Tim Ferriss Interviews Neil Strauss, 7x New York Times Bestselling Author, on the Creative Process

Fantastic! Two of the most brilliant minds I love to hear from in one room.

The idea of low quotas (two pages per day) is brilliant.

This is fantastic. Thank you both.

Great timing guys – love having you chew the fat!

Bad ass interview. Its always good when you post videos up.

Great interview Tim. What is the software you use for writing? I couldn't understand that in the video. Thanks 😉

Some really interesting ideas. I particularly liked your idea of how some topics are more transferable from blog to book. Neil's idea of the kindle's e-ink missing the feel of a book I think may be true. However, I think one point which all the ebook sellers are missing is the power of the library. The ability to put your physical books onto a shelf and display them in your house is a huge point of the print books. If Amazon were to acquire Goodreads (they've tried with their own service but it's not there yet) then they could simulate it. The question is if a virtual bookshelf can satisfy our need to show off our library. Anyway great talk!

What's the piece of workout equipment in the background? Tim, Awesome Interview

Awesome! Two of my favorite authors here, whose books I've even translated into Russian!

Tim & Neil – HOLY shyt, f***ing AWESOME! Seriously, fellas, this was awesome! I am finishing my first book and it's a monster! Your tips on getting shyt done when writing were the best I've ever heard. REALLY grateful and hope U guys crush this again down the road, on ANY QnA whether it be writing, lifestyle, etc. Neil – BTW, how often are you surfing? Have U tried SUP? Again, thank YOU BIG time, brothas!

Great interview, and well run from Tim's side too. Asking great insightful questions is half the power…really glad you posted this!

Tim, it is great to hear you're an artist. Because of you, and particularly the 4HWW, I am escaping my professional career and pursuing my true passion: Art. I hope you do not give up on this creative process and would love to hear if you have ever analyzed this creative process as much as you have with writing. Brent

I really like the video chats as a format, followed by a transcript or something to print out points. They are more entertaining, so keep up Random shows, creative excerpts, and the like. The only writing I do is songwriting, so the technical publishing stuff ….meh. But the storytelling idea is gold. Keep them coming!

My first introduction to Neil Strauss was 2-3 years ago on this blog when Tim wrote about Neil's book Emergency and how it would make you like Jason Bourne. Promptly bought the book, devoured it, started my own "survival" journey, and subsequently started a blog to chronicle everything. 3 years later, my blog is alive and well because of you 2 dudes! (and a little Gary V 🙂 Love whenever I can see you guys together! p.s. Tim–it would be cool to see you in more video brother! I know writing is your love, but anytime I watch a video of yours, I find it hard to go back to written posts. Videos are where I feel like we're getting the "realest" access…

I like Neil's articulation of the different audiences for drafts: 1st for yourself (use 'tk', put everything in), 2nd for the reader (remove anything that can be cut without breaking the book), 3rd for the hater (answer arguments directly within the manuscript to 'hater proof' the book). It would be awesome to get more information from Tim on how to 'get an A-list book agent.'

It's strange how so many people who have published a book don't consider themselves writers. I've published a book yet feel the same. Also, I consider self-publishing almost impossible without Stickk.com. You need to force deadlines upon yourself if no one else will. Otherwise Parkinson's Law comes into effect and you find the time allotted is your entire life so it just keeps getting pushed back until it never happens.

Cool interview, Tim! As a big fan of both you and Neil, this was awesome to watch. Looking forward to seeing you speak at the Ignite event in Oshawa, Ontario next week!

I'd like to hear more about your writers retreat, what the routine was, how much time did you spend talking or other activities vs. actual writing. Have you done anything else like that? With who? I also enjoy drunk writing.

Two of my idols. This is awsome !

