The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss

Welcome to The Tim Ferriss Show, where it is usually my job to deconstruct world-class performers to tease out their routines, habits, et cetera that you can apply to your own life.

This time around, we have a very special edition featuring Dr. Mark Plotkin.

Mark takes over my duties as host and shares an episode of the Plants of the Gods podcast. You, my dear listeners, are hearing the audio before anyone else, even before his podcast subscribers, so this is a Tim Ferriss Show exclusive.

So, who is Dr. Mark Plotkin? Mark (@DocMarkPlotkin) is an ethnobotanist who serves as president of the Amazon Conservation Team, which has partnered with ~80 tribes to map and improve management and protection of ~100 million acres of ancestral rainforests. He is best known to the general public as the author of the book Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice, one of the most popular books ever written about the rainforest. His most recent book is The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know. You can find my interview with Mark at tim.blog/markplotkin.

This tightly-packed episode explores all things coffee—the most widely consumed mind-altering plant product in the world.

Please enjoy!

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

This episode is brought to you by my very own COCKPUNCH Coffee!

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

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#698: Dr. Mark Plotkin on Coffee, The World’s Favorite Stimulant — Chemistry, History, and More

This episode is brought to you by my very own COCKPUNCH Coffee! This year, one way I’ve scratched my own itch is by creating COCKPUNCH Coffee—the first coffee I’ve ever produced myself, which I now drink every morning. It’s a tie-in to a fictional world I created, but that’s another story for another time. I enlisted the help of world-class experts and tested dozens of variations over many months. As longtime listeners know, I have very high standards when it comes to coffee. After dialing in the sourcing, roasting, and more, this is the combo that finally made me say, “This is the one!”

100% of my COCKPUNCH-related proceeds to date—now $2.5M+—including those from COCKPUNCH Coffee, go to my non-profit foundation, the Saisei Foundation, which focuses on cutting-edge, scientific research and other uncrowded bets.

To learn more about the latest projects that I’m working on, check out SaiseiFoundation.org. And if you’d like some of the best coffee in the US, at least in my humble opinion, check out cockpunchcoffee.com. I think you’ll love it as much as I do. Grab a bag—or two or three—at cockpunchcoffee.com.

If you’d like to hear the last time we featured a Plants of the Gods conversation on this show, listen to Mark’s interview with Brian C. Muraresku, author of New York Times bestseller The Immortality Key here. In it, they discussed the Eleusinian mysteries, stoned apes vs. drunk monkeys, changing attitudes at the Vatican, the role of beer and wine in the foundation of civilization, doing good in the world based on the otherworldly, the strange places where ethnobotanists find friends, and much more.

#646: Brian C. Muraresku with Dr. Mark Plotkin — The Eleusinian Mysteries, Discovering the Divine, The Immortality Key, The Pagan Continuity Hypothesis, Lessons from Scholar Karen Armstrong, and Much More

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

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October 9, 2023October 30, 2023

Rich Paul — The Power Broker and Superstar Agent Behind LeBron James, Draymond Green, and Others (#697)

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Topics: The Tim Ferriss Show

“Just stay at it. It’ll turn. In the dice game, we used to have to be able to say, “Can you stand the rain?” A guy is throwing point after point after point and you would have to stand in there and stand the rain and eventually they turn and things go the other way.”
— Rich Paul

Rich Paul (@RichPaul4) is the CEO and founder of KLUTCH Sports Group, the powerhouse agency representing some of the biggest athletes across major professional sports. Paul founded KLUTCH Sports in 2012 in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, where he forged a unique and personal approach to representing top NBA talent—putting athletes first and empowering them to build careers and brands on and off the court.

In 2019, KLUTCH Sports partnered with United Talent Agency (UTA). Paul serves as UTA’s Head of Sports and is an agency partner, and he was appointed to UTA’s board of directors in 2020. In 2019, Paul was named GQ’s “Power Broker of the Year” and dubbed “The King Maker” on the cover of Sports Illustrated. In 2021, TIME recognized KLUTCH Sports on its first-ever list of TIME100 Most Influential Companies, and Variety recently named Paul to their “Variety500” list of the most influential business leaders shaping the global media industry. Paul is also credited with driving the reversal of the so-called “Rich Paul Rule,” which would have banned agents without a college degree from representing NCAA student athletes.

