Reading Notes For:
📍 My reading notes for Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss. Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss distills insights from hundreds of interviews with top performers in business, sports, and thought leadership. The book is divided into three sections, Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise, each offering practical tips and life lessons.
Ferriss presents actionable advice on morning routines, productivity hacks, and philosophical reflections in a conversational and accessible style. Whether you’re looking to improve your health, increase productivity, or find inspiration, Tools of Titans provides a wealth of valuable knowledge. Note serial billionaire Peter Thiel likes to ask himself and others.
If you have a ten year plan of how to get somewhere, you should ask, Why can’t you do this in six months? For purposes of illustration here, I might reword that to, What might you do to accomplish your ten year goals in the next six months, if you had a gun against your head? The normal systems you have in place, the social rules you forced upon yourself, the standard frameworks, they don’t work when answering a question like this.
Tara Brank’s Guided Meditations. Here are a few patterns, some modder than others. More than 80 percent of the interviewees have some form of daily mindfulness or meditation practice a surprising number of males, not females, over. 45 percent never eat breakfast, or eat only scantiest of fare, E. g. Laird Hamilton, page 92.
Malcolm Gladwell, page 572. General Stanley McChrystal, page 435. Many use the ChilliPad device for cooling at bedtime rave reviews of the books Sapiens, Poor Charlie’s Almanac, 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. I’m not the strongest. I’m not the fastest.
But I’m really good at suffering. Three movements everyone should practice. J curl, page 15, shoulder extension. Lift a dowel behind your back, standing. Or sit on the floor and walk your hands backward behind your hips. Thoracic bridge. Elevate your feet enough to feel the bulk of the stretch in the upper back and shoulders, not the lower back.
The feet might be three plus feet off the ground. Ensure you can concentrate on straightening your arms and legs if possible, holding the position and breathing. Jefferson Curl J Curl. Think of this as a controlled, slowly rounded, stiff legged deadlift. Progress slowly and patiently. Do not rush. For this type of loaded mobility work, never allow yourself to strain, grind out reps, or force range of motion.
Smooth, controlled movement is the order of the day. The ultimate goal is bodyweight on a bar, but start with 15 pounds. I currently use only 50 to 60 pounds. The beginning of every primary workout. Width apart. Fig. A think deadlift top position. Two. Tuck your chin tightly against your chest. Keep it tucked for the entire movement.
Three. And slowly bend over one vertebra at a time from the neck down. Fig. B. Keep your arms straight in the bar close to your legs. Lower until you can’t stretch any farther. As you become more flexible, stand on a box. I use a rogue plyo box with the goal of passing your wrists below your toes. Keep your legs as perpendicular to the ground as possible and try to not push your hips back until your head is below your waist.
Four. Slowly stand back up, rolling one vertebra at a time. Your chin should be the last thing to come. Up. Fig. See, that’s one rep. Repeat for a total of five to ten reps. How can you keep it going without fasting? The short answer is eat a boatload of fat, approximately 1.5 to 2.5 grams per kilogram of body weight N to of carbs and moderate protein, one to 1.5 grams per kilogram of body weight each day.
One of the challenges of keto is the amount of fat one needs to consume to maintain it. Roughly 70 to 80% of your total calories need to come from fat. Dom’s recipe for keto ice cream Dom’s ice cream recipe contains roughly 100 grams of fat or 900 kilo calories of keto goodness. It can save the day. If your dinner is lacking fat, remember to hit 70 to 85% of total calories from fat two cups sour cream.
I like cream rebrand or unsweetened coconut cream, not coconut water. One tablespoon dark chocolate baking cocoa. One two pinches of sea salt. My favorite is flaky Maldon. One two pinches of cinnamon. A small dash of stevia. Dom buys now Foods Organics stevia in bulk. Optional. One third, one half cup blueberries, if Dom hasn’t had carbs all day, or if he has worked out.
Stir that all into a thick mousse and stick it in the freezer until it takes on an ice cream like consistency. Once you’ve removed it and are ready to dig in, you can eat it straight or add toppings. Make whipped cream using heavy cream nearly 100 percent fat and a bit of stevia. Drizzle on one tablespoon of heated coconut oil, especially if the bomb has the blueberries in it, and mix it all in, which produces the mouthfeel of crunchy chocolate chips.
Recommended to watch. The gut is not like Las Vegas. What happens in the gut does not stay in the gut. Presentation by Alessio Fasano. Peter’s Path to Meditation. 10 percent Happier by Dan Harris is the book that got Peter meditating regularly. After limited success with open monitoring or mindfulness meditation, he was introduced to transcendental meditation by a friend Dan Loeb, billionaire and founder of Third Point LLC, a 17 billion asset management firm.
For a low carb post workout option, see Goat Way on page 84, Portable Fuel, for loose skin or stretch marks. GoatWay. com There’s an herb called Gotu Kola that, I learned this from Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale, who was one of my early mentors, will get rid of what we call unnecessary scar tissue, or unnecessary connective tissue.
