Timothy Ferriss's Blog, page 52

Emergency Technique: How to Increase Ventilator Capacity 2–4x in 10 Minutes

The next two weeks are going to be very difficult, and the risk of ventilator shortages due to COVID-19 is high. Manufacturing will ultimately help, but it takes time.

I’m already aware of one hospital in New York that can no longer provision one “vent” per patient, and demand is likely to grow dramatically over the next 7–10 days as cases spike. Even with full lockdown and total compliance, one could expect admittance to grow for 10–12 days minimum, based on the data we have from other countries.

In emergency circumstances, the below modification can be completed in less than 10 minutes and enables one ventilator to intubate as many as four people (instead of one). I first learned of it from Victor Cheng earlier this week, and Dr. Charlene Babcock demonstrates it below:

This has been performed successfully in animals, such as on four human-sized (70kg) sheep (Increasing Ventilator Surge Capacity in Disasters: Ventilation of Four Adult-Human-Sized Sheep on a Single Ventilator With a Modified Circuit), and Dr. Charlene Babcock from the above video has also completed proof of concept studies with colleagues. The following text is from Victor Cheng’s blog post:

In 2006, Dr. Greg Neyman and Dr. Charlene Babcock, Emergency Medicine physicians in Detroit, Michigan, did a study on exactly this. They wondered if, during a disaster-related surge of patients, a ventilator could be reconfigured to support multiple patients. Would it work? Short answer: Yes. They used standard equipment found in an emergency room to create a two-way and four-way splitter. They then used the ventilator to ventilate four simulated-lung devices for 12 hours. These devices had several sensors to track the output of the ventilator for each “lung.” The data collected showed that the pilot project was successful.

ANOTHER POSSIBLE OPTION:

A separate friend in healthcare (Thanks, Franz!) linked me to the Philips Respironics bi-level ventilator BiPAP A40 and noted the following, which I’ve slightly edited for format:

[Hospitals] should consider using small CPAP devices with modes designed to deliver timed breaths. They look like small NIV or CPAP devices and are commonly used with a mask interface. But it may not be common knowledge that these devices are also approved for invasive ventilation and that they have pressure control modes with timed breaths.

In the above option, I realize that monitoring would be sub-optimal and that there are other complications to consider, but some oxygen may be better than no oxygen.

I am publishing this post with the full understanding that:

Some hospitals are already considering these types of contingencies and preparing for worst-case scenarios. That said, many are not, hence this post.
These solutions aren’t optimal, but they are likely better than choosing who lives and who dies, as we’ve seen happen in Italy. In the case of Dr. Babcock’s demonstrated modification, if doctors can match up size and lung compliance, and provided patients can all be on the same settings and you’re willing to accept cross-contamination on a single machine, this could very well save lives.

If you agree, thank you for sharing this piece.

And if you’re looking for some inspirational reading, I highly suggest “Not All Heroes Wear Capes: How One Las Vegas ED Saved Hundreds of Lives After the Worst Mass Shooting in U.S. History.”

Lori Gottlieb — The Power of Getting to *Unknow* Yourself (#415)

Photo by Shlomit Levy Bard

“Insight is the booby prize of therapy.”

— Lori Gottlieb

Lori Gottlieb (@LoriGottlieb1) is a psychotherapist and author of the New York Times bestseller Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, which is being adapted as a television series by Eva Longoria and the creators of the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning series The Americans. In addition to her clinical practice, she writes the Atlantic’s weekly “Dear Therapist” advice column and contributes regularly to the New York Times and many other publications.

Her recent TED Talk is one of the top 10 most-watched of the year, and she is a sought-after expert in media such as the Today show, Good Morning America, CBS’s Early Show, CNN’s Newsroom, and NPR’s Fresh Air. Her new iHeart podcast, Dear Therapists, produced by Katie Couric, will premiere this year.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform. 

This podcast is brought to you by Four Sigmatic and LinkedIn Jobs . More on both below. 

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#415: Lori Gottlieb — The Power of Getting to *Unknow* Yourself
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This podcast is brought to you by Four Sigmatic and their delicious mushroom coffee featuring lion’s mane and chaga. It tastes like coffee, but there are only 40 milligrams of caffeine, so it has less than half of what you would find in a regular cup of coffee. I do not get any jitters, acid reflux, or any type of stomach burn. It’s organic and keto friendly, plus every single batch is third-party lab tested.

You can try it right now by going to FourSigmatic.com/Tim and using the code TIM. You will receive up to 25% off on the lion’s mane coffee bundle. Plus, you will receive an additional 20% off at checkout. Simply visit FourSigmatic.com/Tim. If you are in the experimental mindset, I do not think you’ll be disappointed. 

This episode is also brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. Hiring can be hard, and it can be super expensive and painful if you get it wrong. Today, with more qualified candidates than ever—but also more noise than ever—employers need a hiring solution that helps them find the right people for their businesses. LinkedIn Jobs provides just that by screening candidates with the hard and soft skills you’re looking for so you can quickly find and hire the right person.

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

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

Want to hear an episode with another fascinating therapist? — Listen to my first conversation with Esther Perel on this podcast in which we discuss polyamory, why happy people cheat, how to find (and convince) mentors who can change your life, what she learned from Holocaust survivors, and much more (stream below or right-click here to download):

#241: The Relationship Episode: Sex, Love, Polyamory, Marriage, and More (with Esther Perel)https://rss.art19.com/episodes/e4cf219a-1a1f-4f4d-98b2-b68ef2e87e1e.mp3Download

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Lori Gottlieb:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb
The Americans
Dear Therapist by Lori Gottlieb, The Atlantic
How Changing Your Story Can Change Your Life by Lori Gottlieb, TED@DuPont
The Whole Package by Lori Gottlieb, The Moth
A Psychotherapist Goes to Therapy — and Gets a Taste of Her Own Medicine, Fresh Air
Therapist Lori Gottlieb Talks about the Therapists That Therapists Go To, The Los Angeles Times
Blank Slate or Tabula Rasa in Therapy, Verywell Mind
Imprisoned by Our Thoughts: The Intricate Dance Between Support by Lori Gottlieb, Psychology Today
Lori’s “If I Can’t Touch My Face” Tweet
Tyler Cowen on Rationality, COVID-19, Talismans, and Life on the Margins, The Tim Ferriss Show #413
Some Practical Thoughts on Suicide by Tim Ferriss, tim.blog
Existentialism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Friends, Warner Bros.
ER, NBC
Dotcom Bubble, Investopedia
Stanford University
Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), Wikipedia
To Be Happier, Start Thinking More About Your Death by Arthur C. Brooks, The New York Times
The American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Fantastically Wrong: The Theory of the Wandering Wombs That Drove Women to Madness, Wired
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
SXSW Conference & Festivals
FaceTime
Skype
The Tennis Partner by Abraham Verghese
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
TED Talks by Guy Winch

SHOW NOTES

Note from the editor: Timestamps coming shortly. 

