Bryan Johnson built Braintree/Venmo while managing depression, a failing relationship, three kids, and leaving his religious community. To stop nightly emotional eating, he created a ritual where he "fired" the part of himself seeking self-destructive comfort, addressing that persona each evening to break the cycle.
In my 20s, when I was building Braintree Venmo, I had this problem of self control. The combination of building a startup, being in a challenging relationship, having three little babies, being depressed out of my mind, and leaving a religion, a religious community, everything was piled up. I was depressed out of my mind. And every night I would try to soothe the pain of life by eating. And so one day, playfully, after failing for several years of being able to combat this, I fired my evening self and said, evening Brian, I know how you behave. It's reliably in a self destructive way. Morning Brian. Brian. Daytime Brian in the mirror Brian Dad Brian. You make every other version of Brian awful. You're fired. You cannot eat food no matter what.
