Timothy Ferriss's Blog, page 101
October 21, 2014
Maria Popova on Writing, Workflow, and Workarounds
“Why put in the effort to explain why it isn’t a fit, if they haven’t done the homework to determine if it is a fit?”
– Maria Popova [1:23:00]
Maria Popova has written for amazing outlets like The Atlantic and The New York Times, but I find her most amazing project to be BrainPickings.org.
Founded in 2006 as a weekly email to seven friends, BrainPickings now gets more than 5 million readers per month (!). I read very few blogs regularly, but BrainPickings is one of the few that makes the cut. It’s a treasure trove.
BrainPickings is Maria’s one-woman labor of love — an inquiry into how to live and what it means to lead a good life. From Mark Twain to Oscar Wilde and everyone in between, Maria finds the hidden gems. She is also PROLIFIC and makes me look like a sloth.
In this in-depth conversation, we cover just about everything: how it happened, her workflow, how she writes (and workarounds to problems), how her site generates revenue, her workouts, and many more details. If you want to know the habits of a hyper-productive person, this episode is for you.
Stream with the player below:
If you can’t see the above, here are other ways to listen:
Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream it by clicking here.
Download it as an MP3 by right clicking here and choosing “save as”.
This podcast is brought to you by 99Designs, the world’s largest marketplace of graphic designers. Did you know I used 99Designs to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body? Here are some of the impressive results.
This episode is also brought to you by ExOfficio, which I’ve personally used since 2005 or so. They make ultra-lightweight, quick drying, antimicrobial clothing for men and women. Here’s my own ultra-light packing list (scroll down for video), which went viral.
QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received or read? Please share in the comments!
Scroll below for links and show notes.
Enjoy!
Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments.
Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review here. It keeps me going…
Subscribe to The Tim Ferriss Show on iTunes.
Non-iTunes RSS feed
Selected Links from the Episode
Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman
Wilderness Essays by John Muir
BrainPickings.org
Sam Harris’s Blog
The Essential Scratch and Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert
Explore LJ or Maria’s Literary Jukebox
Basecamp
TRX
ScreenGrab
Evernote
WordPress.org
Share-a-Draft Plugin for sharing with WordPress.org
WordPress VIP
Buffer for Twitter/Facebook Management
EMailCharter.org
Where to Start? BrainPickings Recommendations from Maria Popova
The Shortness of Life: Seneca on Busyness and The Art of Living Wide Rather Than Living Long by Maria Popova
How to Find Your Purpose and Do What You Love by Maria Popova
Happy Birthday, Brain Pickings: 7 Things I Learned in 7 Years of Reading, Writing, and Living by Maria Popova
Show Notes (Times Are Approximate)
What percentage of New York Times best sellers are a result of Maria’s coverage? [4:55]
How to live a meaningful happy life. [10:00]
The importance of writing for an audience of one. [12:10]
Contending with the temptation to create Buzzfeed-like content. [15:45]
Maria Popova’s daily rituals, beliefs on sleep, distraction-avoidance habits, meditation, and exercise routines. [23:25]
Maria Popova’s note-taking system. [31:45]
Seneca and the time-tested challenge of presence vs. productivity. [37:36]
Start-up opportunity? Build a note-taking tool for heavy readers/highlighters. [41:58]
About the team behind BrainPickings. [48:45]
Maria Popova’s process for editing within her team. [51:12]
Self-reliance pathology and how to overcome it. [53:56]
How to find a professional personal assistant and delegate. [56:40]
What Maria Popova’s weight lifting regiment looks like, plus her favorite bodyweight-only exercise. [1:02:14]
Blogging strategies [1:05:22]
Social media strategies [1:15:00]
How cultivate a personal inner circle, how to pre-screen book review requests [1:20:30]
Why there are no dates on the posts on BrainPickings? [01:12:30]
Scheduling (and automating) social media [01:22:10]
How do you deal with friends who want you to read their books? [01:27:10]
What donation model works best for site revenue? [01:31:45]
People Mentioned
Sam Harris
Wendy MacNaughton
Richard Betts
Kurt Vonnegut
Kevin Kelly
Alan Watts
Chris Sacca
John Romaniello
Oscar Wilde
Tara Brach – Mindfulness Practitioner (Meditation Podcast)
Werner Herzog
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Paul Graham
October 20, 2014
The $5,000 Secret Santa and Other Goodies
This is a housekeeping post with one time-sensitive update and smaller recommendations. It’s split into two parts:
The $5,000 Secret Santa
Bite-sized Recommendations: 2 Books, 2 Movies, 2 Tweets, and 2 Songs.
The $5,000 Secret Santa
The short version: I’ve decided to go crazy and do a one-time-only $5,000 Quarterly box. It’s limited to the first 1,000 people, and it will ship before December 25. For that reason, I’m calling it the “Holiday Mega-Box.”
If you’re interested in learning more, please click here. (Note: This is completely separate from the regular Quarterly subscription described below)
Normally, every three months, I ship out a box of amazing physical products with a personal letter explaining everything. It costs $100 per box, and thousands of people subscribe to it here. The theme is obsession–the ideas and objects I can’t get out of my head. Sometimes I’m hooked on a great travel gadget. Other times, I find an incredible book or productivity hack through my experiments. Here are the contents of some previous boxes. They’re often worth $200 or more and include custom items you can’t buy, liked original artwork from Simon Bisley or letters from authors, etc..
Interested in the absurd $5,000 box that’s destined to be unforgettable? Click here.
Interested in becoming a “curator” and creating your own boxes? Quarterly.co does all the legwork of procuring items (or manufacturing them), as well as fulfillment and customer service. Click here if interested.
Bite-Sized Recommendations
Here are a few things that have been capturing my interest recently: 2 books, 2 movies, 2 tweets, and 2 songs.