In 2021, Paul and three former Nike executives formed a company called ADOPT, a creative agency focused on sport, wellness, nutrition, tech, and other consumer-facing products. In 2022, Paul joined the board of trustees of LACMA and the boards of directors of Funko and Designer Brands Inc. In 2023, he joined the board of directors of Live Nation. Paul is also a minority partner of the SpringHill Company.

His new book is Lucky Me: A Memoir of Changing the Odds.

Please enjoy!

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

Brought to you by AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement, Helix Sleep premium mattresses, and Shopify global commerce platform, providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business.

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

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#697: Rich Paul — The Power Broker and Superstar Agent Behind LeBron James, Draymond Green, and Others

This episode is brought to you by AG1! I get asked all the time, “If you could use only one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually AG1, my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body in 2010 and did not get paid to do so. I do my best with nutrient-dense meals, of course, but AG1 further covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system.

Right now, you’ll get a 1-year supply of Vitamin D free with your first subscription purchase—a vital nutrient for a strong immune system and strong bones. Visit DrinkAG1.com/Tim to claim this special offer today and receive your 1-year supply of Vitamin D (and 5 free AG1 travel packs) with your first subscription purchase! That’s up to a one-year supply of Vitamin D as added value when you try their delicious and comprehensive daily, foundational nutrition supplement that supports whole-body health.

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.

This episode is brought to you by Shopify! Shopify is one of my favorite platforms and one of my favorite companies. Shopify is designed for anyone to sell anywhere, giving entrepreneurs the resources once reserved for big business. In no time flat, you can have a great-looking online store that brings your ideas to life, and you can have the tools to manage your day-to-day and drive sales. No coding or design experience required.

Go to shopify.com/Tim to sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period. It’s a great deal for a great service, so I encourage you to check it out. Take your business to the next level today by visiting shopify.com/Tim.

Want to hear an episode with LeBron James (and Mike Mancias, his top-secret trainer)? Listen to our conversation here, in which we discussed injury prevention and recovery, self-care, career longevity, the power of sleep, environmental optimization, diet, self-talk, tattoos, and much more.

#349: LeBron James and His Top-Secret Trainer, Mike Mancias

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

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October 6, 2023October 13, 2023

My Mental Health Routines and Tools (Includes Extensive Resources)

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Topics: Writing and Blogging

Today, October 10th, is World Mental Health Day.

Highlighting mental health is important to me for deeply personal reasons. Treatment-resistant depression, bipolar disorder, and addiction run in my family. I’ve lost multiple friends to suicide and almost committed suicide in college. Opioids and alcohol have claimed the lives of family members and some of my closest childhood friends.

But despair need not lead to deaths of despair.

This blog post compiles resources that have helped me and millions of readers. They include books, documentaries, podcast episodes, videos, and much more.

Below are the three resources that have received the most positive feedback. Each is intended to be highly practical and tactical:

Blog post: Some Practical Thoughts on Suicide.
Podcast episode: My Healing Journey After Childhood Abuse.
Blog post: “Productivity” Tricks for the Neurotic, Manic-Depressive, and Crazy (Like Me).

If pressed for time, the below short video describes some of my daily practices for warding off and managing depression:

And if you remember only one thing, remember this: there is light on the other side.

I wouldn’t have believed this even 15 years ago, but I now consider myself living proof that deep, lasting change is possible. You are never alone, and it is never hopeless. The resources below the P.S. and P.P.S. are intended to light the fire of hope.

Don’t give up. I’m right there alongside you, as are millions of others.

Much love to you and yours,

Tim

P.S.

In 2018, I created the Saisei Foundation to focus on ambitious scientific research and cutting-edge clinical treatments of intractable conditions, including treatment-resistant depression, opioid addiction, anorexia nervosa, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Projects have been published in leading journals (e.g., The Lancet, NEJM) and featured in media coverage (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, GQ, and dozens more) around the world. Click here to learn more about the foundation and its mission.

P.P.S.

Crisis
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. Crisis Text Line: text “HOME” to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor for free, 24/7 support.

Suicide
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Beginning July 16, 2022, dialing 988 will also route calls to the lifeline. If you’re outside of the US, please click here for a list of international hotlines.

The below list of resources includes podcast episodes, books, documentaries, and more.

