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Q&A with Tim on Wealth and Money, Book Recommendations, Advice on Taking Advice, C.S. Lewis, Relationships, Behavior Change and Self-Awareness, Why We Are All (Mostly) Making It Up as We Go, and Much More (#614)

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Welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show, where it is usually my job to sit down with world-class performers of all different types to tease out the habits, routines, favorite books, and so on that you can apply and test in your own life. This time, we have a slightly different format, and I’m the guest. 

As some of you know, to celebrate the 15th anniversary of The 4-Hour Workweek, which was first published on April 24th, 2007 (4/24/07), I signed 424 copies of the book. As thousands of you threw your hat in the ring to win a signed copy, I wanted to do something special for all the entrants. So, I invited those folks to a private YouTube Q&A. This episode is the recording of that session. 

I answered many questions on a variety of topics, including startup investments, IFS therapy, my views on wealth and money, C.S. Lewis, lower-back pain, solitary time and its challenges, lessons from Kevin Kelly, books I’m currently reading, maintaining relationships, Japan travel tips, from whom to take advice (and how to evaluate advice), self-awareness, behavior change, my current alcohol consumption (or lack thereof), and much, much more.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. You can watch the Q&A on YouTube here.

Brought to you by MANSCAPED premium grooming products, 80,000 Hours free career advice for high impact and doing good in the world, and Helix Sleep premium mattresses. 

The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

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#614: Q&A with Tim on Wealth and Money, Book Recommendations, Advice on Taking Advice, C.S. Lewis, Relationships, Behavior Change and Self-Awareness, Why We Are All (Mostly) Making It Up as We Go, and Much More

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This episode is brought to you by 80,000 Hours! You have roughly 80,000 hours in your career. That’s 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year for 40 years. They add up and are one of your biggest opportunities, if not the biggest opportunity, to make a positive impact on the world. Some of the best strategies, best research, and best tactical advice I’ve seen and heard come from 80,000 Hours, a nonprofit co-founded by Will MacAskill, an Oxford philosopher and a popular past guest on this podcast.

If you’re looking to make a big change to your direction or address pressing global problems from your current job or if you’re just starting out or maybe starting a new chapter and not sure which path to pursue, 80,000 Hours can help. Join their free newsletter, and they’ll send you an in-depth guide for free that will help you identify which global problems are most pressing and where you can have the biggest impact personally. It will also help you get new ideas for high-impact careers or directions that help tackle these issues.

This episode is brought to you by Helix Sleep! Helix was selected as the best overall mattress of 2022 by GQ magazine, Wired, and Apartment Therapy. With Helix, there’s a specific mattress to meet each and every body’s unique comfort needs. Just take their quiz—only two minutes to complete—that matches your body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress for you. They have a 10-year warranty, and you get to try it out for a hundred nights, risk-free. They’ll even pick it up from you if you don’t love it. And now, Helix is offering 20% off all mattress orders plus two free pillows at HelixSleep.com/Tim.

Want to hear my most recent Q&A? Listen to the episode here, in which I answered questions about relieving plantar fasciitis, getting better sleep, wolf conservation efforts, maintaining learned languages, low energy remedies, podcasting advice, global warming, psychedelic risks, and much more.

#557: Q&A with Tim — Tools for Better Sleep, Musings on Parenting, the Different Roles of Fear, the Delight of Deepening Friendships, the Purpose of College, How to Boost Your Mood, HRV Training, and More

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

SHOW NOTES

  • [09:07] Do I still invest in startups?
  • [09:54] We’ve already got TED Talks. Why not Tim Talks?
  • [10:49] Have I considered moving out of the US?
  • [11:53] How do I mitigate risks in an increasingly contentious society?
  • [13:39] Which interview has had the greatest personal impact on me?
  • [15:38] Would I publish another volume of Tribe of Mentors or Tools of Titans?
  • [17:17] Have I ever explored the side of IFS that helps folks explore inherited trauma/energy?
  • [19:12] Did making more money make me happier?
  • [24:48] What do I consider to be a healthy view of money?
  • [26:21] Have any interviews been conducted but never published?
  • [32:03] What do I find compelling about C.S. Lewis?
  • [34:57] How do I get things done when I’m having a bad day?
  • [36:39] What does my meditation practice look like these days?
  • [37:57] Are Ivy League graduate schools worth the cost?
  • [39:49] Most valuable lesson from The Lion Tracker’s Guide?
  • [40:37] How do I handle overly political family and friends?
  • [41:24] Recommended essayists (aside from John McPhee)?
  • [42:00] Thoughts on Rudolph Steiner?
  • [42:14] Do I have a future as a fiction author?
  • [43:39] Best recent purchase of under $250?
  • [44:58] Recommendations for learning more about Japanese martial arts culture?
  • [46:01] Did I lose my razor?
  • [46:23] If I could only recommend one book right now, what would it be?
  • [46:44] Which one to three skills make acquiring more skills easier or irrelevant?
  • [50:16] Favorite childhood fairy tale or folk story?
  • [51:32] The ups and downs of learning German?
  • [54:58] When will the world get to smell Tim Ferriss Fragrance for Men?
  • [55:49] What role has downtime had on the severity of my depression?
  • [59:47] Recent reading that has influenced my thoughts about parenthood?
  • [1:04:16] Dream guests?
  • [1:06:57] Did I take a break from investing because of market losses?
  • [1:09:21] How do I feel about the bear market now?
  • [1:10:48] How is my self-compassion journey going?
  • [1:14:03] How do I manage my extensive network of relationships?
  • [1:19:22] Advice for 21-year-old Tim?
  • [1:19:42] Have any of the principles from The 4-Hour Workweek become obsolete?
  • [1:22:30] Three must-sees when visiting Japan?
  • [1:25:30] Most beautiful location visited?
  • [1:25:50] System for choosing a business focus?
  • [1:26:45] Strategies for coping with the sudden loss of a loved one?
  • [1:29:50] Reasons for moving from San Francisco to Austin?
  • [1:31:16] Do we rely too much on advice from people who don’t understand our lives?
  • [1:36:04] Is it possible to share a life with someone whose interests don’t match ours 100 percent?
  • [1:43:10] Self-discipline advice for ADHD folks who have already tried everything?
  • [1:45:09] How do we develop the resilience to deal with tough times ahead of their arrival?
  • [1:47:35] Things I’ve changed my mind about in the past year?
  • [1:51:35] Do I still observe a slow-carb diet?
  • [1:51:57] Advice for securing startup funding?
  • [1:55:10] Why did I stop asking my guests who they consider to be successful?
  • [1:58:32] Am I planning to run drunk dial shows again?
  • [1:59:09] Podcasting tips for introverts?
  • [2:00:35] A guest I could interview any day or every day?
  • [2:00:55] Which of my own books would I recommend to a Ferriss first-timer?
  • [2:01:23] Larry David?
  • [2:01:33] Am I still using Evernote?
  • [2:01:56] What would be on my billboard these days?
  • [2:03:28] Parting thoughts.