2 BOOKS:
Wilderness Essays
Who (on hiring, especially the “Selection” section)
2 MOVIES:
Into Great Silence
Snowpiercer
2 TWEETS:
Armless guitarist killing it
Down more than 200 pounds on The Slow-Carb Diet
2 SONGS:
Orchestrated Incident (Gramatik)
Pa’ Bailar Ft. Julieta Venegas (Bajofondo)
Did you like these bite-sized rec’s? Would you like more, no more, or something different? Different categories? Please let me know in the comments!
October 17, 2014
NOBNOM Winners and Other Updates
2008 pic, RV breakdown en route to Burning Man. Shit happens, but that’s OK.Ladies and gents!
A few updates:
1) If you missed instructions for the three quick-start videos from Tony Robbins, or his morning breathing routine and Cryotherapy, I’ve added the links here.
2) I’m so very sorry for the delay in announcing NOBNOM prize winners. Many of you have rightly asked: What the hell, Ferriss? Why the radio silence?
To that, I answer: Mea culpa. Alas, I simply get my ass kicked sometimes. This time around, a few things happened:
1) Lyme disease completely annihilated my health, which led to strong antibiotics for 8+ weeks, which…
2) Produced side-effects (on top of Lyme) that disrupted my digestion, created “food allergies,” and additional hospital visits.
3) The data set was huge! You guys asked and answered 1,000s of questions. It was amazing but exceeded all expectations. To organize and analyze everything took a while. There is a fun wrap-up post in the works that will discuss the fascinating patterns and findings.
To try and atone for my tardiness, I’m adding $100 to all the prizes, so $600 (instead of $500) to the grand-prize winners, and $200 (instead of $100) to all of the others. I know it’s nominal, but please accept my apologies.
If you won — names below! — please email Tony at tony at lift dot do (@lift.do). He will also attempt to reach out to you, and you can also ping him on Twitter at @tonystubblebine.
Now, to the good stuff…
How did we choose these folks, who are they, and who else did an amazing job? Here are all the juicy details from Tony Stubblebine, CEO of Lift. Out of the 5,000+ participants…
Enter Tony
Here are criteria I used… Looking to award the most “worthy” participants, I looked at streaks, answers, helpfulness of answers, and a little bit of judicial-license. To even be in the running, you had to have finished the month on a 31-day streak and left at least 100 answers for others. So, the bar was very high. Here are the three who stood out as worthy of an award:
Dennis Corsi ($600) – Received 351 helpful votes on his answers.
https://lift.do/users/867ed2f27c23ce1c199b
Brad B. ($600) – Received 391 helpful votes on his answers.
https://lift.do/users/364e6657ee8483603b86
Natasha Lynn ($600) – Received 327 helpful votes on her answers.
https://lift.do/users/3d63505de07ed9156bb2
We also offered $100 awards for people who fell off the wagon and got back on. These people finished the challenge on a streak of 20 or less, and were helpful in the Q&A.
Kuldeep Singh (now $200). https://lift.do/users/911752757306b3dcc17c
Ruben Gutierrez (now $200). https://lift.do/users/34db29a0da5602fc6ed3
Nick Hammond (now $200). https://lift.do/users/d9ebdb738ab7b1242c5a
Tommy Sarac (now $200). https://lift.do/users/7cfa47b88c66219a10c4
D M (now $200). https://lift.do/users/11c424e6420d32e06da9
[TIM NOTE: Huge congratulations to everyone who participated in NOBNOM!]
Dennis and Brad (among the top-3 prize winners) both left more than 400 answers, which is insane. Natasha built up a fan club; I think because she gave a ton of props. So, while she left fewer answers, she got more helpful votes on those answers.
Here are some of the many people we considered, who all kicked ass. Each and every one deserves a round of applause.
$500 Prize Candidates. They all finished with 31-day streaks
Dennis Corsi
NOBNOM answers: 406
NOBNOM answer props: 351
Profile URL: https://lift.do/users/867ed2f27c23ce1c199b
Most propped answer: https://www.lift.do/answers/35499-most-of-the-important-things-in-the-world-have-been-accomplished-by-people-who-have-kept-on-trying-when-there-seemed-to
Ro Le V
NOBNOM answers: 462
NOBNOM answer props: 286
Profile URL: https://lift.do/users/059b5ceadbda80926411
Most propped answer: https://www.lift.do/answers/34245-yes-but-now-that-you-put-it-that-way-i-feel-kinda-creepy-lol
Anton V
NOBNOM answers: 320
NOBNOM answer props: 179
Profile URL: https://lift.do/users/6e2f8d181f3645966f7e
Most propped answer: https://www.lift.do/answers/30000-i-ve-learned-that-i-m-letting-go-of-a-compulsion-and-feeling-more-pride-from-my-newfound-self-control
Kikoy Mann
NOBNOM answers: 398
NOBNOM answer props: 308
Profile URL: https://lift.do/users/deeff8f6a3768c660ec2
Most propped answer: https://www.lift.do/answers/34951-from-there-i-started-to-seek-help-at-work-we-had-something-like-a-life-work-coaching-they-claim-it-s-confidential-and-i
Dirk Diggler
NOBNOM answers: 389
NOBNOM answer props: 233
Profile URL: https://lift.do/users/1e4a7a3fc0e91c66b25d
Most propped answer: https://www.lift.do/answers/38752-personally-i-ve-completely-lost-any-desire-to-m-or-watch-porn-right-now-and-even-though-i-wanted-to-get-rid-of-it-before
Winson Teo
NOBNOM answers: 483
NOBNOM answer props: 339
Profile URL: https://lift.do/users/1a575ddf0f5833f9a0a4
Most propped answer: https://www.lift.do/answers/41843-haha-this-is-funny-natasha-has-been-a-really-supportive-figure-this-whole-month-i-think-she-started-the-whole-prop-cra
Melody Thiessen
NOBNOM answers: 396
NOBNOM answer props: 485
Profile URL: https://lift.do/users/d62a2dbd552e0b0e0ac4
Most propped answer: https://www.lift.do/answers/17844-science-link-time-http-joe-endocrinology-journals-org-content-52-1-51-short-tl-dr-according-to-the-study-sexual-in
Johnny Doe
NOBNOM answers: 309
NOBNOM answer props: 219
Profile URL: https://lift.do/users/e78a9e96aabef755b523
Most propped answer: https://www.lift.do/answers/40282-your-initials-are-giving-me-urges
Benjamin W.