October 2, 2023October 12, 2023

Be Useful — Arnold Schwarzenegger on 7 Tools for Life, Thinking Big, Building Resilience, Processing Grief, and More (#696)

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Topics: The Tim Ferriss Show

“Don’t just worry about climbing a ladder that someone else has built. No, build your own ladder. Just don’t wait for anyone else. That’s what I did.”
— Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger (@schwarzenegger) is an Austrian-born bodybuilder, actor, businessman, philanthropist, bestselling author, and politician. He served as the thirty-eighth governor of California. His new book, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life, is out October 10th, and his daily email newsletter Pump Club recently hit more than 500,000 subscribers and continues to grow as a positive corner of the Internet.

Schwarzenegger has made it his mission to give back. Since his time in the Governor’s house, he’s been working diligently to combat climate change, anti-semitism, ensure fair voting practices, help youth, work with Veterans, and inspire healthy living.

Please enjoy!

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

Brought to you by Wealthfront high-yield savings account, Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating, and AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement.

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

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#696: Be Useful — Arnold Schwarzenegger on 7 Tools for Life, Thinking Big, Building Resilience, Processing Grief, and More

This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront! Wealthfront is an app that helps you save and invest your money. Right now, you can earn 5% APY—that’s the Annual Percentage Yield—with the Wealthfront Cash Account. That’s more than ten times more interest than if you left your money in a savings account at the average bank, according to FDIC.gov.

It takes just a few minutes to sign up, and then you’ll immediately start earning 5% interest on your savings. And when you open an account today, you’ll get an extra fifty-dollar bonus with a deposit of five hundred dollars or more. Visit Wealthfront.com/Tim to get started.

This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep! Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover is the easiest and fastest way to sleep at the perfect temperature. It pairs dynamic cooling and heating with biometric tracking to offer the most advanced (and user-friendly) solution on the market. Simply add the Pod Cover to your current mattress and start sleeping as cool as 55°F or as hot as 110°F. It also splits your bed in half, so your partner can choose a totally different temperature.

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Want to hear the first time Arnold Schwarzenegger was on this show? Check out our conversation here, in which we discussed how Arnold uses psychological warfare to win, how Twins became his most lucrative movie, mailing bull balls to politicians, how Arnold made millions before his acting career took off, and much more.

#60: Tim Ferriss Interviews Arnold Schwarzenegger on Psychological Warfare (And Much More)

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

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September 28, 2023September 29, 2023

Shane Parrish on Wisdom from Warren Buffett, Rules for Better Thinking, How to Reduce Blind Spots, The Dangers of Mental Models, and More (#695)

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Topics: The Tim Ferriss Show

“Outcome over ego.”
— Shane Parrish

Shane Parrish (@ShaneAParrish) is the entrepreneur and wisdom seeker behind Farnam Street and the host of The Knowledge Project podcast, where he focuses on mastering the best of what other people have already figured out. Shane’s popular online course, Decision by Design, has helped thousands of executives, leaders, and managers around the world learn the repeatable behaviors that improve results. His work has been featured in nearly every major publication, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes.

Shane is the author of Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results.

Please enjoy!

Brought to you by Momentous high-quality supplements, Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating, and AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement.

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

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#695: Shane Parrish on Wisdom from Warren Buffett, Rules for Better Thinking, How to Reduce Blind Spots, The Dangers of Mental Models, and More

This episode is also brought to you by Momentous high-quality supplements! Momentous offers high-quality supplements and products across a broad spectrum of categories, and I’ve been testing their products for months now. I’ve been using their magnesium threonate, apigenin, and L-theanine daily, all of which have helped me improve the onset, quality, and duration of my sleep. I’ve also been using Momentous creatine, and while it certainly helps physical performance, including poundage or wattage in sports, I use it primarily for mental performance (short-term memory, etc.).

Their products are third-party tested (Informed-Sport and/or NSF certified), so you can trust that what is on the label is in the bottle and nothing else. If you want to try Momentous for yourself, you can use code Tim for 25% off your one-time purchase at LiveMomentous.com/Tim. And not to worry, my non-US friends, Momentous ships internationally and has you covered.

