IO8 · Research Journal
108 Questions to the Founder
Everything you would ask before coming. Answered in writing, one question at a time.
The interview
108 answers
Stéphane Pariente, founder of the IO8 Living Lab near Lisbon, answers the one hundred and eight questions a visitor, a physician, an executive or a sceptic would ask. The answers are short, written to be read in under a minute, and each one opens on its own page with the original French text.
Ninety-three answers are published. Fifteen are still being written and are marked as such. Nothing here is a promise: what IO8 does is measured, what it does not do is stated.
I. Origins · II. The place · III. The method · IV. The instruments · V. Experts in Residence · VI. The boundary · VII. Companies and their leaders · VIII. Stéphane, the practice · IX. Where it stands, where it goes · X. The vision · XI. Habits
● For everyone ● Informed reader ● Expert
Short of time? Four reading paths select the questions that matter to you.
HR directors · Executives · Agencies · Physicians and experts
Block 1
Origins
A living laboratory of study and stays, dedicated to improving body and mind.
For everyone
I am a serial entrepreneur, I have created many small companies. But fundamentally nothing has changed.
For everyone
I did not ask myself questions, I was thirsty to learn.
For everyone
Going to bed at ten in the evening. Impossible for me.
Informed reader
The moment I knew I would share it, the eternal question came back: if I was going to make money, I also had to do philanthropy.
Informed reader
The famous question about Portugal, and the underlying question about taxes.
For everyone
As usual: they thought I was completely crazy.
For everyone
We have talked about longevity, science, artificial intelligence and sometimes esotericism. Only one subject is left: time travel.
Informed reader
Block 2
The place
More than what you see, it is what you feel: an immersive sensation of well-being.
For everyone
Because the Living Lab is only one part of the set-up.
Informed reader
The term comes from MIT, and it names a method: testing in real conditions, with the people who live in the place.
Informed reader
You measure an environment to identify what harms us. But here, there is nothing harmful.
Informed reader
Apart from the collective sessions, the programme runs in workshops of four people.
For everyone
Mostly I ranked by priority, and the refusal will come from the test.
Informed reader
I created this place to live in, before imagining hosting anyone.
For everyone
Block 3
The method: measure, execute, measure again
A sequence in three stages: measure, execute, measure again.
For everyone
We measure to have a starting point, but we do not wait for the results to act.
For everyone
On average, count 30 minutes per person.
Informed reader
In reality, each of our organs has a different age! Biological age is therefore an overall estimate.
Expert
Impossible, two people are never identical.
Informed reader
Block 5
Experts in Residence
It is the same thing as an artist in residence, but the work is a scientific protocol.
For everyone
Block 6
The boundary: what IO8 does not do
Licensed health professionals, and nobody else.
Informed reader
The Living Lab's physician is the one who finds it, and the one who talks to you about it.
Informed reader
A starting measurement, which will be either an anchor point or an electroshock.
Informed reader
Because a result is only validated over the long term, and it depends on the habits installed.
Expert
Sovereignty is an obsession for us, and on data this sensitive, it has to be.
Informed reader
It gets the answer to the question it asked when building the programme.
Informed reader
Health data belongs to the person measured, and to them alone.
Informed reader
A burnout means four to six months of absence, where an ordinary sick leave lasts fifteen days.
Informed reader
Block 7
Companies and their leaders
He already knows. What he does not know is what it costs him.
For everyone
We start from what the company names, never from a pre-existing programme.
Informed reader
Nearly seven companies out of ten now evaluate the return on investment of their prevention actions.
Informed reader
Because an agency already has the clients, the budgets and the logistics.
Informed reader
The results are individual and private. The dynamic, on the other hand, is collective.
Informed reader
A seminar starts with an icebreaker. Here, it starts with a blood test.
For everyone
Because you change nothing with your bearings intact.
Expert
Their biological age, measured in ten minutes on the first morning.
For everyone
The return on investment, here, is counted in the compound interest of longevity.
Expert
Yes, and each person freely decides whether they wish to be measured.
Informed reader
The right question is not who to send, but how many days.
Informed reader
Nobody is excluded without a medical reason, and those reasons are known before arrival.
Informed reader
Two families: conferences, and experiences.
Informed reader
Two things: what I tell, and what I do in front of you.
For everyone
Yes, by extending the conference with a day of measurements.
Informed reader
Block 8
Stéphane, the practice
As a Frenchman, I gave up what a Frenchman finds hardest to give up: eating.
For everyone
Stop eating. And the effort is zero, since I do nothing.
Informed reader
3,500 euros for a bed that woke me up every night.
Informed reader
Sleep is my kryptonite. When travelling, that is when I sleep best.
Informed reader
Yes, I measure everything, all the time. Without a scientific approach, nothing is doable.
Informed reader
People think I spend my days in my pool, taking it easy.
For everyone
My right brain and my left brain work simultaneously, at full speed. Very few people keep up with me.
Expert
Start with one single thing, and choose it easy.
For everyone
Block 9
Where it stands, where it goes
The first ones, right now, for measurement. Companies, in 2027.
Informed reader
The risk is not failing. It is continuing to perfect a system that has not yet sold anything.
Expert
The Living Lab is phase two of a project that has seven.
For everyone
In five years, the Living Lab will have proven itself and the model will be duplicated.
For everyone
Nothing. That is the question I asked myself six months before committing the slightest investment.
Expert
My autonomous companies would let me live off my income. I carry on because I do not need retirement.
Informed reader
Block 10
The vision
I chose to be the Pierre Bergé of my generation.
For everyone
I opened my methods to my competitors because alone, a whole life would not have been enough.
Informed reader
Three hundred and fifty brands supported, and behind each one a myriad of people, holders of many kinds of know-how.
Informed reader
I did not know it. At first I suffered from it.
Informed reader
A separation, free time, and a puzzle that came together.
Informed reader
Four times, I was told I would die at fifty-four.
Expert
I started by assembling what I already had.
Informed reader
I did not set a fifty-year goal. I chose a path.
Expert
A year gained in good health produces others.
Expert
What has changed is not my value, it is my horizon.
Expert
Speed counts because time has changed status.
Informed reader
Block 11
Habits
You start by deciding, and that is where the victory is.
For everyone
Because people confuse a routine with a deprivation.
Informed reader
Wrong question. You are talking about money.
For everyone
None, because a routine that does not hold means there is constraint.
For everyone
I get people walking together because social connection is one of the essential pillars of longevity.
For everyone
Walking reduces the risk of mortality.
Expert
A programme ends. A habit does not.
Informed reader
We do not look at each other, so we really talk.
For everyone