NOBNOM answers: 245
NOBNOM answer props: 331
Profile URL: https://lift.do/users/7f361fc598c187ceb7af
Most propped answer: https://www.lift.do/answers/39061-i-ve-realized-that-masturbation-porn-and-booze-have-had-detrimental-effects-on-me-and-my-life-i-have-accomplished-so-mu
Brad B.
NOBNOM answers: 405
NOBNOM answer props: 391
Profile URL: https://lift.do/users/364e6657ee8483603b86
Most propped answer: https://www.lift.do/answers/20466-i-also-wanted-to-say-that-the-challenge-aspect-is-pretty-much-the-only-thing-that-keeps-me-going-i-ve-tried-this-so-ma
CxC CxC
NOBNOM answers: 288
NOBNOM answer props: 147
Profile URL: https://lift.do/users/6e788582c9f57a43e1ee
Most propped answer: https://www.lift.do/answers/35664-unfortunately-i-think-a-good-chuck-of-people-in-this-group-are-trying-to-eliminate-or-drastically-tone-down-fb-usage-too
Natasha Lynn
NOBNOM answers: 162
NOBNOM answer props: 327
Profile URL: https://lift.do/users/3d63505de07ed9156bb2
Most propped answer: https://www.lift.do/answers/41828-omg-i-woke-up-to-a-comment-about-me-being-a-question-p-cannot-believe-it-s-true-well-i-love-you-all-thank-you-_
October 15, 2014
Tony Robbins on Morning Routines, Peak Performance, and Mastering Money
“Our revenues are now over $5 billion annually. Without access to Tony and his teachings, Salesforce.com wouldn’t exist today.”
– Marc Benioff, Founder of Salesforce.com
“[Tony] distills the concepts of the best investors in the world into practical lessons that will benefit both naïve investors and skilled professionals.”
– Ray Dalio, Founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund
Tony Robbins is the world’s most famous performance coach. He’s advised everyone from Bill Clinton to Serena Williams, and from Leonardo DiCaprio to Oprah (who calls him “superhuman”).
For years, you’ve also asked me to interview him in-depth — so here it is! I flew to Florida to spend time with Tony in his home, and what ensued was an epic two-part conversation. It covers just about everything imaginable.
My visit coincided with his first new book in 20 years: Money–Master the Game.
I love Tony’s work and it helped me start my first company, but when I got an early draft of the book, I thought to myself–really? Another book on money? Ugh. I prepared to be bored, especially since I think of myself as an experienced investor [pats self on back]. Instead, and very surprisingly, I was blown away. Before I knew it, I was pushing off other work, letting my dinner get cold, and staying up hours past bedtime each night, all because I couldn’t stop reading.
Why?
First off, he saved me years of my life! Over the last 10 years, I’ve been approached by several top hedge fund managers, who’ve suggested I write The 4-Hour Investor by collaborating with them and their friends. Tony has written that book perfectly, so it saves me the trouble. I can just point people to this book. Which leads me to…
Reason number two, he goes DEEP with many of the investing icons I’ve always wanted to meet, including Paul Tudor Jones (who he’s coached for 10+ years), Ray Dalio, Carl Icahn, David Swensen, Kyle Bass, and many more. These are the hard-to-interview “unicorns” who consistently beat the market, despite the fact that it’s called impossible. In this book, they disclose details and examples I’ve never seen anywhere else, and I’ve read A LOT of books on investing. For me, the interviews alone were worth the entire book.
Third, he solved the problem that I couldn’t. How do you write a book for both the novice and the sophisticated expert? How do you account for the differences in goals (e.g. growth versus security) without creating a mess of a book with no structure? He nailed it.
Fourth, and last for this blog post, this book isn’t just about “investing.” It’s about clear thinking and clear priorities applied to big things. By the time I’d read half of the book, I’d already taken steps that doubled my income for that month. While it wasn’t stocks or bonds, the principles of the book translated to my other business decisions. Obviously, you’re mileage will vary, but I found the flexible toolkit worth as much as the specific recommendations related to asset allocation, etc.
In the following interview, we dig into everything: Tony’s morning routines, his diet, how we works with the world’s highest-performing athletes and traders, common misconceptions about him, the most typical money mistakes he’s uncovered, and on and on. I even ask him to palm my entire face (pic coming soon, I promise).
Enjoy!
Tons of links and goodies in show notes below…
If you can’t see the above embedded players, here are other ways to listen:
Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
Download both as MP3 by right clicking (Part 1, Part 2) and choosing “save as”.
This podcast is brought to you by 99Designs, the world’s largest marketplace of graphic designers. Did you know I used 99Designs to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body? Here are some of the impressive results.
Also, how would you like to join me and Sir Richard Branson on his private island for mentoring? It’s coming up soon, and it’s all-expenses-paid. Click here to learn more. It’s worth checking out.
QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What is the best piece of investment advice you ever received or read? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for all show notes, and thank you for listening!
Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review here. It’s very important to keep the show going.
Subscribe to The Tim Ferriss Show on iTunes.
