There are around five people who dislike uncertainty for every one person who actually likes it.

My guest this episode, Scott Stirrett, wants to help you become the one. Scott is the author of The Uncertainty Advantage, founder of Venture for Canada (which he grew from a $300K budget in 2016 to $14 million by 2022), and a former Goldman Sachs analyst. He's also refreshingly candid about his own struggle with OCD — and how learning to tolerate uncertainty didn't just help him manage that, it reshaped how he approaches risk, career, and resilience entirely.

In this episode, we get into:

➡️ Why "the only way out is through" is Scott's core message for tolerating uncertainty
➡️ How to catch a "ritual" before it quietly takes over your life
➡️ Why self-compassion — not toughness — is what actually builds resilience
➡️ Scott's simple weekly practice for building your "risk-taking muscles"
➡️ Why he believes solopreneurship, taste, and face-to-face relationships will define the AI era
➡️ The AI risk that actually keeps him up at night — and it's probably not the one you'd guess

If you've ever felt like uncertainty is something to survive rather than use, this conversation will shift that.

🎧 Listen now

The show notes, including the transcript and checklist to this episode, are at getyourselfoptimized.com/570.

What if the second most important organ system in your body isn't your heart, lungs, or liver — but your skeleton?

That's the case my guest, Peter Simonson, makes in this episode. Peter trained as a mechanical engineer at Georgia Tech, then spent years designing spinal implants for Medtronic before discovering — almost by accident — a dormant bone technology company called Juvent after its founder passed away. He and his brother revived it, and what he's since learned about bone as a metabolic, hormone-producing organ (not just a structural frame) reshapes how you think about aging, mobility, and even things like blood pressure and balance.

In this Get Yourself Optimized episode, Peter breaks down:

➡️ Why your skeleton functions more like an endocrine organ than scaffolding
➡️ How osteoporosis can show up in children, not just the elderly
➡️ Why more "powerful" vibration platforms can actually be dangerous
➡️ The JAMA-published, placebo-controlled study that found a 10% bone density increase from safe microimpact therapy
➡️ Peter's own daily biohacks — from seasonal fasting to reframing walking as "a luxury," not a chore

If you've ever taken your mobility for granted, this conversation will change that.

In the age of AI, what is the one thing you still cannot outsource?

According to Eric Ries, author of the mega-bestseller The Lean Startup and the new book Incorruptible, it is the hard work of learning itself.

Eric has spent 15 years helping founders build companies, and the deepest lesson he has taken from it applies to anyone trying to grow: the real bottleneck is still how fast your own mind can learn. You can let tools build and summarize for you, but no one can lift the heavy weights of understanding on your behalf.

In this Get Yourself Optimized episode, Eric shares:

✅ Why learning, not technology, is still the real bottleneck in the AI era

✅ How to escape the trap of reading summaries of summaries and go deep on what actually matters

✅ Why booking real time to think is a tool almost everyone underuses

✅ How to refine your vision without losing your commitment to it, and why morale is a resource worth guarding

✅ The surprising power of equanimity when life seems to go wrong

Whether you are building a company or building yourself, Eric's approach to learning, focus, and staying the course is worth your time. Tune in!