Tips from a comedian & author: 1. Write ten minutes right when you wake up — your brain's filter is not "on" yet so (1) you'll look back with pleasant surprise at what it outputs and (2) it trains your brain to be open to "writing mode" throughout the day. As Seinfeld says, "do not break the chain": write daily, no excuses. 2. Get very comfortable writing in Evernote note pads (I used to use BlackBerry, but it sucked at backing up), and write EVERY amusing/interesting thought that comes to your mind — you WILL forget it if you don't write it down NOW. 3. Like Neal said, say the ideas aloud in conversation. Also, post "one liners" or snippets on Facebook / Twitter and watch the responses. Don't pander, but do check that you're communicating what you intended. ("The meaning of your communication is the response you get." – NLP) 4. As Tim alluded to, writing is entertainment: If you're writing comedy and you're not laughing, you're not doing your job. 5. Use the "red pen": Cut every word you can.

Tim and All, Thought you would like this new research regarding Mental Performance from the Max Planck Society: http://www.mpg.de/7310073/neurons-munc13 Here's a great excerpt from the end of the article: "After all, leading neuroscientists of the past described the calcium sensor responsible for synaptic short-term plasticity and its target protein as the Holy Grail. “I am confident that we have discovered a key molecular mechanism of short-term plasticity that plays a role in all synapses in the brain, and not only in cultivated neurons, as many colleagues believed,” affirms Lipstein. And if she is, in fact, proved right about the interpretation of her findings, Munc13 could even be an ideal pharmacological target for drugs that influence brain function." These are some brilliant scientists researching this.

Great talk! I'm going to listen to it a second time soon and take some notes!

He doesn't just take "Neil bites." He takes Neil sips, too. His is the only glass with beer left in it. Tim…physically removing the bottle of beer…that kind of forced self control accounts for the nice back muscles seen beneath the shirt. Mmm mm. Thanks, wonderful interview, both you guys are a pleasure to listen to, and I got lots of good tips.

Tim's wearing a (tk) henley shirt, I was obsessed with finding a linen henley shirt for a long while and am still looking pointless information

Both Neil and Tim have similar energy/thinking while speaking. Interesting. I like that Neil speaks more quickly. The talk was packed full of valuable information for new writers and reminders for those who've been carving (or hacking) at the writing craft. Oh, I also love that Neil has a secret way of communicating about his book while he writes it. I support Tim's idea that when someone, anyone, loves something, to amplify that love. Take praise and criticism in equal parts, but positive feedback that moves someone emotionally is CONSUMED! That is a home run! Its a sign the writer connected with the reader in the most deep and intimate way one stranger can with another without ever having laid eyes on the other. That is a honorable and undervalued relationship. Bravo!

Good one Ferriss. You like Scrivener over evernote?

That was perfect. Thank you both so much. Great tips, and an amazing interview.

That was such a great interview. Personally I have never read any of his books but quickly realized he was somebody I have indeed heard about, a lot. Great questions and insights into the mind of a good, talented writers, both of you. Thank you, Tim.

It was interesting that you mentioned your senior thesis. My doctorate thesis actually made me go mad for about two weeks. As in strange social behaviour, introspection etc etc. It was the intervention of a few friends that helped me acclimatise back into normal life. But also taking control of it helped. Getting the back of it broken so to speak was when it got easier. It was only when I had a full 1st draft of the whole thing that it became easy to focus on each chapter. And another strange thing happened: all the crushing red pen corrections suddenly looked like modest criticism. I was a lot more ruthless changing the information to make things flow better. I've written books (and hundreds of engineering and scientific reports) since then but the thesis was by far the hardest. It was like having a huge water tank of information pressing on my brain and all I had was a value to control the flow. It just burst out every time I opened it. Great video.

The two world-superheroes unite!

