The mall mystery

I noticed something about myself.

When I go to a shopping mall, I take fewer steps than on my usual daily walks. Yet I come home more tired. Every single time. I walk in fine and come home finished.

On my brisk walks of an hour or two, I get tired too. But I come back with more energy, feeling better.

Fewer steps, more tired. How?

This had been stuck in my head for a long time. So I did what a researcher investor does. I had three separate AI agents do deep research, for a long time. I had three models audit the scientific sources. Then I had three models bring together what all the studies so far had found.

All of this could have been done in an hour or two. I spent two days on it, and read it again and again :)

It turns out there are five main reasons why walking while you shop is more tiring than walking for exercise.

One is the opposite of what you would guess. One is something you stopped noticing long ago. And the one most people blame turns out to be wrong.

Here it is, easy to swallow, in five minutes:

My favorite part is the last line. I will not spoil it, but it was good news for me :)

On another note, I have been researching what founders search for on the internet.

Google has a box called People Also Ask. You search for something, and it shows the related questions other people ask, each with a short answer. There are pages and databases that collect these, so you can see what people really ask about startups.

Most of the frequent questions did not surprise me. But one did, and it has a high search volume:

Which one is correct? Start-up or Startup?

Even the experts don't agree. Dictionaries, newspapers and the startup world each pick a side.

So I made a short video, and on purpose, I did not give the answer.

So, what do you think? Which one is the correct spelling?

Hit reply and tell me. And if the mall does the same thing to you, tell me that too. Next time I sit down on a mall bench, at least I will know why :)