Timothy Ferriss's Blog, page 81

Susan Garrett — Master Dog (and Human) Trainer

“Dogs are here to teach us. And if you don’t open your eyes to that, you’re going to miss life lessons.”

– Susan Garrett

Susan Garrett (@susangarrett) is an incredible dog trainer. She has a B.Sc. in animal science, and for more than two decades has been one of the most consistently successful competitors in the sport of dog agility.

Susan has been on the podium of the world and national championship events more than 50 times, winning those events a total of 38 times. She was of great help to me when I first adopted Molly, my own pup, and her book Shaping Success (The Education of an Unlikely Champion) was selected as the 2005 dog training and behavior book of the year.

Susan is a champ not only for her competitive track record, but for her ability to convey concrete tips and recommendations for:

The most critical exercises for your dog
The three types of reinforcement
How to use crates properly
What you should do in the first 24 hours of adopting a puppy
How training a dog is like training an Olympic athlete
And much, much more!

We discuss every facet of behavioral modification and conditioning, which applies to much more than dog training. These are techniques that work on everyone from chickens to cats to irritating in-laws.

If you only have 5 minutes, you’ll want to learn why negative reinforcement isn’t as effective as positive reinforcement — even for people.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast about powerful communication? — Listen to my interview with Malcolm Gladwell. In this episode, we discuss routines, habits, and tools, how to make your stories relatable, and why he eats as little as possible in the morning (stream below or right-click here to download):

This podcast is brought to you by Four Sigmatic. I reached out to these Finnish entrepreneurs after a very talented acrobat introduced me to one of their products, which blew my mind (in the best way possible). It is mushroom coffee featuring 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 put me on fire for an entire day, and I only had half of the packet.

People are always asking me what I use for cognitive enhancement right now, this is the answer. You can try it right now by going to foursigmatic.com/tim and using the code Tim to get 20 percent off your first order. If you are in the experimental mindset, I do not think you’ll be disappointed.

This podcast is also brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service led by technologists from places like Apple. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it’s all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams.

Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they’ll show you for free the exact portfolio they’d put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Well worth a few minutes to explore: wealthfront.com/tim.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

Connect with Susan Garrett:

Twitter | Dogs That Listen | Susan Garrett Agility Training | Facebook | YouTube

Shaping Success (The Education of an Unlikely Champion) by Susan Garrett
What is the sport of dog agility?
ItsYerChoice
Recall Training with the Dogs with Susan Garrett
Orijen “fancy” treats
Clicker dog training system
Pop up dog crates
Crate Games and the Question of Value by Susan Garrett, Say Yes! Dog Training
Restrained Recalls — Recallers Game Day 3, Hiva the Dane & Hani the Border
30′ training leads
Collar Grab Game — Recallers Game Day 1, Hiva the Dane & Hani the Border
Pavlov’s Dogs by Saul McLeod, Simply Psychology
Call Once, Romeo & Juliet
Stella & Chewy Freeze Dried Dandy Lamb and Rabbit dinner patties
Effective Triggers and the Transfer of Value by Susan Garrett, Say Yes! Dog Training
Before You Get Your Puppy by Dr. Ian Dunbar
The 10,000 Swing Kettlebell Workout by Dan John, T Nation
The Journey, Susan Garrett
A toy that simulates mother’s heartbeat can be comforting for a new puppy.
Don’t Shoot the Dog!: The New Art of Teaching and Training by Karen Pryor
X pens
The Best Animal Trainers in History: Interview with Bob and Marian Bailey — Part 1 and Part 2 by Dr. Sophia Yin
Chicken Camp with Bob Bailey — Discrimination Workshop Evaluation, Elsa Blomster
Extracts from Patient Like the Chipmunks by Bob Bailey & Marian Breland-Bailey
What Is a Skinner Box? by Kendra Cherry, Verywell
Jason Nemer — Inside the Magic of AcroYoga
Classic KONG Dog Toy
Nature’s Miracle Urine Destroyer
Susan recommends Gentle Leader headcollars.
Dog Tricks: Command, Safety, and Vanity with Molly and me
Dog Breakfast Tips with Molly and me
Dog Tips and Training with Molly and me

Show Notes

What is the sport of dog agility? [08:27]
What separates a good handler from a great handler? [09:37]
What differentiates Susan’s approach to training from others? [10:26]
Susan contrasts choice-based training with punishment-based and reinforcement-based training. [11:32]
Susan explains how her ItsYerChoice game introduces the premise of choice-based training to dogs. [13:47]
The three big reinforcements for a dog. [16:11]
The first thing to identify: where’s the value for the dog? [16:24]
Explaining the reinforcement (or reward) zone. [18:03]
“It’s a crowded bar and you’ve got to tip with twenties!” illustrates a technique vs. incentive issue. [19:09]
Why crate games build the foundation for successful training. [23:40]
Explaining restrained recalls. [28:50]
What is the collar grab game? [31:17]
Is “call once” a relative or variant of restraint recalls? [34:37]
Giving the dog a choice is just one way behaviors are shaped. [35:50]
How I reacquainted myself with Molly after a long absence. [39:23]
Susan explains transfer of value and why you shouldn’t always make food available. [42:10]
The dos and don’ts of getting a new puppy (and how it ties in with trying to do 10,000 kettlebell swings in 28 days). [45:10]
Our dogs are just trying to help us become better dog trainers. [47:55]
Susan’s first 24 hours with a new puppy — and why she’s never had a puppy wake her up after the first night. [50:12]
Potty training: why Susan always raises dogs to do their business on a leash, and how giving that “business” a name helps the process. [52:44]
Clicker training: it works for dogs, marine mammals, and Olympic divers. [55:28]
Why negative reinforcement isn’t as effective as positive reinforcement — even for people. [1:02:59]
How do you avoid doling out negative reinforcement when bad behavior is exhibited? [1:11:03]
Susan explains how the San Diego Zoo got a troublemaking, diabetic mandrill to love getting his blood drawn. [1:14:10]
X pen versus tethering. [1:20:24]
What is jackpotting, and what does science say about its value in training? [1:23:39]
Susan talks about a couple of her mentors and how they’ve contributed to the scientific study of animal behavior. [1:24:35]
Why do chickens make excellent subjects for a trainer trying to understand positive reinforcement? [1:30:28]
“Dogs are brilliant at figuring out patterns of reinforcement.” [1:31:30]
The three Ds: distance, duration, and distractions.  [1:34:31]
Why did I stop using the bell on the door, and how can I reintroduce it by shaping Molly’s behavior? [1:36:54]
What are some of the common mistakes Susan sees people making? [1:40:04]
Is there a way to calm down your dog? [1:42:32]
Susan talks about her “dog-free” vacation to Ireland. [1:45:23]
Most people try to train from the world of “don’t,” but dogs only understand “do.” [1:49:02]
Even AcroYoga uses positive reinforcement. [1:49:56]
Striving to become a better trainer for the benefit of your dog makes you a better person. [1:50:27]
Tools to bring home for your dog before you adopt. [1:51:20]
Why Susan advocates online learning. [1:55:24]
What kind of training does Susan recommend staying away from? [1:56:13]

People Mentioned

Molly
Ian Dunbar
Ivan Pavlov
Greg Louganis
Gary Priest
Bob Bailey
Marian Breland Bailey
B.F. Skinner
Jason Nemer

The Tim Ferriss Show Crosses 100 Million Downloads

I’m still having a total blast. (Photo: Chase Jarvis, also pictured)

Holy schnikes!

At the end of October, The Tim Ferriss Show shot past 100,000,000 downloads.  What does that mean? Here’s an official quote from Libsyn:

“Congratulations to Tim for crossing the 100-million download mark. At Libsyn, we have been hosting podcasts for more than 12 years, and we currently host well over 28,000 podcasts, including a high percentage of the blockbuster hits on iTunes,” said Rob Walch, Vice President of Podcaster Relations at Libsyn. “Tim’s podcast is the first business-interview format podcast in our history to cross the 100,000,000 download mark.”

This is wild.

As some of you know, my podcast–The Tim Ferriss Show–was started on a whim. It was intended as a break between big book projects. “I’ll do six episodes to get better at interviewing” was the grand goal.

In the first episode and after two bottles of wine, Kevin Rose nicknamed the show TimTimTalkTalk (damn you, KevKev). And the next morning, after reviewing my ridiculously slurred and iffy questions (e.g. “If you were a breakfast cereal, which would you be?”), I let out a long sigh. I’d always hated the sound of my own voice, but this was worse than expected. TERRIBLE. The podcast experiment wouldn’t last a month.

Or so I thought.