What story did Lori share on stage with The Moth, and why did she choose this over any other story she could have told?
What is the hierarchy of pain?
The difference between idiot compassion and wise compassion, and why there’s a time and place for each.
How to listen to someone’s story in a way that invites self-reflection.
How can we better communicate—and avoid escalating conflict—with each other?
As a term that can mean different things for different people, how does Lori define therapy, and what might be the benefits of learning how to “unknow” yourself?
Lori relays a story of her own that vividly illustrates how we all orchestrate our lives to keep certain storylines going — even when they don’t really serve us — and explains why we do this to ourselves.
What distinguishes a good therapist from a great therapist?
A memorable time when Lori’s own great therapist improvised to great effect.
One of Lori’s favorite maxims about her profession: “Insight is the booby prize of therapy.” What does it mean?
How did Lori’s therapist’s improvisation lead to meaningful behavior modification that broke a self-perpetuated cycle of suffering?
To Lori, what are the pros and cons of administering therapy in person versus writing advice to a general audience in her Dear Therapist column? Does she ever worry about the consequences of missing the mark or having someone misinterpret her advice?
What approaches can someone take to better identify their own blind spots, and what advantage does a therapist have over even a well-meaning friend or family member in helping us find these blind spots?
As someone who doesn’t know me very well, in what ways does Lori think we’re most alike and most different?
What did Lori’s university-era struggles look like, and how did her educational focus change over this time? How does her work in journalism correlate with her work in psychology?
When Lori looks back on her life’s chapter changes, which decisions or transitions were the hardest? Did she agonize for an extended time before initiating these changes, or were they quick in the making?
Lori believes that acknowledging life’s hundred-percent mortality rate ultimately makes us happier. How did she come to this conclusion, and what perspectives has she developed as a result?
How does Lori help people get past denial?
What we’re doing to get through the challenging times ahead. 
What book has Lori gifted the most?
How did Lori decide to dedicate her energy to the two big projects going on in her life right now: a television series adapted from her most recent book and a podcast being produced by Katie Couric?
Parting thoughts.

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Eva Longoria
Katie Couric
Wendell
Mae West
Tyler Cowen
Viktor Frankl
Abraham Verghese
Guy Winch

Predicting Hospital Capacity: Why to Act Early, How to Think About Lag Time, and a Model You Can Use

NOTE FROM TIM: The following was written by a close friend who has decades of experience in healthcare systems and advanced training in computer science and healthcare data science. He preferred to publish anonymously to avoid political headaches, so I’ll call him “Felix.”

We are publishing this quickly for reasons that will soon be obvious, so please excuse any typos. This is a work in progress, and we encourage leaving comments if you have any suggestions for improvement.

Enter Felix…

During this coronavirus crisis, the paramount objective has become avoiding hospital overflow, which would make the mortality rate skyrocket. We’re trying to accomplish this with voluntary social distancing, but it’s evident that that’s not going to be enough. So how early should governments start introducing mandatory quarantines? The answer is much, much earlier than you might think. 

In the following example, we can show mathematically that a city that institutes a city-wide quarantine when its hospitals are anywhere from 4% to 20% full can still easily exceed its total hospital capacity. The assumptions underlying this model are at the high end of current estimates in order to make a point, but they are well within the realm of possibility.

There are two important concepts here that humans are not wired to understand, and it takes some time to wrap your head around them.  Exponential growth, when combined with lag time, can create some wildly counterintuitive effects. Say you have a city (let’s call it Springfield) where new COVID infections per day are growing. The numbers are doubling every 5 days:

10–20% of infected people will need to be hospitalized. From the day a person gets infected, it takes an average of 10 days for them to seek hospital care. So if we had 1000 new cases of coronavirus on Day 1, using the high end of the estimate, we can expect 200 cases to arrive at the hospital on Day 11. We can chart the new daily hospital cases for our beloved city of Springfield.

Let’s also say that the average hospital stay is 12 days. So coronavirus cases start to accumulate in the hospital:

Now, let’s say there are 5000 total hospital beds in all of Springfield. The mayor is watching dutifully, but his team, overwhelmed with other duties, aren’t carefully considering exponential growth in combination with lag time. He sees that about 80% (4000) of his beds are occupied on Day 20, and realizes the city needs to do a full quarantine. He orders it promptly on Day 20, so that he can avoid his hospitals overflowing. New infections reliably start to fall on Day 21 and continue to fall forevermore:

What happens to new daily hospital cases? Remember there’s a 10-day lag. So on Day 21 you’ll get 20% of Day 11’s new infections:

Hospital cases continue to increase after Day 20 even though we instituted a quarantine! On Day 20 we were only getting Day 10’s victims into the hospital.  The people infected on Day 20 won’t show up at the hospital until Day 30. Will we overflow our hospitals? How many total beds will we need? Remember: the patients will accumulate since it takes 12 days to be discharged. Let’s extend our Total Beds Occupied graph:

Total hospital beds needed doesn’t peak until Day 35, even though we quarantined on Day 20. It peaks at around 22,000—more than 4 times as many beds as there are in Springfield. Given the numerical assumptions above, if you quarantine when your hospitals are 80% full, you can expect to exceed your total number of hospital beds by more than 300%. You can see this playing out in Italy right now. They’ve quarantined, but the hospital cases will still rise for many days after the quarantine is instituted.

