Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers

by Timothy Ferriss

“Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.” —W.H. Auden

“Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.” —Pierre-Marc-Gaston

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

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, here; Malcolm Gladwell, here; General Stanley McChrystal, here) ► 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 (here) ► Nearly everyone has done some form of “spec” work (completing projects on their own time and dime, then submitting them to prospective buyers)

Success, however you define it, is achievable if you collect the right field-tested beliefs and habits.

The superheroes you have in your mind (idols, icons, titans, billionaires, etc.) are nearly all walking flaws who’ve maximized 1 or 2 strengths.

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

“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.

“No one owes you anything.”

House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski:

beet root powder:

Foam rollers

Rolling your foot on top of a golf ball on the floor to increase “hamstring” flexibility.

using a sauna improves her endurance,

“rehearsing the worst-case scenario” to become more resilient

“Hyperthermic conditioning” (calculated heat exposure) can help you to increase growth hormone (GH) levels and substantially improve endurance.

take ~20-minute sauna sessions post-workout or post-stretching at least four times per week, typically at roughly 160 to 170°F (71–76°C). If nothing else, it seems to dramatically decrease DOMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness).

The QL walk is intended to get your glutes and quadratus lumborum (QL) firing,

make the last 30 to 60 seconds of your shower pure cold.

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran:

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu:

“Play! Play more. I feel like people are so serious, and it doesn’t take much for people to drop back into the wisdom of a childlike playfulness. If I had to prescribe two things to improve health and happiness in the world, it’d be movement and play. Because you can’t really play without moving, so they’re intertwined.

Going 16 hours without eating generally provides the right balance of autophagy (look it up) and anabolism (muscle building).

keep his average glucose and glucose variability low. Outside of a lab, this approximates minimizing your insulin “area under the curve” (AUC).

“Modern man is weakest and most unstable in the lateral plane. Having a very strong gluteus medius, tensor fasciae latae, and vastus medialis is essential for complete knee-hip alignment and longevity of performance.”

For each of the following 7 moves, start with 10 to 15 reps each. Once you can do 20 reps for all 7 consecutively, consider adding weight to your ankles. You’ll likely feel quite smug and self-satisfied for the first few, but remember: No rest until all 7 are done and no rest in between exercises. For all of these—keep your big toe below your heel (think pigeon-toed) to ensure you’re targeting the right muscles, and perform this series 2 times per week. #1—Up/Down

#2—Front Kick/Swing

#3—Back Swing

#4—Full Front and Back Swing

#5—Clockwise Circles

#6—Counterclockwise Circles

#7—Bicycle Motion

He is a proponent of magnesium supplementation. Our ability to buffer magnesium with healthy kidneys is very high. He takes 600 to 800 mg per day, alternating between mag sulfate and mag oxide. He also takes calcium carbonate 2 times per week.

Strength training aids everything from glucose disposal and metabolic health to mitochondrial density and orthopedic stability.

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman

Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson.

“Success is: Do your kids remember you for being the best dad? Not the dad who gave them everything, but will they be able to tell you anything one day? Will they able to call you out of the blue, any day, no matter what? Are you the first person they want to ask for advice? And at the same time, can you hit it out of the park in whatever it is you decide to do, as a lawyer, as a doctor, as a stockbroker, as a whatever?”

wonderful short documentary called The Pleasure of Finding Things Out.

4 TESTS TO CHECK EVERY 8 WEEKS

Morning (fasting) insulin Morning (fasting) glucose:

Reactive insulin test:

HbA1c (usually read as “hemoglobin A1c”): “They say that, basically, you age at the rate you produce insulin. HbA1c will tell me what was the average insulin over the last 3 months…. I’ve found over the years that, actually, the amount of magnesium, supplemental magnesium, you consume, is the fastest way to drop that value. So magnesium is probably one of the best anti-aging minerals.”

“I think the best magnesium out there is magnesium threonate, if I were to pick one. But I prefer taking different chelates. [TF: Dominic D’Agostino also takes magnesium; see here for his thoughts.] So I use glycinate, I use orotate. If you look at the physiology behind it, and there’s a lot of good research that’s really easy to find, every form of magnesium tends to go to a specific tissue. So for example, magnesium glycinate has a preference for liver and muscle tissue; magnesium orotate tends to work more in the vascular system. Magnesium threonate is more of a GABA inducer, therefore it improves sleep. Personally, I take 2 g of magnesium threonate at the last meal before going to bed, and I use various forms of chelates like magnesium glycerophosphate from GabaMag [made by Trilogy Nutritional Supplements].”

Another go-to recipe for sleep: glutamine and physician-prescribed probiotics (vary the brands) before

“As a rule … the best thing to increase testosterone is to lower cortisol. Because the same raw material that makes testosterone and cortisol is called pregnenolone.

To mitigate this “tired and wired” phenomenon—as well as reduce glucose levels—before bed, I take phosphatidylserine and N-acetyl cysteine (NAC).

59 Seconds: Change Your Life in Under a Minute by Richard Wiseman (for stress reduction) The 4-Hour Workweek The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller

ON THE ADVANTAGE OF CULTIVATING BEGINNER’S MIND “Experience often deeply embeds the assumptions that need to be questioned in the first place. When you have a lot of experience with something, you don’t notice the things that are new about it. You don’t notice the idiosyncrasies that need to be tweaked. You don’t notice where the gaps are, what’s missing, or what’s not really working.”

“BE YOUR UNAPOLOGETICALLY WEIRD SELF” “I gave a commencement speech in Minnesota few years ago [at the Carlson School of Management]. The core of it was to be your unapologetically weird self. I think authenticity is one of the most lacking things out there these days.”

“The number-one theme that companies have when they really struggle is they are not charging enough for their product.