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Centi-millionaire Bryan Johnson firmly believes sleep is a key part of his $2-million-a-year anti-aging protocol, so he\u2019s not letting criticism from \u201chaters\u201d keep him up at night. <\/p>\n
In an exclusive interview with Fortune<\/em>, the world\u2019s self-proclaimed \u201cmost measured man\u201d said he welcomes feedback from naysayers because it means they\u2019re engaging with the work he is doing at Blueprint\u2014even if it\u2019s direct criticism from the likes of Elon Musk<\/a>. <\/p>\n Over the past 12 months, Johnson has increasingly gained notoriety courtesy of his extreme health, fitness and diet regime\u2014all aimed toward the goal of \u201cdon\u2019t die.\u201d<\/p>\n With that fame has come suspicion and outright hostility from some corners of the internet, with individuals questioning everything from Johnson\u2019s quality of life to his appearance. <\/p>\n Tesla<\/a> CEO Musk agreed on X<\/a> in January that Johnson\u2014who made his millions by selling his company Braintree to PayPal\u2014looked better in his Silicon Valley days, before he began the anti-aging protocol. <\/p>\n At the time 46-year-old Johnson did swipe back, playing on remarks that he looks like a vampire. <\/p>\n He wrote: \u201cThe difference between Elon and me: I\u2019ll nourish you and drink your blood; he\u2019ll fire you and leave you to die.\u201d<\/p>\n But speaking to Fortune<\/em>, Johnson said he finds some of the criticism \u201cfunny.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI love the haters,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cLove them. I welcome them, I embrace them, I appreciate them spending their time to comment. They\u2019re standing up, they\u2019re speaking up, they\u2019re not apathetic. I love everything about them, I wouldn\u2019t change a thing.\u201d <\/p>\n Blueprint\u2014the business Johnson established to develop and share his anti-aging regime\u2014has been open with its findings. <\/p>\n Updates chronicling improvements\u2014or lack of impact\u2014are regularly posted on his website, as well as Johnson speaking candidly about the shortcomings of the trial. <\/p>\n Finding a romantic partner, for example, is something Johnson has said is difficult.<\/a> <\/p>\n But the honesty isn\u2019t a bid to change the minds of critics and convince them of the \u2018Don\u2019t Die\u2019 way of life. <\/p>\n In fact, Johnson said he \u201cloves\u201d to see the other side of the debate. <\/p>\n \u201cBeing human is very hard. [Critics] are trying to understand reality, they\u2019re trying to deal with themselves, we all are. It\u2019s an illusion that any human just has it all figured out\u2014it is very, very hard to be human,\u201d he explained. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re all struggling. I\u2019m struggling less than I ever have in my entire life\u2014I was struggling pretty significantly before\u2014but I\u2019m deeply empathetic to people and I appreciate them showing up. I mean they\u2019re engaging with me, they\u2019re offering me their perspectives and I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnson has spent vast sums of his wealth and recruited droves of scientists to develop the protocol, which is a far cry from the lives of most people around the world. <\/p>\n Among many other routines, Johnson eats his last meal at 11 a.m.<\/a> every day, takes more than 100 supplement pills daily and is in bed by 8.30 p.m. every night. <\/p>\n Many have questioned how happy Johnson can<\/a> be following such a strict routine\u2014despite the entrepreneur saying it\u2019s the most fun he\u2019s ever had\u2014but the structure, he says, ensures his mental wellbeing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really funny\u2014it\u2019s actually really humorous that people want to put me on trial\u201d for not being happy, said Johnson. <\/p>\n \u201cThey want to say that I\u2019m not living life and that I must be in a cage of misery built on myself. I don\u2019t know about that, as I talk to many people in the world [and] I\u2019m not sure that many people are thriving with their own mental health and wellness.\u201d<\/p>\n While Johnson is spending millions to slow his pace of aging, pockets of longevity in so-called \u2018Blue Zones\u2019<\/a> could potentially undermine the feat. <\/p>\n A handful of communities have been identified for their unusual longevity<\/a>, with the phenomenon first identified by Dan Buettner, a National Geographic explorer and fellow.<\/p>\n These five regions include Sardinia in Italy, the islands of Okinawa in Japan, the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica<\/a>, the island of Ikaria in Greece and Loma Linda in California, where people frequently live to over 100 years of age. <\/p>\n Johnson told Fortune<\/em> the protocol\u2019s impact on his own life expectancy is beside the point\u2014what really matters is that more people start thinking about how they can service the planet better, for longer: \u201cWhat we did that was unique is scour all the scientific data\u2026 and we put it all in me. We shared all of my data and then we made the entire thing for free. It does not matter if I die; what matters is if as a species the only thing we care about is not dying.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what my life expectancy is. It doesn\u2019t matter if I die or not. It\u2019s that we are thematically, objectively, functionally engineering our way to don\u2019t die as a species.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nTransparency and being human<\/h2>\n
Is the price right? <\/h2>\n
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