The Random Show – New Favorite Books, Memory Training, and Bets On VR (#171)

Tim, you linked to some network marketing organization that sells supplements and your show notes, Usana!😧 The organization you meant to link to is Usona. Here’s the link – http://www.usonainstitute.org/research/

This addresses an earlier podcast –

Existential “a lone ness” and your late night writing routine

For all the amazing things you have accomplished and brought forward into the world, I would suggest the most difficult would be for you to do your writing routine from 11pm to 3 pm without the loping movie and music. These appear to be distractions from the ultimate test in life. Who are we really? Could it be that we don’t want to feel alone in our homes late at night so we introduce visual and audible stimuli to mask the underlying fear of our apparent separateness. However when faced completely we find we are not alone at all, but rather the all of it and we rest in an indescribable bliss. And in that state we find ourselves highly creative and feel a sense of fullness. From here anything is possible.

You are probably an OK person but your podcasts are way too long for not much. Lot of useless chatter to find a useful tidbit… peace…. out.

Hey Tim,

Love that you are getting more publicly involved in the topic of depression. It will be fascinating to see what results come from the psilocybin research you are funding.

As a podcast topic/guest suggestion you should have a look at Dr Kelly Brogan’s work especially since you are a fan of Dr Rhonda Patrick and Peter Attia. She did her fellowship at NYU Medical Center after graduating from Cornell University Medical College, and has a B.S. from MIT in Systems Neuroscience.

She has some pretty fascinating things to say about antidepressants worsening the long-term course of depression (tardive dysphoria/oppositional tolerance) as well as the treatment of depression through nutrition.

She has recently released a book but main stream media outlets have basically blacklisted her, likely because of their primary sponsorship by pharmaceutical companies.

Worth checking out!

Kym

@kevinrose – who needs a while room when you can VR in a hamster ball: http://www.virtusphere.com/

Don’t ask me how I found that, I have no idea. though the exact same idea was in the novel Ready Player One, where VR + second life has more or less replaced the internet as where everyone spends their time. An interesting and hilarious read especially if you like the 80s.

Definitely agree that prefect memory would suck the big one, having given birth last year. If I hadn’t already forgotten just how painful that was, I wouldn’t want another one (though biology probably has something to do with that too)

Finally, a random suggestion after a random show, someone I admire who you might find interesting enough to interview one day is Daniel Flynn of Thankyou, a 100% for charity FMCG company here in Australia. His book, Chapter One, sells here in bookstores for whatever you want to pay for it. Their products are amazing and each one has a code which you can use to track your impact – it shows where the money you spent on the product goes to helping people access clean water, sanitation and food security. Really awesome guy, he started when he was 19 and he’s only like 28 now. They also pulled some crazy audacious marketing tricks to get 7-11 and then our two major supermarkets to stock their products.

I love your interview style and rapport, so I think that’d make for a great show 🙂

Cheers brah, take it sleazy.

Great episode as are all of the Random Shows. If you haven’t listened to it, the episode of The Journal about pens and notebooks is mind blowing if you have any interest in those items. Also, the Precise pen mentioned above is a great pen with good ink. I have used them for years.

Great to hear you talking about VR S*x; last month saw the latest at this event in Tokyo, quite amazing: http://kotaku.com/adult-vr-festival-draws-huge-crowds-in-japan-1781869098 We’re developing a product that will ship next month. The future is wild.

Had to laugh. I’m Japanese and Italian. Or as I like to call me, wopanese.

Who dates Tim Ferriss?

Some brainstorming questions for you:

~ Monogamy ~

Are you capable of monogamy?

Alison Armstrong tells women “If a man says he can’t be monogamous, believe him. He is telling you something important about himself. Do not think you can change him.”

She says that cheating and mistresses used to work in society because the wife was legally guaranteed security. That no matter what, he would always save her first, always provide for her first. That her role in his life as queen to his king and kingdom were hers and hers alone.

~ Personal Growth ~

Is this important to you in another person? Would you be ok with someone who isn’t interested constant neverending improvement?

(I suspect this is one of your deal-breakers.)

~ Routines ~

Asking ahead to 68 year old married Tim, how entwined does Tim need his amazing wife to be?

When you pull out the equivalent of Tea & Laptop to start your writing at 10pm, where is your wife? Is she in bed? Is she on her laptop in across the room writing/coding/working with her business partners in Australia?

Or would that feel invasive of “me time”?

What does travel look like?

A homebody greeting you with open arms when you return from your journeys? Or is she by your side sharing the experiences in real time? Combo?

