Timothy Ferriss's Blog, page 6

November 14, 2024

Derek Sivers, Philosopher-Entrepreneur — The Greatest Year of His Life (#777)

“Whatever you feel yourself leaning away from, try leaning into. If you hate opera, then go learn more about opera. And if you hate sports, well, then go learn more about sports. It’s usually just learning about something gives you an appreciation for this thing that you used to just dismiss.”
— Derek Sivers

Derek Sivers is an author of philosophy and entrepreneurship, known for his surprising, quotable insights and pithy, succinct writing style. Derek’s books (How to Live, Hell Yeah or No, Your Music and People, Anything You Want) and newest projects are at his website: sive.rs. His new book is Useful Not True.

Please enjoy!

This episode is brought to you by Seed’s DS-01® Daily Synbiotic broad spectrum 24-strain probiotic + prebiotic, Momentous high-quality supplements, and AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement.

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. Watch the interview on YouTube here.

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

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This episode is brought to you by Seed’s DS-01 Daily Synbiotic! Seed’s DS-01 was recommended to me months ago by a PhD microbiologist, so I started using it well before their team ever reached out to me. Since then, it’s become a daily staple and one of the few supplements I travel with. I’ve always been highly skeptical of most probiotics due to the lack of science and the fact that many do not survive digestion. But after incorporating two capsules of Seed’s DS-01 into my morning routine, I have noticed improved digestion, skin tone, and overall health. Why is it so effective? For one, it’s a 2-in-1 probiotic and prebiotic formulated with 24 clinically and scientifically studied strains that have systemic benefits in and beyond the gut. And now, you can get 25% off your first month of DS-01 with code 25TIM.

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Want to hear the last time Derek was on the show? Listen to our conversation here, in which we discuss the benefits of an unoptimized life, finding and asking mentors for help, the wisdom of quitting when you’re ahead, how to teach an 11-year-old to act like a 16-year-old, the problem with moral relativism and other -isms, securing tech independence, and much more.

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

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODEConnect with Derek Sivers:

Website | Podcast | Twitter | YouTube

Useful Not True: Whatever Works for You by Derek Sivers How to Live: 27 Conflicting Answers and One Weird Conclusion by Derek Sivers Hell Yeah or No: What’s Worth Doing by Derek Sivers Your Music and People: Creative and Considerate Fame by Derek Sivers Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur by Derek Sivers Derek Sivers — The Joys of an Un-Optimized Life, Finding Paths Less Traveled, Creating Tech Independence (and Risks of the Cloud), Taking Giant Leaps, and Picking the Right “Game of Life” | The Tim Ferriss Show #668 Derek Sivers: Weird, or Just Different? | TED Talk Gahwa: A Quintessential Symbol of Emirati Hospitality | National Geographic Gourmet Arabian Hospitality | Café Bateel Ruby vs. Python: What’s the Difference and How to Choose? | Learn Enough Work Quickly and Integrate Systems More Effectively | Python Is a Rat the Right Pet for You? | The Humane Society of the United States Woman Brings Home a Rat and Discovers He’s Just like a Puppy | GeoBeats Animals 26 Years of Growth: Shanghai Then and Now | The Atlantic For Global Business | Alipay Connecting a Billion People | WeChat Things to Do in Taipei | The Complete Guide How Did Taipei Change in the Last Decade? | Quora China’s World View: Demystifying China to Prevent Global Conflict by David Daokui Li | Derek Sivers Blade Runner | Prime Video Japan Was the Future but It’s Stuck in the Past | BBC Shenzhen, China: All You Must Know Before You Go | Tripadvisor Chengdu, China: All You Must Know Before You Go | Tripadvisor Visit Dubai | Official Tourism Board in Dubai City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism by Jim Krane | Derek Sivers Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger | Derek Sivers The Bedouin — Desert Nomads | Bedouin Experience How Lee Kuan Yew Engineered Singapore’s Economic Miracle | BBC News Muscat, Oman: All You Must Know Before You Go | Tripadvisor Keeping Our Culture Alive Through Footwear | Tamashee Tamashee Steps Up Khaleeji | Gulf News Independent Adventuring Supply Shops | 826 Valencia The Birth of Islam | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Cormac McCarthy Writes to the Editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican | McSweeney’s Internet Tendency The Road by Cormac McCarthy | Amazon Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy | Amazon Seven Types of Hammered Dulcimers Around the World | Songbird Dulcimers The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss | Derek Sivers The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman by Timothy Ferriss | Derek Sivers How Groupthink Impacts Our Behavior | Verywell Mind What Is Asset Allocation and Why Is It Important? | Investopedia Varadaraja V. Raman — The Heart’s Reason: Hinduism and Science | The On Being Project System 1 and System 2 Thinking | The Decision Lab Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman | Derek Sivers The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence by Gavin de Becker | Amazon The Work | Byron Katie Oblique Strategies: Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas by Brian Eno | Amazon A Quiet Place to Think About Music | MusicThoughts Brian Eno: Interview with the Producer of U2’s No Line on the Horizon | The Telegraph Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV | Prime Video John Cage Performs “Water Walk” | I’ve Got a Secret Seesaws Built On US Border Wall Win Prestigious Design Prize | NPR The Story Of ‘4’33″‘ | NPR A 639-Year-Long John Cage Organ Performance Strikes a New Chord in Germany | NPR How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built by Stewart Brand | Derek Sivers Stewart Brand – The Polymath of Polymaths | The Tim Ferriss Show #281 The Latest in Technology, Science, Culture, and Business | Wired Interview of Kevin Kelly, Co-Founder of WIRED, Polymath, Most Interesting Man In The World? | The Tim Ferriss Show #25, #26, & #27 How to Do a Turkish Get-Up | Furthermore from Equinox Robust, Practical, and Fast | Clojure Simplicity Matters by Rich Hickey | Rails Conf 2012 Keynote Etymology of Complex | Online Etymology Dictionary Six Reasons the Puerto Rico Tax Incentives Aren’t All They’re Cracked Up to Be | US Tax Services Money — Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom by Tony Robbins | Derek Sivers Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life by Neil Strauss | Amazon Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Tim Ferriss | Amazon George Does the Opposite | Seinfeld No Yes. Either HELL YEAH! or No. | Derek Sivers The Billionaire’s Guide to Doing Taxes | Vox Release Your Music Everywhere | CD Baby Who Was Bitcoin’s Satoshi? I Need to Know and So Do You. by Tyler Cowen | Bloomberg Betteridge’s Law of Headlines | Wikipedia E-Gold | Stanford University Tyler Cowen on Rationality, COVID-19, Talismans, and Life on the Margins | The Tim Ferriss Show ##413 All Food Is Ethnic Food. | Tyler Cowen’s Ethnic Dining Guide After National Acclaim over the past Decade, Where Is Pittsburgh’s Food Scene Headed? | Trib Live Translation Tools to Help People Translate Books | Inchword Japanese vs. Korean: Which is Easier to Learn? | Busuu Your Fast Track to Speaking a New Language | Fluent in 3 Months A Beginners Guide to Esperanto | The Guardian Universala Esperanto-Asocio Language Crash Course: Klingon | PGO 2020 Pimsleur Spanish Level 1 Lessons 1-5 | Amazon Learn to Read Korean in 15 Minutes | Ryan Estrada How to Do Basic Pen Tricks | Tim Ferriss Traditional Welcoming | Bedouin Experience Burj Khalifa: Unpacking the World’s Tallest Building | Architectural Digest UAE’s Diversity and Multiculturalism, Discussed By Those Who Live it Every Day | Vogue Arabia Mos Eisley Cantina Scene | Star Wars: Episode IV A New HopeSHOW NOTES[00:07:18] Derek Sivers: A Man who brings his own introduction.[00:09:25] First mind change: Emirati coffee.[00:12:34] Second mind change: Ruby to Python.[00:13:54] Third mind change: Rats.[00:17:23] Fourth mind change: China.[00:23:24] Fifth mind change: Dubai.[00:26:48] Tamashee: Come for the sandals, stay for the culture.[00:30:52] Cormac McCarthy Writes to the Editor of The Santa Fe New Mexican.[00:31:47] Shifting perspectives and the value of questioning preconceptions.[00:51:23] Brian Eno and MusicThoughts.[00:53:57] John Cage.[00:56:34] Three glasses.[00:57:08] Derek’s experimental housing project.[01:03:51] Rich Hickey and practical applications of simplicity.[01:29:20] Tyler Cowen.[01:35:57] Inchword and language learning.[01:46:35] Traveling to inhabit philosophies.[01:54:14] Parting thoughts.MORE DEREK SIVERS QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“Whatever you feel yourself leaning away from, try leaning into. If you hate opera, then go learn more about opera. And if you hate sports, well, then go learn more about sports. It’s usually just learning about something gives you an appreciation for this thing that you used to just dismiss.”
— Derek Sivers

“I travel to inhabit philosophies.”
— Derek Sivers

“Don’t jump through hoops to save taxes, jump through a hoop to go make more money. That’s the growth choice anyway. That’s the thought process that leads you to make growing decisions, not shrinking decisions.”
— Derek Sivers

“I’m willing to throw myself in and feel the pain to see if I’ve done it wrong.”
— Derek Sivers

“When I’m around people who I know agree with me, my inherent curiosity level drops a bit. And when I’m around people who I know don’t think like me, my curiosity piques.”
— Derek Sivers

“I deliberately fucked up my life and made a bunch of crazy fucking decisions, and some of them worked out great, and some of them didn’t. And I’m so happy that I did that.”
— Derek Sivers

“So often, the difference between success and failure is the mindset that leads you to take different actions. But if you just look at a situation, and you say, “That’s it. That’s what the situation is,” I’m not talking about physical things. I mean declaring something to be a dead end, declaring something to suck, these are all things of the mind, and nothing of the mind is necessarily true. Everything that’s just in the mind is just one perspective.”
— Derek Sivers

“It can be much harder to do something that is objectively simple, that stands alone, that isn’t dependent on other things. It can be harder to make that, but it’s ultimately usually a better choice because it’s more maintainable, it’s easier to change, it’s easier to stop and start. It’s simpler even if it’s harder to make.”
— Derek Sivers

“Esperanto is hippie Klingon.”
— Derek Sivers

PEOPLE MENTIONEDSeth Godin Wilfred Thesiger T. E. Lawrence Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Lee Kuan Yew Mohammad Kazim Cormac McCarthy Richard Branson Elon Musk Gavin de Becker Byron Katie Brian Eno John Cage Nam June Paik Stewart Brand Kevin Kelly Frank Lloyd Wright Rich Hickey Tony Robbins Neil Strauss George Costanza Tyler Cowen Satoshi Nakamoto John F. Kennedy Jeff Koons Benny Lewis Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof

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Published on November 14, 2024 06:29

November 7, 2024

Derren Brown — A Master Mentalist on Magic, Mind Reading, Ambition, Stoicism, Religion, and More (#776)

“Gather yourself afresh.”
— Derren Brown

Derren Brown (@derrenbrown) is a psychological illusionist who can predict, suggest, and even control human behavior. Starting his TV career with shows such as Mind Control and Trick or Treat for Channel 4 (the UK’s equivalent of PBS), Derren has combined spectacular illusions with insights into how we see the world and those around us, or expect to see them. Rather than guard the mystery behind his illusions and manipulations, he lays bare his techniques and demonstrates how the human mind works.