Now, here we are, 100M downloads later, on the cusp of 200 episodes, and growing faster every month. 100M excludes YouTube and other substantial ancillary views/listens.  As of this writing, The Tim Ferriss Show has been in the iTunes top-100 list for 934 consecutive days.

I can say one thing for certain — I’ve only made it this far because of YOU.

Your amazing feedback, support, questions, and comments are what kept this podcast alive. Amidst self-doubt (similar to this) and many mistakes, I’ve wanted to throw in the towel more than once. But, through thick and thin, you’ve been there, telling my monkey mind to chill the fuck out, to take a deep breath, to go to sleep and fight another day.

Many, many thanks.  To celebrate, I’m gathering the top-100 most prolific commenters from this blog’s comments, and you guys will be getting some thank-you goodies

Stephen Dubner — The Art of Storytelling and Facing Malcolm Gladwell in a Fist Fight

“Storytelling has a power that goes well beyond the sum of its parts.”

– Stephen Dubner

Stephen J. Dubner (@Freakonomics) returns to the show. He is an award-winning author, journalist, and radio and TV personality. He is best-known for writing, along with the economist Steven D. Levitt, Freakonomics (2005), SuperFreakonomics (2009), and Think Like a Freak (2014), which have sold more than five million copies in 35 languages. He is the creator of the top-ranked Freakonomics Radio podcast.

His brand-new podcast, produced in collaboration with The New York Times, is Tell Me Something I Don’t Know It is equal parts game show, talk show, and brain-tease. I had a chance to experiment with this format as a “panelist” alongside Malcolm Gladwell. It’s a blast.

In this episode, we cover such diverse topics as:

Why cats wiggle their butts before they pounce
How to grow a podcast
If he thinks he could take Malcolm Gladwell in a fist fight
Economics and the President’s actual influence over the economy
How virtual reality might affect education
And much, much more

If you only have 5 minutes, I recommend listening to the three books that shaped Stephen into the person he is today [at 31:26 for the overcast link]

Please enjoy this round two with Stephen J. Dubner!

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast featuring Stephen J. Dubner? — Listen to this early episode of The Tim Ferriss Show. In this episode, we discuss the craft of brainstorming, narrative storytelling, and how to avoid wasting mental energy on meaningless nonsense (stream below or right-click here to download):

This podcast is brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service led by technologists from places like Apple. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it’s all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams.

Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they’ll show you for free the exact portfolio they’d put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Well worth a few minutes to explore: wealthfront.com/tim.

This podcast is also brought to you by 99Designs, the world’s largest marketplace of graphic designers. I have used them for years to create some amazing designs. When your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99Designs.

I used them to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body, and I’ve also had them help with display advertising and illustrations. If you want a more personalized approach, I recommend their 1-on-1 service. You get original designs from designers around the world. The best part? You provide your feedback, and then you end up with a product that you’re happy with or your money back. Click this link and get a free $99 upgrade. Give it a test run.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

Connect with Stephen Dubner:

Twitter | Freakonomics Radio | Tell Me Something I Don’t Know | Facebook | Freakonomics website

The Tim Ferriss Show, Episode 7: Stephen Dubner, Co-Author of Freakonomics (Stephen’s first appearance on this show)
How to Be Tim Ferriss — Featuring Freakonomics (that time Stephen interviewed me)
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Question of the Day Episode 107 with Special Guest Tim Ferriss: Does Altruism Actually Exist?
LMGTFY (Let Me Google That for You)
Holy Bible, King James Version
The Brady Bunch
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Odyssey by Homer
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
This Is Your Brain on Podcasts, Freakonomics Radio
Dubno Jewish History Tour, Jewish Virtual Library
Choosing My Religion: A Memoir of a Family Beyond Belief by Stephen J. Dubner
Missing Ingredient to Lower Scores Is Something Called Deliberate Practice, Golf Magazine
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Ring: A Biography of Ring Lardner by Jonathan Yardley
The Right Profile Live (Stephen’s old band)
Trading Rock ‘n’ Roll for Economics: Stephen J. Dubner Thinks Like a Freak by Mack Hayden, Paste Monthly
SuperFreakonomics Co-Author Describes the Intersection of Good and Bad versus Wrong and Right interview with Tavis Smiley
Why Are We Still Using Cash?, Freakonomics Radio
How Much Does the President Really Matter?, Freakonomics Radio
Has the U.S. Presidency Become a Dictatorship?, Freakonomics Radio
New Classrooms
Footy for Two
On stamp collecting: A Hobby for Everyone, American Philatelic Society

Show Notes

Why do cats wiggle their butts before they pounce? [08:48]
How might storytelling improve the way lessons of hard sciences and other traditionally “boring” subjects are conveyed? [09:28]
Top tips for editing your podcasts to make them shorter without losing too much valuable information. [19:33]
Suggestions for growing the reach of a podcast. [23:15]
The origin of Stephen’s last name. [26:07]
What’s happening with the golf book Stephen and Steven were working on? [28:57]
What are the three books that had the biggest impact on Stephen? [31:26]
Stephen talks about why he chose a career in writing over one in sports or music (his other two passions). [33:07]
How did Stephen meet James Altucher and what makes James a good interviewer? [40:50]
Does Stephen think he could take Malcolm Gladwell in a fist fight? [42:24]
How will South Korea’s entry into the cryptocurrency game affect the dynamic of the market? [43:17]
What actual influence does a US president have on the economy? [46:13]
How will technology such as VR (virtual reality) affect education? [51:48]
What’s the best way to teach kids how to develop critical thinking and ask unusual questions? [56:55]
What Stephen learned from stamp collecting. [1:01:32]

People Mentioned

Steven D. Levitt
Malcolm Gladwell
James Altucher
Moses
Adam and Eve
Jesus
Gilgamesh
William Shakespeare
Pauly Shore
Jack Gallant
Jonathan Yardley
Ring Lardner
Tavis Smiley
Eric Posner
Richard Posner
James Madison
Joel Rose
Solomon Dubner

Tools of Titans Foreword — Arnold Schwarzenegger!!! “I Am Not A Self-Made Man”

Speaking as a Long Island kid raised on Commando and Predator, this post is a dream come true.

Arnold Schwarzenegger–the freaking Terminator–was kind enough to write the Foreword for Tools of Titans. Whaaat?! Seriously, I have to pinch myself.

The more time I spend with Arnold and his team, the more impressed I am.  The more I study his life, the more I want to think bigger, stretch my limits, and smile at the naysayers of life. His habits, decisions, philosophies, and routines are endlessly fascinating, which I explore in ToT.

Arnold, thank you. Danke sehr!

Now, without further ado, here is the Foreword for Tools of Titans by Arnold, which could also be titled “I Am Not A Self-Made Man.”

Enter Arnold

I am not a self-made man.

Every time I give a speech at a business conference, or speak to college students, or do a Reddit AMA, someone says it.

“Governor/Governator/Arnold/Arnie/Schwarzie/Schnitzel (depending on where I am), as a self-made man, what’s your blueprint for success?”

They’re always shocked when I thank them for the compliment but say, “I am not a self-made man. I got a lot of help.”

It is true that I grew up in Austria without plumbing. It is true that I moved to America alone with just a gym bag. And it is true that I worked as a bricklayer and invested in real estate to become a millionaire before I ever swung the sword in Conan the Barbarian.

But it is not true that I am self-made. Like everyone, to get to where I am, I stood on the shoulders of giants. My life was built on a foundation of parents, coaches, and teachers; of kind souls who lent couches or gym back rooms where I could sleep; of mentors who shared wisdom and advice; of idols who motivated me from the pages of magazines (and, as my life grew, from personal interaction).

I had a big vision, and I had fire in my belly. But I would never have gotten anywhere without my mother helping me with my homework (and smacking me when I wasn’t ready to study), without my father telling me to “be useful,” without teachers who explained how to sell, or without coaches who taught me the fundamentals of weight lifting.

If I had never seen a magazine with Reg Park on the cover and read about his transition from Mr. Universe to playing Hercules on the big screen, I might still be yodeling in the Austrian Alps. I knew I wanted to leave Austria, and I knew that America was exactly where I belonged, but Reg put fuel on the fire and gave me my blueprint.

Joe Weider brought me to America and took me under his wing, promoting my bodybuilding career and teaching me about business. Lucille Ball took a huge chance and called me to guest star in a special that was my first big break in Hollywood. And in 2003, without the help of 4,206,284 Californians, I would never have been elected Governor of the great state of California.

So how can I ever claim to be self-made? To accept that mantle discounts every person and every piece of advice that got me here. And it gives the wrong impression — that you can do it alone.

I couldn’t. And odds are, you can’t either.