Do you want her involved with some or all of your experiments?

Do you prefer she has her own focus/mission and you tell her about your crazy day later? Maybe she’s got a research scientist mind & is geeking out with you?

Would you want your marriage public or private?

You are very open and authentic and share details of your life with the world. Would you be ok with a “very private” person? Or would you be co-publishing relationship content? Would you be thrilled beyond belief if she were running her own experiments on your children?

~ Wee Ones ~

Do you want your kids lives public? anonymous? identity protected before a certain age?

What do you think / how do you feel about upending your life for a helpless human?

(They are cute, but they are totally reliant for the first several years, they find all your buttons, and push the crap out of them.) Teaching the ABC’s, and tying shoes is going to feel very different than the cutting edge teaching you do now.

Would you compromise dad-time to keep on your “teach the world” mission? Is that ok with you? Is that ok with your blushing bride pulling the heavy lifting of child influence?

~ Old Age ~

Your buddies in SValley may or may not have old age solved by the time you’re 98, pretending that they haven’t for the sake of self-inquiry:

Do you want to face mortality alone?

Would you like someone by your side as your body begins to fade? Would you be willing to be at her side as her body fades? (or, let’s be real, you’d be in the lab madly solving whatever ails her!)

~ Relating ~

When there is heated controversy, how do you fight? What if she fights the opposite? Are you willing to co-create unique styles of resolution that work for both?

What is your primary language of love/appreciation? / How do you most feel loved?

Giving gifts?

Acts of service?

Physical touch? (everyone needs sex, this is the sitting on the couch in physical contact type of stuff)

verbal praise?

quality time?

un-detwinable combination?

~ The Integrated Human ~

the masculine is traditionally the protector & provider

the feminine traditionally holds the space of support & enhance

the upward spiral of a relationship:

he makes her happy, when she’s happy she is glowing and that gives him life, when he is full of life he that makes her happy, when she’s happy that gives him life …

We all have access to feminine and masculine “traits” in varying degrees. Generationally in America men and women have explored shunning our birth traits and exploring the “other side”. And those in to personal growth have found that we aren’t feeling very whole with 1/2 of us shoved aside.

The cutting edge humans are diving back in to the side they haven’t fully owned yet and learning to be Integrated Humans with access to all their super powers.

What does an integrated relationship look like? Gay & Katie Hendricks shed some light. They suggest that we automatically take on the role that isn’t being played. That self-aware humans pick up on this & mix it up. Break stuck-roles & co-create something new.

You said you have dated masculine-focused women, and feminine-focused women, and both work for you as long as no one’s trying to dominate you.