A prolific creator and performer, Derren has appeared in blockbuster stage and television shows alike, including the sold-out Broadway run of his one-man show Secret, his Olivier Award-winning tour of Svengali, and his Netflix specials The Push, Miracle, and the harrowing Sacrifice, in which he tries to manipulate an ordinary person into taking a bullet for a stranger.

Derren is the author of multiple books, including Happy: Why More or Less Everything Is Absolutely Fine and A Book of Secrets: Finding Comfort in a Complex World. Derren’s new tour, Only Human, materializes on stages across the UK beginning April of 2025.

Please enjoy!

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Listen onApple Podcasts [image error]Listen onSpotify [image error]Listen onOvercast#776: Derren Brown — A Master Mentalist on Magic, Mind Reading, Ambition, Stoicism, Religion, and MoreDerren Brown

This episode is brought to you by ExpressVPN. I’ve been using ExpressVPN to make sure that my data is secure and encrypted, without slowing my Internet speed. If you ever use public Wi-Fi at, say, a hotel or a coffee shop, where I often work and as many of my listeners do, you’re often sending data over an open network, meaning no encryption at all.

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Want to hear another episode with someone who delights audiences with feats of magic? Listen to my conversation with Simon Coronel, in which we discuss radical earliness, neurodivergence, categories of stage magic, late (but timely) blooming, mentalism misgivings, jigsaw puzzles, spending time at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, and much more.

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

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODEConnect with Derren Brown:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Derren Brown: Sacrifice | Netflix Netflix’s Derren Brown: Sacrifice Is an Utterly Bizarre, Ethically Questionable, Totally Gripping Must-See | Paste Magazine Derren Brown: The Push | Netflix Duncan Greive: Netflix Drives Man to Brink of Murder with New Show | NZ Herald The Truman Show | Prime Video The Assassination of Bobby Kennedy: Was Sirhan Sirhan Hypnotized to Be the Fall Guy? | The Washington Post Derren Brown: Apocalypse | YouTube The Game | Prime Video The Assassin with Stephen Fry | Derren Brown: The Experiments The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams | Amazon Master Magician David Blaine — Fear{less} with Tim Ferriss | The Tim Ferriss Show #546 Mind Control with Derren Brown | Prime Video Tricks Of Mind by Derren Brown | Amazon Hypnosis | Wikipedia Derren Brown: Showman | Apollo Theatre Dr. David Spiegel, Stanford U. — Practical Hypnosis, Meditation vs. Hypnosis, Pain Management Without Drugs, The Neurobiology of Trance, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #731 What Is Mentalism? Tips for Becoming a Mentalist | MasterClass Cold Reader Tips: How Cold Reading Works | MasterClass Debunking Psychics: An Intro to Hot Reading | Rachel Oates The Man Who Contacts the Dead | Derren Brown Investigates The Illuminati, QAnon, Lizard People, and Other Bizarre Conspiracy Theories | Spyscape Richard Wiseman on Lessons from Dale Carnegie, How to Keep a Luck Diary, Mentalism, The Psychology of the Paranormal, Mass Participation Experiments, NLP, Remote Viewing, and Attempting the Impossible | The Tim Ferriss Show #593 Derren Brown on Why the Supernatural Isn’t Real (Clip) | Diary of a CEO Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks by Ben Goldacre | Amazon Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational by Michael Shermer | Amazon The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading: The Definitive Guide to How Cold Reading Is Used in the Psychic Industry by Ian Rowland | Amazon Oracle of Delphi: Why Was It So Important to Ancient Greeks? | The Collector Jon Batiste — The Quest for Originality, How to Get Unstuck, His Favorite Mantras, and Strategies for Living a Creative Life | The Tim Ferriss Show #775 The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins | Amazon Derren Brown: The Miracle Maker Reveals His Christian Past | Premier Christianity Believing in God & Overcoming Your Fears: Fear And Faith | Derren Brown The Jungian Shadow | Society of Analytical Psychology The Coming Out Experience | Pew Research Center What Is Conversion Therapy and When Will It Be Banned? | BBC News Dead Poets Society | Prime Video Derren Brown: ‘I Was a Terrible Attention Seeker’ | The Guardian Happy: Why More or Less Everything Is Fine by Derren Brown | Amazon What Is Stoicism? A Definition and Nine Stoic Exercises to Get You Started | Daily Stoic Stoicism Resources and Recommendations | Tim Ferriss Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) | Wikipedia A Book of Secrets: Finding Comfort in a Complex World by Derren Brown | Amazon Derren Brown’s Boot Camp for Emotion Derren Brown’s Boot Camp for Emotion by Derren Brown | Amazon Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World by Hartmut Rosa | Amazon Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi | Amazon Derren Brown Demonstrates How Faith Healers Work | Derren Brown Derren Brown: Miracle | Netflix Rhonda Byrne on Why Manifestation Sometimes Fails | Ask Rhonda The Secret by Rhonda Byrne | Amazon Art Store | Derren Brown Telic vs Atelic: Balancing Work and Play in Your Life | HackerNoon Only Human | Derren Brown Notes From a Fellow Traveller by Derren Brown | Derren Brown Books Sherlock | Prime Video Fargo Season 1 | Prime Video Jonathan Haidt — The Coddling of the American Mind, How to Become Intellectually Antifragile, and How to Lose Anger by Studying Morality | The Tim Ferriss Show #644 The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt | Amazon Books by James Hollis | Amazon Books by Irvin D. Yalom | Amazon Books by Oliver Sacks | Amazon Books by Fyodor Dostoevsky | Amazon Hannibal Lecter Series by Thomas Harris | Amazon Books by Stephen King | Amazon Little, Big by John Crowley | Amazon Picnic Comma Lightning: The Experience of Reality in the Twenty-First Century by Laurence Scott | Amazon Derren Brown: Mentalism, Mind Reading, and the Art of Getting Inside Your Head | TED Talk Tim Ferriss | TED Talks Go to the Limits of Your Longing by Rainer Maria Rilke | The On Being ProjectSHOW NOTES[00:06:45] Sacrifice, The Push, and Apocalypse.[00:12:21] Derren’s transition from student to magician.[00:14:43] How Martin Taylor inspired Derren to pursue hypnosis.[00:16:42] Strange audience reactions to hypnosis.[00:20:00] Hypnosis, mentalism, and cold reading.[00:24:34] How a TV medium uses hot reading techniques.[00:26:22] How can someone learn to be a healthy skeptic?[00:34:24] How learning magic influenced Derren’s skepticism and faith.[00:40:57] Why did Derren wait until his 30s to come out?[00:43:18] Finding meaning.[00:47:06] High status struggles.[00:48:20] Making sense of the human experience.[00:56:59] Ambition and productivity.[01:02:25] The counterintuitive assembly of Derren’s creative projects.[01:09:17] Ensuring ethics and safety in TV social experiments.[01:15:50] Suggestion as self-defense.[01:20:27] Why Derren takes care not to abuse his superpowers in real life.[01:24:01] Recommended reading.[01:28:02] TED Talks in treacherous terrain.[01:29:53] A new belief or habit that has improved Derren’s life.[01:33:27] Derren’s billboard and parting thoughts.MORE DERREN BROWN QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“Life’s difficult. Life has this centripetal quality. It brings us to this difficult central point. The thing that makes us feel most isolated is the one thing that actually connects us the most.”
— Derren Brown

“If you want to keep the seat next to you free on a train, don’t put your bag there, because that’s what everybody does. Instead, pat the seat and nod and smile at people. No one’s going to sit next to you.”
— Derren Brown

“The experience of something bigger than yourself is how we find meaning.”
— Derren Brown

“I think just how you make peace with life that’s not always going to go your way, that’s the project, that’s a successful life.”
— Derren Brown

“If you’ve got all the energy and self-promotion, but no talent to back it up, it’s not going to be very helpful. And if you’ve got all the talent in the world, but no energy of getting it out there for people to see, that’s also not great.”
— Derren Brown

“Sometimes a bit of conflict is important because it isn’t really about conflict, is it? It’s about being able to have some faith in what you actually are and want to say and stand for.”
— Derren Brown

“Gather yourself afresh.”
— Derren Brown

PEOPLE MENTIONEDDonald Trump Michael Douglas Sirhan Sirhan Robert F. Kennedy Stephen Fry David Blaine Martin Taylor David Spiegel David Copperfield Q Richard Wiseman Ben Goldacre Michael Shermer Ian Rowland Tommy Wonder Carl Jung Christine Brown Seneca the Younger William J. Clinton Hillary Clinton Marcus Aurelius Epictetus Hartmut Rosa Arthur Schopenhauer Sigmund Freud Mihály Csíkszentmihályi Rhonda Byrne Michael Vine Kevin Kelly Phil Hope Martin Freeman Benedict Cumberbatch Jonathan Haidt James Hollis Irvin D. Yalom Oliver Sacks Fyodor Dostoevsky Thomas Harris Hannibal Lecter Stephen King John Crowley Laurence Scott Gabor Maté Rainer Maria Rilke

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Published on November 07, 2024 07:45

November 1, 2024

No Booze, No Masturbating (NOBNOM) November Challenge

A female festival-goer in a bikini top side-eyes someone offscreen while sticking her tongue out.

(Photo: Shawn Perez)

I did this publicly once before in 2014, and someone recently messaged to say that it changed their life, so we’re doing it again!