Hey tim, not sure if you saw this yet but it went viral and thought you'd appreciate it http://voices.yahoo.com/turtleology-101-travel-witout-any-bags-12069586.html

I almost missed my train to the airport to finish watching the show. Neil and Tim – thanks once again for making me a wiser man

procrastination = perfect preparing. Thanks for the friendly reminder(s) and tricks-of-the-trade. Awesome interview. stefan

Tim, I love your books, your website, and your videos. But, I have some constructive criticism: could you please tone down the language? I know it's probably just everyday words for you and the people you are surrounded with. But, it's just unprofessional and detracts from your work. When I recommend your books and website, I always have to tell people, I have to apologize in advance for his language, but he has some really great ideas and work. And, I can't even listen to you, when my young daughter is around, because of the language. I guess I just have a slightly different value system than you, but I would think that you would win more customers and followers, if you would remove it from your books, videos, seminars, etc. People who don't mind hearing/reading it, won't be turned off by it not being there, and people who find it distasteful and offensive will appreciate it not being there. Thank you, and keep up your good work, Tim!

I just saw on Google that it's Small Business Week. Any plans to do another Shopify competition this year?

Good video Tim. Always good to hear from both of you guys.

Tim …. I think you look better with a little bit of hair …. Just sayin' …..

Dude this interview was so freaking awesome thank you.

Insane value on this blog. Amazed. Thank you so much! Lately you have been offering valuable information on writing. Question: For those of us who wish to write books and self publish in English as a second language; do you recommend: 1) write in native language and pay for translation 2) write as well as possible and perhaps use a consultant for fine polishing? Thanks again!

Didn't watch the full video, but read Strauss' book "The Game" and have become familiar with the science (much unresearched, unpublished) behind NLP (neuro-linguistic-programming). For anyone who learns the concept (or any significant concepts of neuroscience), NLP certainly changes his/her life. Pro-Tip for those who read faster than they watch videos: skimming the comments on a long video can provide more information more quickly, if you're pressed for time! ———- If I may, my addition to the creative process: We want our governments and corporations to become more transparent, and that's actually the best thing we can do for the creative process in our own lives (indeed, across all of society, our whole planet (and Mars), etc.) Transparently, giving our non-focus ideas away is the best thing we can do for our creative process. Then, we focus on our primary top 1-3 passions/ideas/areas and grow those with most of our energy, and freely give away everything else. All our other ideas?! Like they allude to in the video, write things down if we need, create some sort of communication repository (my website is becoming incredibly helpful when I meet people to freely give out the ideas I'm having daily), and share them, other than the top few we're focusing on. But always provide enough information about your primary ideas to **help other people keep you accountable to what you're doing. For instance, I'm telling my friends I'm hiring a virtual assistant and applying for an Elance contest this week, giving a little information away behind my #1 idea such that my friends help me stay accountable. That prevents me from procrastinating next week, regardless of whether I win the contest or not. This also gets them interested in the other ideas that I'm giving away for free (for prisons, universities, hospitals, a paleo national restaurant chain, etc.), benefiting our whole society. Karma is a very interesting concept. Neurologically, keeping an idea secret is physically impossible, so transparency of our ideas is the best option! ———- Tim, keep up the great work! Some of my lessons you may want to learn, though: take it