So how early should we start the quarantine in order to avoid our hospitals overflowing? Let’s see what the max hospital bed need is for different points of quarantine:

If you quarantine at 50% full on Day 17, you’ll still have a peak hospital need of 16,812 beds. (Remember: there are only 5000 total hospital beds in all of Springfield)

If you quarantine at 25% full on Day 14, you’ll still have a peak hospital need of 11,092 beds.

If you quarantine at 4% full on Day 10, you’ll still have a peak hospital need of 6,370 beds.

In this example, if you want to avoid hospital overflow, you have to start quarantining when your hospitals are 3% full. Of course, this extreme example starts at 1,000 cases on Day 1 with only 5000 total beds. The effects of exponential growth are less extreme if you start with a smaller number of initial cases. Nevertheless, it’s valuable to have this example drive the point home that in order to prevent hospital overflow, you have to quarantine surprisingly early.

There are some fundamental assumptions I’ve made up here that you may disagree with, such as the initial case count, growth rate, the hospitalization rate, etc. If you’d like a rough estimate of when would be the appropriate time to quarantine for your particular geographic region, you can modify all the numerical assumptions and run different scenarios by copying the template here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hUIFj98V53xV1lIwRy_83WAPZwtEQBHL5H1gmSVUjPs/edit#gid=571616345

[Note from Tim: This spreadsheet is read-only. Click on File –> Make a Copy to duplicate it for your own scenarios.]

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

The author is a data scientist but not an epidemiologist. Any feedback from epidemiology experts about underlying factors is encouraged in the comments.

The underlying assumptions have been pulled from papers about COVID-19 published in recent months. They are at the high end of estimated ranges but not outside of what experts believe to be the possible ranges.

There are far more sophisticated ways to model epidemics, such as SIR and stochastic input modeling. The point of this article is to spread understanding so we chose to use the simplest possible model that still shows the dangers of exponential growth.

Comfort Challenge #5: Use the Criticism Sandwich

If you try this comfort challenge, please share your experience in the comments below! I’d love to read them. It’s always a hilarious and valuable exploration of getting more comfortable with discomfort.

Here is the original text of the challenge from The 4-Hour Workweek:

Chances are good that someone—be it a co-worker, boss, customer, or significant other—does something irritating or at a subpar level. 

Rather than avoid the topic out of fear of confrontation, let’s chocolate-coat it and ask them to fix it. 

Once per day for two days, and then each Thursday (M–W is too tense and Friday is too relaxed) for the next three weeks, resolve to use what I call the Criticism Sandwich with someone. 

It’s called the Criticism Sandwich because you first praise the person for something, then deliver the criticism, and then close with topic-shifting praise to exit the sensitive topic. 

Here’s an example with a superior or boss, with keywords and phrases in italics.

You: Hi, Mara. Do you have a second?

Mara: Sure. What’s up?

You: First, I wanted to thank you for helping me with the Meelie Worm account [or whatever]. I really appreciate you showing me how to handle that. You’re really good at fixing the technical issues.

Mara: No problem.

You: Here’s the thing. There is a lot of work coming down on everyone, and I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed. Normally, priorities are really clear to me, but I’ve been having trouble recently figuring out which tasks are highest on the list. Could you help me by pointing out the most important items when a handful need to be done? I’m sure it’s just me, but I’d really appreciate it, and I think it would help.

Mara: Uhh . . . I’ll see what I can do.

You: That means a lot to me. Thanks. Before I forget, last week’s presentation was excellent.

Mara: Did you think so? Blah, blah, blah . . .

If you try this comfort challenge, please share your experience in the comments below! I’d love to read them. It’s always a hilarious and valuable exploration of getting more comfortable with discomfort.

Jack Kornfield — How to Find Peace Amidst COVID-19, How to Cultivate Calm in Chaos (#414)

“We have the opportunity, even in difficult times, to let our spirit shine.”

— Jack Kornfield

Jack Kornfield (@JackKornfield) trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, shortly thereafter becoming one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974.

Jack has had a profound and direct impact on my life, and I’m thrilled to have him on the podcast once again.

Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts (with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein), and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. He holds a PhD in clinical psychology and is a father, husband, and activist.

Jack’s books have been translated into 20 languages and have sold more than a million copies, including The Wise Heart; A Lamp in the Darkness; A Path with Heart; After the Ecstasy, the Laundry (one of my favorite book titles of all time); and his most recent, No Time Like the Present: Finding Freedom, Love, and Joy Right Where You Are. He offers a brilliant online training program for those who want to learn to teach meditation at JackKornfield.com. 

This episode is more of a personal therapy session for yours truly in some respects. You will notice that I sound anxious and unsure in this interview, and that is very much by design. I think it is unhelpful when people in the public eye hide the fact that they also struggle, and it puts them on this illusory pedestal that I think is ultimately self-defeating. Instead, I want to share with you that no matter how much Stoic philosophy I read, no matter how often I meditate, there are times when I struggle, and this week is one of them.

I also hope that you’ll listen to portions of this conversation multiple times. There are a number of exercises that Jack shares that I will certainly be listening to in the upcoming weeks.

Please enjoy.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform. 

Listen onApple Podcasts
Listen onSpotify
Listen onOvercast

#414: Jack Kornfield — How to Find Peace Amidst COVID-19, How to Cultivate Calm in Chaos
https://rss.art19.com/episodes/e330e413-15f9-4472-8a58-e1d287b6833d.mp3Download

This episode is brought to you by FreshBooks. I’ve been talking about FreshBooks—an all-in-one invoicing+payments+accounting solution—for years now. Many entrepreneurs, as well as contractors and freelancers that I work with, use it all the time.

FreshBooks makes it super easy to track things like expenses, project time, and client info and then merge it all into great-looking invoices. FreshBooks can save users up to 200 hours a year on accounting and bookkeeping tasks. Right now, FreshBooks is offering my listeners a free 30-day trial, and no credit card is required. Go to FreshBooks.com/tim and enter “Tim Ferriss” in the “How did you hear about us?” section!