Your 30 days can start whenever you see this post, so don’t worry about missing the 1st.

You know who you are, you filthy animals.

Secret bookmarks to Pornhub (“Discount airfare” – Ha!), secret folders labeled “Tax Returns 2019” for when wifi fails, ExpressVPN for when you’re in countries that block your cherished videos…

Oh, wait. Am I projecting again?

Yes, I’ve admitted it before, and I’ll admit it again: dudes watch porn on the Internet. Shocker, I know. All those guys on the magazine covers? They do it, too.

Less obvious, perhaps, is how dramatically your life can change if you quit porn and masturbation for a short period.

I did this for 30 days recently, and—oddly enough—I found it much easier and more impactful to quit booze for the same 30 days.

I highly recommend watching this short clip from The Drive by Peter Attia, MD, in which he interviews Anna Lembke, MD on a cannabis-using patient. Dr. Lembke discusses how to reset the brain’s reward system and joy set point to improve mental health. Often, four weeks of abstinence from compulsive behaviors is enough to dramatically reduce anxiety and depression without medication.

Just a few of the specific benefits I experienced included…

A dramatic surge in free testosterone and sex drive. Dozens of my seemingly healthy male friends, techies in particular, have approached me over the years about chronically low testosterone. There are many potential causes, including late-night blue light and laptop heat on the lap, but removing booze and porn appears to open the flood gates. Research (example, example) shows that alcohol reduces testosterone levels. So… should you be dating more? Trying a little harder instead of wanking, watching Netflix, and calling it a night? This will help motivate you.
Increased ability to focus and cognitive endurance. This goes along with the increased “T” mentioned above.
Getting a LOT more done. When you aren’t nursing hangovers, destroying your sleep with booze, or procrastinating with porn (you know who you are)—miracle of miracles—you get more done! A LOT more done. In my mind, this alone easily justifies a 30-day booze and porn fast. You’ll clear off that goddamn to-do list faster than the Flash. And remember: sex is still allowed.

Join Me For Another 30 Days

Given how transformative this was for me, I’m inviting you to join me for the month of November (30 days). I need it, too. After that, you can go back to your hedonistic ways. I enjoy porn, but I’ve concluded I can level up by taking breaks.

I’ll refer to our 30-day challenge as NOBNOM (NO Booze, NO Masturbating), as the acronym itself sounds pornographic. We gotta make this sumnabitch memorable.

If you don’t masturbate, or if you otherwise don’t watch enough porn to care about abstaining, here’s another option: NOBNOC — No Booze, No Complaining. For this version, please first read “Real Mind Control: The 21-Day No-Complaint Experiment.”

Suggested resourcesReddit communities

Quitting porn:

r/NoFap — Porn Addiction and Compulsive Sexual Behavior Peer Support Forumr/pornfree — Overcoming porn addiction one day at a timer/NoNutNovember — Support and meme community for those attempting No Nut November, an internet challenge to abstain from sexual activity during the month of November

Quitting alcohol:

r/Sober — Getting sober and sober living r//stopdrinking — A support group in your pocket! This subreddit is a place to motivate each other to control or stop drinking. The Tim Ferriss Show — relevant episodes:

Jason Portnoy — Porn Addiction, The Corrosiveness of Secrets, Healing Wounds, Escaping Shame Cycles, and Books to Change Your Life.

If you’ve been feeling less than super-productive, slightly lethargic, or mildly depressed, do this 30-day challenge.

At the very least, it’ll make you conscious of automatic behaviors—things you’ve done for so long that you know nothing else.

If you’re like me, once the fat starts melting off and you’re feeling like a different person, you’ll say to yourself:

“Holy shit, my baseline for the last 10 years [or 5 or 15 or whatever] has been fucked! I totally forgot what it feels like to live clean.”

Perhaps living clean ended for you after high school, or even before, as it did for me. Why not get reacquainted for 30 days? Chances are that it’s been a while.

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Published on November 01, 2024 11:50

October 30, 2024

Jon Batiste — The Quest for Originality, How to Get Unstuck, His Favorite Mantras, and Strategies for Living a Creative Life (#775)

Jon Batiste (@jonbatiste) is a five-time Grammy Award-winning and Academy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and composer. His eighth studio album, Beethoven Blues, is set for a November 15th release. This project marks the first installment in his solo piano series, showcasing Batiste’s interpretations of Beethoven’s iconic works, reimagined. Beethoven Blues follows Batiste’s studio album World Music Radio, which received five Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year.

Batiste is featured in Matthew Heineman’s Netflix documentary, American Symphony. The film follows Batiste’s journey, starting in early 2022, as he receives 11 Grammy nominations for his studio album We Are. Amid this success, he faces the challenge of composing a symphony for Carnegie Hall while supporting his wife, bestselling author and Emmy Award-winning journalist Suleika Jaouad, who learns her cancer has returned. As a composer, Batiste scored Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, now in theaters. The film depicts the chaotic 90 minutes before Saturday Night Live’s first broadcast in 1975, underscored by Batiste’s blending of jazz, classical, and contemporary elements. He composed and produced the music live on set, capturing the intensity of the show’s debut. Batiste appears in the film as Billy Preston, the show’s first musical guest. Additionally, Batiste composed and performed music for the Disney/Pixar film Soul, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Original Score alongside Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

Please enjoy!

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Want to hear another episode that includes improvised musical performance? Have a listen to my first conversation with Jamie Foxx here in which we discussed workout routines, origin stories, impersonations, parenting style, networking and staying connected before social media, lessons from Ray Charles, bombing on stage, and much more.

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

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Jon Batiste:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Threads

Beethoven Blues by Jon Batiste | Amazon Saturday Night (Trailer) | Sony Pictures Entertainment Soul | Prime Video Meet the World-Famous Hot-Spring Loving Snow Monkeys | Travel Japan Ogimi Village – A Village of Longevity Set in a Beautiful Natural Environment | Okinawa Island Guide Kurt Vonnegut Once Told a Story About Buying One Envelope at a Time | Snopes Jon Batiste on His Awards Glory: ‘Overnight a Lot of Stuff Changed’ | The Guardian Andrew Zimmern on Simple Cooking Tricks, Developing TV, and Addiction | The Tim Ferriss Show #40 Jonathan Batiste & The Stay Human Band — It’s Alright with Me | Facebook Casio SK-1: This Legendary Lo-Fi Sampler from 1986 Is Still Worth It | David Hilowitz Music The Surprising Origins of the Running Man Dance! | Wehustle Clips How to Moonwalk | Mihran Kirakosian Jon Batiste Performs Freedom Live from the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, 2022 | Universal Music Group Austin’s #1 Music Venue | Moody Center Jon Batiste and Stay Human Take Their Social Music to the Streets of New York City | Marc Millman Suleika Jaouad on Invaluable Road Trips, the Importance of a To-Feel List, and Finding Artistic Homes (#516) – The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad | Amazon How to Survive a Black Hole: Instructions and Other Brilliance from Astrophysicist Janna Levin – The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss City of Kenner, LA | Instagram The Batiste Kids (Travis, Jamal, and Jon Batiste), 1994 | WWL TV Jon Batiste’s Family Shares Stories About His Childhood, Rise to Fame | WWL Cultivating Artistry | The Juilliard School Walking Pneumonia: What Does It Mean? | Mayo Clinic The True Measures of Greatness | InsightLA Meditation Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality by Anthony de Mello | Amazon Jamie Foxx on Workout Routines, Success Habits, and Untold Hollywood Stories | The Tim Ferriss Show #124 Blues | The Library of Congress A Beginner’s Guide to the Blues Scale | Happy Bluesman Ratatouille | Prime VideoSHOW NOTES[00:06:46] Is the secret to long life embracing the mundane?[00:09:28] The gift of mistakes.[00:10:21] Why did Jon wait until he was 10 to speak?[00:12:51] How music and performance entered the picture.[00:13:36] An early exercise in winning over the room.[00:15:08] Choosing the personal facets that art expresses.[00:16:57] From a disappointing grade school performance to the Grammys.[00:21:44] Cultivating suspense and shifting modes of creative expression.[00:27:24] When perspective drives motivation more than stakes.[00:32:14] Spiritual practice and grounding mantras.[00:40:29] Surrender, acceptance, and growth through health challenges.[00:43:37] The fuzzy line between blessing and curse.[00:46:40] Growing up bullied as the “least talented” in a musical family.[00:52:50] Jon’s visionary mother guided him toward piano.[00:55:23] Parental support for Jon’s relocation to New York City.[00:56:15] Serious setbacks that almost made Jon quit Juilliard and music altogether.[01:00:37] Jon’s advice to a younger musician enduring a similar path of hardships.[01:03:11] How Jon owns what comes his way rather than allowing it to overwhelm him.[01:07:30] Cultivating generosity without being drained.[01:09:32] Jon’s billboard is invisible — but with deep posts.[01:11:47] My rough draft of five deep handfuls.[01:18:21] Jon’s answer in musical improv.[01:25:42] Jon’s upcoming album: Beethoven Blues (with bonus blues tutorial).[01:39:09] Taking the hypotenuse to catharsis and other Parting thoughts.MORE JON BATISTE QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“Take your time to find the prize. There’s no rush. Pace yourself.”
— Jon Batiste

“Mistakes are amazing. Mistakes are brilliant. It’s a gift to go about your day and for something, either a mistake or something that you didn’t plan, an interruption, some seeming calamity happening that allows for you to not only respond but to create.”
— Jon Batiste

“When I was in college, my band and I would go in the subway and we would play for people. We wouldn’t ask for money. We wouldn’t busk. We would just play concerts for people who weren’t expecting a concert to just get to the point where we were fearless about presenting art.”
— Jon Batiste

“You have to understand what is it that’s yearning to be expressed within you. Even if you’re dreadfully afraid of it, you can have something within that seems so far away from the reality of your current state that it couldn’t possibly be for you in your mind. And every fiber of your being is telling you, ‘This isn’t what I should be pursuing. This isn’t who I am.’ That’s the one right there.”
— Jon Batiste

“I love to create these pockets of suspense, these pockets of pressurized creativity or pressurized experience that lead me to discovery, that [push] me forward. And I think about things that are not music, like cinema or — there are so many things that are not connected to the actual craft that I draw from much, much, much more than actually thinking about the inspiration of music and the fruit of the craft itself.”
— Jon Batiste

