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The kind of broscience peddled in Silicon Valley is not real science.
The kind of broscience peddled in Silicon Valley is not real science. (Photo: Thought Catalog/Unsplash)

Jack Dorsey and the Cult of Bro Science

The Twitter CEO only eats between 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. You definitely should not emulate his habits.

Published: 
The kind of broscience peddled in Silicon Valley is not real science.
(Photo: Thought Catalog/Unsplash)

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Earlier this week, CNBC a story on the top 鈥渂iohacks鈥澨齩f Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Along with things like cold听showers,听infrared light, and seven-minute high-intensity interval workouts, the list also revealed thatDorsey only eats one meal a day鈥攃onsisting of a lean protein and vegetables鈥攂etween 6:30 p.m.听and 9 p.m.听and he sometimes fasts for the entire weekend.

There was a huge storm on the internet, mostly on Twitter,听attacking Dorsey. I don't want to attack him personally, but I take issue with an outlet like CNBC publishing this story in the first place and, even more so, why so many people鈥攎ostly young males鈥攃elebrate these kinds of听鈥渂iohacks.鈥澨

But since this is out there, let鈥檚 try to leave Dorsey out of it and look a bit deeper into why CNBCs coverage is so dangerous and why the reaction is so strong.

I don鈥檛 know how many calories Dorsey is eating in that two-and-a-half hour听window, but unless it鈥檚 2,500 (he also walks five听miles a day) or he has a medical reason to be on such a restrictive diet (e.g., thyroid issues) what is being celebrated is behavior suggestive of an eating disorder. Eating disorders are deadly. Males may be to get help than females, though people struggling with an eating disorder is a man. So, for starters, celebrating this kind of habit as a 鈥渨ellness biohack鈥澨 . I听 at CNBC to change this headline. We鈥檒l听see what happens.

Second, there鈥檚 some serious gender bias going on here. Just imagine if a woman CEO of a mega-company made public the same kind of eating behavior? She would be criticized.听So the fact that it鈥檚 celebrated in men but shunned in women is another sad reality in and of itself.听

Third, it鈥檚 especially wild that so much of this broscienceperformance and longevity-focusedpseudoscience听largely peddled by young mencomes from Silicon Valley, which I fear is becoming a bit of a parody. You鈥檝e got uber-wealthy people who work in tech making apps focused on very questionable means to self-actualization (one of which is literally a ) who spend their free-time kite-surfing and apparently starving themselves while thousands of people are on the streets experiencing homelessness; measles cases are skyrocketing; and public school teachers can鈥檛 afford to live in the city.听As I've written about in听, one of the ways passion can go awry is when you get so caught up in the inertia of what you鈥檙e doing and the validation it brings that you lose the ability to see outside of it鈥攜ou lose perspective. It seems this is happening in at least parts of Silicon Valley.

Finally, the kind of broscience peddled in Silicon Valley is not real science.听There is no solid evidence that eating only between 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. does anything other than restrict the calories you are eating to a very small window (and probably make you quite hungry).There is no solid evidence that a ketogenic diet prevents or reverses cancer, as .听Putting does not slow aging any more than putting butter on your toast.听, or taking a few naps instead of sleeping at night, is not as restful or good for your brain than sleeping for seven to nine听hours at night.

Most of this stuff is still pretty fringe. But it鈥檚 becoming more of a regular job to keep it that way.

As Michael Pollanfamouslysaid, 鈥淓at real food, not too much,听mostly plants.鈥澨鼳nd 滨鈥檒濒add: Move your body often, sometimes hard. And sleep at night.

And finally, let鈥檚 assume for a minute Dorsey is only eating 1,000 calories in his window. He doesn鈥檛 need strangers enraged with him. He needs help. Direct your rage at CNBC for describing an eating disorder and calling it a 鈥渨ellness biohack.鈥

Brad Stulberg () is a performance coach and writes听国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 Do It Better column. He is also the author of the new book听.

Corrections: (07/17/2025) This article has been changed to address the difference between diagnosed eating disorders and behavior suggesting the presence of an eating disorder.
Lead Photo: Thought Catalog/Unsplash

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