Ryan Walsh (Habits, lifestyle, etc)

  • Daily habits:
    • Read statements about pieces of my identity that I want to keep reinforcing / “voting” for
    • Quick weight-lifting session 
    • Read part of a book that inspires or advances me
    • Mindful breathing exercise
    • Appreciate
    • Have a meditative shower
    • Think about how I can improve my habits
    • Don’t check personal email until noon (generally)
    • Go on a walk
    • Listen to inspirational audio
    • Dream about the future playing out how I want
    • Code
    • Play
    • Reflect on the best part of the day
    • (I use https://habitica.com to help track the above.)
    • Receive (3x/day) messages to my phone that I coded to randomly remind me of my favorite inspirational quotes and ideas / principles.
  • Vegan
  • Rarely drink alcohol, don’t smoke
  • I love playing basketball and play 2x/week 3-on-3 or 4-on-4. Before the pandemic, I was captain of a team in a 5-on-5 indoor league.
  • Religion: none. My version of spirituality is having my mind blown by amazing and confusing science, like in Through the Wormhole, Cosmos, my experiences in Princeton’s PEAR Lab, and being continually impressed by Esther Hicks.
  • Politics: Progressive. Luck is still far too much a factor in the quality of people’s lives, and I think collectively we should take care of each other.
  • Some of my favorite books
  • I’m the oldest of 5 kids and on one side of the family am the oldest of many cousins.
  • The worst period in my life started in 2011 when a soccer collision broke my knee, and in the coming weeks, my body started breaking down, and I felt like I was 90 instead of 27. 
    • I severely broke my knee, I developed tremendous scapula pain, I had headaches every day, carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis in my elbows, knuckle problems, bursitis in my hip, and more (more than 40 symptoms).
    • I spent tons of effort, time, and money trying to figure out why my body seemed to be falling apart after having been so healthy. Even after lots of visits to various health professionals and lots of rehab, there was no improvement.
    • Finally I found the most surprising and life-changing answer.
  • Random quirk: Ever since getting my first dental cavity recently, I’ve taken care of my teeth better than any dentist I’ve met takes care of theirs.
  • My life partner is Katie VanBuskirk, PhD. We met in 2009 in Connecticut when she was working at Yale and I was working at Bridgewater (#1 hedge fund). She is amazing. Her PhD is in psychology. 
    • We lived in Pacific Beach San Diego for her PhD years, then sold both cars and most of our possessions and bounced around Europe a bit, then a few more cities in the US / Puerto Rico, and recently have been living in the Atlanta suburbs since 2017.