“There’s something about life. There’s a truth. There’s something about going through the fire that is so required and something about suffering that is so essential. This idea that we are meant to run from pain or run from difficult things and find the most leisurely and completely frictionless existence possible is such a lie.”
— Jon Batiste

“[Musical improvisation] feels like you are traveling. You’re moving, and your hand is telling you, ‘This is what I want to play.’ And as you play it, you’re seeing all the colors, and you’re hearing the sound. It starts to tell you, ‘Now I want to go here.’ And then sometimes it’s telling you things that you don’t know.”
— Jon Batiste

“Blues is an allegory for the human condition in sound. It’s a musical allegory that exists within the context of a cultural movement.”
— Jon Batiste

“If you don’t live it and it’s not a part of you, it’s not going to come out of the instrument. What we play is life. What we create is life.”
— Jon Batiste

“I don’t actually believe that failure exists. It’s not that it’s necessarily for your own good, but failure doesn’t exist. There’s opportunity for you to take something from the experience.”
— Jon Batiste

“On stage you have to present yourself in a way that is amplifying aspects of what’s inside. And ultimately, you have a decision to make as a performer to decide how far between who you actually are and who you’ve created to project on the stage.”
— Jon Batiste

“There’s a constellation of inspiration that crosses so many spectrums of society, and I can’t access it if I play by these rules.”
— Jon Batiste

“When I don’t have inspiration or I have a block, I do nothing. I live. And it’s absolutely because of the deeper inspiration that I’m blessed to feel. I feel it’s been cultivated. I’m connected to it, and I know it’s real, and it doesn’t have to greet me every day. I know it’s there.”
— Jon Batiste

PEOPLE MENTIOEND

Anton Ego
Jimi Hendrix
Jason Reitman
Billy Preston
Trent Reznor
Atticus Ross
Kurt Vonnegut
Andrew Zimmern
Molly Ferriss
Michael Jackson
MC Hammer
Jemel McWilliams
Tony Robbins
Suleika Jaouad
Alfred Hitchcock
Janna Levin
Travis Batiste
Jamal Batiste
Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews
Jon’s Family
Anthony de Mello
Jamie Foxx
Ludwig van Beethoven

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Published on October 30, 2024 08:24

October 23, 2024

Learnings from 1,000+ Near-Death Experiences — Dr. Bruce Greyson, University of Virginia (#774)

Illustration via 99designs

“I was taught in college and medical school that the mind is what the brain does, and all our thoughts and feelings and perceptions are all created by the brain. And I cannot believe that anymore. I’ve seen people whose brains were either offline or severely impaired telling me they had the most elaborate experience they’ve ever had. So I’m inclined to think that the mind is something else and the brain filters it.”
— Dr. Bruce Greyson

Bruce Greyson, M.D. (brucegreyson.com), is the Chester F. Carlson Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Sciences and Director Emeritus of the Division of Perceptual Studies at The University of Virginia. He is also a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and one of the founders of the International Association for Near-Death Studies.

Dr. Greyson’s research for the past half century has focused on the aftereffects and implications of near-death experiences and has resulted in more than 100 presentations to national and international scientific conferences, more than 150 publications in academic medical and psychological journals, 50 book chapters, and numerous research grants.

He is a co-author of Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century; co-editor of The Near-Death Experience: Problems, Prospects, Perspectives and of The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation; and author of After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond.

Please enjoy!

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This episode is brought to you by Seed’s DS-01 Daily Synbiotic! Seed’s DS-01 was recommended to me months ago by a PhD microbiologist, so I started using it well before their team ever reached out to me. Since then, it’s become a daily staple and one of the few supplements I travel with.I’ve always been highly skeptical of most probiotics due to the lack of science and the fact that many do not survive digestion. But after incorporating two capsules of Seed’s DS-01 into my morning routine, I have noticed improved digestion, skin tone, and overall health. Why is it so effective? For one, it’s a 2-in-1 probiotic and prebiotic formulated with 24 clinically and scientifically studied strains that have systemic benefits in and beyond the gut. And now, you can get 25% off your first month of DS-01 with code 25TIM.

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Tim Ferriss receives cash compensation from Wealthfront Brokerage, LLC for advertising and holds a non-controlling equity interest in the corporate parent of Wealthfront Brokerage. See full disclosures here.

Want to hear another episode that ponders the nature of consciousness? Have a listen to my conversation with Professor Donald Hoffman here, in which we discuss the science of consciousness, how perception may influence the physical world, the holographic model of the universe, panpsychism (and influential panpsychists), cosmological polytope, the use of hallucinogenic drugs to tap into deeper reality and interact with conscious agents, QBism, the probability of zero that humans evolved to see reality in full, and much more wild stuff.

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

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Dr. Bruce Greyson:

Website

“If you study things that we pretty much understand already, you can make little inroads here and there about fine points. If you really want to make some impact, you need to study things we don’t understand at all.”
— Dr. Bruce Greyson

“I started out as a materialist skeptic. After 50 years, I’m still skeptical, but I’m no longer a materialist. I think that’s a dead end when it comes to explaining near-death experiences and other phenomena like this.”
— Dr. Bruce Greyson

“I’m not a philosopher. I’m an empiricist. And when people say to me, as many do, ‘If you have this non-physical mind, how does it interact with a physical brain?’ And I have no idea. On the other hand, if you take a materialistic perspective and say, ‘How does the brain, the chemical and electrical changes in the brain, create an abstract thought?’ We have no idea about that either.”
— Dr. Bruce Greyson

“Whether you’re an empiricist, a materialist, or not, we can’t explain how thoughts arise and how they get processed to us. What we do know is that all our experiences are filtered to us through the brain.”
— Dr. Bruce Greyson

“About five percent of the general population — or one to every 20 people — has had a near-death experience. Secondly, they are not associated in any way with mental illness. People who are perfectly normal have these NDEs in abnormal situations that can happen to anybody.”
— Dr. Bruce Greyson

“The more I learned about [NDEs], the harder they seem to understand. So I’ve gotten more comfortable with not knowing all the answers.”
— Dr. Bruce Greyson

“Right now, people are listening to us and there’s electrical activity in parts of their brain that process hearing. It always happens when they’re hearing us, this part of the brain always lights up. That doesn’t mean that electrical activity is causing our voices, it’s just a reflection of it. So when you find these physiological concomitants of a near-death experience, you’re finding perhaps the mechanism for it, but not the cause of it.”
— Dr. Bruce Greyson

“Most people who study near-death experiences, whether they’re spiritualists or materialists or neuropsychologist or philosophers, they agree on the phenomena — they don’t agree on the interpretation of it, of what’s causing it and what its ultimate meaning is.”
— Dr. Bruce Greyson

“Many near-death experiences have tried drugs afterwards to try to replicate the experience, and they universally tell me it is not the same thing. One person told me, ‘When I was on psilocybin, I saw Heaven. When I was in my near-death experience, I was in Heaven.'”
— Dr. Bruce Greyson

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Published on October 23, 2024 08:31

October 17, 2024

Andrew Roberts on The Habits of Churchill, Lessons from Napoleon, and The Holy Fire Inside Great Leaders (#773)

Illustration via 99desgins

“As soon as you think you understand a period, all it takes is one new set of papers or a new book written by somebody else that can make you look again at the same period and completely change your mind about it. And that’s a little unnerving at the age of 61, I have to say.”
— Andrew Roberts

Andrew Roberts (@aroberts_andrew) has written twenty books, which have been translated into twenty-eight languages and have won thirteen literary prizes.

These include Salisbury: Victorian Titan, Masters and Commanders, The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War, Napoleon: A Life, Churchill: Walking with Destiny, The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III, and most recently, Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Gaza, which he co-authored with General David Petraeus.

Lord Roberts is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Historical Society, the Bonnie and Tom McCloskey Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, and a visiting professor at the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London. He is also a member of the House of Lords.

Please enjoy!

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This episode is brought to you by Our Place’s Titanium Always Pan® Pro. Many nonstick pans can release harmful “forever chemicals”—PFAS—into your food, your home, and, ultimately, your body. Teflon is a prime example—it *is* the forever chemical that most companies are still using. Exposure to PFAS has been linked to major health issues like gut microbiome disruption, testosterone dysregulation, and more, which have been correlated to chronic disease in the long term. This is why I use the Titanium Always Pan Pro from today’s sponsor, Our Place. It’s the first nonstick pan with zero coating. This means zero “forever chemicals” and a durability that will last a lifetime. That’s right—no degradation over time like traditional nonstick pans.

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Want to hear another episode with a historian who looks to the past in order to understand where the future’s headed? Have a listen to my conversation with Niall Ferguson, in which we discuss the revoking of academia’s license to be outrageous, historical contingency, keeping Cold War II from heating up into World War III, the joys of digging deep into historical correspondence, why an atheist takes his kids to church, life under fatwa, an evolving toolkit for enacting change, and much more.

