Episode · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2021-12-22
Books mentioned on #557: Q&A with Tim — Tools for Better Sleep, Musings on Parenting, the Different Roles of Fear, the Delight of Deepening Friendships, the Purpose of College, How to Boost Your Mood, HRV Training, and More
Q&A with Tim — Tools for Better Sleep, Musings on Parenting, the Different Roles of Fear, the Delight of Deepening Friendships, the Purpose of College, How to Boost Your Mood, HRV Training, and More | Brought to you by Athletic Greens all-in-one nutritional supplement, GiveWell.
Tim Ferriss recommended Lion Tracker's Guide to Life by Boyd Varty, Of wolves and men by Barry Lopez, The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin, Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie and others, How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan, Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker, Essentialism by Greg McKeown, and The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch, and discussed The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss, The 4-hour Chef by Timothy Ferriss, Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss by Dennis McKenna, Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, and Skin in the Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The 4-Hour Body
The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss is an extensive, data-driven guide to optimizing human physical performance, health, fat loss, and longevity through minimal effective doses of exercise and diet.
Discussed“Tim, it's been over a decade since the 4-Hour Body. If you had to revise it, what would you change?”
Where to get it
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The 4-hour Chef
The 4-Hour Chef by Timothy Ferriss is an unconventional guide to accelerated learning that uses the kitchen as a laboratory to master complex skills and techniques.
Discussed“When you're learning about a new subject, do you still follow the DS3 method from the 4-Hour Chef, given everything you've learned about learning since publishing?”
Where to get it
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Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss
Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss by Dennis McKenna is a compelling memoir that chronicles the author's extraordinary life experiences, early plant experiments, and adventures alongside his brother Terence McKenna within the world of ethnopharmacology and psychedelic exploration.
Discussed“I read both Lion Tracker's Guide to Life, which is a great book, and Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss.”
Where to get it
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Lion Tracker's Guide to Life
Boyd Varty's The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life is a small book sharing life lessons through the ancient art of animal tracking.
Recommended“I read both Lion Tracker's Guide to Life, which is a great book, and Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss.”
Where to get it
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Of wolves and men
Of Wolves and Men by Barry Lopez is a classic, genre-busting work of non-fiction that explores the biology, history, and cultural mythology surrounding wolves and their relationship with humans.
Recommended“I would say that of Of Wolves and Men by Barry Lopez one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read in my life.”
Where to get it
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The Art of Learning
The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin is a deeply reflective book detailing the author's journey from a prodigy in chess and martial arts to mastering the principles of peak performance and learning.
Recommended“I would suggest if you're looking for the translation of chess principles, high-level chess principles, to many other fields, pick up a book called The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin.”
Where to get it
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Radical Acceptance
Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach is a widely praised self-help and psychology book that integrates Buddhist mindfulness teachings with Western psychotherapy to help readers overcome self-doubt, shame, and emotional suffering.
Recommended“Rather than trying to fix or suppress scarcity mindset, risk aversion, anxiety, if you want to begin to improve the situation, I find that reading a book like Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach is incredibly helpful.”
Where to get it
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How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie is a practical self-help guide offering actionable strategies to overcome chronic worry and anxiety.
Recommended“But the book is an old one, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie. Pretty sure I'm getting the title right. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie.”
Where to get it
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How to Change Your Mind
How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan is a compelling non-fiction investigation into the history, science, and cultural renaissance of psychedelic substances like psilocybin and LSD in therapeutic settings.
Recommended“And one first step there is to introduce them to How to Change Your Mind, the book by Michael Pollan.”
Where to get it
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Fooled by Randomness
Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a popular exploration of the massive role that chance, luck, and probability play in human success, finance, and everyday life.
Discussed“I haven't read uh the Incerto, or Incherto, I'm not sure how to pronounce that, honestly, but I have read The Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness, and some of his other writing, and I find it tremendously compelling.”
Where to get it
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The Black Swan
The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a provocative non-fiction book exploring the massive impact of rare, highly improbable events and human society's systemic blindness to uncertainty.
Discussed“I haven't read uh the Incerto, or Incherto, I'm not sure how to pronounce that, honestly, but I have read The Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness, and some of his other writing, and I find it tremendously compelling.”
Where to get it
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Antifragile
Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a provocative nonfiction book arguing that certain systems, leaders, and individuals actually gain strength and thrive when exposed to disorder, stress, and volatility.
Recommended“Uh so, that I have no opinion of that, but uh Antifragile, Fooled by Randomness, and The Black Swan, not necessarily in that order, I found all of them to be very thought-provoking, and worth reading, and I don't say that lightly.”
Where to get it
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Skin in the Game
Skin in the Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a provocative philosophical exploration of risk, accountability, and asymmetry in human systems.
Discussed“Aha. So, for clarity, Tim, the Incerto, I'm assuming it's Incerto since he likes Italian, is the collection of the following books: Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, Antifragile. Some will include Skin in the Game. Great. Then I'm a fan of the collection.”
Where to get it
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The Effective Executive
The Effective Executive by Peter F.
Recommended“So, the effective executive by Peter Drucker, read that. Read it at least once a year.”
Where to get it
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Essentialism
Essentialism by Greg McKeown is a guide to mastering focus by identifying and pursuing only the most vital tasks while eliminating the non-essentials.
Recommended“Essentialism by Greg McKeown, read that. Highlight it. Highlight it on a Kindle so you can export your highlights and then review your highlights.”
Where to get it
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The 80/20 Principle
The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch is a prominent business and productivity guide that explores how a minority of efforts, inputs, or causes typically lead to a majority of the results, outputs, or rewards.
Recommended“Another would be the 80/20 principle. And if you're so inclined, the 4-Hour Workweek because uh there there are there are there's certain synthesis of a lot of those in the 4-Hour Workweek...”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (13) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“Those additions, however, were put into Tools of Titans. So, a lot of the additions that I would have made to The 4-Hour Body were put into Tools of Titans.”
“And many of the updates that I would have put into The 4-Hour Work Week, um but more so The 4-Hour Body and The 4-Hour Chef were added into Tools of Titans.”
“And many of the updates that I would have put into The 4-Hour Work Week, um but more so The 4-Hour Body and The 4-Hour Chef were added into Tools of Titans.”
“Those are found in Tools of Titans as well.”
“And in fact, I had looked at David Goggins back in 2009, 2010 as it related to the endurance chapters in the 4-Hour Body, but ended up not being able to connect with him in time to include something for publication.”
“So, yes, the answer is I still use DS3 or DSSS as described at great length in The 4-Hour Chef in the Metalearning section.”
“who is very well known, thought of as the Irish bard of psychedelics and was author or co-author of things like uh The Archaic Revival, True Hallucinations, and many others.”
“who is very well known, thought of as the Irish bard of psychedelics and was author or co-author of things like uh The Archaic Revival, True Hallucinations, and many others.”
“Barry Lopez also wrote Arctic Dreams for which he won many many awards.”
“So, when I went there I remember I launched The 4-Hour Workweek in Danish. I decided to go to Denmark.”
“Another would be the 80/20 principle. And if you're so inclined, the 4-Hour Workweek because uh there there are there are there's certain synthesis of a lot of those in the 4-Hour Workweek...”
“That is how strongly I felt about it. But you must, if you have not, read The Tail End by Tim Urban. And if you've read it, print it out, read it again. Read it every morning. It is that powerful.”
“That is how strongly I felt about it. But you must, if you have not, read The Tail End by Tim Urban. And if you've read it, print it out, read it again. Read it every morning. It is that powerful.”