SLOW with the meditation, make sure to continue the balanced brain activities (see brain science section of website), and always stay on top of a healthy diet, including those lowly, minimally-researched minerals (#34, for example…). Also, several solid book ideas on the website that I may or may not choose to cultivate this year. I think I already sent you the "4-Hour Parent" recommendation to you/Neil Tyson, but I forget. ———- As an author this year (publishing for free on the personal website), I agree with Ari Teman Re: writing fresh from sleeping and boiling everything down to the shortest idea possible. That helps being an editor of your own, priceless, beautiful words! One of the things eInk makes possible is to have a "living" book (or collection) that grows, changes, and adapts over time (testing that idea with the website). As publishing shifts with this renaissance, we'll see what the future brings. Christian — Sure, but our need to "show off" a library is unnatural, pompous, and intellectually fallible. That last part? Words change their meaning over time, and authors change their stance on the things they believe. Read something (esp. nonfiction) written 20 years ago, then ask the author if he/she believes exactly the ideas in the book. Nope, they'll be updated and modified. After you're done with a book, why not give it away? Take notes and review them annually rather than show off your vast collection of physical, dated books 😉 Taking/reviewing notes actually facilitates the enlightening intellectual conversations, which is what we really care about to begin with! JMac — I'm a grad student in MCB. Drugs are very, VERY rarely the best answer. Every KNOWN molecular effect has dozens (if not hundreds) of unknown effects which take decades or longer to discover. And biophysics has years to go before it can really help us model a single cell, let alone the entire superorganism (don't forget the microbiome!). Unfortunately, most neuroscientists don't accept the theory of neuroscience due to philosophical prejudice: the human brain is a lump of natural phenomena. Throughout history, all great physicists have known this! Carl Sullivan — My opinion is that it's a charisma trick (Read the recent book "The Charisma Myth") many leaders use in different ways: provide your audience just enough doubt that they retain the option of disagreeing with and doubting you. Why? We don't want gods or superheroes in real life, only the movies. In real life, we want fallible humans, not perfect people! ———- Unrelated (Tim's Team is welcome to delete), Re: Global Scientific Enlightenment Tim posted a link to a significant scientific TED talk recently. ( "The situation that occured with Einstein is happening all over again in science." See Tim's Twitter link). Scientific enlightenment/revolutions are the funnest and most exciting of all historical changes. I'm happy to be one of 7 billion happy people on the planet for this one! However, let's remember to take this slow, because of what Einstein warned us about the weapons of WW3. I know, I'm playing on the fear; I don't actually believe we'll make that mistake again. We DO need to be conscious of our historical mistakes, though. How are you all contributing? The best contribution each of us can make to the world during this change is just to be happy and enjoy our daily lives! –Geniuses? Nah, just collections of neurons, each doing what he/she/it enjoys! Who s-tarted this process? There's 7 billion humans on the planet! Nobody started it; it's just a process, and it's happening in the world right now. Let's let it happen. I've met friends, family, and strangers who are scared of some of these changes taking place, especially in America (Hi, NSA!), but I truly believe it's only fear itself. –We're evolving the thing most adults call "AI." Let's stop being afraid of it! I'm calling it OI… It's more respectful! My statement's on the site (which, as you ask for, I won't link to). Anyway, I look forward to having a better smartphone and computers! ——- John Fial (Hi! I'm new here. L/T reader F/T poster. I try to "plug in" only monthly, but Tim's freakin TED talk link just ate my afternoon.)