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

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Andrew Roberts:

Website | Twitter

Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Gaza by David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts | Amazon Secrets of Statecraft with Andrew Roberts | Hoover Institution Other Books by Andrew Roberts | Amazon Discover Yourself | Cranleigh School The Untold Tale of Cambridge’s History of Espionage | Varsity Debrett’s Guide to the Ranks and Privileges of the Peerage | Debretts The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro | Amazon Niall Ferguson, Historian — The Coming Cold War II, Visible and Invisible Geopolitics, Why Even Atheists Should Study Religion, Masters of Paradox, Fatherhood, Fear, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #634 Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire by Niall Ferguson | Amazon How to Write History by Andrew Roberts | National Review Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts | Amazon Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts | Amazon Noblesse Oblige | Learning to Give Why We’d Be Better Off if Napoleon Never Lost at Waterloo by Andrew Roberts | Smithsonian Code Napoleon | The Napoleon Series Guibert’s General Essay on Tactics by Jacques Antoine Hippolyte, Comte de Guibert | Library Genesis The Development of The Corps D’Armée | The Napoleon Series Napoleon at the Pyramids: Myth Versus Fact | Shannon Selin Winston Churchill Speeches from 1940 | America’s National Churchill Museum Marlborough: His Life and Times Series by Winston S. Churchill | Amazon My Early Life: 1874-1904 by Winston Churchill | Amazon Napoleon, History’s Greatest General or Strategist? | IHEDN Eyeless in Gaza: A Novel by Aldous Huxley | Amazon Brave New World by Aldous Huxley | Amazon The Gathering Storm (The Second World War) by Winston S. Churchill | Amazon “I Shall Be the One to Save London” | The Churchill Project 10 May 1940: A Day to Remember | The National Archives Blog Abdication of King Edward VIII, 1936 | America’s National Churchill Museum The July 20, 1944, Plot to Assassinate Adolf Hitler | Holocaust Encyclopedia Memory of Macabre Cult Massacre Buried in Guyana Jungle | France 24 Winston Churchill Harnessed Many Mistakes Into Victory | Investor’s Business Daily What Today’s Leaders Can Learn from Napoleon’s Mistakes | Inc.Keeping a Diary — Advantages and Challenges | Naturally Balanced When Louis XVI Wrote “Rien” in His Diary… | Tiny-Librarian, Tumblr What is Purple Prose? | Writers.com The Napoleonic Bee | A French Collection Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley | The Poetry Foundation Write, Cut, Rewrite: New Exhibition Sheds Light on the Cutting Room Floor of Modern Literature | Bodleian Libraries Frankenstein by Mary Shelley | Amazon First Edition of Frankenstein | Lambeth Palace Library, Instagram Established In 2017 | Cliveden Literary Festival The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq | Amazon The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger | Randall E. Germain: The Marxist Theory of Imperialism and its Critics (1955) | Marxists.org ‘Too Much Hitler and the Henrys’ by Niall Ferguson | Financial Times Nearly Quarter of Brits Think Churchill a Myth: Poll | ABC News The Majestic Castles of North Wales | Visit Wales Westminster Hall | UK Parliament The Study of History and the Practice of Politics | International Churchill Society The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III by Andrew Roberts | Amazon Is British History Something to Be Proud Of? | The Week 1807 Abolition of the Slave Trade | UK Parliament Pros and Cons of British Empire: “Balance Sheet” History Asks Students to Legitimize Imperialism. | Slate The Upside of Empire by Andrew Roberts | National Review Thomas Jefferson Statue Evicted from City Hall Will Go to a Museum | The New York Times Notable Quotations by P.G. Wodehouse | Wikiquote Ukraine in Maps: Tracking the War with Russia | BBC News Gaza Strip in Maps: How a Year of War Has Drastically Changed Life in the Territory | BBC News Napoleonic Marshals of France | French EmpireSHOW NOTES[00:06:14] Expelled from Cranleigh school.[00:07:14] Why MI6 considered Andrew for recruitment.[00:09:56] The teacher who made history exciting to 10-year-old Andrew.[00:13:05] Words Andrew avoids when writing about history.[00:14:20] Are steady-nerved leaders naturally born or nurtured?[00:16:05] The thinkers who influenced Winston Churchill and his sense of noblesse oblige.[00:18:26] What made Napoleon Bonaparte the prime exemplar of war leadership?[00:24:37] Lessons from Winston Churchill’s autobiography, My Early Life.[00:26:22] Napoleon’s relationship with risk.[00:29:26] Andrew’s signed letter from Aldous Huxley.[00:30:49] When historical figures carry a sense of personal destiny.[00:33:07] The meeting Andrew wishes he could’ve witnessed as a fly on the wall.[00:34:30] When historical villains carry a sense of personal destiny.[00:37:14] What Churchill and Napoleon learned from their mistakes.[00:39:38] “Dear Diary…”[00:44:00] Maintaining creative flow during the writing process.[00:47:18] On working with brilliant publisher Stuart Proffitt (aka Professor Perfect).[00:52:53] Why are some significant figures immortalized while others go the way of Ozymandias?[00:57:59] Thoughts on personal legacy.[00:59:18] Fiction favorites.[01:02:05] Being objective about the history of imperialism.[01:03:31] The challenges of teaching and learning history today.[01:06:40] Why “Study history” is Andrew’s coat of arms motto.[01:10:22] What Andrew, as a history expert, sees for the future.[01:14:01] Counteracting natural pessimism.[01:15:34] What to expect from Andrew’s latest book Conflict (co-authored with David Petraeus).[01:19:21] Upcoming book projects.[01:20:26] Parting thoughts.MORE ANDREW ROBERTS QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“I don’t think I’m the first person ever as a young man to get drunk and climb up buildings … It led to one of my wife’s most brilliant witticisms. She said, ‘And all Andrew’s done since in life is to get drunk and social climb.'”
— Andrew Roberts

“When I feel pessimism for America, it’s for things like taking the Thomas Jefferson statue down from the New York City Hall. It’s a form of cultural suicide. It strikes me not to admire the founders of your nation. And yes, of course he owned slaves, but he also wrote a constitution that has survived for a quarter of a millennium and he was brave enough, and Washington and all the others, brave enough to stand up against the most powerful empire in the world. These things, you deserve your statue, it seems to me. And if you go around pulling these things down, I think you’re breaking a living link with the past that makes you a great country.”
— Andrew Roberts

“I find it very relaxing and calming to think that my life isn’t just going to be a complete waste of time. And one of the only ways that I can justify this concept that it’s all not just a nihilistic maelstrom is by writing books, obviously, which I hope will survive me. But also, noting down what I’ve done in the day.”
— Andrew Roberts

“As soon as you think you understand a period, all it takes is one new set of papers or a new book written by somebody else that can make you look again at the same period and completely change your mind about it. And that’s a little unnerving at the age of 61, I have to say.”
— Andrew Roberts

“I’m a bit of a pessimist anyway because I’m a Tory and pessimism is an essential part of Toryism.”
— Andrew Roberts

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Benjamin Disraeli, the Earl of Beaconsfield
Susan Gilchrist
James Bond
Cookie Monster
Christopher Perry
Charles I
Oliver Cromwell
Elizabeth I
Mary, Queen of Scots
Robert Caro
Niall Ferguson
Napoleon Bonaparte
Winston Churchill
Julius Caesar
Alexander the Great
Edward Gibbon
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Arthur Schopenhauer
Jacques Antoine Hippolyte, Comte de Guibert
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Sir Francis Drake
Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
Randolph Churchill
Jeanette Spencer-Churchill
Aldous Huxley
Adolf Hitler
Neville Chamberlain
George VI
Claus von Stauffenberg
David Koresh
Jim Jones
Xi Jinping
Benjamin Netanyahu
Joe Biden
Louis XVI
Samuel Johnson
Stuart Proffitt
Herodotus
Abraham Lincoln
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Robert Goddard
William Boyd
Salman Rushdie
Robert Harris
Michel Houellebecq
Henry VIII
Denzel Washington
Sherlock Holmes
Eleanor Rigby
Ronald Hutton
Simon Roberts
Edward I
Elizabeth II
Warren Hastings
Nelson Mandela
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Thomas More
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford
William Wallace
George III
Thomas Jefferson
P.G. Wodehouse
David H. Petraeus
Matthew Ridgway

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Published on October 17, 2024 07:13

October 8, 2024

Never Play It Safe: 7 Levers to Unlock Your Creative Potential

Tim Ferriss and Chase Jarvis in 2011

The following is a guest post from Chase Jarvis (@chasejarvis), the founder of CreativeLive, the world’s largest live-streaming education platform for creatives and entrepreneurs, which was acquired by Fiverr (FVRR: NYSE) in 2021. He is also a master photographer, Emmy-nominated director, and the bestselling author of Creative Calling.

Chase is the only person ever to be named a Hasselblad Master, Nikon Master, and ASMP Master. He has contributed photography to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism, and his commercial work has spanned campaigns for Nike, Apple, Red Bull, and others, earning him Forbes’ title of “The Photographer Everyone Wants to Work With.” Chase’s fine-art installations appear in prominent galleries and the collections of high-net-worth individuals alike. Chase was also one of the very first guests of The Tim Ferriss Show podcast.

His new book is Never Play It Safe: A Practical Guide to Freedom, Creativity, and a Life You Love and is out today.

Please enjoy!

Enter Chase Jarvis…

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” — Helen Keller

In my mid-twenties, my wife Kate and I were living in a tiny apartment in Seattle. I was working in a ski shop to make ends meet. There were a lot of voices in my head telling me how I had screwed up the familiar patterns of school and job, plus I had a boatload of doubt, no money, and few role models. Even though I whispered to those closest to me that I wanted to be a photographer, I was too scattered—and too scared—to actually pay attention to what I might have to do to make that dream a reality.

I spent the first few months of that time dabbling, working in the shop, explaining myself to everyone I knew, and trying but failing to hone my craft. My attention was too fractured to get anywhere, but at a certain point, it was do or die. Yes, I had to earn a living, but more importantly, that rare, humble, honest version of myself that sometimes showed up on morning walks or while gazing at golden-orange sunsets had a point: I had to stop f*ing around and making excuses. I had to stop paying so much attention to the toxic voices in my head telling me I’d never make it as a photographer and instead go all in on the next right step that would get me where I wanted to go.

Those early days were filled with doubt, uncertainty, and countless questions about how to make my dreams a reality. I didn’t know how to make the leap from amateur photographer to full-time artist. I had almost no real-life examples of how to do what I wanted to do. I couldn’t afford the time or money it would have taken to go to art school. But I realized that no one was coming to hand me a guidebook and that if I wanted to succeed, I’d have to forge my own path. Over time, I discovered key principles that helped me transform those doubts into action—tools that reside naturally within us all, that anyone can use to ignite their creative potential and break away from the illusory ‘safe’ life that our culture wants most of us to live.

In this post, I’m going to share 7 ‘levers’ that I’ve discovered that can help you unlock your potential. These aren’t vague motivational phrases—they’re practical, actionable tools that will take you from feeling stuck to finding freedom in your creative work and your life. With AI rapidly taking over jobs that machines can easily do, human creativity has become more crucial, and more valuable, than ever. It’s not just about popsicle sticks and glue guns; it’s about cultivating the habit of thinking differently and operating differently, a way of living that keeps you on the unique frontier, ahead of the machines, and in line with a life worth loving.

Creativity isn’t just a nice-to-have anymore—it’s an essential skill, a must-have that will keep you relevant and thriving in a changing world. Each lever is a tool I personally learned to wield in my journey from being a small-town Seattle artist to working with many of the biggest brands and boldest projects in the world, and I’m going to show you how to use them in your own life.