We all need fuel. Without the assistance, advice, and inspiration of others, the gears of our mind grind to a halt, and we’re stuck with nowhere to go. I have been blessed to find mentors and idols at every step of my life, and I’ve been lucky to meet many of them.

From Joe Weider to Nelson Mandela, from Mikhail Gorbachev to Muhammad Ali, from Andy Warhol to George H.W. Bush, I have never been shy about seeking wisdom from others to pour fuel on my fire.

You have probably listened to Tim’s podcasts. (I particularly recommend the one with the charming bodybuilder with the Austrian accent.) He has used his platform to bring you the wisdom of a diverse cast of characters in business, entertainment, and sports. I bet you’ve learned something from them — and oftentimes, I bet you picked up something you didn’t expect.

Whether it’s a morning routine, or a philosophy or training tip, or just motivation to get through your day, there isn’t a person on this planet who doesn’t benefit from a little outside help. I’ve always treated the world as my classroom, soaking up lessons and stories to fuel my path forward. I hope you do the same.

The worst thing you can ever do is think that you know enough.

Never stop learning. Ever.

That’s why you bought this book. You know that wherever you are in life, there will be moments when you need outside motivation and insight. There will be times when you don’t have the answer, or the drive, and you’re forced to look beyond yourself.

You can admit that you can’t do it alone. I certainly can’t. No one can.

Now, turn the page and learn something.

— Arnold Schwarzenegger

###

Tools of Titans is available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Books-A-Million, iBooks, Indiebound, Indigo, and more.

Charles Poliquin – His Favorite Mass-Building Program, His Nighttime Routine For Better Sleep, and Much More

“If you’re 80% good and 20% terrible, you can’t expect to have 100% results.”

– Charles Poliquin

Charles Poliquin is back for another round of the podcast. Charles (@strengthsensei) is one of the best known strength coaches in the world. He has trained elite athletes from nearly 20 different sports, including Olympic gold medalists, NFL All-Pro’s, NHL All-Stars and Stanley Cup champions, and IFBB bodybuilding champions. His clients include long-jump gold medalist Dwight Phillips, NHL MVP Chris Pronger, and MLB batting champion Edgar Martinez, and the first women’s wrestling US Olympic gold medalist Helen Maroulis, among many others.

And as I creep up towards episode #200, his first appearance on the podcast is still one of the top-15 most listened to episodes, and he’s constantly requested by listeners for a round 2.

In this episode, you to play host, and I selected your most popular questions on Facebook and Twitter. This time, Charles goes deep on several topics, including:

His favorite mass building program of all-time
Recommendations for older lifters
His latest thoughts on hormones and diet
How to differentiate a bad trainer from a good one, and a good one from the “best of the best”
His nighttime routine for improving sleep
Why most people screw up abdominal training
Ketosis and muscle gain
And much, much more!

Enjoy!

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another episode with Charles Poliquin?  — Listen his first appearance on the podcast. In this episode, we discuss, muscle-building techniques, how to become stronger, warmup routines, why people struggle to lose fat, and more (stream below or right-click here to download):

This podcast is brought to you by Rhone Apparel. Dozens — maybe even hundreds of you — have asked me: “What shirts are you wearing in your recent YouTube videos?” They’re a very specific set of shirts from Rhone. I’m packing for a trip for seven to ten days, and I would say half of what I’m going to pack is from Rhone. These are the most comfortable shirts (and Rhone stocks way more than shirts) that I have ever worn — at least for active wear. But you can even sneak them into a business casual event or dinner if you’re a Long Island kid like me.

Rhone has minimal branding, so you don’t feel like you’re walking around with some sort of billboard on your chest. They come with pure, melted-down silver in the fabric — anti-odor technology so you don’t smell like a musk ox halfway through the day. I love Rhone’s shirts, pants, and shorts, and I’ve been wearing them pretty much every day for the past few weeks. Luckily, there’s no risk in trying them out: free shipping and a 100-day return policy should help you decide if they’re worth it. Plus, listeners get an exclusive 15% off for using the code TIM at checkout. Find ’em at rhone.com/tim.

This podcast is also brought to you by TrunkClub. I hate shopping with a passion. And honestly, I’m not good at it, which means I end up looking like I’m colorblind or homeless. Enter TrunkClub, which provides you with your own personal stylist and makes it easier than ever to shop for clothes that look great on your body.

Visit trunkclub.com/tim, answer a few questions, and then you’ll be sent a trunk full of awesome clothes. They base this on your sizes, preferences, etc. The trunk is then delivered and you only pay for clothes that you keep. To get started, check it out at trunkclub.com/tim.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

Connect with Charles Poliquin:

StrengthSensei.com | Facebook | YouTube | Google+ | Twitter | Instagram

Charles Poliquin on Strength Training, Shredding Body Fat, and Increasing Testosterone and Sex Drive (Charles’s first appearance on this show)
Charles Poliquin’s favorite mass building routine
Charles’s recommended resources
Dinosaur Training Secrets by Brooks D. Kubik
Training Gains That Keep Coming: A Primer on Periodization That Works by Charles Poliquin, Strength Sensei (an explanation of accumulation vs. intensification phases)
Charles recommends Gotu Kola capsules for repairing stretch marks.
Prevention of Overuse Injuries in Strength Training — Updated by Charles Poliquin, Strength Sensei
What is chelation therapy?
Some of the reputable gyms Charles mentions: UP (Ultimate Performance), Shredded Strength Institute, Wolf Gate, and Average Broz’s
IDEA Health and Fitness Association
For sleep improvement, Charles recommends magnesium threonate and theanine
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
What is the Preferred Ratio of DHA/EPA in Supplements?, DHA-EPA Omega-3 Institute
Charles’s suggested fish oil is OmegAvail
Squats — The Facts by Charles Poliquin, Strength Sensei
Television Watching and “Sit Time,” Harvard School of Public Health (studies showing correlation between screen time and obesity)
The Last Samurai
Cluster Training: A Novel Method for Introducing Training Program Variation, Strength and Conditioning Journal
Jailhouse Strong by Josh Bryant and Adam benShea
What is cryotherapy?
5 Things I Learned at Charles Poliquin’s Advanced Program Design Seminar by Stefan Ianev.
Video: Busting Through Plateaus in Squat Training — Updated by Charles Poliquin, Strength Sensei
Helen Maroulis Wins USA’s First Gold Medal in Women’s Wrestling by Shawn Smith, NBCUniversal
When learning a new language, Charles favors the Pimsleur Method and restaurant menus.

Show Notes

Advice for older (40+) lifters. Is it all downhill from here? [06:44]
How can you test your insulin sensitivity to determine if you’re lean enough to make good use of carbs or not? [09:33]
What’s Charles’s best routine for gaining mass? [11:16]
What dosage of Gotu Kola does Charles recommend for repairing stretch marks? [14:00]
What injuries has Charles had to deal with over a career of maximizing swolertrophy (aka muscle hypertrophy) — and how does he treat them? [14:32]
With YouTube giving so many so-called strength training “experts” a soapbox, how do we combat misinformation? [16:53]
What distinguishes a good personal trainer from a great personal trainer — and what’s the best way to get started? [19:53]
Which supplements does Charles recommend for improving sleep? [22:58]
Does Charles have any regrets? [23:27]
Is taking three-to-one EPA to DHA supplements worth it? [26:01]
What’s Charles’s beef against foam rolling? [27:38]
Does Charles have a go-to lifting plan for body transformation? [29:23]
How do we know which supplements are more effective — or if they work at all? [30:36]
When squatting: high bar or low bar? Type of shoes? With or without a belt? [32:50]
Why something as simple as chewing can have an impact on your weight goals. [34:08]
Is there a way to combine strength training and long cardio sessions? [40:01]
What’s the use of scientific knowledge if it’s not put to practical use? [41:35]
Is a trainer who can’t get a woman to do 12 pull-ups in 12 weeks a bad trainer? [47:05]
How would Charles prioritize sleep, food, and exercise? [47:50]
Are there any benefits to cryotherapy for the average person? [49:12]
Top things Charles has learned in the last two years. [51:25]
What does Charles know that’s not well-known among the scientific community? [53:08]
For someone who wants to start coaching in the strength and conditioning world, is there something more beneficial than certifications? [53:55]
Thoughts on intermittent fasting for trying to gain lean muscle. [55:35]
What is the most effective and efficient way to increase strength in a squat and deadlift after you hit a plateau? [56:53]
What “big idea” has Charles recently changed his mind about? [58:40]
What new insights did Charles gain training women wrestlers Helen Maroulis and Elena Pirozhkova for the Olympic games in Rio? [1:00:09]
His process for learning new languages. [1:04:59]
Favorite books. [1:08:27]
Charles discusses his “one thing.” [1:08:49]
What is Charles most proud of? [1:10:16]

People Mentioned

Dwight Phillips
Chris Pronger
Edgar Martinez
Helen Maroulis
Brooks Kubik
Ed Coan
Robert Rakowski
Josh Bryant
Paul Carter
Nick Mitchell
Gary Vaynerchuk
Barry Sears
Matt Wenning
Arnold Schwarzenegger
John Meadows
Dave Tate
Ben Prentiss
Bill Starr
John Broz
Elena Pirozhkova
John Berardi

Drunk Dialing — Ladies Night Edition!