Want to hear another episode with someone who spends his life learning how to solve problems and optimize time? Listen in on my conversation with Atomic Habits author James Clear, in which we discuss habitual accountability, systemic scaffolding, capturing good ideas, leveraging maximal results from minimal scale, defying algorithms, how success generates opportunities and distractions, building good habits while breaking bad ones, optimizing environment for habit adherence, and much more.

#648: James Clear, Atomic Habits — Simple Strategies for Building (and Breaking) Habits, Questions for Personal Mastery and Growth, Tactics for Writing and Launching a Mega-Bestseller, Finding Leverage, and More

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

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September 20, 2023September 21, 2023

Sam Corcos, Co-Founder of Levels — The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Assistants, 10x Delegation, and Winning Freedom by Letting Go (Plus: Creating Leverage with Tools, Systems, and Processes) (#694)

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Topics: The Tim Ferriss Show

“A lack of communication is a lack of performance.”
— Sam Corcos

Sam Corcos (@samcorcos) is the CEO and co-founder of Levels, an a16z-backed startup that shows you how food affects your health, using continuous glucose monitors and other biosensors.

Please enjoy!

Brought to you by Sundays for Dogs ultra-high-quality dog food, AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement, and Shopify global commerce platform, providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business.

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

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#694: Sam Corcos, Co-Founder of Levels — The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Assistants, 10x Delegation, and Winning Freedom by Letting Go (Plus: Creating Leverage with Tools, Systems, and Processes)

This episode is brought to you by Sundays for Dogs, ultra-high-quality dog food without the prep or mess! I want to give my pooch, Molly, the best of everything. This is especially true when it comes to the ingredient quality of her food. But most healthy dog foods are an expensive, frozen mess. They’re a hassle to thaw and serve, and the prep work eats up time I’d rather spend hiking with Molly. Sundays for Dogs solves my problem with air-dried, high-quality dog food I can store and pour right from my pantry.

The magic behind Sundays for Dogs is in their proprietary air-drying method. To lock in nutrients, they gently dry the meat, low and slow. Unlike other dry brands, which are filled with hyper-processed grains and synthetic vitamins, Sundays for Dogs uses only all-natural poultry and USDA-grade beef. And meat makes up 90% of their recipes. The other 10% are fruits and veggies, ingredients you’d find at the farmer’s market, not at the pharmacy.

Get 35% off your first order of Sundays for Dogs by going to SundaysForDogs.com/TIM or by using code TIM at checkout. Upgrade your pup to Sundays for Dogs and feel great about the food you feed your best friend.

Want to hear an episode with another founder who finds novel ways to manage time? Listen to my conversation with Asana’s Dustin Moskovitz, in which we discussed making quicker decisions, avoiding the paradox of choice, difficult but desirable delegation, No Meeting Wednesdays, effective altruism, the future of AI, and much more.

#686: Dustin Moskovitz, Co-Founder of Asana and Facebook — Energy Management, Coaching for Endurance, No Meeting Wednesdays, Understanding the Real Risks of AI, Embracing Frictionless Work with AI, The Value of Holding Stories Loosely, and More

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

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September 20, 2023September 25, 2023

25 of My Favorite Books, Articles, Gadgets, Tech, and More (So Far in 2023)

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Topics: Writing and Blogging

Tim Ferriss sitting outdoors on some stone steps and smiling.

What does my audience care about most?

Put another way: if nearly two million subscribers to my newsletter voted with their clicks, what most caught their attention thus far in 2023?

The 25 items below are the most-clicked links from my weekly 5-Bullet Friday newsletter so far this year, which I then further curated for this blog post.

5-Bullet Friday is a short email of five bullet points sent out each Friday, and it has become somewhat famous for crashing websites and selling things out (a.k.a. “the hug of death,” as some readers have put it). Each newsletter describes the five coolest things I’ve found or explored that week, often including books, gadgets, tech workarounds, tricks from experts, strange experiments, and weird stuff from all over the world. My subscribers have seen many things before they’ve gone mainstream.

If you haven’t subscribed, it’s free, and you can click here to sign up in a few seconds. It’s easy to unsubscribe anytime.

Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the below list as much as I did!

The items were shuffled in no particular order, as more clicks doesn’t automatically mean more valuable, and I didn’t want to bias people towards a few links at the top.