This was inspirational, educational and as a writer. I loved some of the advice. Starting next week, all my appointments on Monday, the rest of the week for writing. Thank you Tim! U.Da.Best!

So great to see two of my favorite authors sitting down and giving advice like this. Thanks for doing this Tim and Neil.

Solid interview, the content of which is pretty directly applicable to your current situation in determining what direction to go next. Polling followers is a sweet benefit of having such a solidified platform, but I wonder to what extent they can really see around the corner towards the next paradigm. Instead its a lot of regurgitation; ie, kitchen reality TV, another location independent muse business. Been there; what's next? I feel like thats a question that only Tim Ferriss can answer. My only input would be to not focus solely on sharable/internet items. Your 80/20 1000(00) true fans aren't going anywhere, while the fools errand of perpetual e-limelight is a nearly impossible, fully exhaustive, and ultimately unfulfilling mission. 6 months off to build a wood cabin by hand in Summit Eden? Awesome. Who cares if you only get a single blog post out of it? The internetz isn't going anywhere, and your brand equity is well-defined for future mainstream projects. No need to force things.

Yeah I hate Phil Collins too!

Haiku Comment ~ ~ ~ Master life teachers Joined in creative combat I am satisfied

Awesome video Tim, I love how incredibly detailed you guys are with your time. Very Inspiring. You were taking in a separate post about what to do next, so I have an idea for you as an extension of efficient learning you propose. How about creating a separate area of your site where it's in effect a learning hub, 'Tim's learning corner' if you will. A series of 10 min videos (start off with say 100) supported by one side of text outlining how to learn the absolute necessity's of a variety of subjects. To use your example of languages; 100 words most spoken in English plus a video with the the pronunciation of every one of the words and do this for the 10 most spoken languages in the world. It's not an area to learn absolutely everything you possibly can about the subject (you could link through to those), but rather an area where if you want to learn the outline of a subject to increase your knowledge or help you out on the surface level with that subject. The list of subjects you could do this for is endless..Photography (lessons on the interconnectedness of aperture, shutter speed, ISO), instruments (the 7 chords plus the sharps and flats), Working out (a guide on the perfect deadlift/kettle bell swing/squat etc), correct breathing techniques etc etc Yes, you can see all of these on youtube, but frankly you have to do some digging and you never know the quality you're going to get, searching for them on youtube is in itself a waste of time because there is too many. But rather than create all these yourself, open it to your network. Create a format that the videos and text have to be in an allow people to submit them (outsourcing) and build up the list of subjects super quick. You could give the lessons away for free, or charge a nominal 99c to give it value and split it 50/50 with the creator. Build up a social network with all the creators who can advertise via a profile what lessons they have and allow them to trade with each other. Release one of those books that you see on the counter of every book store at Christmas – '100 things to learn in 10 mins' etc etc Anyway man, just an idea for you. Best, Chris

Love the idea of focusing on small quotas for desirable habits. The idea of launching the book idea early to let the audience steer the ship a bit. When I was 11 I was passionate about photography, travel, and endurance sports.

Awesome interview guys. I'm really interested to write and publish a book in the future and that helped a lot! Keep this kind of interview coming!

From this course I got one of the best advices on writing I've ever got, when I watched it last year: – The first version is for you and only for you. Write something that you like, as if no one else is ever going to read it. – The second version is for your fans. Write something that they will love. – The third version is for the hater. Write it so that it answers the questions of the haters, so that even they are forced in the end to say something good about your work. I am saying it from memory, I am sure that Mr Strauss didn't say the exact same thing. But it helped me A LOT to write my scientific papers.

Great segment, I especially enjoyed the last 3-4 minutes on the power of telling storys.

Two crappy pages a day is truly genius. Though my book is very short, 156 pages, I never would have finished it if I didn’t work on it day in and day out. Even 5 minutes a day keeps the project moving forward. But to me, the point made about assuming nobody cares about what you are writing about and getting them to care through your writing is a fantastic strategy that I will definitely start to employ. Thanks Tim and Neil, great interview.

I sent this to several friends. And I think the interview was great! One quick question for anyone who can answer. I can't figure out which online writing / story telling course Tim recommended. I have found multiple ones. Very curious about which one is being mentioned here. Thanks again.

Tim does an amazing job and getting you to want to "DO". This interview sparked my interest to review and re-evaluate my writing just as his books have with aspects of my life. Neil Strauss, so many good books and great writing ino

I must say guys, I just finished reading King's book "On Writing" in which I took a ton of notes to help me with my future writing, and I have just as many notes, if not more, from this 1 interview. Hearing Neil as an established writer struggle like a normal human being when it comes to setting deadlines for yourself was great to hear!

Great interview, so much valuable and practically useful content. One observation that is probably from outside of the goldfish bowl. These two are both very full on men who love life, love learning and discovering new things and have the whole emergent life thing driving them. Without this none of what they said would be possible. It feels that this is the very attractive thing that inspires, is seeing two fired up guys beat heads about the intense passion of their lives. Now that's something worth catching the way of. Thanks for sharing..

Millions of deaf/hoh people like myself cannot enjoy videos if they are not captioned. Auto captions are not of acceptable quality either. Would you please caption all of your videos with proper grammar, punctuation, speaker identifications, sound descriptions, etc? Quality captions are as important as quality speech. Thanks!

