Bryan Johnson is Right About Everything

The man, the myth, the legend: the big BJ, Bryan Johnson. He is an ex‑Mormon who made around $800 million from the sale of his company and then decided the number one priority in his life was to become the healthiest man in the world. He created a platform named Blueprint to document his journey. In many corners of the internet, for his efforts he became the target of hate. People hate hate hate this man. Here's my journey along this emotional rollercoaster:

Timeline

2022 — Initial Discovery

Total fascination with the lengths he was going to meet his goals. He had a live‑in doctor. A clinic in his humble abode (a multi‑million‑dollar mansion in LA). Every piece of health machinery you could imagine, in a private collection. Highly trained and specialized staff doing expensive house calls day in and day out.

He seemed to be taking a sort of "functional‑health" approach to improving his health, taking every possible kind of health test—recommended or not—and basing future actions on the results. He called his strategy Blueprint: a cyclical system of measurement → evidence → protocol, looped and repeated until calibrated to optimal outcomes. He seemed aware of the flaws of basing health protocols on "n=1" evidence. He insisted that his approaches were based on the best science and evidence available today.

He made it a point to say that his diet came from high‑quality, population‑based studies. He eats a 100% plant‑based whole‑food diet and claims to be vegan, despite consuming non‑vegan supplements. His strategy centered around supplements. He took over 100 pills of various supplements in a single day, and seemed to present this as a point of pride. I was sold. I wanted to live my life like this. I too wanted to be one of the healthiest men in the world.

2022–2023 — The Hate Phase

It's super easy to dunk on this man. Live‑in doctors? A multi‑million‑dollar mansion in LA? Supplement‑industry shill? Functional‑health scammer? Zero f's to give for anything in life besides himself and his goals (why not fund scientific trials rather than getting zapped all day with experimental lasers)?

I found myself on Instagram, leaving comment after comment, calling this man out for being so full of himself, and telling people "you can too!" while he shares the results of his latest $100,000+ machine in his modest LA mansion. It was disgusting. It still is disgusting. It's a reality check. These are the feudal days. The age of the scam.

Absolutely, you can too! But the bill is due. It was a point of pride that he was spending millions of dollars per year on his health. It was part of the company brand. He claimed that other wealthy elite were reaching out to him and trying to get started with the Blueprint protocols—the holy grail of health.

Have we entered the age where being rich means you live to your 300s, doing cartwheels and backflips when you're 299, while people born into the wrong zip code or that had even the slightest challenge in life die from obesity and heart disease before they make it to 60—living a life trapped inside the 50% or more of their body that is made entirely out of fat—to the point where their internal organs like their heart and lungs are wearing visceral fat like a heavy subzero winter coat? If only you had $1 billion you could walk up that flight of stairs without wheezing. Affordable and universal public health with top‑tier outcomes? What's that? Never mind, here's $20,000 I found in my couch. Now rub that cream in there. Nice and thick. Go on.

Joining the Cult

So, the thing is with Bryan Johnson: I really like the man. He claims to be vegan. Even though that claim is problematic in its truth, this checks off a giant respect box on my checklist. He's a legit tech god. Braintree is a systems‑engineering sort of information‑technology company that snaps together the physical widgets and mind‑twisting text that makes payments go vroom on the internet. If you've ever made a payment, especially using Venmo, and you liked the experience, you got a little bit of big BJ in your pocket in which to say thanks.

As a bit of a tech person myself, this makes him into somebody for me to look up to and admire. Wouldn't I want such a success? At the end of the day, how can I hate this man for being the person who succeeded where I failed? If I made Braintree and sold it, would I hate myself? Also, who can really fault someone for wanting to be the world's healthiest person? We all just went through a damn pandemic. Obesity and heart disease are becoming world‑wide pandemics of their own. Ultimately, his vision is to make a system that anyone can follow to achieve the same results that he did. What could possibly be so wrong about that?

