# Grab Bag: The Tin Man Peptides Edition > Source: > Published: 2026-08-14 13:07:12+00:00 # Grab Bag: The Tin Man Peptides Edition ### I love long-form writing; other times I want to share a bunch of things that caught my attention. The inaugural “banana edition” was a success, so let’s try this again. Here are quick takes on five things that I’m still thinking about this Friday morning. Be sure to reply/share the best thing you read this week (or something that lit you up). Any topic goes! ## 1. Heart Health In the last 3 months, 3 people I know had heart attacks (two didn’t make it). Given I’ve been told I have a big heart (that’s a joke), and given my genetic predisposition (that’s not a joke), I’m now going through a battery of tests and scans to make sure I’m on top of this. I don’t want to become the Tin Man and lose my heart. My two young kids don’t deserve to go through live without a father. ## 2. Going Loco for Local AI Frontier AUI models are powerful, but the people running those companies do crazy shit. In the last few months, we’ve seen models getting temporarily banned (Fable), degraded when you ask sensitive questions (again, Fable), and now Anthropic is watermarking ALL content from all its models (again, Anthropic). Many are taking matters into their own hands, literally. I just invested $5K in an NVIDIA GDX Spark to test and run local models. [You can follow my journey on X](https://twitter.com/rickmanelius). ## 3. Peptides Ain’t Weird For years in men’s circles, it was shameful to talk about things like testosterone replacement therapy (TRT). Well, the Overton window on that and other health/longevity “protocols” (gotta love that marketing reframe) has dramatically opened. I’m somewhat late to the peptide game, but it seems this is already crossing over into mainstream. What used to be weird is now what everyone is exploring. ## 4. The Analog-Digital Barbell Work colleagues see me going all-in on AI and ask… aren’t you worried about becoming less human? Not at all, because my life has moved to both extremes of the barbell. Work has become all-in AI. I’m embracing it as hard and as much as possible. Life has become all-in analog. I’m outside with my kids. We’re swimming, climbing trees, playing Uno. It doesn’t have to be either-or. You can and-both your way into a great life. ## 5. First, Care Merlin Mann wrote a phenomenal article that I read 1-2 times a year (First, Care). Unfortunately, it doesn’t exist on the web anymore. You have to know where and how to get it on the Wayback Machine, which itself may not be around forever. It’s a reminder to me that if something matters enough, you have to make it last. I’ve been thinking of ways to permanently record the things that matter, so that my kids could have access to them long after I’m gone. So I’m probably going to go back to writing some handwritten letters and add them to a vault. They’ll have all sorts of other memories of me, but I want to make sure they never lose some of the important ones. ## And You? What ideas sparked joy? Created a change in you? Would love to hear it.