Grown Ups and Coffee

• Roasting reduces the number of chlorogenic acids, but other antioxidant compounds are formed.
• Instant coffee may not have the same health benefits.
• The oil in boiled coffee has cafestol and kahweol, compounds known to raise LDL, the bad cholesterol, and slightly lower HDL, the good cholesterol. However, the clinical significance of such small increases in cholesterol may be questionable.

• A typical 12-ounce serving of drip coffee has 200 milligrams of caffeine.
• Instant coffee has 140 milligrams of caffeine.
• Espresso has the highest concentration of caffeine, 70 milligrams per one-ounce shot, but is consumed in smaller quantities.
• Brewed decaf has caffeine too - about 8 milligrams.
• Some people have a genetic variant that slows their metabolism for caffeine and keeps them awake deep into the night.

If you want to maximize the benefits of caffeine, you should have your first cup about four hours after you wake up.

You are naturally alert when you wake up because your cortisol levels are high. So drinking caffeine first thing is just going to make the drop even harder a few hours later.

According to studies, coffee drinkers have a slightly lower risk of death over 10 years (10 to 15%) than those who don't drink it regularly.

More research is needed to validate whether there is a causal link between genes and specific taste perceptions.

Scientists are planning to delve further into the relationship between taste perception and health - to evaluate if bitter taste genes have implications on disease risks.

In Mexico, coffee is served throughout the day.

Called “café de olla” in Spanish, this traditional drink is brewed in individual earthenware pots filled with cinnamon sticks. This aromatic coffee is actually quite addicting.

Coffee comes with serious etiquette, including serving the oldest in the group first.

Saudi coffee (called “kahwa”) is dark, horrendously bitter, and flavored with cardamom. The coffee is usually served with sweet dates to cut the flavor.

If we want our knowledge to compound, we’ll need to focus on the invariant general principles.

Half-lives show us that if we spend time learning something that changes quickly, we might be wasting our time. 

Caffeine has a range of positive impacts beyond keeping you awake: from increased alertness and reaction time to improved learning, memory, and even mood. 

And coffee isn’t just effective on a chemical level: scheduling coffee breaks so that the entire team took it at the same time increased productivity.

Taking breaks during the workday is important for workers to replace workplace “resources” - energy, motivation, and concentration. 

These resources are limited and they need “charging” by doing activities that require less effort or use different resources than normal work or are just something the worker enjoys.

• Your goals are like the rudder on a small rowboat. They set the direction and determine where you go. 
• If you commit to one goal, then the rudder stays put and you continue moving forward. 
• If you flip-flop between goals, then the rudder moves all around and it is easy to find yourself rowing in circles.
• If the rudder is your goal, then the oars are your process for achieving it. While the rudder determines your direction, it is the oars that determine your progress.

Example: If you’re a writer, your goal is to write a book. Your system is the writing schedule that you follow each week.

1. Ruthlessly Eliminate Your Goals. Consistently prune and trim down your goals. If you can muster the courage to prune away a few of your goals, then you create the space you need for the remaining goals to fully blossom.
2. Stack Your Goals. Make a specific plan for when, where and how you will perform this."Networking: After I return from my lunch break, I will send one email to someone I want to meet."
3. Set an Upper Bound. Don't focus on the minimum threshold. Instead of saying,  “I want to make at least 10 sales calls today.” rather say, “I want to make at least 10 sales calls today, but not more than 20.”

It's based on the idea that by partitioning your sleep into segments, you can get away with less of it.

Though it is possible to train oneself to sleep in spurts instead of a single nightly block, it does not seem possible to train oneself to need less sleep per 24-hour cycle.

Caffeine works primarily by blocking the action of a chemical called adenosine, which slows down our neural activity, allowing us to relax, rest, and sleep.

By interfering with it, caffeine cuts the brake lines of the brain’s alertness system. Eventually, if we don’t allow our body to relax, the buzz turns to anxiety.

1. Add more value: identify activities that are valuable to us  or we can remove activities that reduce value.
2. Change our thinking: Perhaps our life already has sources of value, but we just aren’t looking at things in the right way. 

Coffee is, for most of us, a synonym for starting our day, getting the energy in order to work hard, being able to think, to dream. 

Coffee is so much more than just a hot or warm drink. Coffee is for the adults who do their best to be efficient at work, but also a drink that runs in the family and connects individuals.

Throughout your life, you tried, at some point or another, coffee. And you came, undoubtedly, to the conclusion that coffee is miraculous. 

And it is indeed: coffee enables you to start over again and to carry on, no matter how old or tired you are. After all, this is coffee we are talking about.