awakening Me
Netflix's latest documentary, The Great Hack, follows the story of Cambridge Analytica whistleblowers through their tumultuous time during the 2016 Brexit and US presidential election campaign. It was fascinating to see from various perspectives how the scandal came to light. A humble company trying to revolutionize data quickly turned into a monster that destabilized our democracy to help elect Trump.
It's crazy to think that they had over 4-5K data points per user to create psychological profiles of millions of users all around the US. And it's even crazier to think that some of the Black Lives Matter movement and protests were organized by Russians looking to divide our country further. Fake news and memes are being generated by humans/machines faster than ever, and it's something we need to understand and combat as we move towards the 2020 elections.
A Book I Love
I talked about this book last week, but here it is again: The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism by Olivia Fox Cabane. In a nutshell, becoming charismatic is to become more mindful and present when interacting with people. No black magic, no inauthentic tricks, just genuine presence.
A Company I'm Keenly Following
If you have been following my email, you know that I've been keeping a close eye on Elon Musk's startup, Neuralink. The company plans to create an HCI (Human-Computer Interface) by the year 2020, and progress has been quite speedy. They have just started experiments on smaller primates, and their website displays updated branding and even more job postings. Most recently, Elon hosted a live stream showcasing some of the first products produced by Neuralink.
Whether we want to believe it or not, we are already walking cyborgs. Our phones are always on and practically tethered to us at all times. At any moment, we can get the day's weather forecast, view current events, and shop for products anywhere in the world. Elon claims that our connection/bandwidth to computing is limited by our senses to tech devices: 10 fingers, 2 eyes, 2 ears. If we can create a seamless connection with digital devices, we can increase the bandwidth and have the potential to process more data and computing than ever before - with just our minds. This will open doors to a whole new realm of computing, and I'm so stoked for it. Are you?
As always, thanks for reading!
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Have a beautiful day!
Metta (loving-kindness),
Steven