By request, we have another drunk dialing episode (the most recent one can be found here, and the original can be found here).

This one is a little different as it’s a Ladies Night edition. Some of you may have noticed that ladies were absent from the last drunk dialing fiasco. Why? It’s just math. Looking at the results of a recent poll of 11,463 respondents, my audience is 84.04% male, 15.83% female, and .13% other.

The people who sign up first get called first. The last time, 3 out of the 20, which is exactly 15%, were female. Unfortunately, those women (and several guys) did not pick up.

This time around, I decided to try the “ladies night” format. In this episode, we discuss:

Language learning
Exercising with (or around) injuries
Viral marketing
Handstands and handstand training
How I decide my experiments (and what gets shared afterward)
Teaching disabilities vs. learning disabilities
The craft of writing: common mistakes, goals, etc.

Please enjoy!

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another episode when I’m drunk? — Listen to my 100th podcast. In this episode, we discuss tantric sex, how I view and organize my various income streams, marketing yourself in job interviews, and much, much more (stream below or right-click here to download):

This podcast is brought to you by Vimeo Business. Vimeo Business has all of the prior benefits of Vimeo Pro, including VIP support. Whether you make videos for a living, run your own company, or simply want to amp up your video marketing, Vimeo Business is here to help. It has more than 280 million creators and viewers worldwide and makes it easier to share your videos with a global audience and connect with professional video makers to bring your stories to life.

Vimeo Business allows you to upload up to five terabytes and store your videos in one secure place, add up to 10 team members to your account for easy collaboration, and gather feedback with seamless review tools. You can even add clickable calls to action and capture email addresses directly in the player, which can help you generate leads and drive conversion for whatever you’re trying to optimize, such as a newsletter or a sales page. Check out vimeo.com/tim10 to save 10 percent on Vimeo Business.

This podcast is also brought to you by FreshBooks. FreshBooks is a bookkeeping software, which is used by a ton of the start-ups I advise and many of the contractors I work with. It is the easiest way to send invoices, get paid, track your time, and track your clients.

FreshBooks tells you when your clients have viewed your invoices, helps you customize your invoices, track your hours, automatically organize your receipts, have late payment reminders sent automatically and much more.

Right now you can get a free month of complete and unrestricted use. You do not need a credit card for the trial. To claim your free month, go to FreshBooks.com/Tim and enter “Tim” in the “how did you hear about us section.”

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

Drink of choice fueling this episode: Hendrick’s Gin and Canada Dry Club Soda
The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat Loss, Incredible Sex and Becoming Superhuman by Timothy Ferriss
This is what a hex bar looks like.
Total Immersion: How I Learned to Swim Effortlessly in 10 Days and You Can Too
Body by Science: A Research-Based Program for Strength Training, Body building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week byJohn Little and Doug McGuff
GymnasticBodies
Hardcore History — Wrath of the Khans Series with Dan Carlin
Hardcore History — Prophets of Doom with Dan Carlin
The Loom of Language: An Approach to the Mastery of Many Languages by Frederick Bodmer and Lancelot Thomas Hogben
In Other Words: The Science and Psychology of Second-Language Acquisition by Ellen Bialystok and Kenji Hakuta
One Piece Box Set: East Blue and Baroque Works, Volumes 1-23 by Eiichiro Oda
Cowboy Bebop comics
Die Hard
12 Rules for Learning Foreign Languages in Record Time — The Only Post You’ll Ever Need
Phrase Origins: Where Does the Saying “There’s More Than One Way to Skin a Cat” Come From? via Quora
AJATT | All Japanese All The Time
Anki, Duolingo, and Memrise are excellent virtual aids to learning languages; I use physical flash cards from Vis-Ed.
The Rideau Canal Skateway and BeaverTails in Ottawa
1,000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! by Al Ries and Jack Trout
Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
Learn How to Do a Handstand — Cast Handstand Wall Walks via GymnasticBodies
Athletic Playground in Emeryville
Infobesity, aka information overload
My Life Extension Pilgrimage to Easter Island (lots of stuff on rapamycin and metformin)
Resveratrol
KetoForce
What is the Ketogenic Diet? by The Charlie Foundation
How to Lose 100 Pounds on The Slow-Carb Diet — Real Pics and Stories
The Art and Science of Learning Anything Faster
Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks by Ben Goldacre
10 Signs You’re Not Cut Out to Be an Entrepreneur Stephanie Vozza, Entrepreneur
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
How to Surf Life: Attorney Turned Surf Guru
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber
Secrets of Power Negotiating, 15th Anniversary Edition: Inside Secrets from a Master Negotiator by Roger Dawson
Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situations by William Ury
On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser
Husk in Charleston
The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz
Blogging Without Killing Yourself (my talk from WordCamp San Francisco 2009)
Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Timothy Ferriss
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson
Levels of the Game by John McPhee
John McPhee, The Art of Nonfiction No. 3 interviewed by Peter Hessler, The Paris Review
Writing with the Master — The Magic of John McPhee
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
Stoicism Resources and Recommendations
The Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr
The Eternal Magic of Beirut by Michael Specter,The New York Times Style Magazine

Show Notes

How do you exercise or stay active around a permanent or long-term injury? [06:02]
Good podcasts for long walks. [17:43]
Advice for studying multiple languages simultaneously. [19:22]
Thoughts on viral marketing and niche creation. [37:44]
How do you graduate to moving away from the wall when you’re learning handstands? [42:25]
How do I choose my projects and experiments? [46:51]
Learning disabilities vs. teaching disabilities. [1:01:26]
Comparing entrepreneurial and investing experiences, which has (so far) proven most rewarding? [1:05:18]
How do you switch gears to make the transition from employee to entrepreneur? [1:09:25]
If I were to do it all over again, what would I change first? [1:13:36]
Good advice for new and aspiring writers — along with some all-too-common bad advice. [1:17:17]
Why have I never done a traditional book tour? [1:26:03]
How do I optimize my life for efficiency and keep enjoying the novelty of discovery without burning out? [1:33:55]
Don’t optimize what you enjoy; savor what you enjoy. [1:42:44]

People Mentioned

Doug McGuff
Chris Sommer
Dan Carlin
Benny Lewis
Michel Thomas
Ed Cooke
Andrew Chen
Andy Johns
Kevin Kelly
Seth Godin
Sam Luckey
Eric Weinstein
Navdeep Chandel
Liz Morrow
Glennon Doyle Melton
Jenny Lawson
Lori Deschene
Stephen Dubner
Elizabeth Gilbert
Cheryl Strayed
Oprah Winfrey
Mark Manson
John McPhee
Marcus Aurelius
Seneca
Epictetus

Meet the Machine, Dave Camarillo

“Rocket science is not rocket science if you’re a rocket scientist.” 

– Dave Camarillo

Dave Camarillo (@DaveCamarillo) was my long-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) coach (see him kicking my ass repeatedly here). Put simply, he is a machine.

On the Mat once said: “It’s funny that everybody in Judo is scared of David’s ne waza and everybody in Jiu-Jitsu is scared of his stand up. (We) guess people, in general, are just scared of him.”

Dave is a very technical coach and an elite-level Jiu-Jitsu competitor. He dominated the lightweight and open weight classes at the 1998 Rickson Gracie American Jiu-Jitsu Association tournament; the legendary Rickson Gracie himself bestowed the honor of Most Technical American Jiu-Jitsu Fighter upon him.

He has worked not only with people on the ground game, but many recognizable MMA (mixed martial arts) figures as a coach and as a corner man.

We’ll delve into:

Tactical training
Military training
Hockey fights
Defending yourself armed only with a flashlight
How Dave’s mom is the best sniping shot in the entire family
And much, much more.

Enjoy!

