This article reminds me of an old longitudinal study that analyzed various metabolites from people and found that those with higher creatinine levels in urine early in life had overall higher income across their life. Creatinine as a marker indicates energy production and expenditure, and higher creatinine levels are correlated with higher energy levels.
Now I'm not arguing for biological determinism, but atleast some of the working style individuals have comes down to individual bio-psycho-social factors. Many people here have ADHD or other neurodivergence and will struggle with any kind of prescriptive - 'just work faster outputting higher quality work'. If only it were that easy.
This consideration reminds me of two other lines of research:
- Producing organisms with capable, healthy mitochondria requires mitonuclear compatibility (mitochondrial genome is from mother, nuclear genome is from both parents, energetic capacity and regulation requires both genomes to coordinate) and evidence is that organisms select highly for offspring that have higher mitonuclear compatibility and more capable mitochondria. Offspring that don't have capable enough mitochondria don't make it to term. For example, mammals are more permissive about mitonuclear compatibility than birds (who have extremely high energetic requirements) so mammals are more fecund, but we're also more likely to get cancer from inefficient mitochondria throwing off reactive oxygen species.
- Chris Palmer, a Harvard medical school MD psychiatrist, put out a book a few years ago hypothesizing most mental disorders as brain metabolic disorders — brain mitochondria problems. I've seen mixed reviews on the hypothesis (which I like) but it sure is interesting.
Taken together these imply: 1) some people get more energy than others at a biological level, 2) that impacts mental health, 3) there are interventions that can improve the energy baseline we each were given (as discussed in Palmer's book/talks).
I searched him up briefly, he's an advocate for the ketogenic diet for neural health. It's not surprising because medical grade keto can solve various nerve related issues such as epilepsy and may even be beneficial for childhood ADHD and Autism. He also advocates abstaining from substances which may harm brain and nervous system health, such as marijuana and alcohol. He also advocates for a holistic program of stress management, sleep and nutrient optimization.
Yep, i looked him up too. He has books and YouTube channel/videos on "Brain Energy" theory and "Metabolic Theory of Mental Illness" which seem to make a lot of sense.
The fundamental problem is that the "Modern World/Economy" has forced us to orient our Circadian Rhythms, Diet, Lifestyle etc. around its needs rather than the other way around. This makes absolutely no sense. We are what we Eat and are affected by our immediate Environment (both Natural and Societal). Thus the Organism cannot be separated from its Environment and all problems both Mental and Physical must have its roots in maladaptation. So any solution would have to be holistic starting with diet and lifestyle changes. This has been the basis for ancient systems of medicine like Ayurveda, Yoga etc. and yet most of us have forgotten these holistic approaches but instead look only at symptomatic treatment i.e. "popping pills" when things go wrong.
Creatinine as a marker also indicates more abundant early-life nutrition, and subsequently a healthier starting environment and socioeconomic status.
That's a much better explainer of higher incomes than any kind of armchair biological determinism.
Now I'm not arguing for biological determinism, but atleast some of the working style individuals have comes down to individual bio-psycho-social factors. Many people here have ADHD or other neurodivergence and will struggle with any kind of prescriptive - 'just work faster outputting higher quality work'. If only it were that easy.