Lever 1: Constraints—Unlocking Creativity with Limitations

Early in my career, I discovered that creativity thrives under constraints. Whether it was when I couldn’t afford the best camera gear or later when I intentionally set boundaries on projects—like budget, time, or other easily implemented frameworks—I recognized that limitations forced me to innovate. The results were demonstrably better than when I failed to implement, or ignored, constraints.

Constraints aren’t obstacles—they are opportunities to think differently, to find solutions you wouldn’t have considered if you had every resource at your disposal. It was during those times of limitation that I learned the most and pushed both my creativity and my life to places I didn’t think they could go.

Actionable Steps to Constrain for Growth:

1. 7-Minute Creative Challenge

Set a timer for 7 minutes and complete a creative project within that time frame. Whether it’s writing a short story or sketching something, the goal is to create without overthinking. Embrace imperfection. I do this almost every day in some capacity—journaling for 7 minutes in the morning, capturing 7 images on my phone within my immediate surroundings, or crafting a creative social media post. These quick, deliberate bursts of creativity help me stay sharp, spontaneous, and unafraid of imperfection.

2. Resource Limitation Challenge

Choose a project and give yourself a constraint. Use one lens for a week or write with only a notebook and pen. By forcing yourself to work within limits, you foster innovation. For me, I was the first high-end professional to lean into the iPhone as a real photographic tool, publishing the world’s first book of iPhone photos and creating the first iPhone app that used photos as the basis for a social network. Another time, I was featured on a top YouTube channel in China, where I was challenged to shoot professional-level images—skateboarding, portraits, street photography—using a camera literally made out of Legos. These constraints pushed me creatively in ways I simultaneously loved, but couldn’t have imagined, proving that limits can truly unlock new levels.

Lever 2: Failure—A Feature, Not a Bug

Turn back your mental clock to April of 2012, when Facebook acquired Instagram for the staggering sum of $1 billion. It was all over the news, not just in the tech circles but mainstream media too—a true Cinderella story. I watched with amazement like the rest of the world, but that amazement was tempered by a pang of regret. In a not-so-different world, it could have been my company making those headlines.

Back in 2009, I had created a photo-sharing app called The Best Camera that beat Instagram to the market; had millions of downloads; was hailed in ‘App of the Year’ lists in the New York Times, MacWorld, and elsewhere; and was heavily featured in Apple’s global marketing. And yet, despite all of this early success, my app never reached its full potential. A few critical mistakes known by tech-industry insiders and experienced by my community of users derailed acquisition interests and my billion-dollar opportunity.

Nearly all of us from an early age are conditioned to avoid failure. But this mindset is what keeps most people from creating anything at all! Failure isn’t the end; it’s an integral part of almost any process. Early in my career, I tried so hard to succeed without ever taking risks, and it led to nothing but mediocrity. The moment I began embracing failure as a necessary feature of my journey, things started to shift.

The experience with my photo app taught me painful but valuable lessons, and each failure along the way shaped me into a more resilient, more creative, and more confident person today. In just one clear example, I took those Best Camera lessons and used them to launch CreativeLive, which was acquired by a public company and today serves millions of students worldwide.

Embracing failure is what separates those who make a mark from those who never even try. It’s why failure isn’t something to fear; it’s a signal, a signpost that guides you toward growth.

Actionable Steps to Reframe Failure as Growth:

1. Failure Postmortem

Make notes in a journal about a recent failure, but instead of judging yourself, break it down objectively: What went wrong? What did you learn? What can you do differently next time? This practice turns what could feel like a setback into a lesson. When Instagram sold for $1 billion, it was a punch to the gut, because it could have been my app in those headlines. In my postmortem, I realized that the mistakes were simple but costly:

Trusting the wrong development partner. Not enough detail in the legal contract.Failing to keep the app’s code and key assets on my own servers or in the cloud.

These oversights stalled our momentum and left me watching from the sidelines. But analyzing these failures objectively transformed what could have been a career-ending defeat into the blueprint for building CreativeLive—turning painful lessons into invaluable stepping stones for future success.

2. Tiny Experiments

Reframe the thing you’ve been avoiding as a tiny experiment. Instead of fearing failure, think of it as an opportunity to gather information. Commit to taking a step toward it within the next 48 hours, with the goal of learning rather than succeeding. When you view actions as experiments, failures don’t sting as much because they’re part of the process. This approach not only makes the risk feel smaller, but it also conditions you to value learning over outcomes. Taking action, even when facing potential failure, is a crucial step toward unlocking your creativity. Every so-called failure becomes data—a step forward rather than a setback. Failure can either be a wall or a door, and reframing it as an experiment allows you to choose the door every time.

Chase Jarvis standing in the ocean with the water up to his chest while taking photos with a large camera.

Lever 3: Attention—Harnessing Your Superpower

In the age of infinite distractions, focus is a superpower that determines the difference between success and mediocrity. But here’s the catch: no one else can do this work for you. If you let others control your attention—whether through endless scrolling, notifications, or expectations placed on you—you’ll never unlock your true creative potential.

Attention is your most valuable currency. I had to learn this through trial and error, switching from a career that I thought others wanted for me to one I knew deep down I was made for. When I focused, my world expanded in the areas I dedicated my time to. Where I put my attention dictated what I became.

Actionable Steps to Reclaim Your Focus:

1. Define Your “Attention Zones”

Every morning, choose two zones where you want to direct your focus. These could be areas like building a skill or connecting with family. Write down one specific action for each zone that deserves your full attention today. Think of this as a workout for your attention span, developing focus on demand so it’s there when you need it most. Use a Pomodoro timer (there are online options, but I prefer a physical timer)—25 minutes on, no interruptions, then take a break. This kind of deliberate practice is where focus turns into mastery, training your mind to be sharp and responsive whenever you call on it.

2. Daily “Attention Audit”

At the end of each day, do a quick audit. Ask yourself: Where did my attention go today? Which distractions pulled me away? Write them down, and make adjustments to improve your focus tomorrow. I had to make this a ritual to understand what was draining my energy and how I could direct it back into my creative pursuits. For a broader view, consider doing a weekly audit using your iPhone’s built-in screen-time tracker or Toggl Track to get detailed insights into where your attention is going. Apps like Freedom.to and StayFocusd can also help you block distracting websites or apps during creative work sessions, letting you carve out focused time for what truly matters.

Chase Jarvis walking through a city with camera in hand, looking for subjects to shoot.

Lever 4: Time—The Magic of Presence

One of the biggest breakthroughs in my life came when I understood that it wasn’t about finding more time; it was about changing how I perceived and used the time I had. Instead of managing time like a fixed resource, I began to see it as malleable, something that could expand or contract based on my focus and the activities I chose. This meant creating conditions for flow, where time seemed to stretch as I engaged in what I loved. It also meant recognizing that life is long and that the rush to always do more often robbed me of the richness of the present. When I focused on the activities that brought joy and novelty, time seemed to open up, and I became far more effective.

It’s easy to say you’re busy, but what are you busy with? Other people’s expectations or your own meaningful pursuits? Instead of seeing time as something to manage, try seeing it as an experience to craft. When we are present, fully engaged in the now, we find that life becomes less about scarcity and more about depth and richness. Creativity demands presence. It demands moments of undistracted effort where you can go deep, explore, and build. To truly move the needle, stop trying to manage time, and instead cultivate flow and presence—embracing the long view of a life where moments are crafted deliberately and with intention.

Actionable Steps to Redefine Your Relationship with Time:

1. Create a “Time Budget”

Spend a week observing how your time is spent. Instead of focusing on strict management, see time as malleable. Notice the moments when time seems to rapidly slip away—like scrolling on your phone or mindlessly watching something just to kill time. Notice when you engage in activities that you love, where you experience flow—a state where time seems to expand and you’re far more effective. Time-tracking apps like Toggl Track or RescueTime can help you to identify distractions, while a physical notebook or a journal app like Day One can be used to track your reflections on what activities bring you into a state of flow. Tools like Brain.fm or Focus@Will can help enhance focus, making it easier to enter a flow state. By observing and adjusting how your time is spent, you can observe time dilating and constricting and more intentionally choose to shift more of your time into the expansive, rewarding experiences.

2. Deep Time Blocks

Twice a week, schedule a 2-to-4–hour time block to focus deeply on your most creative work—something you love. No interruptions. No ‘tasks.’ Let this be a sacred window where you can disconnect from clock time and its traditional trappings. I’ve learned that if I want to address a problem or go into a special creative headspace, it usually requires a minimum of 90 minutes to make progress. As an extension of this idea, I freakishly protect the first ninety-minute block of my day for my morning routine. It’s the one thing I know can make a huge difference in the success of my day, week, and life. What I do during this time may vary, but it always involves some level of intention, mindfulness, self-care, and some form of movement or exercise to get mentally focused for the day.

Here are some examples:

Intention: I often dedicate time to journaling as a way to reflect on and clarify my thoughts, writing down my intentions each day to stay focused on what matters.Mindfulness: I use a body scan exercise, spending a few minutes checking in with different parts of my body to help me stay present throughout the day. Self-Care: I embrace cold plunge therapy, which refreshes my mind and body, preparing me to take on challenges with a renewed sense of focus. Exercise: My morning workout—a mix of cardiovascular activities and resistance training for 30 to 45 minutes—allows me to start the day mentally sharp and fully energized.Lever 5: Intuition—Trusting Your Gut

Your intuition is like a compass—it always knows where to take you, but you have to be willing to listen. I ignored my gut for a long time, and it led me into a path that was culturally “safe” but deeply unfulfilling. I chased a career in professional soccer and then medical school because it was what others wanted for me, but it was ultimately abandoning both of those directions and returning to photography that set my soul on fire.

It’s hard to trust yourself when society constantly tells you that risk is unhealthy or unreasonable and that you should stay on the well-worn path. But emerging science reveals something fascinating: rational thought is often slow and fumbling, while intuition is quick and comprehensive. The truth is, the people who achieve greatness are those who learn to trust that small voice. The more I listened to my gut, the more it became a reliable source of guidance. Like any muscle, I was strengthening it with use. Once I began leaning into that intuitive pull, my life changed, and my creativity exploded.