I LOVE THIS INTERVIEW! Thanks, Tim. The creative process is so interesting and magical. It's a ton of hard work and is completely misunderstood by people, especially for those coming from technical backgrounds. I'm a writer myself and it's such a laborious process to get the words on the page. This interview has every single tip and then some on the craft of writing – and of course, there is still so much more. I wish this interview was made a year ago so I could take it and pick it apart for a couple weeks rather than randomly gathering information from all these different sources. This interview confirms everything I've learned about writing thus far, and yet, so much I've forgotten.

Another slam dunk! Thanks Tim and Neil. This blog provides arguably the best free content that I've seen online, with no direct strings attached (i.e. no program to sell). IMHO buying your books is a token way to return the favor and simultaneously learn…

Thank you for posting this video, Tim! I watched the live broadcast, and I am SO glad that this segment is now available for me to go through again. I tuned in because I am a huge fan of both your and Neil's writing. I was very surprised at how relevant much of the discussion was to me and my own writing process. I am a songwriter, and I find a great deal of resonance between your methods and mine when it comes to getting words (or melodies) down and refining the work into something tight and meaningful. Thanks again! EVO

This was EXTREMELY helpful !!!

Before I found out Neil and Tim were good friends I thought that they were kindred spirits of sorts. The conversation you guys had confirms that for me. Some great perspectives, tips hacks and warnings! Cheers.

Tim, You are an amazing person. The interview is awesome. You should have it somewhere without time constraints. People will see how long the video is before watching anyway. I would love more like the random shows, but with specifics themes, and going deeper with them (interviewing other people you admire would make it fun for you and for us, i'll bet). I read the 4HWW and am reading the 4HB. Is the kindle version of 4HC worst, because of the pictures? (i live in Rio de Janeiro and takes too long to ship the book) Best regards, Felipe Moitta

I really liked this interview. What stood out for me most is, willing to work for free for something you are passionate about. I think this is also true when it comes to business. I think many people fail in business because they expect to get paid from day one. Being passionate about what you do and willing to do it even if you don't get paid is something I see over-and-over in succeessful people.

Hello Tim. it would be great if you put all the names and links of apps and sites that you guys commented in the video. By the way, the interview is awesome! hahaha Wagner

Really cool ending: do what you want and love, whether you get paid for it or not.

Tim, I love you; I wouldn't buy your books and read your blog if I didn't. But I think your enthusiasm may have overshadowed your role as interviewer. I felt a bit gypped in that it was hard to get to Neil's answers. I would love to see you study the greats and teach yourself to be an AMAZING interviewer. All the best, Jenifer

Awesome! I am definitely going to impliment the "no email in the morning" plan. Both of you have had a tremendous positive impact on my life, so thanks!

Well done! Now we know who this 'Neil' from the FHB is =)

Love it! I saw the whole thing on creativeLIVE. Also like the Random Show.

Excellent interview. Tons of useful information. Thanks for posting.

Very informative teaching with great tips coming from both Tim and Neil – thank you guys! Tip for Corey in the video, and anyone else that wants to know about research, that served me well. David Hare (English playwright and theatre and film director) said “The great mystery of adaptation is that true fidelity can only be achieved through lavish promiscuity." That line of thinking has served me well when researching and then essentially adapting that research into a piece. It gave me permission to fully indulge in the process and explore many happy tangents. I then use the readers' tacit and vocal questions to help me whittle down my information into a coherent piece with a singular focused purpose. Happy writing 🙂

creativeLIVE concept is fantastic. Best detox from 20th century education system. Learning in creativeLIVE is concrete and associated with fun, success, excitment, guilt free Q&A… creativeLIVE changes the George Bernard Shaw quote "He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches." Here who teaches, could and did first. Here nobody pronounce "IQ" but we hear often "failure is feedback" by a smiling successful achiever… That makes all the difference when a teacher can be also a hero, with polymorphic achievements. At all ages we need learning, so we need heros… They exist. creativeLIVE videos show them, and sharing their process / journey. The bonus aspect is "surprising" index which wakes up best the right brain hemisphere. Polymath aspect or simply surprising profile of the teacher put the learner in optimal disposition. I just hope it will be so financially successful that conversations will start in what teaching/learning can look like.