Non-iTunes RSS feed
Selected Links from the Episode
Myelin
Evernote
Marc Benioff
Ray Dallio
Warren Buffet
Carl Icahn
Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee
Kyle Bass
Charlie Rangel
Marc Andreessen
October 9, 2014
Ramit Sethi on Persuasion and Turning a Blog Into a Multi-Million-Dollar Business
If you want detailed tactics and hilarity, Ramit Sethi is your man. Here one quote from this episode, to give you an idea: “Indian people don’t get punched, dude. We don’t get into fights. We’re doing spelling bees.”
Ramit Sethi built his personal finance blog up to 500,000+ readers per month, and has since turned it into a revenue generating monster. I don’t use that phrasing lightly. In this episode, we dig into the nitty-gritty tools, software, and experiments he’s used to turn a college side project into a multi-million-dollar business with 30+ employees.
Tons of amazing links and goodies below…
Stream with the player below:
If you can’t see the above, here are other ways to listen:
Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
Download both as MP3 by right clicking (Part 1, Part 2) and choosing “save as”.
This podcast is brought to you by 99Designs, the world’s largest marketplace of graphic designers. Did you know I used 99Designs to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body? Here are some of the impressive results.
Also, how would you like to join me and billionaire Richard Branson on his private island for mentoring? It’s coming up soon, and it’s all-expenses-paid. Click here to learn more. It’s worth checking out.
QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: Do you think I should create a course of some type? If not (and if writing a book isn’t an option), what would you like to see me create next? What would be most helpful to you? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for all show notes.
Enjoy!
Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments.
Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review here. It keeps me going…
Subscribe to The Tim Ferriss Show on iTunes.
Non-iTunes RSS feed
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
Visit the Tim Ferriss Book Club on Audible
www.IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com
www.PBWorks.com
Ramit’s compilation of the best “Freeloader Comments”
Kevin Kelly article: 1000 True Fans
From Geek to Freak: How I Gained 34 lbs. of Muscle in 4 Weeks
Digg.com
Gigaom.com
Ramit’s post on the 4 Hour Blog: The Psychology of Automation: Building a Bulletproof Personal-Finance System
Hacking Kickstarter: How to Raise $100,000 in 10 Days
The $28,000 question: Why are we all hypocrites about weddings?
Learn more about Opening the Kimono® Event
How to Raise a Financial Wizard
YourSurrogateAsianFather.com
Check out Mark Bustos’ Instagram
50ProvenEmailScripts.com
12 Lessons Learned While Marketing “The 4-Hour Body”
A special giveaway from Ramit for our listeners
Books Mentioned in the Episode
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think Mass Market by Brian Wansink
The Robert Collier Letter Book by Robert Collier
Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion by Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson
The Social Animal by Elliot Aronson
Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazzi
Iacocca: An Autobiography Mass Market by Lee Iacocca and William Novak
What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School: Notes From A Street-Smart Executive by Mark H. McCormack
Entrepreneur Resources Mentioned in the Episode
Basecamp – Web-based project-management tool
Google Docs
Aweber – Email marketing and autoresponder software
Infusionsoft – A complete sales and marketing automation software for small businesses
Surverymonkey – Create and publish online surveys in minutes, and view results graphically and in real time
GitHub – Powerful collaboration, code review, and code management for open source and private projects.
Asana – A web and mobile application designed to enable teamwork without email.
Screenflow – Screen recording and editing software for Mac
Dropbox – A free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily
Wufoo - Online form builder with cloud storage database
Skype – A freemium voice over IP service and instant messaging client
Visual Website Optimizer – A/B Testing Software for Marketers
Umbel – a tool for understanding your audience
Documentaries Mentioned in the Episode
2 Million Minutes: A Documentary Calculating the Educational Divide
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Show Notes
Why Ramit Sethi’s parents added the “R” to his original name, Amit
His grassroots beginnings as a personal finance teacher to friends
How his persistence garnered exposure for his blog in the Wall Street Journal
How his site functions like a laboratory
Why you only need to focus on caring for 1,000 die-hard fans
How a few world-class posts can change your life forever
The “secret recipe” for attracting lots of people to your posts and making them fall in love with your content
Ramit’s email practices and marketing techniques that generate 99% of his revenue
The entrepreneurial tools and software Ramit’s team uses to systematize the daily functioning of the business
A common email practice that people share as the “Law of God” that is completely false
Why you should encourage people to unsubscribe from your email list
How to sell a product without coming off like a spammy Internet marketer
Why Ramit turns away customers who have personal debt
What roles race and culture play in Ramit’s life
How I Will Teach You To Be Rich is like the Asian father some of us never had
His book recommendations for entrepreneurs
The longest lie his father ever told and why Ramit can’t wait to do the same to his children
The best investment he’s made for under $100
Email tips for building respectful relationships with busy people
October 7, 2014
Tony Robbins and Peter Diamandis (XPRIZE) on the Magic of Thinking BIG
If you want to 10x or 100x your results and impact, this interview with Tony Robbins and Peter Diamandis is a must listen.
Where else can you find two people who regularly advise everyone from Serena Williams to Bill Clinton, from NASA to the world’s fastest growing companies? Here’s their next project, if you want a sneak peek.
Stream with the player below:
If you can’t see the above, here are other ways to listen:
Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream here.
Download is as MP3 by right clicking here and choosing “save as”.
This podcast is brought to you by 99Designs, the world’s largest marketplace of graphic designers. Did you know I used 99Designs to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body? Here are some of the impressive results.
Also, how would you like to join me and billionaire Richard Branson on his private island for mentoring? It’s coming up soon, and it’s all-expenses-paid. Click here to learn more. It’s worth checking out.
Now, on to this episode’s guests… Note that show links are included below their bios.
TONY ROBBINS
Tony Robbins has consulted or advised international leaders including Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, Francois Mitterrand, Princess Diana, and Mother Teresa. He has consulted members of two royal families, members of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marines and three U.S. Presidents, including Bill Clinton. Other celebrity clients include Serena Williams, Andre Agassi, golf legend Greg Norman, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Robbins also has developed and produced five award-winning television infomercials that have continuously aired on average every 30 minutes, 24 hours a day somewhere in North America since their initial introduction in April 1989.