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

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

Want to hear Jack’s first appearance on this show? Listen to this episode in which we discuss hang gliding, monk training in Thailand, unpleasant mystical experiences, the difference between compassion and empathy, lovingkindness meditation, and more. (Stream below or right-click here to download.):

#300: Jack Kornfield — Finding Freedom, Love, and Joy in the Presenthttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/f6381ff7-2f63-46c0-a888-052337df33f5.mp3Download

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Jack Kornfield:

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Jack Kornfield — Finding Freedom, Love, and Joy in the Present, The Tim Ferriss Show #300
Insight Meditation Society
Spirit Rock — An Insight Meditation Center
The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology by Jack Kornfield
A Lamp in the Darkness: Illuminating the Path Through Difficult Times by Jack Kornfield
A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life by Jack Kornfield
After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path by Jack Kornfield
No Time Like the Present: Finding Freedom, Love, and Joy Right Where You Are by Jack Kornfield
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), CDC
Buddhism, Religious Literacy Project, Harvard Divinity School
What Is a Bodhisattva?, Tricycle
Already Free: Buddhism Meets Psychotherapy on the Path of Liberation by Bruce Tift
Peace Corps
872 Days In Hell: 38 Chilling Photos Of The Siege Of Leningrad, ATI
Grams of Hope: Daily Bread Ration in Besieged Leningrad, RT
“Sports Do Not Build Character; They Reveal It,” Quote Investigator
A Great Wind Carries Me, Flourish & Bloom
The Explorers Club
Absolutely Clear by Hafiz
“Life is Trouble”, Zorba the Greek
The Dharma: The Teachings of the Buddha, Religious Literacy Project, Harvard Divinity School
Samadhi, The Yogic Encyclopedia
Awakening “The One Who Knows” by Ajahn Chah, Lion’s Roar
Ego-Dissolution and Psychedelics: Validation of the Ego-Dissolution Inventory (EDI), Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
Hinduism, Religious Literacy Project, Harvard Divinity School
Judaism, Religious Literacy Project, Harvard Divinity School
Kabbalah and Hasidism, Religious Literacy Project, Harvard Divinity School
One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of Ryokan by Ryokan
Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are by Jack Kornfield
Ayahuasca-Assisted Treatment, MAPS
Ibogaine Therapy, MAPS
The Search for Soma, The Ancient Indian Psychedelic, Psychedelic Times
Tripping on Peyote in Navajo Nation, Scientific American Blogs
Magic Mushrooms and the Healing Trip, The New Yorker
Dying to Know: Ram Dass and Timothy Leary
How the Vietnam War Empowered the Hippie Movement, History
How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan
The World’s Largest Psychedelic Research Center, The Tim Ferriss Show #385
About Holotropic Breathwork, Grof Transpersonal Training
The Federal Drug Scheduling System, Explained, Vox
Meditations by Jack Kornfield
11 Mysterious Things That Occur While You Sleep, Bright Side
Stan Grof, Lessons from ~4,500 LSD Sessions and Beyond, The Tim Ferriss Show #347
Aphasia Symptoms and Causes, The Mayo Clinic
The Cosmic Game: Explorations of the Frontiers of Human Consciousness by Stanislav Grof
Marsh Chapel Experiment (aka Good Friday Experiment), Wikipedia
1962 Good Friday Experiment (Podcast), MAPS
Johns Hopkins Psychedelic Research Center
The World’s Five Biggest Refugee Crises, Mercy Corps
Nature’s Lessons in Healing Trauma: An Introduction to Somatic Experiencing by Peter Levine, Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute
EMDR Institute
Tara Brach on Meditation and Overcoming FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), The Tim Ferriss Show #94
Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha by Tara Brach

SHOW NOTES

Amid COVID-19 fears, I confess this conversation isn’t entirely selfless — it’s as much therapy for myself as it will likely be for my listeners. Jack demonstrates an exercise he used to help a large virtual class in China cope with the fears and anxieties generated by the current situation there. [08:10]
How might someone blend a Western developmental framework with an Eastern fruitional framework to best solve the unique problems we’re facing today? Could it be as easy as remembering “your Buddha nature and your social security number?” [16:06]
Jack recalls the first time he got malaria as a monk in the forests of Thailand and Laos in the ’60s, how his teacher helped him through it, and the lesson we can take to find our center in the midst of outwardly miserable circumstances — how we can witness what’s present without being lost in it. [21:08]
Our society may not be well-prepared to deal with the further spread of COVID-19, but here’s a lesson from WWII that might help us prepare ourselves with some perspective. [25:41]
If it’s true that adversity reveals — rather than builds — character, has Jack noticed any patterns among people who are having the greatest psychological difficulty dealing with the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, and is there anything to be learned from them that can help us? [28:15]
At nearly 75 and part of the demographic most susceptible to the COVID-19 coronavirus, how does Jack relate to his own mortality? He tells us about a visit with his twin brother shortly before his passing a few years ago and what he did to facilitate peace at this difficult time. [31:43]
Meditating on the four dimensions of freedom that allow us to “enter the terrain of birth and death with a wise and spacious heart.” [38:52]
What might Jack suggest as a way of helping people overcome their fears and anxieties around the process of dying — either for themselves or their loved ones? [49:19]
I concur that using an altar for the sake of visualization can be surprisingly effective, and that linking consciousness with others may be helpful for people who feel isolated during periods of quarantine or social distancing. Jack expands on the idea that we shouldn’t be squeamish about letting things go. [57:44]
What is the significance of Guan Yin for Jack as a symbol of something we all have inside of us, and what is spirituality really about? [1:01:22]
Jack’s take on psychedelics as sacred medicines throughout human history, their welcome reintroduction to the mainstream after being demonized for decades, and the complementary relationship between psychedelics and meditation. [1:07:21]
In what ways does Jack feel these sacred medicines can be overused or abused when they’re not treated with due respect? [1:16:34]
Often underrated ways that we, as spiritual beings, can access and interact with the mysteries around us — from poetry to sleep. [1:20:33]
Recommended preparations and precautions before dipping a toe in the pool of psychedelics. [1:23:05]
According to Stan Grof, what is experiencing an urge toward suicide really trying to tell us? [1:26:31]
Jack’s favorite Stan Grof book. [1:27:42]
When Ram Dass passed the torch of psychedelic research to Roland Griffiths. [1:28:27]
How experiencing psychedelics under a controlled setting at Johns Hopkins differs from casually taking them at a party. [1:31:11]
How would Jack suggest that people think about trauma? [1:32:16]
Jack explains how, in his final years, Ram Dass became “a lighthouse of love.” [1:44:03]
What is Jack focused on these days? [1:48:52]
My personal endorsement of the expansive toolkit that Jack and clinical psychologist Tara Brach brings to the table — especially for anyone who has ever considered learning to become a meditation teacher. [1:51:03]
Parting thoughts. [1:53:21]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Sharon Salzberg
Joseph Goldstein
Tara Brach
Thich Nhat Hanh
Gautama Buddha
Bruce Tift
Ajahn Chah
Irving Kornfield
Hafiz
George Zorbas
Pema Chodron
Ajahn Mun
Sri Nisargadatta
Grandson Desmond
Guan Yin
Jesus
Mother Mary
Mahatma Gandhi
Ram Dass
Ryōkan Taigu
Timothy Leary
Stanislav Grof
Michael Pollan
Alice Walker
Roland Griffiths
Mary Cosimano
Matt Johnson
Peter Levine
Bessel van der Kolk
Michael Meade
Luis Rodriguez
Malidoma Some
Krishna Das
Maharajji
Trudy Goodman