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another episode with an incredible athlete?  — Listen to this interview with Amelia Boone, who has been called the Michael Jordan of obstacle course racing (OCR). In this episode, she explores her training, nutrition, rehab, “pre-hab,” and more (stream below or right-click here to download):

This podcast is brought to you by Audible. I have used Audible for years, and I love audiobooks. I have two to recommend:

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Vagabonding by Rolf Potts

All you need to do to get your free 30-day Audible trial is go to Audible.com/Tim. Choose one of the above books, or choose any of the endless options they offer. That could be a book, a newspaper, a magazine, or even a class. It’ s that easy. Go to Audible.com/Tim and get started today. Enjoy.

This podcast is also brought to you by Vimeo Business. Vimeo Business has all of the prior benefits of Vimeo Pro, including VIP support. Whether you make videos for a living, run your own company, or simply want to amp up your video marketing, Vimeo Business is here to help. It has more than 280 million creators and viewers worldwide and makes it easier to share your videos with a global audience and connect with professional video makers to bring your stories to life.

Vimeo Business allows you to upload up to five terabytes and store your videos in one secure place, add up to 10 team members to your account for easy collaboration, and gather feedback with seamless review tools. You can even add clickable calls to action and capture email addresses directly in the player, which can help you generate leads and drive conversion for whatever you’re trying to optimize, such as a newsletter or a sales page. Check out vimeo.com/tim10 to save 10 percent on Vimeo Business.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

Connect with Dave Camarillo:

Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Position Impossible Podcast

Submit Everyone: The Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu Files: Classified Field Manual for Becoming a Submission-focused Fighter by Kevin Howell and Dave Camarillo
How To Simplify Your Love Life (video explaining how I outsourced dating thanks to Dave’s inspiration)
Combat sports mentioned: Mixed Martial Arts, Judo, Kickboxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Wrestling, Boxing, Kung Fu, Krav Maga, and Muay Thai
Hip-Hop Chess Federation
Judo terms mentioned: Tachi waza (standing), Ne waza (ground), Esae komi, Mate, and Uchikomi (more here)
Ralph Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy
What is shocknife training?
Modern Army Combatives Program (MACP)
Dave’s mother doesn’t need her son’s help for self-defense — she’s a crack shot.
Steve MacIntyre Fights Whole Team (see the dreaded hockey player in action)
In boxing, what does “in the pocket” mean?
Bloodsport
SureFire flashlights
What does Dave mean when he asks if I want to do “Judo Randori?”
Tomoe Nage Demonstration by Kashiwazaki
Pancrase: Masakatsu Funaki vs. Wayne (Ken) Shamrock (King)
Rorion Gracie and the Day He Created the UFC by Guilherme Cruz, MMA Fighting
WEC 53 Anthony Pettis Matrix Kick
Jocko Willink on Real Martial Arts
The Camarillo Brothers Sparring
Jiu-Jitsu Studio Owner Recreates Heroic Act by Kelli Johnson, ABC News Bakersfield
Camarillo Jiu Jitsu
Momento trailer
Ozzy Man Reviews: MMA 9 Second Knockout
International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation
Searching for Bobby Fischer
The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz
The 80/20 Principle and 92 Other Powerful Laws of Nature: The Science of Success by Richard Koch
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber
Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger
Gratitude by Oliver Sacks
Less Is More: An Anthology of Ancient & Modern Voices Raised in Praise of Simplicity by Goldian VandenBroeck
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
Japanese Chess: The Game of Shogi by Trevor Leggett
Dune by Frank Herbert
Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
The Art Of War by Sun Tzu
On War by Carl von Clausewitz
Repentless by Slayer
Tool
1999 by Prince
Batman by Prince
Shaun of the Dead
Just Friends
Hot Fuzz
The Thing
Dave says Taipei is “like Japan, but the Chinese version of Shinjuku.”
About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior by Colonel David H. Hackworth and Julie Sherman
Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton
The Tail End by Tim Urban, Wait But Why
To Gi or Not To Gi: Differences Between Gi & No-Gi Grappling by Valerie Worthington, Breaking Muscle
Flying Kimura
Black Arrow Martial Arts
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Show Notes

Dave takes in my house. [05:35]
We met at an MMA event punctuated by mass hysteria, a stabbing, and SWAT police. [05:57]
Dave was the (usually unnamed) inspiration behind outsourcing my love life. [08:26]
Dave on using martial arts as a problem-solving framework and what’s been keeping him busy lately. [10:37]
MMA fighters Dave has cornered. [11:50]
How should a beginner approach Jiu-Jitsu? [16:32]
Three basic guard principles for staying ahead of the curve and controlling an opponent in a fight. [18:21]
Key differences between Judo and Jiu-Jitsu. [19:42]
Are there elements of Judo that Dave still applies to Jiu-Jitsu lessons? [21:31]
The difference between tachi waza and ne waza. [21:58]
On the benefits of cross training, how it helped Travis Stevens in the 2016 Olympics, and how it keeps a fighter’s repertoire flexible for when he or she needs it most. [22:39]
Dave talks about his first exposure to Jiu-Jitsu at 19 and how it instantly became something he had to do “for the rest of [his] life.” [24:10]
What is shocknife training? [25:39]
How Dave confidently transfers his martial arts problem solving skills to unfamiliar situations and environments. [29:47]
What Dave learned about hockey fights from Steve MacIntyre. [34:07]
How do you defend yourself if you’re only armed with a flashlight? [39:53]
The importance of situational awareness and knowing how to avoid danger in self-defense. [44:22]
Dave’s advice to people who can’t easily avoid danger. [47:06]
Learning to get comfortable under stress (in self-defense and stand-up comedy). [48:36]
What fighting discipline would Dave recommend for (as an example) a 35-year-old, non-military, semi-athletic woman in a bad San Francisco neighborhood looking to defend herself? [51:11]
Dave bounces his own parties — don’t make him go hands on. [53:24]
Is Jiu-Jitsu the greatest martial art? [58:10]
Unlike many other sparring arts, Jiu-Jitsu isn’t just a young person’s game. [1:00:13]
What is Dave’s go-to Judo technique for throws? [1:01:43]
The properly executed foot sweep looks like a magic trick. [1:05:01]
Dave describes what it’s like to corner a professional fighter in a competition. [1:10:32]
Thanks to the way his parents raised him, martial arts became as natural as brushing teeth at an early age. [1:12:40]
Dave talks about the time his brother Dan brought a fugitive to justice. [1:13:30]
The risks of being a real-life vigilante. [1:14:50]
“Simple” help a corner can provide to a fighter during a competition. [1:17:22]
How have Dave’s experiences had an impact on his parenting style? [1:23:28]
Who has impressed Dave the most as a Jiu-Jitsu sparring partner? [1:27:02]
Why does Dave call Marcelo Garcia “The GOAT?” [1:31:45]
Books Dave has gifted the most. [1:34:05]
When you’re working out, you can always count on Slayer and Tool. [1:36:22]
Movies we love. [1:38:05]
Sometimes the teacher learns a shocking lesson from the student. [1:41:24]
On becoming, as Jim Rohn once said, the average of the five people you associate with most. [1:47:26]
What would Dave’s billboard say? [1:49:15]
Dave’s three favorite holidays. [1:49:36]
Dave tells us about how he elevates his mood. [1:50:10]
We talk about happier spending and the pricelessness of family time. [1:51:24]
What advice would Dave give his 30-year-old self? [1:54:21]

People Mentioned

Dan Gable
Molly the Dog
Cain Velasquez
Jon Fitch
Josh Koscheck
Mike Swick
Daniel Cormier
Travis Stevens
Ralph Gracie
Linda Camarillo
Jim Camarillo
Steve MacIntyre
Andre the Giant
Angus MacGyver
Whitney Cummings
James T. Kirk
Katsuhiko Kashiwazaki
Ken Shamrock
Flavio Canto
Rorion Gracie
Anthony Pettis
Jose Aldo Junior
Jocko Willink
Bob Cook
Dan Camarillo
Marcelo Garcia
Rafael Mendes
Josh Waitzkin
B.J. Penn
Michael Jordan
Wayne Gretzky
Mike Tyson
Sebastian Junger
Carl von Clausewitz
Prince
Ryan Reynolds
John Carpenter
Kurt Russell
Jim Rohn
Tim Urban
Matt Mullenweg
Jared Feierabend

My Breakfast Routine Before Workouts

I’ve been experimenting with different breakfast options for decades.

In 1998-1999, it was at least 80% fat while on a while on a Cyclic Ketogenic Diet (CKD). For the last 12 years, I’ve mostly consumed Slow-Carb Diet options shared in The 4-Hour Body (e.g. like this low-carb, high-protein, breakfast you can make in under 3 minutes, though I now use whole eggs).

I occasionally experiment with intermittent fasting, and the video below shares my current super-light breakfast that I use before most training and early morning travel. If hypertrophy (adding muscle) is my main objective, I still default to Slow-Carb and 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking.