What might it look like be a relationship with an integrated or integrating (workin on it) human?

~~~

just tossing out thoughts for you to play with, in case some of them hadn’t crossed your mind yet

(apologies for verbosity & intensity)

as always, a podcast worth gold, freely given to the world

so very very grateful

Long-time listener, first-time commenter.

Really enjoyed this random episode. Keep up the great work, Tim.

(Also, the Show Notes are missing a link to the ‘Fog of War” documentary you mentioned: http://www.sonyclassics.com/fogofwar)

Italo Calvino’s “If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller” is also written in the 2nd person.

Podcast Guest Suggestion: General Michael Hayden. He gave an A-list performance on the B-list podcast Art of Charm – I can only imagine what he’d do on The Tim Ferris Show: 🙂

http://theartofcharm.com/podcast-episodes/general-michael-hayden-playing-edge-episode-523/

Hi,

You mentioned the world’s best pens during the podcast. Could you post the links like you promised. Love the podcast!

Dom.

Darya was definitely the hero of this episode. 🙂

Just wanted to say thanks for THE MOST entertaining episode I’ve listened to on a Podcast, with an awesome range of topics covered.

Came here to get the link to the pens, but had to say thanks!

I just have too damn many emails every day to read, thanks for keeping it real

Good conversation about VR. The way I see it, the industry will naturally start via games bec majority of the users will be teenagers. You won’t expect a 40 above yrs old person using it unless if it’s for medical purposes. Now as those teenagers grew older, the diversity and use will broaden too because those people already developed the habit of using it so the behavior will be normal to them.

Fun episode. I will check out that book you mentioned. I usually go to a book store, read some of the book and see if I like it. I don’t trust Amazon reviews and I think sometimes you promote stuff to do favors for your friends. I trust your recommendations most of the time but it is hard to know which one you truly recommend and which one you recommend because you are being nice to a friend of yours. Anyways, there are a lot of popular novels out there that is made of fluff. And some good ones never become popular. I have a BA in English Literature. I love reading novels. They can teach as much as self-help books, if not more. But you learn only if you read the hard ones. The ones that will take you to a different world, make you think long and hard. Those ones teach you a lot about everything (how people operate, how to deal with them, emotions, culture, history, geography, so on). A good, timeless novel is a treasure. The same goes for good plays and good poetry.

On another note, I like your article recommendations on 5 bullet Friday. Especially, the one about how much time we have left to spend with our parents was great. I ended up reading that blog for 2 hours. You recommended many good ones. So when you come across with solid articles please do share. Thank you. Best x

hi Tim,

I’ve been listening to your podcast since my boyfriend got me hooked on it while on our west coast road trip a little over a month ago.

You do amazing work. Each topic you raise with your guests resinates with the chaotic brain activity I have going on as someone who lives a non conventional artist life style and being somewhat of an entrepreneur.

I just heard about you funding the research on effects of mushrooms on depression/anxiety.

While listening to the episode I thought to offer my collaboration as a fine artist in fund-raising in a form of embellished mushroom painting prints you could offer in addition to t-shirts, as this could catch the better financially established sponsors’ attention. I believe many will resonate with the image of the mushroom for personal reasons and experiences, and could enjoy the image more frequently by viewing it in their daily environment as opposed to only when they get to wear the t-shirt. The image would be done exclusively for your campaign.

Let me know your thoughts. I would love to work with you in contributing to the research project.

Best,

Raisa

I’d love to support by buying a shirt but I came too late and the goal was reached.

I’m very happy that your goal was reached and I hope you found the answer to which method worked most in your favour, be it crowd funding or T’s. If there is ever a time when you need to raise more funds, or open this round for longer, to have a buffer or something, I’d support ;)). My hidden agenda is also the fact that I’d feel extra cool around my science-nerd gf wearing a mushroom shirt with chemistry on it… Just sayin’.

Hi Tim,

I’m fairly certain this is the podcast where I heard about your fundraising campaign for research on psychodelics. You were interested in seeing if selling merch for funds would be better than traditional fund raising.

Just wanted to let you know how it’s going from someone who purchased your t-shirt. On top of being one of the most comfortable t-shirt purchases, I’ve found it to be a great conversation piece. Everyone asks me about it when I’m wearing and it gives me a chance to explain why I bought it. I think this method helps spread news about the cause while raising money for the research. Very satisfying purchase.

Thanks

Tim,

Any chance we could get those barrel sauna plans via Laird as you had mentioned in the podcast? I would be willing to pay for them.

Thanks,

Chris

Half Japanese, half Italian, bisexual, architect, swim suit model?

Tim, you were talking about Yuka Otsuki!

She is currenty based in Berlin, a musician, though which is the same somehow.

Say hi!

Best episode ever, great show! Thanks to the three of you. No video required.

I would love it if you’d interview Steve Pavlina, in depth. I’m guessing that your differences would make a very interesting episode.

Hi Tim, I so related to what you were saying about T-shirts….sometimes they have great graphics or sayings but the T-shirt quality is horrible. I’ve been trying out how to source the best-fitting, softest T’s with good necklines. Can you suggest how to find them or go about finding them? What was your method? Thank you!

Why worry so much about the permits for the sauna? What is the likelihood that anyone will notice, report, and generate an actual consequence from the powers that be? And would the cost of the fines be any worse than the permits?

I have a VC friend who made a killing putting up cell towers on tall buildings when he realized that the permits were more expensive (in time and money) than the fines would be, and that the likelihood of anyone reporting him was minuscule anyway. I don’t think he’s ever had a problem. And that was in high visibility areas.

I guess the real question is this: what were the calculations that went into deciding which option (to permit or not to permit) was more “expensive?” How do you weigh these kinds of risks?

Heard the show, Just wanted to correct Tim on his psilocybin research details… Classification of Psilocybin is schedule I, which holds indicates “no medical value and high potential for abuse” which is where marijuana and heroin are also categorized. These also contain the hardest hitting court mandated jail sentences for possession.

Meanwhile, Cocaine is a schedule II substance, which have less conditions for possession. Derivatives of cocaine are used in things like root canals and orthodontics, while heroin’s close cousin morphine (Schedule II) is used in hospitals.

Permutation implies order.

Why no video 🙁 no video = fail !!!! We don’t get to see how drunk you are anymore..sad

Podcast again 🙁

Video please…it’s so much better.