Here we go…

#1: Coffee gadgets I’m using daily

Jura ENA 4 (Cost: $999). This was gifted to me by my friend Brad L. He is a die-hard coffee nerd and swore it was the best cup of coffee you could have without a professional barista. Just feed it whole beans, and it handles the rest. This attractive machine also imbues the coffee with a creamy texture that is hard to describe.

AeroPress Original (Cost: <$40). This is an incredible, and affordable, little gem. As I wrote in The 4-Hour Chef: “This is now, bar none, my favorite brewing method. Remember the Aerobie, the amazing UFO-like disc that you could throw farther than a football field, 20 times farther than a standard Frisbee? Alan Adler, a mechanical engineer and Stanford University lecturer, created it. After conquering the 1980s toy market, he began to obsess over coffee. The result was the AeroPress, which debuted in 2006. Quickly adopted by the specialty coffee community, it offers a simple way to prepare a small amount of excellent coffee, and it’s great for travel. Armed with an AeroPress and a tiny manual hand grinder like the Hario MSS-1B Mini Mill [or the more recently recommended Comandante], you can even make world-class coffee on an airplane meal tray! No mess and no fuss.” If you want to use a beefier and automated burr grinder at home, I now use the Baratza Encore.

[Published in the May 12th newsletter]

#2: List of questions I’m perusing

“Questions” by Alexey Guzey. The English is a little rough in places, but I found some of these questions to be excellent reminders and many others to be outstanding brain food.

[Published in the August 4th newsletter]

#3: New blog post I’m excited to share

“Revisiting Warren Buffett’s Advice to Me in 2008 (Plus: 7 Lessons for Young Investors).” An old video recently resurfaced on social media. It’s yours truly asking Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger a question at the 2008 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting. I was intensely nervous, and the audio makes that clear. This clip went viral, and a number of media outlets (Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, etc.) reached out to me for comment, asking me questions like “What advice would you give a 30-year-old now who’d just amassed their first million?” I decided to take a few of my longer answers that didn’t make it into the pieces and write a blog post with more context.

[Published in the March 3rd newsletter]

#4: Fast and easy game that I’m loving

Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. You can learn how to play in less than a minute. The game is fast, fun, addictive, hilarious, and suitable for all ages. It scrambles brains to the delight of all. Hat tip to game Jedi Elan Lee (@elanlee) for introducing me to this gem!

[Published in the March 26th newsletter]

#5: What I’m excited to share with you

A 5-Bullet Friday exclusive! A short motivational video from Arnold Schwarzenegger, just for you. For more motivation and tactical advice from Arnold, click here to sign up for his daily newsletter, Arnold’s Pump Club. After confirming your subscription, you’ll also get a free ebook describing how Arnold sets and achieves goals, a simple home-based workout, and his hardcore 1970s chest and back workout for anyone who wants to risk a trip to the hospital.

And by the way… Arnold handwrites his emails. Check out this gem from earlier this week, shared with permission:

[Published in the January 13th newsletter]

#6: Portable cold plunge I’m enjoying

The Cold Pod. For anti-inflammation and mood elevation, cold is the simplest solution I’ve found. I desperately wanted to cold plunge while at an Airbnb, but what to do that doesn’t leave a chest freezer behind? I found this inflatable Cold Pod on Amazon, and it works surprisingly well. Yes, you need to refill with ice, but it’s been a godsend. Pro tip: the less water you use, the less ice you need to lower the temperature.

[Published in the August 4th newsletter]

September 19, 2023September 19, 2023

In Case You Missed It: August 2023 Recap of “The Tim Ferriss Show” (#693)

Arthur C. Brooks — How to Be Happy, Reverse Bucket Lists, The Four False Idols, Muscular Philosophies, Practical Inoculation Against the Darkness, and More (#692)

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Topics: The Tim Ferriss Show

“Intention is fine, but attachment is bad.”
— Arthur C. Brooks

Arthur C. Brooks (@arthurbrooks) is the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Public and Nonprofit Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches courses on leadership and happiness. He is also a columnist at The Atlantic, where he writes the popular “How to Build a Life” column. Brooks is the author of 13 books, including the 2022 #1 New York Times bestseller From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life and his newest Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier with co-author Oprah Winfrey. He speaks to audiences all around the world about human happiness and works to raise well-being within private companies, universities, public agencies, and community organizations.