The Beginning of the BJ Sales Era

It started off as jokes. Buy my snake oil. It was printed on the bottle. Then came the supplements, the powders, the merch, the subscription fees, the tests. Buy, buy, buy. If only you pay thousands of your pathetic measly earnings to a near‑billionaire, someday "you can too!" But only if you're "cut out for it." If you've "got what it takes."

Translation: whatever happens is your fault, not mine. If none of my claims come true, it's not because my claims were untrue—it's because you failed me, you failed yourself, you are a disgusting person who is not capable nor deserving of my magic dust. It only works on the right kinds of people, and you ain't it. This seems to be a common theme in today's age of the scam.

If only you "work on yourself" and have "grit and determination" you too someday could achieve the same kind of success as the billionaire to which you just gave your last dollar. The reason that pill you popped didn't work is because you just don't have what it takes. Your discipline is trash. It has nothing to do with the pill being at best a sugar pill laced with toxic heavy metals.

It's okay though—buy my course on self‑mastery and discipline. Typically $10,000, but since I know you tried already with the supplements, how's $8,000? Good? Good. Oh, what? You didn't even finish the course? Sorry, can't help you. It must be your genetics. But probably not, because Goggins has bad genetics as well. It's just you.

Meanwhile, if you go to a reputable place for medical care, you might be diagnosed with adult ADHD—a wonderful thing to happen. You can get care. You take real medications that passed real scientific trials, and you can solve the problem of "doing what you know." But forget about that—there's no snazzy logo on a dram from the pharmacy. Also, big pharma, ahhhhh!

I Am a Stupid, Gullible Person — The Perfect Target

Aren't we all? No. I am. Did you buy a product with the words "snake oil" printed on it? Did you make a series of review videos on this man's products that you since took down after you were banned from the Discord for saying "if you have to ask you can't afford it" to someone complaining that the price of a presumedly $10,000+ red‑light panel setup wasn't clearly posted on the landing page? Did you pay $1,600 of your hard earned money for magic powders while fretting over whether or not to gift $250 every few months to your struggling overseas romantic partner whose home town was literally violently annexed by a foreign military? I wanted to believe. I wanted to believe so so much. I was one of the first customers to sign up for the subscription based model. I was an original participant in BP2500, before it was expanded out to BP5000. I got a home blood draw through Randax, the original company they worked with. I took all the pills, powders, and oils exactly - meticulously - as Bryan said, and documented my experiences on camera. I was literally the face of BP5000. As in, my picture, my face, was used in the original flyer sent out announcing the program. I attempted to start a live meetup group in my hometown, all before the DON'T DIE branding. So, let me tell you a bit about me. I have a Bipolar 1 diagnosis. I have experienced 2 major manic episodes and 1 major depressive episode requiring long-term hospitalization, in 2003, 2006, and 2009. Also, one episode of hypomania that could be resolved as an out-patient, likely around 2007-ish, but since no in-patient care was needed I don't remember the dates as clearly. I only remember this one because it was a result of trying on for size Wellbutrin for my ADHD. We started with a low dose to see if it'd be safe given my history of mania. It was not. To this day "we" (me, advocates on my behalf, and professional licensed doctors in the relevant specialty actively working in their field) haven't found a great solution to ADHD. Despite this I have graduated from community college in 2015 and have 10 years as a working professional in technology, making over $100,000 in income for multiple years, although not consistently. From 8th grade to 11th grade, Adderall was working effectively as a solution for ADHD. I was consistently in the top 25% of my class academically, I made all-state honors orchestra, I had attention for people which allowed me a decent life socially. But alas in 11th grade it all came to a head and the reliance on pills for success caught up with me. Zoloft was the likely nail in the coffin. I had my first manic episode. From then on I've been unable to get treatment for ADHD due to mania risk. So yeah, I'm a sucker. I'm a loser. I'm lazy. I'm stupid. My discipline is trash and I desperately want to do better. If only there was some magic solution out there for me...