Comfort Challenge #4: Revisit the Terrible Twos

If you try this comfort challenge, please share your experience in the comments below! I’d love to read them. It’s always a hilarious and valuable exploration of getting more comfortable with discomfort.

Note: Due to concerns about the coronavirus, we are skipping Comfort Challenge #3 (“Get Phone Numbers”), and we are going directly to Comfort Challenge #4 (“Revisit the Terrible Twos”).

Here is the original text of the challenge from The 4-Hour Workweek:

For the next two days, do as all good two-year-olds do and say “no” to all requests. Don’t be selective. Refuse to do all things that won’t get you immediately fired. Be selfish. The objective isn’t an outcome—in this case, eliminating just those things that waste time—but the process: getting comfortable with saying “no.” Potential questions to decline include the following:

Do you have a minute?

Want to see a movie tonight/tomorrow?

Can you help me with X?

“No” should be your default answer to all requests. Don’t make up elaborate lies or you’ll get called on them. A simple “I really can’t—sorry; I’ve got too much on my plate right now” will do as a catch-all response.

If you try this comfort challenge, please share your experience in the comments below! I’d love to read them. It’s always a hilarious and valuable exploration of getting more comfortable with discomfort.

Tyler Cowen on Rationality, COVID-19, Talismans, and Life on the Margins (#413)

“If you need to measure, you’ve failed.”
— Tyler Cowen

Professor Tyler Cowen (@tylercowen) has a personal moonshot: to teach economics to more people than anyone else in the history of the world—and he might just succeed. In addition to his regular teaching at George Mason University, Tyler has blogged every day at Marginal Revolution for almost 17 years, helping to make it one of the most widely read economics blogs in the world.

Tyler cocreated Marginal Revolution University, a free online economics education platform that’s reached millions. He is also a bestselling author of more than a dozen books, a regular Bloomberg columnist, and host of the popular Conversations with Tyler podcast, where he examines the work and worldviews of thinkers like Martina Navratilova, Neal Stephenson, Reid Hoffman, and many more.

His latest project is Emergent Ventures, a $5 million fund to support entrepreneurs who have big ideas on how to improve society.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform. You can also watch the conversation on YouTube. 

Listen onApple Podcasts
Listen onSpotify
Listen onOvercast

#413: Tyler Cowen on Rationality, COVID-19, Talismans, and Life on the Margins
https://rss.art19.com/episodes/fd46e92f-170b-4fb3-b7ad-7e0157e8f967.mp3Download

This episode is brought to you by NutriBullet. NutriBullet is the affordable, easy-to-use, easy-to-clean blender that was first recommended to me by entrepreneur Noah Kagan when I interviewed him for the podcast. Its signature blending process transforms high-fiber veggies, nuts, seeds, and fruits into silky, nutrient-dense smoothies (or protein shakes, savory soups, and dips) that are easy to digest and absorb.

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

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

Want to hear an episode with someone who consumes books as voraciously as Tyler? Check out my interview with Patrick Collison, the CEO of Stripe, in which we discuss being raised “free-range,” Ethiopian televisions, speedier decision-making, the siren song of high praise, Greek-speaking monks, worldview development, and much more. (Stream below or right-click here to download.)

#353: Patrick Collison — CEO of Stripehttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/1869f87a-edca-4737-b3fe-cad55c90559f.mp3Download

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Tyler Cowen:

Marginal Revolution | Conversations with Tyler | Twitter

Books by Tyler Cowen
Marginal Revolution University
Emergent Ventures
George Mason University
Bloomberg
Law of Demand Definition, Investopedia
What I Learn from Chess and Computers by Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
Meta-Rational Animals by Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
Oops! When “Autism” Isn’t Autistic Disorder: Hyperlexia and Einstein Syndrome, Scientific American Blog
To Fight Pandemics, Reward Research by Tyler Cowen, The New York Times
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), CDC
Twitter Search
How I Practice At What I Do by Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages by Harold Bloom
Shakespeare: The Complete Collection by William Shakespeare
The Henriade by Voltaire
My Musical Self-Education by Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
Indian Classical Music, Musician Biographies, and Profiles, The Popular Front
Beethoven’s Late String Quartets by Quartetto Italiano
Bach’s The Art of the Fugue by Grigory Sokolov
Atonal Music by LaSalle String Quartet & Moscow String Quartet & Arnold Schoenberg
The Best of Schoenberg by Arnold Schoenberg
Microsoft Word
LaTeX
WordPress
Google Docs
Quasars: Brightest Objects in the Universe, Space
Tyler Cowen’s 12 Rules for Life by Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
Reading James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ Requires a Heroic Effort by David Allen, Los Angeles Daily News
Ulysses by James Joyce
Why Are So Many Chileans Protesting? by Tyler Cowen, Bloomberg Opinion
Duolingo Spanish Podcast
Primer Impacto, Univision
Deconstructing Cultural Codes by Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream by Tyler Cowen
Freakonomics
Heads or Tails: The Impact of a Coin Toss on Major Life Decisions and Subsequent Happiness by Steven D. Levitt
Station Eleven: A Novel by Emily St. John Mandel
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
The Odyssey by Homer (Translated by Emily Wilson)
Peter Thiel Thinks Tech Innovation Has ‘Stalled’ CNET
The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
Stripe
The Bible
From the Solomon Islands to Liberia: These Are the 25 Poorest Countries in the World, USA Today
WhatsApp
“Sports Do Not Build Character; They Reveal It,” Quote Investigator
The Johns Hopkins News-Letter
The Socioeconomic High-Resolution Rural-Urban Geographic Platform for India (SHRUG)
Charter Cities Institute
AtoB
Why Factory Farming Is Not Just Cruel — But Also a Threat to All Life on the Planet, The Guardian
Stoicism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Why Some People With Anxiety Love Watching Horror Movies, HuffPost
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, The Mayo Clinic
The Age of the Infovore: Succeeding in the Information Economy by Tyler Cowen
Depression and Religion in Adolescence by Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
The Raudat Tahera and the Power of Religion to Induce Cooperation by Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
“The Iceman” Wim Hof, The Tim Ferriss Show #102
The Princess Bride
Babe
Scenes from a Marriage
The Empire Strikes Back
Amelie
Spirited Away
The Bourne Identity
Snatch
Casino Royale
Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage Trails, Japan Guide
Camino de Santiago Routes, Pilgrim
Appalachian Trail Conservancy
Animism Is Actually Pretty Reasonable, The Atlantic
15 Reasons You Should Visit Santiago De Compostela at Least Once in Your Lifetime, Culture Trip
Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Timothy Ferriss
Is the Protestant Work Ethic Real? Freakonomics #360

