Tim Ferriss

June 13, 2024

Jerry Seinfeld and Maria Popova (#746)

This episode is a two-for-one, and that’s because the podcast recently hit its 10-year anniversary and passed one billion downloads. To celebrate, I’ve curated some of the best of the best—some of my favorites—from more than 700 episodes over the last decade. I could not be more excited. The episode features segments from episode #485 “Jerry Seinfeld — A Comedy Legend’s Systems, Routines, and Methods for Success“ and episode #39 “Maria Popova on Writing, Workflow, and Workarounds.”

Please enjoy!

Bios of guests may be found at tim.blog/combo.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, or on your favorite podcast platform.

This episode is brought to you by 1Password easy-to-use and secure password manager for individuals, families, and businesses; LMNT electrolyte supplement; and Momentous high-quality supplements.

Transcript of the full Jerry Seinfeld episode | Transcript of the full Maria Popova episode | Transcripts of all episodes

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#746: Jerry Seinfeld and Maria Popova

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What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SHOW NOTES

[05:16] Notes about this supercombo format.
[06:19] Enter Jerry Seinfeld.
[06:46] Jerry’s writing process for survival in the comedy ecosystem.
[15:43] Lessons Jerry would teach in a writing class and how they relate to his fitness methods.
[15:43] Soliciting creative feedback while preserving pride over doing the work.
[20:33] Routines essential to Jerry’s well-being and their frequency and duration.
[24:50] How nurturing creativity is like parenting, and Jerry’s belief about pain and knowledge.
[26:17] Additional ways Jerry mitigates depressive episodes.
[27:27] A resilience-building failure.
[32:05] The importance of playing the game well.
[33:42] “Survival is the new success.”
[36:12] Jerry’s billboard.
[39:06] Enter Maria Popova.
[39:30] Are you correctly pronouncing names you’ve only read but never heard?
[41:13] What does Maria do?
[41:50] What is Brain Pickings (now The Marginalian)?
[42:31] What percentage of New York Times best sellers are a result of Maria’s coverage?
[47:55] The common denominator that guides Maria’s reading list.
[49:16] The importance of writing for an audience of one.
[52:07] Contending with the temptation to create BuzzFeed-like content.
[59:44] The daily discipline required for Maria’s well-being.
[1:07:10] Maria’s note-taking system.
[1:12:53] Seneca and the time-tested challenge of presence vs. productivity.
[1:16:08] Start-up opportunity? Build a note-taking tool for heavy readers/highlighters.
[1:22:52] About the team behind [The Marginalian].
[1:24:28] Collaborative proofreading and copyediting.
[1:27:21] Self-reliance pathology and how to overcome it.
[1:29:56] Finding a professional personal assistant and learning to delegate.
[1:34:36] Maria’s weightlifting regimen and favorite bodyweight-only exercise.
[1:37:22] Designing content infrastructure to be evergreen.
[1:39:28] Cutting out the commentary contrarians.
[1:46:13] Scheduling social media.
[1:48:25] Coping with email — and sometimes snail mail.
[1:50:31] How to cultivate a personal inner circle and pre-screen book review requests.
[1:54:54] What donation model works best for site revenue?
[2:01:22] Recommended reading from [The Marginalian] and parting thoughts.

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Jerry Seinfeld:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Connect with Maria Popova:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Threads

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Comment Rules: Remember what Fonzie was like? Cool. That's how we're gonna be — cool. Critical is fine, but if you're rude, we'll delete your stuff. Please do not put your URL in the comment text and please use your PERSONAL name or initials and not your business name, as the latter comes off like spam. Have fun and thanks for adding to the conversation! (Thanks to Brian Oberkirch for the inspiration.)

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Annie Wyn

1 year ago

Hey there! Just want to express that it was such a pleasure to listen to this and gain insight into the world of a writer and the self direction of the super-combo guests and Mr Ferriss himself!
Whilst I am not a writer, I work as a creative and I always find it interesting to consider the parallels involved not just in the work processes but also in the ways others have found for themselves in maintaining their own ways of living life well.
It’s only the second super-combo I’ve had the opportunity to listen to lately I’d like to express my gratitude for the selections and time gone into the edit!
As I’m relatively new to the Tim Ferriss world this is such a treat for me as an appreciative and happy listener.
Thank you!

Justus Yates

1 year ago

As a first time listener, I thought this episode was great! However, there is a lot that I’d love to learn about and wonder if you already have an episode out that covers these topics. I am an 18 year old recent high school graduate and am going to college in the fall for business. I was wondering if you had any advice on what I could do to get out of the house and understand the world. I’m just very confused right now and don’t even know where to begin.

Loren Foxx

1 year ago

Hey Tim – I am an avid listener but only really got into this in the last 18 months or so. It would be awesome if you could say “this originally aired on DATE” in the intro. Just for context and all that. Thanks so much, and keep being awesome. – Loren

Kay Jensen

1 year ago

Boy, the organization makes it difficult to ask a question. So, we’ll see if anyone gets this and finds a way to respond:
Was discussing with my 28 year old daughter about a masters degree (she is an engineer). We talked about the concept Tim put out there about building your “masters degree” outside of a normal university system – individual classes from outside one university, internships, mentoring, shadowing, etc, with the same time/$/commitment that one would devote to a university masters degree. My daughter said the concept sounded great because she’s not finding a degree program with at least 51% of the course work relevant to her future. BUT – how do you “sell” this self built masters to perspective employers? They look for certification letters and accredited masters’ degrees. And maybe you could convince your current employer of the benefits, but successive employers are likely to not see the benefits. “Because, we’re still dealing with white 50+ aged men who still live in the old world of degrees and University affiliations.”

So, how does a female in a very male dominated industry “sell” this hybrid degree/experience?

Jackson McCarthy

1 year ago

Hi Mr. Ferriss and community,

I am in the blog discussion to ask some questions. If you have time to respond or answer that is awesome. I know you all are extremely busy, so I completely understand if not. I am a college student conducting some research and have a five minute google form that would be super easy to fill out but will put the questions out here for anyone and everyone as well if they would like to respond. The questions on the form are as follows:

What is something that you need?

Notes: It can be tangible or intangible.
Tangible: something that has a physical manifestation that can be sold, bought, made, earned, etc.
Intangible: something that does not have a physical manifestation that is more of an abstraction or construct such as time, patience, etc. Be as specific as possible and take the question in whatever direction you desire.

Why do you not have it?

Notes: A simple “I do not know” is an acceptable answer, but if there is a reason, please be specific.

How would this positively impact your life?
or
Why do you want/need it?

Notes: The more specific the better.

Thank you all and have a great day!!

Daniel Brown

1 year ago

I really enjoyed this one. I’ve only just started listening as im a fan of Jerry Seinfeld. Im going to go back and listen to some more is there any that people would recommend?