I Have Real Issues with My Health

So this is another thing that drew me to Bryan. He talked at length about his "depression". Also, he talked about a thyroid issue where he had to take lifelong prescription medication to treat, which I admired because I too have to take lifelong prescription meds. It really, really, really burned me to be banned from the Discord, but I was happy with the support I received from the real Blueprint customer service. I got some of my money refunded, which was great because lately it's been a struggle to be a high earner in tech, largely due to the market. I was assured that I was banned by a volunteer moderator not officially associated with Blueprint. I was given the opportunity for further communication with real Blueprint staff, possibly even with Bryan himself, but I declined. I was absolutely crushed. I was in love with this movement, this vision, this community. I wanted to bring juggling forward as a metric for which to measure health. I wanted the DON'T DIE philosophy to include biomarkers for how well a person can juggle in their 80s. I wanted to be a leader in this movement. To help bring it to the masses. I felt like I was this movement in a sense. I felt the passion that Bryan felt. I read his books. I watched his videos. I participated in the Discord, feeling free to express myself and speak my mind, hoping to have deep meaningful conversations that lead to lifelong friendships, especially via hometown in-person meetups, rather than being silently banned without warning for advising people to spend money carefully. The jig was up. This was not the movement I had been begging the universe for. This was about money. This was a company. A business. I was upsetting potential customers by speaking my mind, and telling them to spend carefully, giving strange answers to cult-like questions where the only appropriate answer was to lavish praise onto our master big BJ. I had to go. It was never about community, about conversation, about joy, about passion. It was about convincing as many people as possible to hand over as much money as possible, and I was threatening that vision, despite myself being in their grasp. I had to go.

I Was Big BJ Before There Was Ever a Big BJ

I care about my health. I did an exercise where I picked out three words to define myself by, whether or not they were words that I continually embody. My three words are in order of importance. The first two words describe my values. The final word gives a truthful and honest picture of myself, which includes many of my major flaws. My three words are "Healthy, Skilled, Passionate". Being healthy is the #1 thing I value in my life, and has been since 2010-ish, after my rock-bottom year of depression. A year I barely survived and that has stayed with me lifelong via difficulties with my voice and mild symptoms of dyslexia. I was told by the best doctor I ever had that the #1 thing in my life had to be sleep. I had to become a sort of sleep athlete, putting sleep above all else in my life. One of the meds I take helps me to sleep. Since that time I've done everything I knew to do to help me get better sleep, which wasn't much. The information out there 2010–2020‑ish was really spare when it came to getting high quality sleep. Bryan is a trailblazer when it comes to the information he puts out on the internet, for better or worse. Obviously his messaging drew me like a moth to the flame. I sleep in the closet now because that is the place where there is the least amount of light. Bryan convinced me.

Bryan Is Right

Health is the #1 thing we should all be concerned about in totality as humanity as a species. We're the only species that is even capable of meaningfully considering our own death. The healthiest and longest lived among us live only to 100. The longest lived merely 120. Past 80, we deal with serious issues in strength, endurance, cognitive ability, and we only look good for a brief few years in our 20s, assuming we haven't struggled with obesity, a condition 2 in 3 of us face. I want to look good in my 70s, not for my 70s. I want to spend 40 years learning high level juggling, not merely 10. I want each new decade to check off yet another mark of "skilled" on my checklist, be it musical competence, fitness, career success, success in relationships, or whatever else. We can do this. We are doing this. We have done this. Look back upon history and you can see, we have done this. So what is the way forward? Is it Blueprint? Is it led by Bryan Johnson? Is it the DON'T DIE philosophy and movement? I don't know. I doubt it. Ultimately, Bryan is a businessman. One of the most successful businessmen of our time. I don't think this can be a business. I think the moment it becomes a business is the moment it immediately fails. Instead, this needs to be a culture. A way of who we are. An identity. Rather than something you pay for, this should be one of the most lucrative endeavors of our time, giving back thousands in value for every dollar put in. No entity involved in this should be able to "win". It should be like our air. Ubiquitously sustaining everyone who breathes it, regardless of its quality. Everyone should benefit whether they participate or not. We should follow the science. We should strengthen the science. We should worship the science. Fundamentally, this should be about science.