Episode · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2021-08-24
Tim Ferriss & Jimmy Wales: books mentioned on The Tim Ferriss Show #528
#528: Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia, on Homeschooling, Atheism, Understanding Financial Markets, Ayn Rand, Favorite Books, and More
Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia, on Homeschooling, Atheism, Understanding Financial Markets, Ayn Rand, Favorite Books, and More | Brought to you by You Need A Budget cult favorite budgeting app, Athletic Greens all-in-one nutritional supplement, and Helix Sleep premium mattresses. More on all three below.
Jimmy Wales recommended The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey and Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and others, and discussed The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, Getting Things Done by David Allen, The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss, and Hamlet by William Shakespeare.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Fountainhead
The Fountainhead is Ayn Rand's classic novel exploring individualism, artistic integrity, and the uncompromising architect Howard Roark as he fights against collectivism and societal expectations.
Discussed“I was interested in philosophy and I was interested in economics and got interested and very excited by Ayn Rand and in particular The Fountainhead being a real mind-blowing, eye-opening book for me.”
Where to get it
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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R.
Recommended“I would say there are two. They're both quite simple in a way as recommendations and quite common, but one one would be Seven Habits of Effective People, which is a classic Stephen Covey kind of motivation, self-help kind of thing.”
Where to get it
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Getting Things Done
Getting Things Done by David Allen is a globally recognized productivity and stress-free management framework designed to help individuals capture, clarify, organize, and execute tasks efficiently.
Discussed“I tried looking into Getting Things Done, which is a more temporary kind of popular thing and thought it was quite interesting and good, but I didn't buy into it and I felt like you needed to really buy into it to make that work.”
Where to get it
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Your Money or Your Life
Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez is a foundational personal finance guide that redefines the relationship between working, spending, and life energy.
Recommended“So, Seven Habits and then the other one is a book called Your Money or Your Life, which is basically sets forth the argument that you don't need as much money as you think to live and in fact a lot of how we live, which is very expensive, traps us into things that we would rather not be trapped”
Where to get it
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The 4-Hour Workweek
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss is a lifestyle design manual that challenges conventional career paths by advocating for time autonomy, remote work, automation, and outsourcing.
Discussed“Certainly something that I feel like you would also resonate with with Four-Hour Work Week, which by the way also had a huge impact on me. My favorite story about that is I read Four-Hour Work Week and then I not that long after that, I was like, okay, [ __ ] this, I'm moving to Argentina for a month”
Where to get it
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Hamlet
William Shakespeare's classic play Hamlet follows the tragic Prince of Denmark as he grapples with grief, betrayal, and the heavy burden of avenging his father's murder.
Discussed“So, somebody started to upload into Wikipedia the full text of Hamlet, for example. And that was like, "Okay, what do we What do we think about that?" And I was like, "You know what? I Hamlet should be available for free online in a well-supported way, but it's not an encyclopedia article.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (2) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“I view it as all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it, in fact, in The 4-Hour Body. This is more than 10 years ago and I did not get paid to do so.”
“Before we get there, because you mentioned The Fountainhead and I may lose track of this question, I want to ask, are there any books in particular that you have gifted often or more often than others?”