SHOW NOTES

Who is Tyler Cowen? [07:40]
How does Tyler pronounce “economics,” and why is the subject his teaching vehicle of choice? What is he really trying to convey? [09:14]
Tyler says that economics is parasitical on anthropology. What does he mean by this? [10:44]
What did playing chess for money teach young Tyler? [11:40]
What is meta-rationality? [12:57]
As a self-confessed hyperlexic, how does Tyler think about parsing information and sources around something like the current COVID-19 coronavirus news? [13:48]
How can one cultivate the ability to remain meta-rational during times of duress or panic? [15:51]
How does Tyler use Twitter Search as a truth-generating mechanism? [17:36]
A question Tyler likes to ask people is: “What is it you do to train that is comparable to a pianist practicing scales?” What does he mean by this, and how does he practice his own scales? [18:35]
What fiction books might Tyler recommend to people — particularly the nonfiction purists among us — who haven’t read fiction in a while? [20:49]
Tyler often listens to what he considers complex music in an effort to “forestall mental laziness.” What does he consider complex music? [21:36]
What does Tyler’s daily writing practice look like, and how does he find a way to integrate email into the process in an enriching — rather than a distracting and time-sucking — way? [22:47]
What symptoms might indicate that Tyler’s writing has strayed into undesirable territory? [25:43]
How does Tyler compose first drafts? [26:49]
Elaborations on two of Tyler’s 12 Rules for Life. [27:46]
Putting into practice the rule to “Learn how to learn from those who offend you,” what has Tyler learned from Nobel laureate Paul Krugman? [28:58]
What former position or belief has Tyler changed his mind about lately? What are his next steps to better understanding the situation’s complexities? [30:21]
What percentage of Tyler’s writing makes it to a published state — online or otherwise? [33:32]
Tyler spent a dozen years or so only watching television in Spanish (and sometimes still does). What does he find to be the benefits of cultivating languages — and wrapping his brain around concerns expressed — outside of his native English? [34:12]
In his book The Complacent Class, Tyler posits that our society has become stagnant and overly cautious. What does he believe we can do on an individual level to break this pattern? [36:31]
A major decision Tyler made that has had a positive impact on his life, and the framework that led to his commitment to blog daily for the past 17 years. [39:26]
What was the positive feedback loop on the daily blogging experience that kept Tyler going for years before it started really gaining traction? [41:47]
While the readership of Marginal Revolution has remained strong in a post-blogging world, Tyler now hosts a podcast called — appropriately enough — Conversations with Tyler. What can a first-time listener expect from a typical episode, and what does Tyler gain from doing this show for free? [42:34]
Immersing himself fully in the works of his subjects before interviewing them on his podcast, how did Tyler prepare for Neal Stephenson, an author famed for his resistance to the confines of brevity? How challenging was this prep in comparison to prep for other guests? [44:25]
Tyler shares some insight into how he’s preparing for future guest Emily St. John Mandel, the Station Eleven novelist who coincidentally wrote about a very topical subject: pandemics. [46:47]
While he is a voracious reader, why is Tyler hesitant to recommend specific books to people? What does he try to encourage instead? [47:53]
What resources might Tyler suggest to someone who wants to cultivate their meta-rational muscles? [49:54]
Aside from blogging and podcasting, what other projects is Tyler working on at the moment? [52:21]
Since starting the podcast, what has Tyler learned about the art of interviewing? [53:20]
“Browser tabs don’t lie.” What are Tyler’s open browser tabs right now? [56:31]
What are Tyler’s meta-rational thoughts on the current coronavirus news? With so much disparate information coming in from an overwhelming number of sources, how does he increase the resolution on these puzzle pieces to get a clearer idea — rather than an incomprehensible distortion — of the big picture? [57:10]
While following this particular news cycle, what sources does Tyler consider to be reliable and level-headed? [1:01:12]
With so many projects already on the table, why did Tyler choose to create Emergent Ventures? How does it differ from other philanthropic efforts being made today, and what promising ventures has it bolstered so far? [1:02:29]
What would Emergent Ventures’ success look like to Tyler? [1:05:32]
What are some of the most controversial views or perspectives Tyler currently holds? [1:06:25]
Does Tyler have any favorite failures that contributed to his current success, or has he enjoyed a lifelong lucky run of even-keeled progress? [1:07:51]
If Tyler considers himself in a consistent range of “weirdly never unhappy,” does he ever have feelings that he prefers not to feel that come to mind? [1:10:43]
Does Tyler have resources or advice for people who might seek to exist somewhere along his “weirdly never unhappy” spectrum? Is it as easy as adopting some kind of talisman — and if so, is there anything wrong with that? Does Tyler have his own talismans? [1:11:57]
How does Tyler choose guests for his podcast? Who’s on his wishlist? [1:16:58]
Has Tyler taken on any new behaviors or habits that have had a nontrivial impact on his life? [1:18:15]
How has a commitment to being kinder played out for Tyler, and why did this become a priority? [1:19:22]
What would Tyler’s billboard (or widely-broadcast message) say? Who would be his target audience, and why might this seem an odd choice for someone who considers himself an agnostic leaning toward atheism? [1:21:05]
Tyler asks me a few questions. First up: how do I restore lost focus? [1:25:29]
Do I think cold exposure is partly a placebo or talisman, or do I think it works on a more quantifiable level? [1:27:03]
Do I fear ending up in an equilibrium where I say no to too many things, and if so, how do you avoid this? [1:28:11]
Do I worry that too many of my friends are highly successful people? [1:30:19]
Tyler and I share some of our favorite movies, and I mark the therapeutic value of film and fiction to people who are prone to depression and hyper rumination. [1:32:29]
If I could take a year off from all responsibilities, how would I choose to spend it? [1:35:21]
How much are Tyler and I alike versus being different? [1:36:51]
As someone with an interest in traveling the historical routes of pilgrims, what do I find of most value in religion? How do pilgrimages, language-learning, and skill acquisition all fit into what Tyler calls the “unified theory” of me? [1:40:09]
What is the unified theory of Tyler? [1:49:15]
Parting thoughts. [1:52:11]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Neal Stephenson
Reid Hoffman
Ryan Holiday
Helen Branswell
Peter Thiel
Kobe Bryant
Martina Navratilova
Harold Bloom
William Shakespeare
Ludwig van Beethoven
Johann Sebastian Bach
Arnold Schoenberg
Patrick Collison
Erasmus
Michel de Montaigne
Homer
James Joyce
Paul Krugman
Martin Gurri
Steve Levitt
Philip Tetlock
Emily St. John Mandel
Emily Wilson
Giovanni Boccaccio
The Beatles
Sherlock Holmes
Kadeem Noray
Savannah Noray
Mark Lutter
Harshita Arora
Malcolm Gladwell
Donald Trump
Bernie Sanders
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
William Shatner
James T. Kirk
Brian Eno
William Goldman
Ingmar Bergman
Hayao Miyazaki
David Niven

