Timothy Ferriss's Blog, page 131

An impromptu b-boying lesson at home after some Bulleit bourbon. Don't drink and dance.

Breakin' 2 did it. It was 1984 and I was convinced I would be a professional breakdancer. Alas, I was seven years old, and I looked exactly like this reader who left a comment on my tango instructional post:

Tim,

I'm pretty impressed by your achievements in tango, but what about tips on your first love?

B-boying is a sport I've watched and attempted for years. Sadly, the minute I go from uprock to six-step...

The 4-Hour Workweek was first published April 27th, 2007.

I did my best to cover all of the bases when it debuted, but there were gaps. Though I included cases studies of families using lifestyle design, for example, it was hard to find more than a few the first time around.

Not anymore. Things have changed. There are more than 30,000 comments on this blog, hundreds of people have shared their successes and failures via detailed e-mail, and both case studies and experiments continue to flow ...

Total length: 20 minutes.

This is a weekend edition of Random. It is a happy-hour special of Chinese scams.

How did Kevin and Glenn get totally screwed by Chinese "art students"? More important, how do you avoid getting scammed while traveling?

This episode lays out one of the most common scams and explains how to spot similar set-ups worldwide…

Show Notes from Glenn:
- Open intro with weird light: Kevin shooting a laser into a "7 Cups" vessel. Animation by Tynan.
- Yin Bar, Beijing – a

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(Source: Crooked Timber)

Edmund Wilson, recipient of both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal for Literature, was one of the most prominent social and literary critics of the 20th century.

He realized, like most uber-productive people, that, while there were many behaviors needed to guarantee high output, there was one single behavior guaranteed to prevent all output:

Trying to please everyone.

He had a low tolerance for distraction and shunned undue public acclaim. To...

Total read time (bolded sections): 2-3 minutes

Total read time (complete): 12 minutes

Last week, I had a wonderful conversation with Gary Taubes, my favorite science journalist and author of the incredible (and I consider definitive), Good Calories, Bad Calories. His ability to synthesize and recall research, both in writing and in speaking, is one of the most amazing feats I've ever witnessed.

It is with great pleasure, therefore, that I offer you the director's-cut chapter that didn't make i...

"I see you. I'll get your water when I have a minute. Jesus Christ."

Um, did… that… really just happen?

Strike three for Delta Airlines. More like strike 37. The bad service had reached the "Orbitz threshold", where I would no longer purchase tickets from Delta, even if cheaper than the competition.

Life is too short to deal with surly nonsense, and — upon landing back in SF — I decided to poll Twitter to find out which airlines create the most collective misery. This would serve as my...

But who keeps a food journal? Exactly.

Unless you have extreme note-taking OCD like me, it's too much of a pain in the ass to write down what you eat and track it all. I use the online food database here to keep my facts straight, but data entry sucks no matter how you slice it.

Here are first-look highlights of the FoodScanner, which launched a few hours ago and is now available…

1. DailyBurn's FoodScanner is the first and only application that uses the iPhone's camera to scan the UPC...

John Smith making another title look like child's play (no audio)

From 1994-1995 I had the great pleasure of training with wrestling legend John Smith, 2-time gold medalist and 4-time world champion (domestic freestyle record of 80-0; international freestyle record of 100-5).

He was famous for his low leg attacks that made even Olympic finals look like textbook demonstrations.

The problem was, of course, that I was in New Hampshire at boarding school and had never met John Smith. I only...

Photo: Laughing Squid/Scott Beale

Before I had to establish my no-blurb/no-review policy for books due to volume (picture: one day's mail), I received an e-mail from Rick Smith, the founding CEO of the World 50, one of the most exclusive senior executive networking companies on the planet, with members and contributors like Bono, Francis Ford Coppola, and Phil Knight…

He was interested in having me look at his new book Leap, and I suggested he send it along with the understanding that I might ...

Photo: Eduardo Amorim

I've invited Dr. Michael Eades and Dr. Mary Dan Eades, two of my favorite bariatric (obesity treatment) doctors in the US and the first to introduce insulin resistance to the mainstream, to explain the facts and benefits of increased saturated fat intake…

The sub-headings are mine, and a few edits have been made for space and context. Please see Dr. Michael Eades' references and responses to questions in the comments.

A couple of...