Don't Replace Your Competence
Outsourcing our health š
Your body knows when itās tired.
It knows when itās hungry. It knows when itās been sitting too long. It knows when it needs sunlight, water, movement, rest, touch, quiet, and other humans.
It has known these things for 200,000 years. So why does it now require a $200+ device to confirm any of it?
Iāve been writing this blog for five years. When I started in 2020, I thought the basics around sleep, real food, daily movement, and time with people you love were already getting drowned out.
I had no idea what was coming.
The global wellness economy hit $7.4 trillion in 2025. Wearables like Whoop and Oura surged 88% in sales between 2024 and 2025. Hydration is now a ācore wellness activity.ā Yes, hydration! The thing your body has been doing involuntarily since you were a single cell.
Iām watching it from the inside more closely now. Iāve been connecting and talking to many insiders across wellness, health tech, and healthcare over the past few months. Half the conversations Iām in are about the next product, the innovative key data point, or the solution to streamline for the consumer. Iām not on the outside throwing stones. But I am noticing that all of it adds to the volume (and more importantly, to the bottom line revenue)
After many years Iāve noticed that the wellness industry isnāt selling you health. Itās selling you the idea that you canāt do this on your own.
That your body needs tracking. Your sleep needs scoring. Your brain needs an app. And that eating requires mapping, monitoring, and now a nudge with an injection.
In a vacuum, a lot of these products, practices, and protocols can be very useful depending on your unique situation. But my argument is that we are too easily outsourcing competence we already have.
And it isnāt just the bro-science side. The woo-woo side is frequently doing the same thing, just with a softer style.
Tap into your intuition with your $1k a month coach. Wake up your body, mind, and soul at the $3k+ retreat in Tulum. Build your practice with an app, a deck of cards, a journal, a teacher, or even a membership.
Iām not anti any of these things. Again, some of them are deeply worthwhile. A good therapist changed my life. A real community is one of the few things research consistently links to longevity. There are practitioners doing honest work, and Iām grateful for them.
But a lot of it is snake oil with better branding.
The pattern is the same on both sides. You canāt trust yourself. You need our thing to access yourself.
Thatās not health. Thatās a subscription.
So hereās where Iām at.
Your body knows. It has always known. The hunger, the fatigue, the restlessness, the loneliness, the urge to move, the urge to be still. These are not bugs to be optimized out. This is your OS.
A device doesnāt teach you to truly listen. The coach might help you trust your intuition, and if theyāre good, they work themselves out of a job.
Some of the tools are worth it. Most of them arenāt over the long haul. The filter isnāt trendy, or does this have science? The filter is, āDoes this thing build my competence, or does it replace it?
A good practice makes you more yourself. A good product makes you need it less.
Everything else is renting back what was already yours.