Comfort Challenge #2: Learn to Propose

If you try this comfort challenge, please share your experience in the comments below! I’d love to read them. It’s always a hilarious and valuable exploration of getting more comfortable with discomfort.

Here is the original text of the challenge from The 4-Hour Workweek:

Stop asking for opinions and start proposing solutions. Begin with the small things. If someone is going to ask, or asks, “Where should we eat?” “What movie should we watch?” “What should we do tonight?” or anything similar, do NOT reflect it back with, “Well, what do you want to . . . ?” Offer a solution. Stop the back-and-forth and make a decision. Practice this in both personal and professional environments. Here are a few lines that help (my favorites are the first and last):

“May I make a suggestion?”

“I propose . . .”

“I’d like to propose . . .”

“I suggest that . . . What do you think?”

“Let’s try . . . and then try something else if that doesn’t work.”

If you try this comfort challenge, please share your experience in the comments below! I’d love to read them. It’s always a hilarious and valuable exploration of getting more comfortable with discomfort.

Josh Waitzkin on Beginner’s Mind, Self-Actualization, and Advice from Your Future Self (#412)

“I think of learning as unobstructed self-expression.”
— Josh Waitzkin

Josh Waitzkin, author of The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance, is an eight-time US National Chess Champion, a two-time World Champion in Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands, and the first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt under nine-time World Champion Marcelo Garcia.

For the past 12 years, Josh has been channeling his passion for the outer limits of the learning process toward training elite mental performers in business and finance and to revolutionizing the education system through his nonprofit foundation, The Art of Learning Project. Josh is currently in the process of taking on his fourth and fifth disciplines, paddle surfing and foiling, and is an all-in father and husband.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform. 

Listen onApple Podcasts
Listen onSpotify
Listen onOvercast

#412: Josh Waitzkin on Beginner’s Mind, Self-Actualization, and Advice from Your Future Self
https://rss.art19.com/episodes/12d68ba3-6324-4364-95af-8113430a1adb.mp3Download

This podcast is brought to you by Helix Sleep. I started sleeping on a Helix in 2017, and they’ve been one of my top choices for mattresses ever since. Take their two-minute sleep quiz, and based on body type and how you sleep, their algorithm will identify and match you to your perfect mattress.

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

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

Want to hear another conversation with Josh Waitzkin? — In this episode (his most recent previous appearance on The Tim Ferriss Show), we discussed cramming two months of learning into one day, what Ernest Hemingway and Marcelo Garcia could teach us about letting go, the mediocrity of the “simmering six,” and lots more. (Stream below or right-click here to download):

#375: Josh Waitzkin — How to Cram 2 Months of Learning into 1 Dayhttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/c656791d-c44b-4b05-b6c5-d0ab0fe8afaa.mp3Download

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Josh Waitzkin:

Website | The Art of Learning Project

Josh’s first, second, third, and fourth appearances on this show.
The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance by Josh Waitzkin
How to Become a Chess Grandmaster?, Chess.com
Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation, The Chess Website
Josh Waitzkin’s Tai Chi Push Hands Videos, Content Galaxy
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Wikipedia
How to Foil Pumping Hydrofoil Surfing, Horue Movie
eFoil, Lift
Onewheel Electric Skateboards
How to Fall Safely: 3 Breakfall Techniques, GMB Fitness
Why I Fell and What I Do During a Wipeout, Nathan Florence
Mechanics of Pipeline, Surfline
How to Recognize and Avoid Groupthink, Verywell Mind
Zendo Project
Lightning in a Bottle
Burning Man
Tony Robbins Starts Each Day by Plunging into Freezing Cold Water after an Extra-Hot Sauna — and Research Suggests It’s a Healthy Habit, Business Insider
About Holotropic Breathwork, Grof Transpersonal Training
Slack
Learning How to SUP Surf, Adventure Sports Network
The Princess Bride
William C.C. Chen Tai Chi Chuan, New York City
This is Water by David Foster Wallace
“The Iceman” Wim Hof, The Tim Ferriss Show #102
Lose Yourself by Eminem
Hack Your Mind Like a Twenty-First Century Soldier: Using Biofeedback to Become More Resilient, Art of Manliness
Building Your Trigger, The Art of Learning Project
The Manchurian Candidate
The Ultimate List of Cognitive Biases: Why Humans Make Irrational Decisions, HumanHow
A Bad Outcome Doesn’t Mean a Bad Decision, Striving Strategically
The Relationship Between Mental and Somatic Practices and Wisdom, PLoS One
Marcelo Garcia Jiu-Jitsu Academy
The Marcelotine, Attack the Back
20 Years of Mundial, BJJ Heroes
Marcelo Garcia vs. Claudio Calasans 2010 Worlds BJJ, Galveston BJJ
Kelly Starrett and Dr. Justin Mager, The Tim Ferriss Show #3
Expedient Means, Nichiren Buddhism Library
Books by Robert Kegan
Graham Duncan — Talent Is the Best Asset Class, The Tim Ferriss Show #362)
Grandmaster Maurice Ashley Plays NYC Trash Talker, The Tim Ferriss Experiment