PETER DIAMANDIS
Dr. Peter Diamandis has been named one of “The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” by Fortune Magazine.
In the field of Innovation, Diamandis is Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, best known for its $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private spaceflight. Today the X PRIZE leads the world in designing and operating large-scale global competitions to solve market failures. Diamandis is also the Co-Founder and Vice-Chairman of Human Longevity Inc. (HLI), a genomics and cell therapy-based diagnostic and therapeutic company focused on extending the healthy human lifespan. He is also the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Singularity University, a graduate-level Silicon Valley institution that studies exponentially growing technologies, their ability to transform industries and solve humanity’s grand challenges. In the field of commercial space, Diamandis is Co-Founder/Co-Chairman of Planetary Resources, a company designing spacecraft to enable the detection and mining of asteroid for precious materials.
Scroll below for all show notes. Tons of amazing links and goodies…
Enjoy!
Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments.
Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review here. It keeps me going…
Subscribe to The Tim Ferriss Show on iTunes.
Non-iTunes RSS feed
Selected Links, Including Projects, Books, Etc.
BE SURE TO VISIT THE FIRST TWO TO SEE WHAT WE’RE WORKING ON
BOOKS MENTIONED
The Spirit of St. Louis by Charles Lindbergh
Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert A. Heinlein
The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil
As a Man Thinketh by James Alan
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
The Fourth Turning by William Strauss
Generations by William Strauss
###
QUESTION OF THE DAY: What books or resources have most inspired you to think BIGGER, to 10x your results or impact?
October 3, 2014
How to Travel to 20+ Countries…While Building a Massive Business in the Process
[Preface: The above is a pic of Necker Island, Richard Branson's private island. Would you like to join me and Richard Branson on Necker for a week of mentoring? Here are the details on how you can get an all-expenses-paid trip. It'd be great to meet you.]
The following is a guest post by Breanden Beneschott, co-founder and COO of Toptal, a marketplace for top developers. I have no affiliation with the company, but I found Breanden’s story fascinating.
This post covers how he traveled through 20+ countries while building a company, experiencing the best the world had to offer. His how-to instructions include travel tools, shortcuts, and all the non-obvious systems you’d expect from a great engineer.
For context and to kick us off, an excerpt from Breanden’s email to me might be helpful. Edited down a bit, here it is:
We started Toptal 3.5 years ago from my dorm room at Princeton (I think a week after I met you briefly in Ed Zschau’s class [TIM: I guest lectured there], where I decided to do my final paper on the company). By the time I finished school six months later, Toptal was doing well with clients and engineers all over the world. We decided to move to Eastern Europe and keep practicing what we were preaching, in terms of scaling a company via a completely distributed team. Doing so allowed us to funnel nearly all profits back into growing the business (and live like kings for next to nothing). We are now approx 60 team members and 1000 engineers (e.g., top-100 Rails contributors, guys from CERN, university professors, etc.) working with thousands of clients (e.g., Beats, Zendesk, Artsy, JPMorgan, etc.) with virtually zero restrictions when it comes to location.
People constantly ask me how I manage to travel and work the way I do. I had always hoped outside (non-Toptal) people would see this post and be inspired to join us or pick up and travel while working on their own big ideas.
BTW, I do expect that comments will highlight the ambiguity of the “growing hundreds of percent year over year” statement. We’ve very deliberately avoided most press until now, as we didn’t want to build a company based on PR, and we’ve never publicly announced our revenue. Right now we are well north of XXM/yr [TIM: I replaced the actual number with XX but, suffice to say, they have 9-figure acquisition offers and term sheets] and growing like a weed, but few non-core people know that. So do you see any tactful way of preempting those sorts of comments?
Yep, I do. I could include your email like I just did.
Now, on to the details. This is a good one, folks, so keep reading. Breanden’s tips apply mostly to the mobility and travel pieces of the puzzle; if you’d like additional business-building tools, I highly suggest this article on rapid testing (in a weekend), this article on hacking Kickstarter, and this post on all aspects of marketing and PR.
Enter Breanden
[The following is based on my personal experience as a traveling engineer and founder. Feel free to contact me any time at breanden [at] toptal [dot] com.]
I’ve lived and worked remotely in approximately 29 countries since I finished school three years ago. I’ve been running Toptal, a venture funded company growing hundreds of percent year over year—all from my laptop, phone, and tablet.
Croatia · Bosnia · Italy · France · Switzerland · Germany · Austria · Georgia · Romania · Serbia · Slovenia · Spain · Ukraine · Morocco · Brazil · Canada · Paraguay · Argentina · Uruguay · New Zealand · Australia · Hong Kong · USA · England · Turkey · Chile · Slovakia · Czech Republic · Lebanon
I don’t have an apartment. I don’t have a house. I don’t have an office.
I hate the cold, so I summer hop.
Everywhere I go, I meet great engineers who end up becoming invaluable parts of Toptal.
I encourage everyone in Toptal to travel, and a lot of us do. Some of us travel for week long “breaks” throughout the year, and some of us live out of a suitcase like me. Few of us ever stop working for a full day.
I’m writing this because…
I was repeatedly asked if I had some sort of guide or checklist for traveling/working the way I do. Especially for first-timers, the idea of adventuring while working can be daunting. There are a lot of details to consider, and I’ve learned a lot from my own trial-and-error.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized a guide like this was actually missing.
The 4-Hour Workweek was great, and I like Tim Ferriss a lot. But what if you want to work more than 4 hours a week? I like working crazy hours. I don’t want a lifestyle company. I want to solve hard problems. I want to build something big and give it my all.
I want a book on how to create a billion-dollar company while becoming a fighter pilot. (I’m trying to build a world-changing company while becoming a professional polo player.) That would be inspiring. But until it comes, maybe this post will be helpful to a few people.
