How New Bike Day Made Me Think About My Brain

New Bike Day

For a cyclist, New Bike Day (colloquially known as NBD on Strava) is a big deal. There's something about swinging your leg over a new machine that just feels magical. It's especially gratifying when you know within the first few minutes that "this is the one". I recently got to experience all of that-but this isn't a post about that. Rather, it's about a question the new bike brought me to.

If you're not into cycling, the price of a road bike might seem shocking. I know it was to me the first time I thought about buying a bike. Don't get me wrong, there's no need to go out and spend as much on a new bike as some people spend on their cars. (I mean, maybe there's a need, but different post, different day 🤣). When the time came for Jackie, my partner (both life and ride), and me to buy new road bikes, we didn't hesitate for one moment when it came to the cost. These are nice bikes! They make us want to ride even more than we do. It's an activity we love and also one that contributes to our physical fitness. We generally don't hesitate when it comes to spending money to take care of our bodies. Whether it's natural produce at the grocery store, personal training to build strength or riding gear, we are willing to invest the cash. We pay attention to metrics, talk about our fitness habits and generally keep our physical fitness top of mind. This is not unique to the two of us. In general, people in our culture invest a lot into being physically fit. Even people who don't see themselves as fit are aware of its importance and feel some sense of responsibility or desire to be more so.

What does a new bike have to do with a 🧠

Here's what hit me: I'm the person who will spend [amount redacted] on a bike without blinking but will balk at the cost of a book. The question that followed seems obvious: why are we not making the same investment in our cognitive fitness as we do in our physical fitness? I mean, certainly some are, but I'd venture to guess that the vast majority of people are far more concerned with physical fitness than with cognitive fitness.

What exactly is cognitive fitness?

If the term cognitive fitness is new to you, consider skills like reading, writing and thinking about complex problems and concepts. Another aspect of cognitive fitness is being able to deal with the discomfort of focusing on one thing for long periods of time. It's akin to thinking of yourself as a cognitive athlete in the same way many of us think of ourselves as endurance athletes, or basketball players, etc.

Why investing in your own cognitive fitness matters

Here's a morbid question: if you had to choose between a physical limitation that meant you could no longer walk or a mental limitation that meant your brain no longer had long-term memory, which would you choose? It's a terrible choice. However, I don't have to think very hard to know which option I'd choose. Losing physical function in your body is terrible, but you are still "you". If your mind stops working correctly, that's a different story. To be clear, I'm in no way arguing against physical fitness-in fact, I'm for MORE physical fitness (pro tip: it is good for your cognition). What I am positing is that we, me included, should be far more aware of our cognitive fitness and be willing to invest just as much into taking care of our minds as we do in the rest of our bodies. I should not only look at my legs in the mirror and think "they look strong!", I should also be checking out the folds in my brain and thinking "they are deep today!" (okay, not a thing, but you get the point).

How to start exercising your brain

I'm not approaching this subject as someone who feels like they have it all sorted out. I'm a fellow traveler on the journey. Remember, bike/book. That being said, if my walking this road can be helpful or inspiring to someone else, I'm all about it. Here are a few ideas of ways to start "working out" cognitively:

Read

Reading is the foundation for cognitive fitness. It means you need to sit and focus on a thing and pay attention to it for intervals of time. Ideally, you'd read something that is somewhat challenging for you-don't get too hung up here though, just get started. Don't rely on audiobooks (controversial, but they invite the idea of multitasking which is not good for you brain). If you aren't reading at all, start out with 10 minutes a day. In the same way you wouldn't get off the couch and try to run for 2 hours, you can't expect to be able to sit down with a book for hours on end if you haven't been reading at all. You can increase the time you read as you go. Simply build the habit.

Write

This doesn't need to be formal. Sit down with a notebook and a pen and make some notes. If you don't know what to write, write about that. Writing forces you to take thoughts and ideas in your head and to put them into words that have structure and flow. This is a bit more intense and difficult than reading. If reading is like getting your 10,000 steps, then writing is going to the gym. Don't worry about, or attempt to, "write well". This isn't about that. It's about the practice. A piece of advice that comes from the author and thinker Cal Newport is to get a nice notebook and a nice pen. The right tools for the right job.

Be intentional with how you use LLMs

LLMs have become ubiquitous in our lives. They have unprecedented power to allow for cognitive outsourcing-basically, they make it easier than ever to avoid cognitive strain. I'd argue that's the "default mode" for most consumer agentic tools. Don't fall into the trap of letting the LLM do your reading and writing for you. Yes, you get the artifact, but you haven't become a more accomplished reader/writer/whatever AND you've avoided the exercise that would be increasing your cognitive fitness. Instead of taking that path, look for ways to have the LLM make you sharper cognitively. Do things like active recall and coaching with the model. Instead of having it read an article for you and summarize it, you read it and ask the LLM to ensure you have a solid mental model of what you've read. State it back to the LLM and ask it to grade you on your ability to explain the concept. I have a practice like this when I work on our system architecture at Honor with an agent. Part of my workflow is an interactive artifact or exercise that checks my understanding and keeps me sharp on the system by poking at errors where I don't yet "get it". LLMs can absolutely be leveraged for cognitive fitness, but it takes clear intention and discipline to do so.

I want to acknowledge that I'm nowhere near the first person to think about or write about this. Specifically, Cal Newport has some excellent blogs/articles/podcasts that cover this topic from a variety of angles. I'll link to a few below.

Look, I'm not advocating for us to get rid of New Bike Day. That will always remain a big deal in the Steele house. Perhaps it's time to start having a few more New Book Days as well.