SHOW NOTES

What is Josh’s history with chess Grandmaster Maurice Ashley, and how have their shared and individual ideas about assumptions and shared constructs changed in the past 20 years? [04:45]
How Josh’s approach to learning differs from his friend and fellow athlete Dan Caulfield. [10:16]
What is foil boarding, and how does it overcome the conditions that restrict traditional surfing in a way that makes it a metaphor for Josh’s relationship to learning? [11:38]
eFoiling, one-wheeling, and the importance of learning how to fall safely. [13:14]
Foils and boils: practicing the art of falling from a practical vs. an Instagram-ready standpoint. [15:37]
How volunteering to care for people going through difficult psychedelic experiences at a music festival was my version of learning to navigate boils. In both cases, we’re really practicing the ability to be comfortable around extraordinary circumstances in order to fully experience what follows. [18:49]
How designing a learning process around the meta can build skills applicable to countless circumstances — and why an observer with a lifetime of surfing under their belt might consider Josh’s approach to learning the craft odd. [22:16]
The benefits of being a beginner. [26:10]
Josh says: “The internal spirit is the teacher or myself 20 years from now.” What does he mean by this? [32:44]
What young Tim once learned from talking to an old Tim at a ski lodge fireside, and why asking for advice from another version of one’s self is a worthwhile thought exercise. [36:02]
A short retelling of the time Josh almost died doing Wif Hof breathing in a swimming pool, how surviving the event inspired the way he and his family live now. [39:58]
Writing exercises that have gotten me in the mindset — without putting myself in actual danger — to make decisions under the weight of imminent mortality. [42:02]
“Firewalking” with Josh: How to physiologically embody something we’re trying to learn in a way that mere observation can’t instill. [43:38]
The importance of feedback loops and the game-changing difference it can make to have them on tap in unlimited, accurate doses. Can Josh tell me about the feedback loops he consults in his own life without referring to foiling in some capacity? When might he not want to reflect on the scrutiny of a feedback loop? [46:59]
When a coach or trainer’s feedback might be counterproductive. [53:39]
As someone who isolates himself by design except for interactions with employees, family, and friends and doesn’t rely on social media, how does Josh stress-test the integrity of his own thinking and positions? [55:10]
To separate the wheat from the chaffe of your ideas, cultivate a close ecosystem of people you can trust to be honest with you in their pushback — or a partner whose thought processes complement rather than compliment your own. [58:54]
Examining the confidence that Josh describes as being “a little bit crazy and messianic” in the character of many high-acheivers who seem to chart a record of success regardless of the opinion of their lessers — like nine-time BJJ World Champion Marcelo Garcia. [1:00:24]
The unexpected rewards of approaching skill acquisition in an unorthodox way: when Josh and Dan’s eFoil training translated to foil as they expected — and as none of the “experts” would have. [1:03:37]
I offer some pushback on the point that Josh would have rejected the notion of that translation if he had stress-tested it. [1:05:17]
Reps hidden in plain sight. [1:05:46]
In what other arts — chess, BJJ, push hands, or investing — might reps be similarly hidden in plain sight or lend themselves to deliberate practice? [1:07:30]
Conceptual or thematic reps hidden in plain sight. [1:09:02]
Of course Josh’s method of teaching my girlfriend and me how to surf flies in the face of how most instructors would do it. I think it also happens to be right — and in line with the empathetic methods of another exceptional coach I know, Kelly Starrett. [1:10:04]
Who is Robert Kegan, and why is he interesting to Josh? [1:15:29]
Parting thoughts. [1:18:35]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Maurice Ashley
Dan Caulfield
Magnus Carlsen
Miguel Najdorf
William C.C. Chen
Jorge Luis Borges
David Foster Wallace
Wim Hof
Eminem
Emily Kwok
Jackson Pollock
Warren Buffett
Charlie Munger
Marcelo Garcia
Claudio Calasans
Kelly Starrett
Gautama Buddha
Robert Kegan
Graham Duncan
Laird Hamilton

Comfort Challenge #1: Learn to Eye Gaze

If you try this comfort challenge, please share your experience in the comments below! I’d love to read them. It’s always a hilarious and valuable exploration of getting more comfortable with discomfort.

Here is the original text of the challenge from The 4-Hour Workweek:

My friend Michael Ellsberg invented a singles event called Eye Gazing. It is similar to speed dating but different in one fundamental respect—no speaking is permitted. It involves gazing into the eyes of each partner for three minutes at a time. If you go to such an event, it becomes clear how uncomfortable most people are doing this. For the next two days, practice gazing into the eyes of others—whether people you pass on the street or conversational partners—until they break contact.

Hints:

1. Focus on one eye and be sure to blink occasionally so you don’t look like a psychopath or get your ass kicked.

2. In conversation, maintain eye contact when you are speaking. It’s easy to do while listening.

3. Practice with people bigger or more confident than yourself. If a passerby asks you what the hell you’re staring at, just smile and respond, “Sorry about that. I thought you were an old friend of mine.”

If you try this comfort challenge, please share your experience in the comments below! I’d love to read them. It’s always a hilarious and valuable exploration of getting more comfortable with discomfort.