Enjoy!

Here are some of the products I mention in this video:

KetoForce
C8 oil (I used Brain Octane in this video)
Tera’s whey
Hydrolyzed gelatin/collagen (Great Lakes)
Super Beets or Beet Elite
Pu-erh tea (here’s one brand I enjoy)
Canned sardines

David “DHH” Heinemeier Hansson: The Power of Being Outspoken

Photo credit: Jiri Krenek

“It’s not about being eight hours in an office. It’s about increasing the quality of the hours that you spend.”

– David “DHH” Heinemeier Hansson

David “DHH” Heinemeier Hansson (@dhh) is the creator of Ruby on Rails, founder and CTO at Basecamp (formerly 37signals), and the best-selling co-author of Rework and Remote: Office Not Required. Oh, and he went from not having a driver’s license at 25 to winning, at 34, the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, one of the most prestigious automobile races in the world. It is often called the “Grand Prix of endurance and efficiency.”

David is one of the most outspoken technologists out there. He is not one to hide his opinions or mince words.

In this episode, we cover a lot, including…

The power of being outspoken
Running a profitable business without venture capital
Stoic philosophy
Flow space
Parallels across disciplines
DHH’s rules for creating excellence
And much, much more…

If you only have 5 minutes, listen to DHH’s tips on cultivating a sustainable work/life balance.

Please enjoy my conversation with DHH!

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another episode with an entrepreneur balancing family life? — Listen to this interview with Shay Carl. In this episode, he shares his thoughts on the future of ad revenue, how he balances capturing the moment vs. experiencing the moment, his greatest obstacles in life, and lessons learned as a father (stream below or right-click here to download):

This podcast is brought to you by Four Sigmatic. I reached out to these Finnish entrepreneurs after a very talented acrobat introduced me to one of their products, which blew my mind (in the best way possible). It is mushroom coffee featuring 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 put me on fire for an entire day, and I only had half of the packet.

People are always asking me what I use for cognitive enhancement right now, this is the answer. You can try it right now by going to foursigmatic.com/tim and using the code Tim to get 20 percent off your first order. If you are in the experimental mindset, I do not think you’ll be disappointed.

This podcast is also brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service led by technologists from places like Apple. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it’s all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams.

Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they’ll show you for free the exact portfolio they’d put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Well worth a few minutes to explore: wealthfront.com/tim.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

Connect with DHH:

Website | The Distance Podcast | Twitter | Instagram | Medium | Basecamp | Ruby on Rails

Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Remote: Office Not Required by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
The Art of Strategic Laziness by Shane Snow (guest post featuring DHH’s learning process)
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
24 Hours of Le Mans
20 of Our Favourite Retro Racing Games by BBC Top Gear
Levels of the Game by John McPhee
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis
What is flow?
Core Archery: Shooting With Proper Back Tension by Larry Wise
The Daily Rush (The last of the gaming sites David made around the turn of the millennium — and it’s still around!)
37signals
Bushnell’s Law
Ruby — “a programmer’s best friend”
Perl
Struts
From E-Commerce Expert to NFL Owner: How Gary Vee Is Positioning Himself to Buy the New York Jets by Chad Rubin, Skubana
I Am Elon Musk, Ask Me Anything about Becoming a Spacefaring Civ! (Reddit AMA)
Stoicism for Modern Stresses: 5 Lessons from Cato
The Day I Became a Millionaire by DHH, signalvnoise.com
37 Signals Takes Jeff Bezos Investment by Michael Arrington, TechCrunch
Moral Letters to Lucilius/Letter 18: On Festivals and Fasting by Seneca
Join 125+ other companies in taking the Work Can Wait pledge
The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life Makes It Hard to Be Happy by Michael Foley
It’s Always Your Fault by DHH, Medium
A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine
Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes by Alfie Kohn
The Myth of the Spoiled Child: Coddled Kids, Helicopter Parents, and Other Phony Crises by Alfie Kohn
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders by L. David Marquet and Stephen R. Covey
The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution by Francis Fukuyama
Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy by Francis Fukuyama
Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace by Ricardo Semler
Comedian (documentary with Jerry Seinfeld)
The Big Short (movie)
Montage of Heck
New Rules — Real Time with Bill Maher
Hardcore History — Wrath of the Khans Series with Dan Carlin
Common Sense with Dan Carlin
Casey Neistat’s Boosted Boards
David considers his Leica M 240 “not just a good camera, but a freaking amazing camera.”
Understanding Exposure, Fourth Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera by Bryan Peterson
Composed Method by Kent Beck
Coding: It’s Just Writing by Jeff Atwood, Coding Horror

Show Notes

David and I talk about how we first met. [07:29]
How did David go from not having a driver’s license to racing cars? [09:17]
What did David do differently compared to others when learning to drive? [15:35]
Everything’s interesting if you dig deep enough — whether it’s a driver’s manual or writing code. [17:09]
David describes the flow state he experiences when racing vs. the flow state he experiences while programming. [21:28]
David’s big aha moment that changed his perspective and brought about the development of Ruby on Rails. [37:13]
Is picking up a programming language akin to learning a new human language? [46:59]
David talks about Ruby on Rails and why experienced programmers find it instantly familiar. [49:09]
Is it more satisfying to be a jack of all trades than a master of one? [53:28]
David talks about the start of his business ventures with Jason Fried and their first principles [1:03:28]
David on keeping his business small and streamlined without being negligent. [1:09:24]
Does David consider himself a happy person? [1:18:34]
“Expectations — not outcomes — govern the happiness of your perceived reality.” [1:27:00]
How David and Jason went from the stance of eschewing venture capital to accepting money from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. [1:31:49]
For most captains of industry, doing interesting work and taking on new challenges is far more gratifying than retiring. [1:36:06]
How is money like alcohol? [1:38:33]
What Seneca had to say on the subject of negative visualization. [1:39:22]
What has Jeff Bezos gained by investing in Basecamp? [1:40:42]
On cultivating sustainable work/life balance habits [1:43:50]
Bad luck vs. bad planning [1:54:21]
How is David’s “almost pathological” distaste for repeating work part of what makes him a good programmer? [2:01:03]
Books David has been enjoying. [2:05:56]
How does David know when he’s being a good parent — and what common mistakes does he see other parents making? [2:10:55]
What are the habits that have helped David develop empathy — and convey it — as a parent? [2:24:10]
Who comes to mind when David thinks of the word “successful?” [2:28:21]
Does David have any business idols? [2:31:15]
Does meeting your heroes ever live up to your expectations? [2:33:55]
David’s favorite documentaries and movies. [2:38:25]
Books David has gifted and recommended most. [2:42:17]
David’s favorite podcasts. [2:44:25]
David’s purchase of $100 or less that has had the most positive impact on his life in recent memory. [2:46:29]
David’s most worthwhile investment of money, time, or energy. [2:52:08]
Resources that have helped David improve as a photographer. [2:56:52]
What is beautiful code? [2:59:18]
What advice would David give his younger self? [3:14:15]
Does David have a favorite failure? [3:17:05]

People Mentioned

Seth Godin
Jason Fried
Tom Kristensen
John McPhee
Arthur Ashe
Clark Graebner
Michael Lewis
Martin Fowler
Chad Fowler
Scott Adams
Michael Jordan
Marc Andreessen
Nolan Bushnell
Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto
Gary Vaynerchuk
Elon Musk
Jeff Bezos
Coco Chanel
Jerry Colonna
Seneca
Alfie Kohn
Patton Oswalt
Ricardo Semler
Richard Branson
Warren Buffett
Steve Jobs
Jerry Seinfeld
Bill Maher
Dan Carlin
Casey Neistat
Amelia Boone
Steve Huff
Tobi Lütke
Upton Sinclair
Yoda
Jack Ma

TOOLS OF TITANS — Sample Chapter and a Taste of Things to Come

This blog post will share the first chapter in my new book, Tools of Titans. It’s been nearly five years since my last book.

But before we get to that, a short story…

Three weeks before my book deadline, I was burning the midnight oil on rural Long Island. I’d set up a treadmill desk and purchased endless supplies of yerba mate tea, powdered MCT oil, and other assorted goodies to keep me sharp at 3am.

Joining me in the insanity was Kamal Ravikant, a close friend. He’d just finished his first novel and volunteered to help proofread chapters with fresh eyes. During our first day together, we rotated between reading, editing, and sauna breaks.

Kamal was uncharacteristically quiet, which made me nervous.