PEOPLE MENTIONED

The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than 900 million downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.

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9 Replies to “Q&A with Tim on Wealth and Money, Book Recommendations, Advice on Taking Advice, C.S. Lewis, Relationships, Behavior Change and Self-Awareness, Why We Are All (Mostly) Making It Up as We Go, and Much More (#614)”

  1. Tim,

    I’d like to be subscribed to the: New from Tim newsletter but unsubscribed from the: 5-Bullet Friday newsletter.

    How can I do that?

    Aby

    Reply

    1. Hi, Aby –

      Thanks for your question. Tim has only one mailing list, so it’s not possible to separate the two mailings. However, most email clients have a “filter” tool, which would allow you to keep Tim’s “5-Bullet Friday” email coming to your inbox but send “New from Tim” to a separate folder. If you’re getting Tim’s newsletter in Gmail, the next time a “New from Tim” email comes through,

      Click the three vertical dots in the Gmail menu bar.
      Select “Filter messages like these.”
      It will populate the filter criteria window with the tim@fourhourbody.com email address.
      Then, in the “Has the words” field, type “New from Tim” in quotes.
      Next, click the blue “Create filter” button.
      And finally, check the boxes to tell Gmail what to do with those “New from Tim” emails (for example, you can click to skip the inbox and send all of them to a separate folder) and click the blue “Create filter” again, and you’re done!

      After you create the filter, you’ll only get the “5-Bullet Friday” emails, and the “New from Tim” emails will go to wherever you’ve chosen to send them.

      Best,

      Team Tim Ferriss

      Reply

  2. Hey! I just listened to the new podcast episode and I was interested in rereading/re-listening to the four hour work week. I just wanted to tell Team Tim that the search for four hour work week on audible UK is a bit odd. it comes up with all sorts of European language versions other than English, and it also lists the author as Timothy Ferriss instead of Tim Ferriss. I’m not sure if that’s having an effect on the results. Anyway it took me a bit of digging to find the English audiobook version of four hour work week on audible UK search, might be something to clean up to increase sales. 🙂

    Reply

    1. Tim,
      You need to come see my husband Chris Ford at his clinics in Tacoma and Gig Harbor Washington; Alternative Back Care Physical Therapy. He has developed a unique philosophy of care dealing with the spine resolving back pain. They see 500 patients a week and have evidence based relief for back pain, and migraines. He is referred the worst of the worse and is called Jesus a couple times a month!! Check out his website for lots of content [Moderator: website removed; contact information retained in intake fields.] or come up for an amazing alignment appointment!

      Reply

  4. Dear Tim,

    I’ve been a fan since your first Ted Talk in 2008. Thanks for all that you do! In your Q&A, you mentioned that you haven’t meditated in about a month. One way I’ve found to be more consistent is a little trick I picked up during a retreat I went on last year. I was always finding myself slipping, and I think it was because I was only meditating in a specific place, sitting up and being guided by external audio, like Headspace. But during the retreat, I learned how to be more “flexible” when it comes to meditation. You can meditate in all sorts of ways and positions. So now, my preferred way to meditate is as soon as I wake up I continue lying in bed but roll onto my back, I then straighten myself out and just start going through the practices. It’s been a game changer! No special environment or seating arrangement or audio, and I barely ever miss a day of meditating.

    Maybe try it out sometime. And if you do, I hope it helps!

    -Rich

    Reply

  6. Hey Tim – I’m a huge fan and I’ve turned my 60-something curmudgeonly husband onto all kinds of issues and ideas during our regular 3+ hour drives to the country while listening to your podcasts. So thank you for that! Just wanted to say that I was really surprised and kind of grossed out by you hawking for “Manscape.” First, the thought of anyone shaving their scrotum is a gigantic turn-OFF for me and many people I know. (I happen to be a cis-woman). Second, the thought of YOU shaving and worrying about errant hairs in your groin area is downright gross AND I think the money earned cannot possibly be worth the damage I think it does to your brand and reputation. Think about the smartest, most serious, most interesting people you’ve met – would they talk about manscaping (or woman-scaping, for that matter) in public? No matter how much money they are willing to pay you — you have enough! As for whether or not I wax, shave or whatever… that’s between me and my partner, and no one else. As it should be ; )

    Thank you!

    Reply