I enjoyed this video very much and thought it was hugely informative and helpful. Also, well-thought set, and editing. I was wondering what is your experience on a goal setting software for. If I have couple of goals that I would like to achieve, be them a piece of writing to finish, alongside other projects, I find it more encouraging to use something visual that I can see as timeline bar of progress. I know of GoalsonTrack and Goalenforcer. Can you give your take on this?

Awesome video, thanks!

Thank you so much Tim for sharing! It was awesome!:) Have a great day! All the best! Jeanette

You should've interviewed him on pick up! 🙂

After watching the video I actually found it really interesting. I only knew Neil Strauss through reading the game and the occasional mention of him on Tynan's blog, but he seems like a really cool guy. I found his metaphor with the wrinkly shirt really interesting. It's not the initial writing that's beautiful, it's the ironed out product that you get to show off to everyone else.

Tim, everything about you and your work is very straight forward. There is no fluff and you are full of useful information. You're extremely passionate and it's really great to see. It's inspiring. I was referred to your first best seller a few days ago and I am half way through. It's changing the way I see myself and the world. I cannot thank you enough! Ps- What an incredible interview/discussion! Thanks for sharing!

scary man crush Tim eyes at around the 30 mark, this must become a meme!

When doing something creative, you'll notice that some days you got nothing and some days you're unstoppable. You're in the zone. I've been observing what happens when I got the creative juices flowing. When I'm creative, I'm in a real relaxed state. No distractions. Sometimes it works wonders if you don't focus on being creative. Put your work aside for one day and it's like your subconscious mind does the rest for you. Great ideas can pop out of nowhere. Working at night seems to help too. And when I'm in bed, trying to sleep, is like I have a special key to new doors. I recommend anyone who likes to be creative to have a notepad next to your bed. When an idea suddenly comes, write it down and let yourself go loose.

Thanks a lot of for sharing so many good tips. They are most helpful for the book I am currently writing. I am also loving "Bird by bird", one of the books on writing you recommended, Tim. I look forward to more interviews like this.

Great interview….It is great to be able to listen to two incredible people speak. It is kind of like being a fly on the wall 🙂

So here's something interesting that I've noticed in this video that made me think about my habits. At around the 45 minute mark, Tim and Neil are sitting with one of the guys from the audience. Note the posture difference between Neil, Tim and the fellow with whom they're grabbing a beer. It looks to me that loosening up and having fun changes the ease of listening and absorbing of the material. Fantastic questions, rapport, and material. Kudos to everybody involved!

Thanks for the heads-up for Scrivener! The advice on not wasting your energy on anything but writing was invaluble….a really great and informative piece.

Lol Tim you're so self-involved. At any rate great interview. I love your books and knew nothing about Neil before this but will definitely be checking him out. Thanks bro.

AWESOME interview Tim!! I really took to heart what you said about learning to tell stories well ( in all aspect of life), and was wondering if you had any book recommendations on the subject? Thanks Tim, keep doing what you do, your an inspiration man!

2 awesome authors and minds coming together makes for a great interview/video. Keep it up!

Good Afternoon Mr. Ferris, I write to you with the utmost respect and sincerity in my asking this question. I am 10 pages into your book and will most likely finish it by tomorrow and I am already excited to learn everything I can from you. I am a 20 year old student / full time slave for minimum wage and set to leave for the USMC soon. Upon reading success story after success story I have realized this is not the life I have imagined for myself. I will try to keep this brief but every success story and every person, almost everyone, has one key factor that I do not: a mentor. I ask that you be my mentor, even if I'm only in contact with you for one phone call every 6 months. I hope you will at least entertain this question and e-mail me back, even if your answer is a no. Any answer would mean a great deal to me from someone as successful as yourself. Thank you and have a good day. – Steven D.