Actionable Steps to Reconnect with Your Inner Compass:

Intuition Field Trip

Give yourself a Saturday—reminiscent of Julia Cameron’s “Artist Date” from her legendary masterwork The Artist’s Way—and fill the day with whatever you are drawn to do. First, set aside your technology. And then, since intuition lives in the body, start your day with a walk outside in nature (a park if you are urban) and really tune in to the sensations in your body. What do you feel, smell, and notice? Let your awareness expand to find a calm joy in this state of connection and relaxation as you walk for as long as you desire. Throughout the day, let your guiding question be What next? Listen to the soft, small voice of intuition for guidance. No busyness, no hurry. Simply listen, act, and notice. Go anywhere, and do anything that you’re called to do. At the end of your experiment, reflect on the process. How were you able to listen? What did you feel?

How to Know Your Intuition is Speaking

Here is a non-exhaustive-but-hopefully-helpful list of internal signals that your intuition is at work:

Body signals—Pay attention to the physiological responses, such as a “gut feeling” or a sense of calm, that may indicate intuition at work.Immediate impressions—Notice your spontaneous thoughts or feelings and contrast them with the slower, analytical process of conscious reasoning.Past experiences—Reflect on moments in which your intuition proved accurate, usually in a snap judgment or moment-based experience sort of way.Energy alignment—Look for sparks of energy or little bursts of confidence . . . a genuine feeling that you are on track.Emotional alignment—Intuitive feelings often align with positive or negative emotions. Genuine intuition tends to evoke a sense of rightness or wrongness about a situation.Athletic Mind—A phrase used by renowned sports psychologist Bob Rotella, athletic mind describes the moment when someone clearly envisions an outcome and then trusts the subconscious to deliver, as opposed to tediously and consciously reviewing every aspect of a skill. In other words, Yoda had it right: “Do or do not. There is no try.” Chase Jarvis high on an A-frame ladder on a clay tennis court, photographing Serena Williams, as a camera-shoot crew and others look on.

Chase Jarvis high on an A-frame ladder on a clay tennis court, photographing Serena Williams, as a camera-shoot crew and others look on.

Lever 6: Play—The Most Important Work We Do

When we think of work, we think of grinding, pushing through obstacles, and staying serious. But what if the real magic—the breakthroughs, the creative leaps—happens when we allow ourselves to play?

Happiness can often feel temporary and fleeting, with our accomplishments seeming ephemeral, leaving us lost in a sea of seriousness. But it doesn’t have to be that way. To live a more meaningful life, we don’t need another vacation, a new hobby, or another workout routine. We don’t need an endless stream of self-improvement projects piled onto an already overstressed life. What we truly need is a life we’re not trying to escape, a life where play and joy are woven into our everyday work, allowing us to experience deeper fulfillment and uncover the breakthroughs we’ve been searching for.

Play is often undervalued, but it’s one of the most powerful tools a creator can wield. When I loosened my grip on the idea of what creativity was supposed to look like, for example, not just with traditional art or creative pursuits like business, that’s when the best ideas—and highest revenues—flowed. That’s because play is where the best version of ourselves is born, where we experiment without judgment, where failure isn’t feared but embraced. For me, looking back on my career and life, it’s clear that most of my favorite work has come not from overplanning or grinding but from experimenting, having fun, and letting my curiosity lead the way.

Actionable Steps to Integrate Play into Your Creative Life:

1. Weekend Play Session

This is the opposite of the Resource Limitation Challenge (from ‘Lever 1: Constraints’). A Weekend Play Session is a much looser approach, where you’ll spend 15 minutes each day doing something fun—with no goals attached to it. Doodle, explore photography with no rules, or create music just for the joy of it—ideally off your device to get real dopamine. This time is about exploration without the pressure to produce something ‘good.’ If you don’t know where to start, look back at your childhood. Activities like smashing baseballs, building puzzles or Legos, racing RC cars—whatever brought you joy as a kid—often hold the answers. Letting go of the outcome and focusing on the joy of the process will more often lead to breakthroughs.

2. The Mindful Chore Challenge

Let’s take a task that one might label as a chore: folding the laundry. The next time you hear the buzzer on the dryer and it’s time to fetch the clothes, do the following. First, notice that buzzer—really hear it—and be grateful for a device that is smart enough to notify you when it’s done working on your behalf. Next, walk up to the dryer and open it. Feel the warm air on your face as the heat escapes. And listen to the sound—the little creaking sound of the dryer door. Smell the pleasant, clean smell—a combo of detergent and dryer sheet. Then reach your hands into the dryer and grab all the clothes, while paying special attention to the soft feeling of the fabric and, again, the warmth. Notice all the colors in the pile, some bright, others faded. Really be present for the folding experience. Then, have fun with it.

An experimental photography art piece of Chase Jarvis in a shiny silver suit, wearing Goggles, and appearing to float amongst clouds of rich purple, yellow, red, and cyan smoke.

Chase Jarvis in same suit from last photo, standing in an editing bay with computer screens, editing the experimental photo mentioned in the previous photo above.

Lever 7: Practice—Success Leaves Clues

Every successful creator I’ve ever met, studied, or admired has one thing in common: they show up. Day in, day out, they put in the work, even when they don’t feel like it. Consistency and practice are the real magic behind creative success.

The truth is, creativity isn’t about waiting for inspiration to strike—it’s about being there when it does. It’s about creating conditions in which inspiration can find you at work. For me in photography, that meant taking my camera everywhere, shooting every day, even when the conditions were less than perfect, and even when I didn’t feel like it. In business it meant developing systems that were always oriented toward iteration and always ‘shipping’ our products and services before they were perfect.

Actionable Steps to Build a Creative Practice:

1. Create a Daily Practice Routine

Choose one skill or craft that matters to you and dedicate at least 20 minutes to it every day. Whether it’s coding, writing, or anything else, commit to this practice without exception. The goal is momentum, not genius. Tracking your progress, using an app like Habit Tracker or Atoms, helps you stay accountable and see growth over time. I made this commitment to photography years ago—and dozens of other skills since then—and these consistent daily actions have been transformative, whether that was turning my passion into a career or simply growing quickly in an area of interest.

2. Study Who Inspires You

Identify someone whose creative journey inspires you, whether they are in art, science, or entrepreneurship (it’s all part of the creative spectrum!). Study their routines, habits, and approaches. What time do they work? How do they overcome obstacles? What are their key assets? Biographies, biopics, and documentaries are powerful resources that can reveal how creators create, offering insights into their mindset and process.

Here are some of my personal favorites:

Books: Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo Shoe Dog by Phil Knight (Founder of Nike) Just Kids: The Autobiography of Patti Smith Documentaries: Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child Finding Vivian Maier Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry Exit Through the Gift Shop Abstract: The Art of Design

Adopt one of their habits into your own daily practice for the next month. Learning from others provides a unique glimpse into what it takes to achieve greatness and offers us the opportunity to weave those practices and mentalities into our own lives.

Choose Your Lever and Start Today

The path to unlocking your creative potential isn’t about extraordinary circumstances—it’s about leveraging the natural tools we all have inside us. These 7 levers can change everything if you put them to use.

So pick one today, and in your own messy, imperfect way just START. Share your vision or journey in the comments, along with the rest of Tim’s community. Your most bold and creative life lies just beyond your comfort zone.

This post was adapted from Chase’s new book Never Play It Safe: A Practical Guide to Freedom, Creativity, and a Life You Love.

Chase Jarvis siting at a podcast desk with a microphone next to his new book Never Play It Safe.

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Published on October 08, 2024 07:17

October 4, 2024

Productivity Tactics – Two Approaches I Personally Use to Reset, Get Unstuck, and Focus on the Right Things (#771)

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.

In this short and very tactical episode, I share some of my personal methods for how to get out of a rut, re-aim yourself at big outcomes, and make progress on a daily basis, despite the self-defeating tendencies that we all have.

Please enjoy!

This episode is brought to you by Momentous high-quality supplements, Eight Sleep’s Pod 4 Ultra sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating, and AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement.

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.

Listen onApple Podcasts [image error]Listen onSpotify [image error]Listen onOvercast#771: Productivity Tactics – Two Approaches I Personally Use to Reset, Get Unstuck, and Focus on the Right Things

Pod 4 Ultra also introduces an adjustable Base that fits between your mattress and your bed frame to add custom positions for the best sleeping experience. Plus, it automatically reduces your snoring when detected. Just add it easily onto any bed.

And now, listeners of The Tim Ferriss Show can get $350 off of the Pod 4 Ultra for a limited time! Click here to claim this deal and unlock your full potential through optimal sleep.

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

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODEMake Before You Manage | Tim Ferriss Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule | Paul Graham Neil Gaiman — The Best Commencement Speech You May Ever Hear (20 Minutes) | Tim Ferriss A 90-Second Video of Calligraphy | Tim Ferriss, Instagram Shakshouka and Caffeine. | Tim Ferriss, Instagram “Productivity” Tricks for the Neurotic, Manic-Depressive, and Crazy (Like Me) | Tim Ferriss A Day in the Life of Tim Ferriss — A Morgan Spurlock Production | Vimeo Rudy | Prime Video The Snooze Button is a Psychological Trick | Jocko Willink Why Moving Didn’t Solve Any of My Problems | Tiny Buddha Meditation, Mindset, and Mastery | The Tim Ferriss Show #201 Pique Tea Organic Fermented Pu’erh Black Tea | Amazon Pique Tea Organic Fermented Pu’erh Green Tea | Amazon Gary Keller — How to Focus on the One Important Thing | The Tim Ferriss Show #401 The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan | Amazon 31 Writing Lessons from Kurt Vonnegut | Industrial Scripts Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style by Kurt Vonnegut and Suzanne McConnell | AmazonSHOW NOTES[00:21] What to expect from this episode.[03:26] How many clowns fit in my clown car?[04:49] Am I solving or exacerbating my problems?[05:54] The saving mantra: “Make before you manage.”[09:11] Neil Gaiman on vulnerability.[09:32] A reality check.[10:13] The dangerous myths of “successful” people.[10:59] You take the good, you take the bad…[12:55] My eight-step process for maximizing efficacy.[16:20] Remember this when you’re feeling far from perfect.PEOPLE MENTIONEDMolly Ferriss Neil Gaiman Paul Graham Gary Keller Kurt Vonnegut

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Published on October 04, 2024 07:56

September 26, 2024

Elizabeth Gilbert — How to Set Strong Boundaries, Overcome Purpose Anxiety, and Find Your Deep Inner Voice (#770)

Illustration via 99designs

“I am good at manifesting what I want, and I’m good at almost dying from getting what I want. So maybe there’s a better question to be asking than, ‘What do I want?'”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert (@elizabeth_gilbert_writer) is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Magic and Eat, Pray, Love as well as several other international bestsellers. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her latest novel, City of Girls, was named an instant New York Times bestseller—a rollicking, sexy tale of the New York City theater world during the 1940s.