Why travel?
Because it’s unbelievably awesome.
Now is the time: it’s feasible like never before. You can put in a full work day no matter where you are. If you’re standing in line for airport security, you can listen to The Changelog. If you’re in the Hungarian countryside, you can work perfectly via 4G. If you’re flying across the world, you can work from the moment you buckle in to the moment you stand up to get off the plane. The airport will have WiFi to push a commit if your plane didn’t. You can travel while producing some of the best work of your career, and you will grow with every new stamp in your passport.
The secret benefit: avoiding burnout.
I don’t take vacations. I don’t want to work hard to build a company that makes lots of money so I can piss off and go on holiday. I’m at a start-up. I’m a part of it, and it’s a part of me. This is a marathon, and there will be a winner. Traveling and working allows you to go non-stop. There is no burnout. There’s no staring at a clock or calendar waiting for the EOD/weekend/break. You’re refreshed weekly, and you can hone your focus and structure your time so you are a cross functional superstar who never stops learning.
Playing polo (often with Toptal developers) in Argentina. Total cost for sponsorship: 400 pesos (~$40) for t-shirts.
Length of travel
I usually stay in places for ~3 months. Why?
It fits under the constraints of the typical tourist visa.
More on that in a second.
It gives you time to relax and focus in between the stressful travel sessions.
Power trips of 9 countries in 3 weeks are for students on holiday. You need to be able to stop traveling and focus on work.
It gives you time to really explore and get to know a place and people.
There are almost certainly local tech meetups, and there are likely to be other Toptal engineers wherever you go now as well.
You can really try local culture.
Learn to play polo in Argentina. Practice capoeira in Brazil. Go to trance festivals in Europe. If you don’t know where to start, join Internations and go to expat meetups.
It helps with costs.
Trips of this duration help you negotiate special medium-term deals on apartments, cars, vespas, etc.
Who to go with
A close friend/colleague
You can split costs for a lot of things like cars, hotels, etc. You can also split the research and push each other to do things you might not do yourself (like go out to new places, go on adventures, rent a boat, etc.).
Alone
Not for the faint of heart, but not everyone has the flexibility you do as a software engineer. If you don’t have anyone to go with, don’t let it stop you. With Internations and a network like Toptal, you can almost certainly go anywhere and immediately find people with lots in common.
A girlfriend/boyfriend
Can be by far the most expensive option, but it’s probably the most rewarding and fun. Nothing brings compatible people together like adventure. However, nothing drives incompatible people apart like stress, so be careful. The other thing to consider is whether your significant other will also be working during your travels. If so, that’s tremendous, and you are very lucky. If not, that can be very hard. The added costs of having a dependent aside, you don’t want to be in a position where someone resents you for constantly working during what they’ve misunderstood to be a vacation. Luckily there are many interesting careers in addition to software engineering that are now doable remotely (e.g., executive assistant, translator, designer, tutor, entrepreneur, etc.).
What to take
Backpack
Always a carry on. Pretty much always with me.
How to Travel to 20+ Countries…And Build a Massive Business in the Process
[Preface: The above is a pic of Necker Island, Richard Branson's private island. Would you like to join me and Richard Branson on Necker for a week of mentoring? Here are the details on how you can get an all-expenses-paid trip. It'd be great to meet you.]
The following is a guest post by Breanden Beneschott, co-founder and COO of Toptal, a marketplace for top developers.
This post covers how he built a massive company while traveling through 20+ countries, experiencing the best the world has to offer. His how-to instructions include travel tools, shortcuts, and all the non-obvious systems you’d expect from a great engineer.
For context and to kick us off, an excerpt from Breanden’s email to me might be helpful. Edited down a bit, here it is:
We started Toptal 3.5 years ago from my dorm room at Princeton (I think a week after I met you briefly in Ed Zschau’s class [TIM: I guest lectured there], where I decided to do my final paper on the company). By the time I finished school six months later, Toptal was doing well with clients and engineers all over the world. We decided to move to Eastern Europe and keep practicing what we were preaching, in terms of scaling a company via a completely distributed team. Doing so allowed us to funnel nearly all profits back into growing the business (and live like kings for next to nothing). We are now approx 60 team members and 1000 engineers (e.g., top-100 Rails contributors, guys from CERN, university professors, etc.) working with thousands of clients (e.g., Beats, Zendesk, Artsy, JPMorgan, etc.) with virtually zero restrictions when it comes to location.
People constantly ask me how I manage to travel and work the way I do. I had always hoped outside (non-Toptal) people would see this post and be inspired to join us or pick up and travel while working on their own big ideas.
BTW, I do expect that comments will highlight the ambiguity of the “growing hundreds of percent year over year” statement. We’ve very deliberately avoided most press (we don’t want to build a company based on PR), and we’ve never publicly announced our revenue. Right now we are well north of XXM/yr [TIM: I replaced the actual number with XX, but it's impressive] and growing like a weed, but few non-core people know that. So do you see any tactful way of preempting those sorts of comments?
Yep, I do. I could include your email like I just did. Gin helps with such decisions.
Now, on to the details. This is a good one, folks, so keep reading…
Enter Breanden
[The following is based on my personal experience as a traveling engineer and founder. Feel free to contact me any time at breanden [at] toptal [dot] com.]
I’ve lived and worked remotely in approximately 29 countries since I finished school three years ago. I’ve been running Toptal, a venture funded company growing hundreds of percent year over year—all from my laptop, phone, and tablet.
Croatia · Bosnia · Italy · France · Switzerland · Germany · Austria · Georgia · Romania · Serbia · Slovenia · Spain · Ukraine · Morocco · Brazil · Canada · Paraguay · Argentina · Uruguay · New Zealand · Australia · Hong Kong · USA · England · Turkey · Chile · Slovakia · Czech Republic · Lebanon
I don’t have an apartment. I don’t have a house. I don’t have an office.