Hay Tim, As a blogging guru I wondered what you and your readers think of the Evernote Devcup winner Postach.io as a blogging tool.

Wow, this was pretty affirming. I had always felt like a nut job locking myself away from technology telling people it's the only way I can write and had never considered ordering all my lunches at the start of the week to be delivered throughout. Great content.

Awesome Interview! Please list all the tools you mentioned. Otherwise, I'll have to watch it again and take notes!, lol David

Thank you so much for this. The part on making the reader care was the best.

I really need to work on time management! I have been crushing it with my social media, but I am way too involved with it on a daily basis, and I never turn off my notifications. I have a really connected following, and that's partly because of how involved I am with them on the blog, on instagram etc – but I have a hard time not answering things immediately. I know I'm going to be so much more productive this year creating a schedule for myself and I loved what you shared about creating that buffer from it.

http://i.imgur.com/CbDXY.jpg

Another amazing tool is actually "Do Not Disturb" mode on the iPhone. Just add the people who you want to be able to contact you to your favorites list and the rest of your notifications won't show up unless you check the phone.

Hi. I am not sure what to use stickk or beeminder. Beeminer has iphone and android app, also graphics, import and export data. Stickk seems better if you don't want to pay. Anyone tried both?

Hola Tim, ¡Muy buena entrevista! Te conocí accidentalmente viendo videos TED hace 3 meses, me enganchaste con tu método para aprender un idioma en poco tiempo y, desde ese momento, no paré de aprender de tí. Has tenido un gran impacto en mi vida. Quiero agradecerte por tu honestidad y por compartir tus conocimientos para ayudarnos a cumplir nuestros sueños y a vivir mejor. Saludos desde Tigre, Argentina. Abrazo. Julián.

Amazon actually acquired Goodreads a few weeks ago[1]. [1] http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1801563&highlight=

Scrivener. Love it.

Thanks for the comment and feedback. I do enjoy the videos and hope to do more 🙂

Scrivener is for writing the draft of the books Evernote is for notetaking bookmarking Tim uses both for two different purposes

I like your last sentence Jimmy :). Thanks Tim and Neil for making me wiser

Thanks for the tip on reading the comments. Since the Creative Live videos are not captioned since I am deaf. Therefore, I can't enjoy the equitable access. Reading the comments will help me somewhat a little.

Nothing against your constructive criticism, but I neither felt that it was hard to get to Neil's answers, nor that Tim needs to study to become an "amazing" interviewer (however you might define that to be). Keep the purpose in mind, which was to teach "4-hour principles", not a plain Neil Strauss interview.

I like your advice Ari. Thank you for sharing.

Please do! You guys are tremendously entertaining!!

I stand corrected then. That's bound to be exciting 🙂

When you plan on doing your next videos, please be considerate to have it in English subtitle. I would appreciate if you incorporate or/and let other content producers (Creative Live) to do the same. YouTube and others are making it easy to captioning on top of crowdsourcing and outsourcing. Enable to subtitle would enable me to enjoy the content as your readers enjoy. I would like to appreciate the same access since I am deaf myself.

If I'm able to watch the whole interview; I'll try to remember to comment and give you the jiist in the future. Hopefully others on the blog can help, too. One of the entreprenrial ideas that me and others have is to balance and outsource work across the globe, work such as transcribing videos and postcasts to make them easily readable (for the deaf or for anyone who chooses the "read" to get the jiist really quickly–I do that with a Security Now! weekly podcast). Hope you're able to enjoy life, Jim! When a 13-yr old autistic child just added to Newton/Einstein/Barnett (Jacob); the world is changing! PSS My entry in the Elance constest (site above) may or may not change the course of human history?

I thought this was an amzing interview. I'm a big fan of both Neil and Tim, but I tend to agree with Jenifer that Tim's share of voice was quite high. Neil is such an interesting guy and I believe in this format Tim could have provided a bit more space for Neil.

Thanks