Go to ElizabethGilbert.Substack.com to subscribe to “Letters From Love with Elizabeth Gilbert,” her newsletter, which has more than 120,000 subscribers.

Please enjoy!

This episode is brought to you by Momentous high-quality supplements, ExpressVPN high-speed, secure, and anonymous VPN service, and AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement.

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.

Listen onApple Podcasts [image error]Listen onSpotify [image error]Listen onOvercast#770: Elizabeth Gilbert — How to Set Strong Boundaries, Overcome Purpose Anxiety, and Find Your Deep Inner Voice

Want to hear the first time Elizabeth Gilbert was on the podcast? Have a listen here to our conversation in which we discussed the legs of truth, writing as a source of light, an “interesting” way to defuse drama and trauma, what present Elizabeth endures for future Elizabeth, staying true to one’s inner compass before making commitments, and much more.

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

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODEConnect with Elizabeth Gilbert:

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Letters From Love with Elizabeth Gilbert | Substack City of Girls: A Novel by Elizabeth Gilbert | Amazon Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert | Amazon Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert | Amazon Elizabeth Gilbert’s Creative Path: Saying No, Trusting Your Intuition, Index Cards, Integrity Checks, Grief, Awe, and Much More | The Tim Ferriss Show #430 The Celtic Prayer of Approach | Elizabeth Gilbert, Facebook Jerry Colonna — The Coach with the Spider Tattoo | The Tim Ferriss Show #373 A House of Prayer for All People | Washington National Cathedral Tao Te Ching: A New English Version by Lao Tzu and Stephen Mitchell | Amazon Welcome to Letters from Love | Elizabeth Gilbert An 11th Step Tool Rediscovered | Two-Way Prayer Marco Polo | The Genius of Play Song of Myself (1892 Version) | The Poetry Foundation Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman | Amazon The Artist’s Way Morning Pages Journal: A Companion Volume to the Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron | Amazon The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron | Amazon Chip Conley — Building Empires, Tackling Cancer, and Surfing the Liminal | The Tim Ferriss Show #374 A Most Beautiful Thing | Prime Video A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America’s First All-Black High School Rowing Team by Arshay Cooper | Amazon What is Internal Family Systems? | IFS Institute Internal Family Systems Therapy, Second Edition by Richard C. Schwartz and Martha Sweezy | Amazon Richard Schwartz — IFS, Psychedelic Experiences without Drugs, and Finding Inner Peace for Our Many Parts | The Tim Ferriss Show #492 Sharon Salzberg, World-Renowned Meditation Teacher | The Tim Ferriss Show #277 The Self-Hatred Within Us | The On Being Project What is Calvinism? | Christianity.com Hangman God | The Joyce Project Martha Beck — The Amazing and Brutal Results of Zero Lies for 365 Days, How to Do a Beginner “Integrity Cleanse,” Lessons from Lion Trackers, and Novel Tactics for Reducing Anxiety (#732) – The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss Growing and Caring for a Bonsai Tree | Bonsai Empire Why I Cut Off All My Hair by Elizabeth Gilbert | Oprah Daily Bog Witch Aesthetic by Water of Whimsy | Instagram Brené Brown — Striving versus Self-Acceptance, Saving Marriages, and More (#409) – The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss The Revolution Of The Relaxed Woman | Prudence Henschke Eat Pray Love Author Elizabeth Gilbert Mourns Rayya Elias | The Cut Newtonian Physics vs. Special Relativity | Futurism What is Sufism? | The Threshold Society How Physicists Proved the Universe Isn’t Locally Real | Dr. Ben Miles Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks on Powerful Books, Mystics, Richard Dawkins, and the Dangers of Safe Spaces | The Tim Ferriss Show #455 The Paradox of Why by Andrea Mignolo | Medium Purpose Anxiety | Life Curator Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley | The Poetry Foundation Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow | Amazon The New Yorker Cartoons | The Cartoon Bank Jackass: The Movie | Prime Video Think About Your Death and Live Better | The Atlantic Yes, Social Media Really Is Undermining Democracy | The Atlantic Letters from Love with Special Guest Toni Collette! | Substack Letters from Love with Special Guest Glennon Doyle! | Substack Letters from Love with Special Guest Moe Miyahara! | Substack Letters from Love with Special Guest BJ Armour! | Substack Studio Route 29 | Instagram Did Einstein Really Ask If the Universe Was Friendly? | Quora The Problem of Religion by Emil Carl Wilm | Google Books Anne Lamott on Taming Your Inner Critic, Finding Grace, and Prayer | The Tim Ferriss Show #522 Radio KFKD | HypergraffitiSHOW NOTES[00:07:14] No cherished outcomes.[00:12:27] Self-compassionate ownership of responsibility.[00:17:24] The daily practice of writing letters from love.[00:23:54] Two-way prayer vs. one-way prayer.[00:32:29] The male approach to this practice.[00:35:59] How do you feel toward yourself vs. about yourself?[00:38:25] Understanding self-hatred to foster self-friendliness.[00:44:52] Setting boundaries and dealing with those who refuse to honor them.[00:51:47] Why (and how) Elizabeth avoids big family holiday gatherings.[00:53:47] Comfort in solitude.[00:55:10] Much abuzz about Elizabeth’s new ‘do.[00:59:24] Boundaries, priorities, and mysticism: a relaxed woman as a radical concept.[01:05:34] What mysticism brings to Elizabeth’s reality.[01:08:58] A better question to ask than “What do I want?”[01:11:04] Elizabeth’s hard-ass approach to project commitment.[01:18:12] Creativity guidance from Elizabeth’s higher power.[01:22:40] How The Morning Pages influenced Eat, Pray, Love.[01:25:59] More productive questions to ask than “Why?”[01:27:48] The pointlessness of purpose anxiety.[01:32:31] Balancing presence with other aspects of a well-lived life.[01:37:49] Comfort with mortality.[01:41:53] What motivates Elizabeth’s Letters from Love newsletter?[01:43:01] What can potential readers expect from this newsletter?[01:48:05] “Is the universe friendly?” — Frederic W. H. Myers[01:51:01] Parting thoughts.MORE ELIZABETH GILBERT QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“I believe that I am loved beyond measure by a magnificent, complex, amused God who has given me power over practically nothing.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“Writing gave me the thing that meditation promised, but I could never have it happen in meditation until very recently where time stops or changes, and I’m here but not here.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“I’m basically a bog witch, just rattling around in a house by myself, talking to myself, watering my plants, shaving my head, and it’s so cool.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“What if I’m not on duty all the time? What if I’m only on duty sometimes and I have to follow a deep inner voice that tells me when that is and what that is, and everything else you all can take care of yourselves.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“Martial artists know that the most relaxed person in the room wins the fight.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“I’ve narrowed it down to three things that I need for me, for my system to be relaxed. It’s boundaries, priorities, and mysticism.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“I am good at manifesting what I want, and I’m good at almost dying from getting what I want. So maybe there’s a better question to be asking than, ‘What do I want?'”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“I think ‘It’s hard’ is a really good way to start with self-compassion.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“It’s a very difficult thing to have a human incarnation. This is not an easy ride. Even a good life is a hard life.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“Who told you you were supposed to get it right straight out of the gate? Who told you you were supposed to get it right seven out of seven days, or that you’re constantly supposed to be improving like a Fortune 500 company, constantly going in this upward angle direction, a certain percentage every quarter? There’s billions of systems operating within your body alone, hormonal systems and chemical systems and viruses and bacteria. We’re such a complex mechanism, it’s so hard to figure out how to operate one of these things. I do really well in solitude, I can get this thing humming. I can get this machine and this mind and this heart where we are at a beautiful hum, but the instant you throw another complex human mechanism into my field, then I’ve got to adapt to their chemistry, and it’s hard.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“I’m much, much, much more afraid of people not liking me than I am of dying. And that’s what I have to suffer with more, is to try to figure out how to disappoint people, and say no to people, and set boundaries with people that they can survive it, and I can survive. This is my work in this lifetime. But death, to me, it doesn’t keep me up at night.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

PEOPLE MENTIONEDJerry Colonna Rob Bell Carole and John Gilbert Hafez Jalal al-Din Rumi Mary Oliver Walt Whitman Julia Cameron Chip Conley Arshay Cooper Richard Schwartz Sharon Salzberg The Dalai Lama James Joyce Martha Beck Rachel Elizabeth Cargle Michael Chabon Dolly Parton Brené Brow Rayya Elias Albert Einstein Steve Jobs Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks J.P. Morgan Alexander the Great Genghis Khan John D. Rockefeller Yo-Yo Ma Vladimir Putin Toni Collette Glennon Doyle BJ Armour Frederic W.H. Myers Anne Lamott

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Published on September 26, 2024 07:30

September 20, 2024

Q&A with Tim — Reinvention, Visualization Techniques, Making “Risky” Decisions, Parenting Considerations, Intuition, New Hobbies, Dating, and More (#769)

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!

This past April was the podcast’s 10-year anniversary, and the platform River (getriver.io) helped listeners organize parties around the world in more than 180 cities! More than 4,000 people RSVP’d. I was able to join about 40 cities via Zoom for quick hellos and drinks (huge thanks to Rae and Ana for the quarterbacking), and I had a blast dropping in on the Paris meetup in person. Thanks to everyone who gathered for wine, celebration, and meeting like-minded people!

After all the parties, and as a thank you for their hard work, I invited all of the hosts to a private Q&A. And that’s what you’re about to hear.

Please enjoy!

This episode is brought to you by Momentous high-quality supplements, Shopify global commerce platform, providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business, and LinkedIn Ads, the go-to tool for B2B marketers and advertisers who want to drive brand awareness and generate leads.

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.

Listen onApple Podcasts [image error]Listen onSpotify [image error]Listen onOvercast#769: Q&A with Tim — Reinvention, Visualization Techniques, Making 'Risky' Decisions, Parenting Considerations, Intuition, New Hobbies, Dating, and More

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