Dissecting the Success of Malcolm Gladwell (#168)

Question about Four Hour Chef- Do you have any recipes for bread?

Making sour dough bread or any other thoughts or about bread?

Seems like a big gap in a book about good food.

Tim! Thanks so much for this. 2 of my favorite writers in one podcast..I thought my brain was going to explode with joy.

He a great writer read blink and outlier very powerful books and brought a positive change in my life

Can’t wait to listen to this! My two favorite modern days writers together. Malcolm’s quote reminds me of Abe Lincoln’s “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

Tim Ferriss! I can’t believe this is your next guest…I just read Outliers for the first time over the weekend while recovering from foot surgery. Aha!!! It gave me the foundational insight that underlies the Podcast as well as the 4 Hour Chef…tipping the hat to the world class and then hacking into the 10,000-hour rule and creating the routines. Love him, Love you. Can’t wait to hear this. I’m going to go kick some ass, even with my foot in a post-surgery boot.

Resources on asking better questions and curiosity.

This lesson lands on the heels of your round two podcast with Jamie Foxx and the impact of thinking about thinking – asking questions to yourself. I loved hearing Malcolm Gladwell talk about his Dad. Talking about his dad, Malcolm said something along the lines of ‘He has zero intellectual insecurities. It never crossed his mind to be concerned that the world may think he is an idiot.’ I love this as both a curious question asking entrepreneur, and a father. A third connection that I am excited about is from one of your other recent episodes, I believe it was with Mike Rowe, that really caught my attention on the importance of curiosity itself. It allowed my to see the value in the ability to be able to inspire curiosity.

Loved this episode Tim! Your hard work does not go unnoticed : )

What a great conversation between you and Malcolm Gladwell. Great topics shared.. I found the portion related to higher education and college admissions most interesting.

Amazing interview Tim. Thanks and Gladwell comes across a genuine author who has the best interests of the reader at heart. He has a wonderful knack of telling stories and as you said making complex truths easily accessible to mere mortals like me :). One suggestion is it possible to get transcripts I know you have them for a few earlier podcasts. Hope we can have that option for all of them. Thanks and have a wonderful weekend.

Malcolm Gladwell talks about his admiration for Brian Eno’s music and then reminds people about the power of music with this adage:

“The music you discover when you’re 18 is the music that stays with you the rest of your life.”

Tim – what’s the record/track you listened to at 18 that you can’t get out of your head?

My biggest takeaway of the podcast though: You’ll find your stride if you can delay gratification.

You probably won’t see this but I often blog my favorite highlights from your podcasts:

http://www.bombtune.com/?tag=tim+ferriss

Hi Tim !

could you kindly do yourself, and your fans, the courtesy of updating your website to HTTPS for a whole variety of security reasons

It also ensures you are on the cutting edge where you should be, not

stuck 30 years behind with your security

and also, with your five bullet friday – can you please use plain ordinary links not highly complex unintelligible links. such lack of transparency would be considered highly suspect and manipulative if encountered anywhere else.

we have to ‘trust’ that the email comes from you, (no HTTPS makes this worse) that there’s no malware or spyware hidden in the links, or that some dodgy corporate entity gets paid a dollar for every time someone clicks on your links.

So, I don’t click on them. Nor do many people I know. We read the paragraphs you write and, well, that’s it.

Incidentally it’s really easy to steal emails and other personal information from this word press comments page. i use a linked alias email for that reason which can act as a filter. Many people may not be as astute.

Great conversation. I really enjoyed Malcolm talking about his father’s endless appetite for understanding through questioning and the idea of being intellectually secure enough to ask “dumb” questions without fear of judgement.

Who was the guest who discussed something in regards to the benefit of tragedy? I remember hearing in a past podcast it didn’t connect with me at the time but I could really help me now. Any help is much appreciated.

Thank you for what you do! I discovered your podcast in August 14′. Before then, I literally read 2 books in 10 years. Close to 2 years later, I have read or listened to 50+ books. My life has improved in ways I didn’t think was possible.

Maybe I’m just web-stupid, but where the heck do you find a list of Tim’s podcast sponsors? I wanted to check one out, can’t remember the company name, thought it would only take a minute.

I am sure this is not the right forum to reach out but what the hell….. On your most recent episode with Rick Dubner, you touched on the subject of mental illness/suicide and the promise of different entheogens. I want to donate (maybe not a significant amount to some but definitely a sizable sum for me) to help research the potential benefits. I know of MAPS and would like some info on their “administrative fees” and how much actually gets funneled the research. Considering you have been a donor in the past, is their “DONATE” tab on their website a legitimate route?

Re: Writers Block- Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel wrote movies like City Slickers, A League of Their Own, and Parenthood. They spoke about writers block at a Maui Writer’s conference many moons ago. They learned while writing for television that when they got stuck it was because they took a wrong turn in the narrative. They would back up in the story until they found the wrong turn and could move forward again. Another thing they said is if a joke was funny to one but not the other it was immediately dropped. They both had to laugh hard at the joke or it was out.

Your interview with Gladwell is the first one I’ve replayed immediately. It has helped spark something in my process of rediscovering my writing voice. Thank you both!

Tim,

Malcolm Gladwell is responsible for my Audible consumption of somewhere between 500-600 non-fiction books in the past decade. I read the ‘Tipping Point’ on a flight to South Korea back in 2004 and my mind exploded.

It became a mandatory read for all of my Officers, and a ‘highly, highly suggested’ read for all my Soldiers. That book re-kindled my curiosity.

He is indirectly responsible, that and Amazon’s ‘others who read this have also read’ algorithm, for introducing me to your writing as well.

Your initial insight to do a long form podcast was genius. Other podcast’s I’ve listened to feel like a post-game TV interview, much less authentic.

I found it interesting to hear Malcolm refer to Michael Lewis as the greatest present day story-teller, which ironically is how I describe Gladwell to others. Lewis is great, and actually opened my eyes to the despair/frustration/anger of the OWS crowd.

Loved his comments about college, and I realized I found that place in the Army. Combat is filled with so many contradictions, but the ‘interesting conversations with people I find interesting in the middle of the night’ was one of them. I also laughed every day. Side-splitting, tears rolling laughter. Ironic, until you deploy.

Listening to this podcast I had a thought about character and values. How many of the most successful are exhibit the humility that Malcolm demonstrated during this interview? I know the show is about behaviors, but in the middle of this podcast I wanted to see ‘character’ trends of all your interviewees. What would we find there?

Thank you for having the courage to do what you do. It helps.

bsn

Tim, thanks for this interview! This made my week. I did not think that you would ever interview him, what with the whole 10,000 hour rule and all. What a pleasant surprise! And what a great interview. He has such an interesting mind. I could listen for hours more. Cheers!

Malcolm, like many of your guests was fascinating! Loved getting a snapshot into his life and perspectives. Is it possible to condense the podcasts to more bite-sized chunks? The most interesting content, relevant to the masses, could be captured in 30-40 min. There were a lot of questions about his writing habits/preferences that aren’t as applicable (unless you’re a writer). Also, would love to hear more of your perspectives in podcasts without guests, but a focus on the guests when they’re on the show.

Very good episode. Thank you for sharing. Seth Godin said there is no such thing as writer’s block. I agree with him.

Best x

Really enjoyed the conversation between you both. What struck me about the interview is how normal and authentic Malcolm is. Every morning reading ESPN – I can connect with that :).

I loved the passion Malcolm showed when he discussed his podcast. Definitely another one to add to the list of podcasts to listen to.

As always Tim, keep up the good work.