This episode is a little different. I visited the Googleplex — the Mountain View-based headquarters of Google — and had a public chat. I was interviewed and made sure that we covered some ground that has not been discussed before. There were questions such as:
- What has been the most important Stoic teaching that I’ve come across?
- How do I manage the many requests I receive?
- What are the factors or elements that have led to the success of the podcast?
- Where do I see myself in five years?
- If I could pick three people — alive or dead — to be in my personal board of directors, who would they be?
- How do I experiment with my dog training?
- What are my recommendations for longevity?
- How do I fight insomnia?
- And much, much more…
If you only have 5 minutes, here’s how I cage my monkey mind.
As always, I hope you enjoy this episode and find it useful.
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- Listen to it on iTunes.
- Stream by clicking here.
- Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”
Want to hear another podcast packed full of actionable tips that I use in my own life? — Listen to this short episode on the magic of mindfulness. In this episode, I discuss how to complain less, appreciate more, and live a better life (stream below or right-click here to download):
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QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
Selected Links from the Episode
- The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
- Moral Letters to Lucilius XVIII: On Festivals and Fasting by Seneca
- Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
- The Porn-stache
- “We don’t rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training.” –Archilochus
- Caging the Monkey Mind
- The Five Minute Journal
- The Magic of Mindfulness
- Understanding the Dangers of “Ego-Depletion”
- Tim Ferriss’s 4-Hour Reality Check by Tom Foster, Inc.
- Memento mori: “Remember that you must die.”
- Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris: “Remember, man, dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
- Neil Gaiman’s commencement speech
- ScheduleOnce
- Let’s Get Drinks by Kelly Stout, The New Yorker
- Adulthood tweet by Marissa Miller
- Boomerang for Gmail
- Don’t Shoot the Dog: The New Art of Teaching and Training by Karen Pryor
- Gmail offline mode
- 5 Tips for E-mailing Busy People
- Scratch your own itch
- Freakonomics Radio
- Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey
- Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion by Sam Harris
- Arnold Schwarzenegger on meditation
- “Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.” – W. H. Auden
- What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars by Jim Paul and Brendan Moynihan
- Narcos trailer
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
- Dom D’Agostino on Fasting, Ketosis, and the End of Cancer
- Jocko Willink: The Scariest Navy SEAL Imaginable…And What He Taught Me
- Kuato in Total Recall
- BJ Miller: The Man Who Studied 1,000 Deaths to Learn How to Live
- Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson
- Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) by Richard P. Feynman and Ralph Leighton
- Bridge Troll
- Crate Training and Clicker Training for Dogs
- The Whole Dog Journal’s Guides to Optimum Dog Care: Command Performance
- Kikopup’s YouTube Channel
- Flux
- Jim Fadiman: The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide — Risks, Micro-Dosing, Ibogaine, and More
- “Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
- “Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” – Gautama Buddha
- “After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box.” – Italian proverb
- Sebastian Junger: Lessons from War, Tribal Societies, and a Non-Fiction Life
- Matt Mullenweg on Polyphasic Sleep, Tequila, and Building Billion-Dollar Companies
- Rise Of The Sufferfests
Show Notes
- What stoic teaching has been most important to my life? [06:40]
- What is the monkey brain (and how do I cage it)? [10:36]
- How can we stay humble? [15:15]
- How do I manage the numerous requests I receive? [20:09]
- What drives the success of the Tim Ferriss Show? [26:57]
- Based on my interviews, what do I think drives success? [31:29]
- Am I planning to write a book about my interviews? [41:22]
- Where do I see myself in five years? [45:08]
- If I could pick three people — alive or dead — to be in my personal board of directors, who would they be and why? [50:28]
- How do I experiment with my dog’s training? [53:02]
- There is a lot of talk and focus on human longevity. What would I actually recommend for people as they approach their forties and beyond? [58:11]
- How did I conquer insomnia? [1:01:18]
- How does 2016 Tim react to 2007’s The 4-Hour Workweek pitch and asks? [1:04:57]
- What is my vision for my life? [1:07:22]
- I have experimented with the interview structure of the podcast a few times (see: sharing a bottle of wine with Astro Teller). What has worked best? [1:12:50]
- If I had an adult bootcamp with 20 people, what would I have them do? [1:16:40]
People Mentioned
- Jordan Thibodeau
- Seneca
- Cato
- Archilochus
- Marcus Aurelius
- Julius Caesar
- Neil Gaiman
- Kevin Rose
- Sam Harris
- Tara Brach
- Amelia Boone
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- General Stanley McChrystal
- Pavel Tsatsouline
- Jocko Willink
- W. H. Auden
- Pablo Escobar
- Dom D’Agostino
- BJ Miller
- Benjamin Franklin
- Richard Feynman
- Musashi Miyamoto
- Molly
- Sebastian Junger
- Astro Teller
- Neil Strauss
- Maria Popova
- Matt Mullenweg