Had I screwed up the structure? Were the profiles hard to read? He kept his eyes on the screen, and I kept my insecurities to myself. We continued into dusk and, soon, it was dark outside. Eventually, we popped a bottle of wine in the living room to relax for 30 minutes before diving back in. It was at this point that I couldn’t help myself — I asked Kamal how his proofing was going. He paused, smiled, and looked at me:

“You know, Tim, I’ve given The 4-Hour Workweek and The 4-Hour Body to specific friends. One might want to start a business, another might want to lose a few pounds. But my God… This book applies to everyone.”

I smiled and he took a swig of wine:

“I mean, look,” he pointed at his phone, “I’ve been taking notes on new things to do and try, starting tomorrow. I’ve ordered 11 things on Amazon Prime so I can start using them as soon as I get home. There is so much gold here. The truth is that I feel like I’ve already improved. I’d buy it for anyone, even my mom.”

Flash forward to today — I couldn’t be happier with how Tools of Titans has turned out.

Just three notes before the sample chapter:

– Even if you’ve heard every podcast episode, there is a ton of new content in this book. New recommendations and details from past guests, new “guests” you haven’t heard, new content from me, and much more.

– I rarely make direct “asks,” but I will here. If you’ve benefited from any of my work in the past, including the blog (700+ free posts) or podcast (~200 free episodes), please grab Tools of Titans for yourself and consider it for your family, friends, or employees. It’s one hell of a holiday gift. I can promise you that. It delivers.

– I am NOT planning on doing an audiobook version anytime soon. More to come on this, as I have some crazy ideas, but suffice to say: don’t wait for audio. Please grab the print and/or ebook version, and don’t miss the illustrations.

Now, please enjoy this little sample to whet your appetite…

READ THIS FIRST—HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

“Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center. Big, undreamed-of things—the people on the edge see them first.”

— Kurt Vonnegut

“Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.”

— W.H. Auden

I’m a compulsive note-taker.

To wit, I have recorded nearly every workout since age 18 or so. Roughly 8 feet of shelf space in my home is occupied by spine upon spine of notebook upon notebook. That, mind you, is one subject. It extends to dozens. Some people would call this OCD, and many would consider it a manic wild goose chase. I view it simply: It is the collection of my life’s recipes.

My goal is to learn things once and use them forever.

For instance, let’s say I stumble upon a picture of myself from June 5, 2007, and I think, “I really wish I looked like that again.” No problem. I’ll crack open a dusty volume from 2007, review the 8 weeks of training and food logs preceding June 5, repeat them, and—voilà—end up looking nearly the same as my younger self (minus the hair). It’s not always that easy, but it often is.

This book, like my others, is a compendium of recipes for high performance that I gathered for my own use. There’s one big difference, though—I never planned on publishing this one.

As I write this, I’m sitting in a café in Paris overlooking the Luxembourg Garden, just off of Rue Saint-Jacques. Rue Saint-Jacques is likely the oldest road in Paris, and it has a rich literary history. Victor Hugo lived a few blocks from where I’m sitting. Gertrude Stein drank coffee and F. Scott Fitzgerald socialized within a stone’s throw. Hemingway wandered up and down the sidewalks, his books percolating in his mind, wine no doubt percolating in his blood.

I came to France to take a break from everything. No social media, no email, no social commitments, no set plans . . . except for one project. The month had been set aside to review all of the lessons I’d learned from nearly 200 world-class performers I’d interviewed on The Tim Ferriss Show, which has more than 90,000,000 downloads. The guests included chess prodigies, movie stars, four-star generals, pro athletes, and hedge fund managers. It was a motley crew.

More than a handful of them had since become collaborators in business and creative projects, spanning from investments to indie film. As a result, I’d absorbed a lot of their wisdom outside of our recordings, whether over workouts, wine-infused jam sessions, text message exchanges, dinners, or late-night phone calls. In every case, I’d gotten to know them well beyond the superficial headlines in the media.

My life had already improved in every area as a result of the lessons I could remember. But that was the tip of the iceberg. The majority of the gems were still lodged in thousands of pages of transcripts and hand-scribbled notes. More than anything, I longed for the chance to distill everything into a playbook.

So, I’d set aside an entire month for review (and, if I’m being honest, pain au chocolat), to put together the ultimate CliffsNotes for myself. It would be the notebook to end all notebooks. Something that could help me in minutes but be read for a lifetime.

That was the lofty goal, at least, and I wasn’t sure what the result would be.

Within weeks of starting, the experience exceeded all expectations. No matter the situation I found myself in, something in this book was able to help. Now, when I’m feeling stuck, trapped, desperate, angry, conflicted, or simply unclear, the first thing I do is flip through these pages with a strong cup of coffee in hand. So far, the needed medicine has popped out within 20 minutes of revisiting these friends, who will now become your friends. Need a reassuring pat on the back? There’s someone for that. An unapologetic slap in the face? Plenty of people for that, too. Someone to explain why your fears are unfounded… or why your excuses are bullshit? Done.

There are a lot of powerful quotes, but this book is much more than a compilation of quotes. It is a toolkit for changing your life.

There are many books full of interviews. This is different because I don’t view myself as an interviewer. I view myself as an experimenter. If I can’t test something or replicate results in the messy reality of everyday life, I’m not interested. Everything in these pages has been vetted, explored, and applied to my own life in some fashion. I’ve used dozens of these tactics and philosophies in high-stakes negotiations, high-risk environments, or large business dealings. The lessons have made me millions of dollars and saved me years of wasted effort and frustration. They work when you need them most.

Some applications are obvious at first glance, while others are subtle and will provoke a “Holy shit, now I get it!” realization weeks later, while you’re daydreaming in the shower or about to fall asleep.

Many of the one-liners teach volumes. Some summarize excellence in an entire field in one sentence. As Josh Waitzkin (page 577), chess prodigy and the inspiration behind Searching for Bobby Fischer, might put it, these bite-sized learnings are a way to “learn the macro from the micro.” The process of piecing them together was revelatory. If I thought I saw “the Matrix” before, I was mistaken, or I was only seeing 10% of it. Still, even that 10%—“islands” of notes on individual mentors—had already changed my life and helped me 10x my results. But after revisiting more than a hundred minds as part of the same fabric, things got very interesting very quickly. For the movie nerds among you, it was like the end of The Sixth Sense or The Usual Suspects: “The red door knob! The fucking Kobayashi coffee cup! How did I not notice that?! It was right in front of me the whole time!”

To help you see the same, I’ve done my best to weave patterns together throughout the book, noting where guests have complementary habits, beliefs, and recommendations.

The completed jigsaw puzzle is much greater than the sum of its parts.

WHAT MAKES THESE PEOPLE DIFFERENT?

“Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.”

— Pierre-Marc-Gaston de Lévis

These world-class performers don’t have superpowers.

The rules they’ve crafted for themselves allow the bending of reality to such an extent that it may seem that way, but they’ve learned how to do this, and so can you. These “rules” are often uncommon habits and bigger questions.

In a surprising number of cases, the power is in the absurd. The more absurd, the more “impossible” the question, the more profound the answers. Take, for instance, a question that serial billionaire Peter Thiel likes to ask himself and others:

“If you have a 10-year plan of how to get [somewhere], you should ask: Why can’t you do this in 6 months?”

For purposes of illustration here, I might reword that to:

“What might you do to accomplish your 10-year goals in the next 6 months, if you had a gun against your head?”

Now, let’s pause. Do I expect you to take 10 seconds to ponder this and then magically accomplish 10 years’ worth of dreams in the next few months? No, I don’t. But I do expect that the question will productively break your mind, like a butterfly shattering a chrysalis to emerge with new capabilities. The “normal” systems you have in place, the social rules you’ve forced upon yourself, the standard frameworks—they don’t work when answering a question like this. You are forced to shed artificial constraints, like shedding a skin, to realize that you had the ability to renegotiate your reality all along. It just takes practice.

My suggestion is that you spend real time with the questions you find most ridiculous in this book. Thirty minutes of stream-of-consciousness journaling (page 224) could change your life.

On top of that, while the world is a gold mine, you need to go digging in other people’s heads to unearth riches. Questions are your pickaxes and competitive advantage. This book will give you an arsenal to choose from.

PERFORMANCE-ENHANCING DETAILS

When organizing all of the material for myself, I didn’t want an onerous 37-step program.

I wanted low-hanging fruit with immediate returns. Think of the bite-sized rules within these pages as PEDs—performance-enhancing details. They can be added to any training regimen (read here: different careers, personal preferences, unique responsibilities, etc.) to pour gasoline on the fire of progress.

Fortunately, 10x results don’t always require 10x effort. Big changes can come in small packages. To dramatically change your life, you don’t need to run a 100-mile race, get a PhD, or completely reinvent yourself. It’s the small things, done consistently, that are the big things (e.g., “red teaming” once per quarter, Tara Brach’s guided meditations, strategic fasting or exogenous ketones, etc.).

