These are my notes from "Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers" by Tim Ferriss. Tim is uniquely positioned to write this book from his experience with his popular podcast. The book is organized into summaries from some of the top performers in the world in a variety of fields – investors, doctors, endurance athletes, CEOs, comedians, and more. The book is a great way to get exposed to a variety of different people.
Amelia Boone:
Unless you're a masochist, don't have dry needling done on your calves.
Dominic D'Agostino: https://ketonutrition.org/about/
Protocol for 3 day fast: Have a low carb dinner around 6pm on Thursday. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings, sleep as late as possible. The point is to let sleep do some of the work for you. Consume exogenous ketones or MCT oil upon waking and 2 more times throughout the day in 3-4 hour intervals. I primarily use Keto canna and caprylic acid like Brain Octane. The exogenous ketones help fill the gap over the 1-3 days that you might suffer carb withdrawal. Once you're in deep ketosis and burning body fat, they can be omitted. On Friday drink some caffeine and prepare to walk. Be out the door no later than 30 minutes after waking. Drink tons of water (with a little lemon and salt). Eat lots of fat.
5 things Dom would do if he was diagnosed with last stage glioblastoma (cancer):
Ketogenic diet
intermittent fasting - 1 meal per day
Ketone supplementation 2-4 times per day
Metformin supplementation
DCA supplementation
Petter Attia:
Recommended books - Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman, and Mistakes were Made But Not by Me, by Carrol Tavres
Charles Poliquin:
He recommends 1 dropper full of Gaia Herbs Gotu Kola Leaf liquid extracts per day, which also improves tendon repair and cognitive function.
To mitigate the "tired and wired" feeling when you're trying to sleep from elevated cortisol, take phosphatidylserine and N-acetylcysteine.
Marc Andreesen:
"To do original work it is not necessary to know something nobody else knows. It is necessary to believe something few other people believe."
Chris Sacca:
Good stories always beat good spreadsheets.
Derek Sivers:
Derek is the founder of CD Baby. He started sending a funny over the top email thanking customers, which led to people sharing it with their friends. "When you're thinking of how to make your business bigger, it's tempting to try to think all the big thoughts, the world-changing massive action plans. But please know that it's often the tiny details that really thrill someone enough to make them tell all their friends about you."
Casey Neistat:
The ultimate quantification of success is not the amount of time you spend doing what you love, but how little time you spend doing what you hate.
Peter Theil:
If you have a 10 year plan for where you want to be, ask yourself, "why can't I do this in 6 months?"
"I don't like talking in terms of tech trends because once you have a trend, you have many people doing it. And once you have many people doing it, you have lots of competition and little differentiation. You generally never want to be part of a popular trend. You don't want to be the Nth company of any particular trend. What I prefer over of trends is a sense of mission, that you are working on a unique problem that people are not solving elsewhere."
"I think the fundamental philosophical question is one that's important to all of us: 'What do people agree merely by convention, and what is the truth?'"
Seth Godin:
"Tell 10 people, show 10 people, share it with 10 people. If they don't share it with anyone else, it's not that good."
"If you only read one article on marketing, make it "1000 True Fans" by Kevin Kelly." - Tim Ferriss
Chris Young:
One of the books he recommends most is an out of print book on thermodynamics called "The Second Law". The book is a phenomenal, casual, infographic-laden read on how the world works from an energy perspective.
Neil Strauss:
"The biggest mistake you can make is to accept the norms of your time. Not accepting norms is where you innovate, whether it's with technology, with books, with anything. So not accepting the norm is the secret to really big success and changing the world." - Neil's billionaire friend
Scott Belsky:
"Most people forget that innovation, and investing in innovations, is a business of exceptions. It's easy to understand why most investors rely on pattern recognition. It starts with a successful company that surprises everyone with a new model. Perhaps it is Uber and on-demand networks, Airbnb and the sharing economy, or Warbe Parker and vertically integrated ecommerce. What follows is endless analysis and mass adoption of a playbook that's already been played. Sure, those companies may create a successful derivative, but they won't change the world. I try to learn from the past without being inspired by it. My big question is always, 'what did they try and why did it work?' When I hear stories of success and failure I look for the little things that made a big difference. What conventional wisdom was shunned? I avoid using a past success as a proxy for the future. After all, the dirty little secret it that every success was almost a failure. Perhaps the greatest lesson from the past is how important it is to be inspired by things that surprise us."
B.J. Novak:
He recommends the book Daily Rituals by Mason Curry for anyone who would enjoy seeing the daily routines of legends like Steve Jobs, Charles Darwin, and Charles Dickens.
Kevin Costner:
"Being an entrepreneur is being willing to do a job that nobody else wants to do in order to live the rest of your life do whatever you want to do."
Tim Ferriss:
Thought exercise - fear setting: (just write answers down unedited and aim for volume not accuracy)
Define your nightmare
What's the absolute worst that can happen if you did what you're considering?
What big doubts, fears, and what-ifs pop up as you consider the big changes you want or need to make?
Would it be the end of your life?
What would be the permanent impact on a scale of 1 to 10?
Are these things really permanent?
How likely do you think it is that they would actually happen?
What steps could you take to repair the damage and get things back on the upswing?
What are the outcomes or benefits of temporary and permanent more probable scenarios?
What would the impact of these more probable scenarios be on a scale of 1 to 10?
How likely is it that you can produce even a moderately good outcome?
Have less intelligent people done this before and pulled it off?
If you were fired from your job today, what would you do to get things under financial control?
What are you putting off out of fear? Usually what we most fear doing is what we most need to do.
What is it costing you financially, emotionally, and physically to postpone action?
If you don't pursue those things that excite you, where will you be in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years?
How will you feel having let circumstance impose itself upon you and having allowed 10 more years of your finite life to pass, doing what you know will not fulfill you?
What are you waiting for?
If you cannot answer this without resorting to the BS answer of waiting for the right timing, you're afraid (just like the rest of the world).
Kevin Kelly:
Recommended documentaries: King of Kong, Man on Wire, A State of Mind
Tim Ferriss:
8 Tactics for dealing with haters:
It doesn't matter how many people don't get it. What matters is how many people do.
10% of people will find a way to take anything personally. Expect it, and treat it as math. Anticipate, don't react.
When in doubt, starve it of oxygen.
If you respond, don't over-apologize.
You can't reason someone out of something they didn't reason themselves into.
Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity.
If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.
Living well is the best revenge.
Mike Birbiglia:
"The best thing to do is give people advice they're not expecting."
Tim Ferriss:
If I could only spend 2 hours a week on my business, what would I do?
You can start a business by saying, what do I spend a ridiculous amount of money on myself, and how can I scratch my own itch?
What might I put in place to go off the grid for 4-8 weeks with no phone or email?
"Lack of resources is often one of the critical ingredients for greatness."
Bryan Johnson:
Entrepreneurs have the ability to author their lives with companies.
"What can you do that will be remembered in 200-400 years?"