Absolutely Perfect Blog Post Introducing Evolv

This is an initial kickoff post. Nothing fancy. Nothing special. Just good ol communication and sharing of knowledge.

I haven’t produced any piece of writing of significance since the release of ChatGPT. But I vowed to myself I would refrain from using ChatGPT in any of my blog posts (except for spelling and grammar checks—I have a tendency to overlook the details). 

I found ChatGPT to produce verbal fluff—writing without any thought or substance. Just letters to fill space. Something I found hard to even proofread. 

Well enough of the blabbering. Let’s get down to business. I want to discuss the mission of Evolv – in brief, we are trying to make long-term behavior change easy with a specific focus on health-related changes. 

We believe behavior change in the health setting is one of the most worthwhile challenges human beings should spend their energy on—especially Americans (this is also a patriotic feat for me). Over 90% of the $4.1 trillion spent annually on U.S. healthcare goes toward managing chronic physical and mental conditions—many of which can be prevented and treated through lifestyle change. This number doesn’t even take into account the improvements in productivity which could be unlocked as well.

This all sounds great, but why do we believe we are going to make any impact in this space? Especially given how many attempts have failed before and how notoriously difficult it is for people to change. 

Well we found there to be a few key issues with the current solutions which make long-term change particularly difficult:

Not so personalized personalization

Many solutions promise to provide a program “personalized” to you. This plan may consider your dietary preferences, abstract goals, and horoscope to craft a plan to build a better you. While well-intentioned, true personalization goes much deeper than an initial plan. People’s lives are constantly changing. Their identity, schedule, and progress evolve. We believe programs need to continuously adapt with you. Whether you’re on the road, slipping from your plan, or seeking a greater challenge, all of these shifts need to be taken into account.

True personalization shouldn’t break the bank

Solutions out there offering more genuine personalization can be quite expensive—$150+ for just one hour of health coaching. And long-term change isn’t a one-meeting-with-a-health-coach-and-everything-is-fixed kind of scenario. It’s a journey where continuous companionship is often needed to keep people on course. We seek affordability through weekly 10-minute check-ins along with an AI companion to provide personalized education and suggestions. While we are still in the early stages, this is proving to provide more value at a lower cost.

Big change, big problems

We are all for those able to make drastic changes, but for many they are difficult to sustain in the long-term. And that makes complete sense as these drastic changes often clash with your routines, lifestyle, and identity. If one is ready to make a drastic change, we are here to support that but our default approach is to add in changes step by step to make it easy for you to achieve your ideal self. 

Arianna Huffington calls these ‘microsteps’ – small, manageable changes that are easier to be sustained than drastic changes (yes the founder of the Huffington Post is now a leader in behavioral change). These small changes when met with consistency, compound into LARGE results. Albert Einstein, a famous nutritionist who also dabbled in physics, knew the power of compounding: “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn’t, pays it.” This was originally referencing behavioral change, but it was later adapted to finance. 

And for some more ancient wisdom on the power of microsteps, Confucius allegedly once said: “The man who moves a mountain often begins by carrying away small stones.” I find this line particularly inspiring and relieving when faced with a daunting task. It’s a reminder that progress doesn’t need to happen all at once. We often get paralyzed by the size of a task or goal often leading to inaction—analysis paralysis.

For example, when I first began writing this blog post, I became overly concerned about writing the perfect manifesto—ruminating on every point made. Most likely, I would never have even finished this initial blog post. Instead, I decided to take a more microstep approach—write out a simple rough draft, get my thoughts on the page, and refine it later if needed (ended up just including bad jokes about Einstein).

Small steps, lower stakes, and here we are—with a blog post that’s (hopefully) halfway decent. Much better than a half finished blog post sitting in my drafts for eternity. Now I sense I’ve been rambling on for too long and I am going to initiate a conclusion.

Conclusion

Today I laid out the three central areas where the current solutions have fallen short. I also gave a short peek into how we are trying to address those shortfalls. Healthy behavior change is a universally hard problem which is going to require continual iteration and out-of-the-box thinking to solve. I invite you to join us on this journey in whatever form you like.

We will be sharing learnings on what is actually working, research on health/wellness/longevity, and general banter. I will be posting each Monday morning. Have a great week and if anyone has any topics or questions you’d like me to research/discuss, leave a comment below.