“Tool” is defined broadly in this book. It includes routines, books, common self-talk, supplements, favorite questions, and much more.

WHAT DO THEY HAVE IN COMMON?

In this book, you’ll naturally look for common habits and recommendations, and you should. Here are a few patterns, some odder than others:

More than 80% of the interviewees have some form of daily mindfulness or meditation practice
A surprising number of males (not females) over 45 never eat breakfast, or eat only the scantiest of fare (e.g., Laird Hamilton, page 92; General Stanley McChrystal, page 435)
Many use the ChiliPad device for cooling at bedtime
Rave reviews of the books Sapiens , Poor Charlie’s Almanack , Influence , and Man’s Search for Meaning , among others
The habit of listening to single songs on repeat for focus (page 507)
Nearly everyone has done some form of “spec” work (completing projects on their own time and dime, then submitting them to prospective buyers)
The belief that “failure is not durable” (see Robert Rodriguez, page 628) or variants thereof
Almost every guest has been able to take obvious “weaknesses” and turn them into huge competitive advantages (see Arnold Schwarzenegger, page 176)

Of course, I will help you connect these dots, but that’s less than half of the value of this book. Some of the most encouraging workarounds are found in the outliers. I want you to look for the black sheep who fit your unique idiosyncrasies. Keep an eye out for the non-traditional paths, like Shay Carl’s journey from manual laborer to YouTube star to co-founder of a startup sold for nearly $1 billion (page 441). The variation is the consistency. As a software engineer might say, “That’s not a bug. It’s a feature!”

Borrow liberally, combine uniquely, and create your own bespoke blueprint.

THIS BOOK IS A BUFFET—HERE’S HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF IT

RULE #1: SKIP LIBERALLY. 

I want you to skip anything that doesn’t grab you. This book should be fun to read, and it’s a buffet to choose from. Don’t suffer through anything. If you hate shrimp, don’t eat the goddamn shrimp. Treat it as a choose-your-own-adventure guide, as that’s how I’ve written it. My goal is for each reader to like 50%, love 25%, and never forget 10%. Here’s why: For the millions who’ve heard the podcast, and the dozens who proofread this book, the 50/25/10 highlights are completely different for every person. It’s blown my mind.

I’ve even had multiple guests in this book—people who are the best at what they do—proofread the same profile, answering my question of “Which 10% would you absolutely keep, and which 10% would you absolutely cut?” Oftentimes, the 10% “must keep” of one person was the exact “must cut” of someone else! This is not one-size-fits-all. I expect you to discard plenty. Read what you enjoy.

RULE #2: SKIP, BUT DO SO INTELLIGENTLY.

All that said, take a brief mental note of anything you skip. Perhaps put a little dot in the corner of the page or highlight the headline.

Could it be that skipping and glossing over precisely these topics or questions has created blind spots, bottlenecks, and unresolved issues in your life? That was certainly true for me.

If you decide to flip past something, note it, return to it later at some point, and ask yourself, “Why did I skip this?” Did it offend you? Seem beneath you? Seem too difficult? And did you arrive at that by thinking it through, or is it a reflection of biases inherited from your parents, family, friends, and others? Very often, “our” beliefs are not our own.

This type of practice is how you create yourself, instead of seeking to discover yourself. There is value in the latter, but it’s mostly past-tense: It’s a rearview mirror. Looking out the windshield is how you get where you want to go.

JUST REMEMBER TWO PRINCIPLES

I was recently standing in Place Louis Aragon, a shaded outdoor nook on the River Seine, having a picnic with writing students from the Paris American Academy. One woman pulled me aside and asked what I hoped to convey in this book, at the core. Seconds later, we were pulled back into the fray, as the attendees were taking turns talking about the circuitous paths that brought them there that day. Nearly everyone had a story of wanting to come to Paris for years—in some cases, 30 to 40 years—but assuming it was impossible.

Listening to their stories, I pulled out a scrap of paper and jotted down my answer to her question. In this book, at its core, I want to convey the following:

Success, however you define it, is achievable if you collect the right field-tested beliefs and habits. Someone else has done your version of “success” before, and often, many have done something similar. “But,” you might ask, “what about a first, like colonizing Mars?” There are still recipes. Look at empire building of other types, look at the biggest decisions in the life of Robert Moses (read The Power Broker ), or simply find someone who stepped up to do great things that were deemed impossible at the time (e.g., Walt Disney). There is shared DNA you can borrow.


The superheroes you have in your mind (idols, icons, titans, billionaires, etc.) are nearly all walking flaws who’ve maximized 1 or 2 strengths. Humans are imperfect creatures. You don’t “succeed” because you have no weaknesses; you succeed because you find your unique strengths and focus on developing habits around them. To make this crystal-clear, I’ve deliberately included two sections in this book (pages 197 and 616) that will make you think: “Wow, Tim Ferriss is a mess. How the hell does he ever get anything done?” Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about. The heroes in this book are no different. Everyone struggles. Take solace in that.

A FEW IMPORTANT NOTES ON FORMAT

STRUCTURE

This book is comprised of three sections: Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise. Of course, there is tremendous overlap across the sections, as the pieces are interdependent. In fact, you could think of the three as a tripod upon which life is balanced. One needs all three to have any sustainable success or happiness. “Wealthy,” in the context of this book, also means much more than money. It extends to abundance in time, relationships, and more.

My original intention with The 4-Hour Workweek (4HWW), The 4-Hour Body (4HB), and The 4-Hour Chef (4HC) was to create a trilogy themed after Ben Franklin’s famous quote: “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

People constantly ask me, “What would you put in The 4-Hour Workweek if you were to write it again? How would you update it?” Ditto for 4HB and 4HC. Tools of Titans contains most of the answers for all three.

PATTERNS

Where guests have related recommendations or philosophies, I’ve noted them in parentheses. For instance, if Jane Doe tells a story about the value of testing higher prices, I might add “(see Chase Jarvis, page 170),” since he explains in depth how and why he chose to “go premium” with his pricing as a photographer from day one.

HUMOR!

I’ve included ample doses of the ridiculous. First of all, if we’re serious all the time, we’ll wear out before we get the truly serious stuff done. Second, if this book were all stern looks and no winks, all productivity and no grab-assing, you’d remember very little. I agree with Tony Robbins (page 210) that information without emotion isn’t retained.

NON-PROFILE CONTENT AND TIM FERRISS CHAPTERS

In all sections, there are multiple non-profile pieces by guests and yours truly. These are typically intended to expand upon key principles and tools mentioned by multiple people.

YOUR SEND-OFF — THE 3 TOOLS THAT ALLOW ALL THE REST

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse is recommended by many guests in this book. There is one takeaway that Naval Ravikant (page 546) has reinforced with me several times on our long walks. The protagonist, Siddhartha, a monk who looks like a beggar, has come to the city and falls in love with a famous courtesan named Kamala. He attempts to court her, and she asks, “What do you have?” A well-known merchant similarly asks, “What can you give that you have learned?” His answer is the same in both cases, so I’ve included the latter story here. Siddhartha ultimately acquires all that he wants. Bolding is mine:

Merchant: “. . . If you are without possessions, how can you give?”

Siddhartha: “Everyone gives what he has. The soldier gives strength, the merchant goods, the teacher instruction, the farmer rice, the fisherman fish.”

Merchant: “Very well, and what can you give? What have you learned that you can give?”

Siddhartha: “I can think, I can wait, I can fast.”

Merchant: “Is that all?”

Siddhartha: “I think that is all.”

Merchant: “And of what use are they? For example, fasting, what good is that?”

Siddhartha: “It is of great value, sir. If a man has nothing to eat, fasting is the most intelligent thing he can do. If, for instance, Siddhartha had not learned to fast, he would have had to seek some kind of work today, either with you, or elsewhere, for hunger would have driven him. But, as it is, Siddhartha can wait calmly. He is not impatient, he is not in need, he can ward off hunger for a long time and laugh at it. ”

I think of Siddhartha’s answers often and in the following terms:

“I can think” → Having good rules for decision-making, and having good questions you can ask yourself and others.

“I can wait” → Being able to plan long-term, play the long game, and not misallocate your resources.

“I can fast” → Being able to withstand difficulties and disaster. Training yourself to be uncommonly resilient and have a high pain tolerance.

This book will help you to develop all three.

I created Tools of Titans because it’s the book that I’ve wanted my entire life. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Pura vida,

Tim Ferriss

Paris, France

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Tools of Titans is available at Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Amazon, iBooks, Indiebound, Indigo, and more.