I hate the cold, so I summer hop.
Everywhere I go, I meet great engineers who end up becoming invaluable parts of Toptal.
I encourage everyone in Toptal to travel, and a lot of us do. Some of us travel for week long “breaks” throughout the year, and some of us live out of a suitcase like me. Few of us ever stop working for a full day.
I’m writing this because…
I was repeatedly asked if I had some sort of guide or checklist for traveling/working the way I do. Especially for first-timers, the idea of adventuring while working can be daunting. There are a lot of details to consider, and I’ve learned a lot from my own trial-and-error.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized a guide like this was actually missing.
The 4-Hour Workweek was great, and I like Tim Ferriss a lot. But what if you want to work more than 4 hours a week? I like working crazy hours. I don’t want a lifestyle company. I want to solve hard problems. I want to build something big and give it my all.
I want a book on how to create a billion-dollar company while becoming a fighter pilot. (I’m trying to build a world-changing company while becoming a professional polo player.) That would be inspiring. But until it comes, maybe this post will be helpful to a few people.
Why travel?
Because it’s unbelievably awesome.
Now is the time: it’s feasible like never before. You can put in a full work day no matter where you are. If you’re standing in line for airport security, you can listen to The Changelog. If you’re in the Hungarian countryside, you can work perfectly via 4G. If you’re flying across the world, you can work from the moment you buckle in to the moment you stand up to get off the plane. The airport will have WiFi to push a commit if your plane didn’t. You can travel while producing some of the best work of your career, and you will grow with every new stamp in your passport.
The secret benefit: avoiding burnout.
I don’t take vacations. I don’t want to work hard to build a company that makes lots of money so I can piss off and go on holiday. I’m at a start-up. I’m a part of it, and it’s a part of me. This is a marathon, and there will be a winner. Traveling and working allows you to go non-stop. There is no burnout. There’s no staring at a clock or calendar waiting for the EOD/weekend/break. You’re refreshed weekly, and you can hone your focus and structure your time so you are a cross functional superstar who never stops learning.
Playing polo (often with Toptal developers) in Argentina. Total cost for sponsorship: 400 pesos (~$40) for t-shirts.
Length of travel
I usually stay in places for ~3 months. Why?
It fits under the constraints of the typical tourist visa.
More on that in a second.
It gives you time to relax and focus in between the stressful travel sessions.
Power trips of 9 countries in 3 weeks are for students on holiday. You need to be able to stop traveling and focus on work.
It gives you time to really explore and get to know a place and people.
There are almost certainly local tech meetups, and there are likely to be other Toptal engineers wherever you go now as well.
You can really try local culture.
Learn to play polo in Argentina. Practice capoeira in Brazil. Go to trance festivals in Europe. If you don’t know where to start, join Internations and go to expat meetups.
It helps with costs.
Trips of this duration help you negotiate special medium-term deals on apartments, cars, vespas, etc.
Who to go with
A close friend/colleague
You can split costs for a lot of things like cars, hotels, etc. You can also split the research and push each other to do things you might not do yourself (like go out to new places, go on adventures, rent a boat, etc.).
Alone
Not for the faint of heart, but not everyone has the flexibility you do as a software engineer. If you don’t have anyone to go with, don’t let it stop you. With Internations and a network like Toptal, you can almost certainly go anywhere and immediately find people with lots in common.
A girlfriend/boyfriend
Can be by far the most expensive option, but it’s probably the most rewarding and fun. Nothing brings compatible people together like adventure. However, nothing drives incompatible people apart like stress, so be careful. The other thing to consider is whether your significant other will also be working during your travels. If so, that’s tremendous, and you are very lucky. If not, that can be very hard. The added costs of having a dependent aside, you don’t want to be in a position where someone resents you for constantly working during what they’ve misunderstood to be a vacation. Luckily there are many interesting careers in addition to software engineering that are now doable remotely (e.g., executive assistant, translator, designer, tutor, entrepreneur, etc.).
What to take
Backpack
Always a carry on. Pretty much always with me.
September 30, 2014
The Tim Ferriss Show: Tracy DiNunzio on Rapid Growth and Rapid Learning
This single interview with Tracy DiNunzio, founder of Tradesy, was recorded in three short parts. You can:
Listen to all three on iTunes
Download them as MP3s (right click “save as”): Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
Download the transcript (PDF, Word)
Or stream them now below (If you’re reading this in e-mail, please click here to stream):
This podcast is brought to you by The Tim Ferriss Book Club, which features a handful of books (4-6) that have changed my life. Here is the list, including free samples of every one.
Also, how would you like to join me and billionaire Richard Branson on his private island for mentoring? It’s coming up soon, and it’s all-expenses-paid. Click here to learn more. It’s worth checking out — trust me.
Now, on to this episode’s guest…
Tracy DiNunzio is a killer. She’s the self-taught founder and CEO of Tradesy.com, which has taken off like a rocket ship. She’s raised $13 million from investors including Richard Branson, Kleiner Perkins, and yours truly, and board members include the legendary John Doerr. Tradesy is on a mission to make the resale value of anything you own available on demand. Their tagline is “cash in on your closet.”
Tracy is in the trenches 24/7, making it the perfect time to ask her… How has she created such high-velocity growth? How did she recruit the investors she did? What’s been her experience as a female founder? What are her biggest mistakes made and lessons learned? This multi-part series, fueled by wine, will answer all this and more.
Even if you have no desire to start your own company, this 3-part series will get you amped to do big things.
This episode touches on a lot of cool stuff. It’s a mini-MBA in entrepreneurship, hustle, and tactics.
Scroll below for all show notes. Tons of amazing links and goodies…
Enjoy!
Who should I interview next? Please let me know in the comments by clicking here.
Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review here. It keeps me going…
Subscribe to The Tim Ferriss Show on iTunes.
Non-iTunes RSS feed
Show Notes and Select Links from the Episode
Tracy DiNunzio’s unlikely resume
How her business model reflects her lifestyle, and why that’s intentional
How another startup (and her bootstrapping) helped her find her husband
The story of bootstrapping her first company, Recycled Bride, and how she traded skills for food
Why the current day is the best (and worst time) to start an online company
How she funded and launched Tradesy
Why she chose venture capital rather than continuing to bootstrap
The trade-offs — the cons — of venture capital
Common mistakes Tracy made when she began pitching to investors
How the rules of dating apply to pitching investors
The creative way she found her CTO and technical co-founder… on Craigslist
Addressing the pink elephant in the room — What’s her experience as a woman in the tech start-up world?
The “Hail, Mary” that kept Tradesy going before its upswing
What attracted iconic investors like Sir Richard Branson and John Doerr to Tradesy
How to spend 13 million dollars without blowing it
Numerous resources for would-be entrepreneurs
Tracy’s advice to anyone who is unhappy in their current career
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
Visit the Tim Ferriss Book Club to find a new book each month (or so) that’s changed my life
My book selection on Audible
Learn more about Shima-uta (The Boom song)
Get more information about Rokudenashi Blues
Tradesy
Check out the deals I’m involved with in the startup world
Learn more about Kay Brothers Amery Vineyards Block 6 Shiraz Vintage 2010 and other wines by Kay Brothers
Airbnb.com
Uber.com
More info about Chromatik
Learn more about Big Frame
Get more information about ChowNow
Listn – Listen to your friends’ music for free
Venture Hacks
Angel List
Learn more about Randy Komisar
Jobs at Tradesy
Tradesey iPhone App
Tradesey on Facebook
Tracy DiNunzio on Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
Books Mentioned in the Episode
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! by Al Ries
The Monk and the Riddle by Randy Komisar
Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great by Jim Collins
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone
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QUESTION OF THE DAY: What startup resources (books, articles, interviews) have you found most helpful or inspiring? Please share in the comments!
September 15, 2014
What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars
(Photo: Ariel H.)
“One of the rare noncharlatanic books in finance.”
– Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan and Antifragile
“There is more to be learned from Jim Paul’s true story of failure than from a stack of books promising to reveal the secret formula for success…this compact volume is filled with a wealth of trading wisdom and insights.”
– Jack Schwager, author of Hedge Fund Market Wizards
The newest book in The Tim Ferriss Book Club (all five books here) is a fast read entitled What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars. It packs a wallop.
This book came into my life through N.N. Taleb, who has made several fortunes by exploiting the hubris of Wall Street. Given how vociferously he attacks most books on investing, it caught my attention that he openly praises this little book.
My first dinner with Nassim was in September of 2008. It was memorable for many reasons. We were introduced by the incredible Seth Roberts (may he rest in peace), and we sat down just as Lehman Brothers was collapsing, which Taleb had — in simple terms — brilliantly shorted. We proceeded to drinking nearly all of the Prosecco in the restaurant, while talking about life, business, and investing. Lehman Brothers would end up the largest bankruptcy filing in US history, involving $600+ billion in assets.
The next day, I had a massive hangover and a hunger to study Nassim. Step one was simple: reading more of what he read.
I grabbed a copy of What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars, and I’ve since read it many, many times. For less than $20, this tool has helped me avoid multiple catastrophes, and I can directly credit its influence to roughly 1/2 of my net worth (!). The ROI has been incredible.
The book — winner of a 2014 Axiom Business Book award gold medal — begins with the unbroken string of successes that helped Jim Paul achieve a jet-setting lifestyle and land a key spot with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. It then describes the circumstances leading up to 7-figure losses, and the essential lessons he learned from it. The theme that emerges: there are 1,000,000+ ways to make money in the markets (and many of the “experts” contradict one another), but all losses appear to stem from the same few causes. So why not study these causes to help improve your odds of making and keeping money?
Even if you don’t view yourself as an “investor,” this book can help you make better decisions in life. Also, the stories, similar in flavor to Liar’s Poker, are hilarious and range from high-stakes baccarat to Arabian horse fiascos. For entertainment value alone, this book is worth the time.
I hope you enjoy — and benefit from — the lessons and laughs as much as I have.
Get the audiobook for free when you try Audible
Buy the audiobook on Audible
Buy the Kindle version
For those who enjoy both audio and Kindle, as I do, the above editions are synced with Whispersync. This means that if you get both the audio and Kindle, you can switch between the two. For instance, I like to read Kindle books on my iPhone on the subway, then pick up and listen to the audio while walking outside.
Would you be interested in interviewing the co-author, Brendan Moynihan? Brendan is a Managing Director at Marketfield Asset Management ($20 billion of assets under management) and the Senior Advisor to the Editor-in-Chief of Bloomberg News, among other things.
If you’re a journalist, blogger, podcaster, etc. interested in the book’s lessons, feel free to reach out to him at bmoynihan [at] bloomberg {dot} net.
I recently interviewed him myself for an hour about investing, how he met Jim Paul, and much more. Click below to listen to the conversation, or (if reading via email) you can click here to stream/download the MP3:
For those who want a short synopsis of the book, here you go:
Jim Paul’s meteoric rise took him from a small town in Northern Kentucky to governor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, yet he lost it all — his fortune, his reputation, and his job — in one fatal attack of excessive economic hubris. In this honest, frank analysis, Paul and Brendan Moynihan revisit the events that led to Paul’s disastrous decisions and examine the psychological factors behind bad financial practices in several economic sectors.
Paul and Moynihan’s cautionary tale includes strategies for avoiding loss tied to a simple framework for understanding, accepting, and dodging the dangers of investing, trading, and speculating.
###