Please enjoy!

Brought to you by Wealthfront high-yield savings account, Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating, and AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement.

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

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#692: Arthur C. Brooks — How to Be Happy, Reverse Bucket Lists, The Four False Idols, Muscular Philosophies, Practical Inoculation Against the Darkness, and More

Want to hear another episode with someone who leads the world toward greater kindness by example? Have a listen to my most recent conversation with Jack Kornfield in which we discussed the point of consciousness, yogic swoons and anesthetic autopiloting, how the Buddha might deal with anxiety, the dimensions of meditation, reliably eliciting the non-self, cultivating a more joyful mind, and much more.

#684: Jack Kornfield — How to Reduce Anxiety and Polish the Lens of Consciousness

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

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September 7, 2023October 31, 2023

Nassim Nicholas Taleb & Scott Patterson — How Traders Make Billions in The New Age of Crisis, Defending Against Silent Risks, Personal Independence, Skepticism Where It (Really) Counts, The Bishop and The Economist, and Much More (#691)

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Topics: The Tim Ferriss Show

“If you must panic, panic early.”

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Uncertainty is actually a reason for precaution rather than just throwing caution to the wind and just saying, ‘Well, we don’t know, so what the hell? Let’s just keep going.'”

— Scott Patterson

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) spent 21 years as a risk-taker (quantitative trader) before becoming a researcher in philosophical, mathematical, and (mostly) practical problems with probability.

Taleb is the author of a multivolume essay, the Incerto (The Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness, Antifragile, The Bed of Procrustes, and Skin in the Game), covering broad facets of uncertainty. His work has been published into 49 languages.

In addition to his trader life, Taleb has also written, as a backup of the Incerto, more than 70 technical and scholarly papers in mathematical statistics, genetics, quantitative finance, statistical physics, medicine, philosophy, ethics, economics, and international affairs around the notion of risk and probability (grouped in the Technical Incerto).

Taleb is currently Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering (retired). His current focus is on the properties of systems that can handle disorder (“antifragile”).

Scott Patterson (@pattersonscott) is an investigative reporter for The Wall Street Journal, currently based in Washington DC, working on climate and energy policy. His new book is Chaos Kings: How Wall Street Traders Make Billions in the New Age of Crisis, a profile of the rise of “black-swan traders,” such as Nassim Taleb and Mark Spitznagel, as well as a survey of the many perils the world faces today—and how we might fix them.

Scott has covered everything from Berkshire Hathaway to stock exchanges to high-speed traders to the financial regulators. His first book, The Quants, describes the rise of mathematical finance and delves into its role in the 2008 financial blowup. Dark Pools, his second book, tells how computer traders took control of the US stock market, starting from the birth of computer trading in the 1980s to the explosion of high-frequency trading in the late 2000s.

Please enjoy!

Brought to you by AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement, Helix Sleep premium mattresses, and LinkedIn Jobs recruitment platform with 900M+ users.

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

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#691: Nassim N. Taleb & Scott Patterson — How Traders Make Billions in The New Age of Crisis, Defending Against Silent Risks, Personal Independence, Skepticism Where It (Really) Counts, The Bishop and The Economist, and Much More

This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. Whether you are looking to hire now for a critical role or thinking about needs that you may have in the future, LinkedIn Jobs can help. LinkedIn screens candidates for the hard and soft skills you’re looking for and puts your job in front of candidates looking for job opportunities that match what you have to offer.

Using LinkedIn’s active community of more than 900 million professionals worldwide, LinkedIn Jobs can help you find and hire the right person faster. When your business is ready to make that next hire, find the right person with LinkedIn Jobs. And now, you can post a job for free. Just visit LinkedIn.com/Tim.

Want to hear an interview with someone else who history will remember as much more than a successful hedge fund manager? Listen to my most recent conversation with Ed Thorp in which we discussed music as stress reduction, avoiding unnecessary risks, how to become more numeracy literate, the value of long-term thinking, the price of short-term thinking, making the best financial decisions with unknown variables, how to have fun learning about probability and statistics, and much more.

#604: Master Investor Ed Thorp on How to Think for Yourself, Mental Models for the Second Half of Life, How to Be Inner-Directed, How Basic Numeracy Is a Superpower, and The Dangers of Investing Fads

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

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