The truth of the matter, though, is that you will see zero progress for the loose skin for six months. So people say it’s not worth it, but I tell people, just keep doing it for six months. And then it’s almost like overnight. The Slow Carb Diet Cheat Sheet, the basic rules are simple. All followed six days per week.
Rule number one. Avoid white starchy carbohydrates, or those that can be white. This means all bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, and grains. Yes, including quinoa. If you have to ask, don’t eat it. Rule Hashtag 2. Eat the same few meals over and over again, especially for breakfast and lunch. Good news, you already do this.
You’re just picking new default meals. If you want to keep it simple, split your plate into thirds. Protein, veggies, and beans, legumes. Rule Hashtag 3. Don’t drink calories. Exception. One to two glasses of dry red wine per night is allowed. Although this can cause some peripostmenopausal women to plateau.
Rule number four. Don’t eat fruit. Fructose glycerol phosphate more body fat more or less. Avocado and tomatoes are allowed. Rule number five. Whenever possible, measure your progress in body fat percentage, not total pounds. The scale can deceive and derail you. For instance, it’s common to gain muscle while simultaneously losing fat on the SED.
And then, rule hashtag six, take one day off per week and go nuts. One arm swing, Turkish get up, TGU, goblet squat, do these three exercises in some form every day, and you are guaranteed to get a great return on your investment. When in doubt, train your grip and your core like. If you are depressed, you are living in the past.
If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present. Floating in an isolation tank is the first time that we’ve been without sensory experience, sensory environmental stimuli since we were conceived. There is no sound, no sight, no temperature gradient, and no gravity.
So all of the brain searching and gating information from the environment is relaxed. Everything that was in the background, kind of behind the curtain, can now be exposed. When done consistently over time, It’s essentially like meditation on steroids. It starts to recalibrate the entire neuroendocrine system.
Oftentimes pre verbal healing around traumatic issues that occurred between birth and age four. From a developmental psychological perspective, this is when most of the long term personality traits are formed. The campfire squat test. If you can’t squat all the way down to the ground with your feet and knees together, then you are missing full hip and ankle range of motion.
This is the mechanism causing your hip impingement, plantar fasciitis, torn achilles, pulled calf, etc. that is the fucking problem, and you should be obsessing about fixing this. The Keto Frappuccino. I use Palumbo’s protein powder by Species Nutrition. Every morning, I roll downstairs and two scoops of whey protein isolize.
Ice, a bunch of powdered Starbucks coffee, some macadamia nut oil. Is that a dream or a goal? Because a dream is something you fantasize about that will probably never happen. A goal is something you set a plan for, work toward, and achieve. Any useful statement about the future should at first seem ridiculous by Jim Dator.
Also, when it comes to the future, it’s far more important to be imaginative than to be right by AlvinToffler. try. Ten minutes of Tetris. Recent research has demonstrated that Tetris, Or Candy Crush Saga or Bejeweled can help overwrite negative visualization which has applications for addiction such as overeating, preventing PTSD, and in my case, onset insomnia.
They occupy the visual processing center of your brain so that you cannot imagine the thing that you’re craving or obsessing over, which are also highly visual, that you should never publicly criticize anyone or anything unless it is a matter of morals or ethics. Thanks. Anything negative you say could at the very least ruin someone’s day, or worse, break someone’s heart.
Or simply change someone from being a future ally of yours to someone who will never forget that you were unkind or unfairly critical. It’s so common today to complain or criticize others work on social media, or dogpile on someone for a perceived offense. I won’t do it. It’s not my job to be the world’s critic, and I’d rather not rule out any future allies.
Humans use only 10 percent of their brains? Not quite. The most complex structure in the entire universe doesn’t have just a vacant parking lot waiting for someone to drive in and start building. It’s all used all the time, and in complex ways that we don’t always understand. Prepare titanium tea. This name was a joke, but it’s stuck.
Two to three minutes. I prepare loose leaf tea in a Rishi glass teapot, but you could use a French press. The below combo is excellent for cognition and fat loss, and I use about one flat teaspoon of each. Puerh Aged Black Tea, Dragon Well Green Tea, or other green tea. Turmeric and Ginger Shavings, often also Rishi brand.
Add the hot water to your mixture and let it steep for one to two minutes. Some tea purists will get very upset and say, Dammit Ferris, you should really do your homework, because the steeping temperatures for those teas are all different. Learn And the first steeping should be 15 seconds. This is all true, and I can do the fancy stuff, but when I’m groggy in the morning, I don’t give a shit and like my uppers simple.
Explore the complexities of tea on the weekends. Roughly 185 degrees Fahrenheit is fine. Separately, add one of the following to your drinking mug. One to two tablespoons of coconut oil, which is about 60 to 70 percent MCTs, medium chain triglycerides, By weight or one scoop of Quest MCT oil powder, which will give the tea a creamy consistency.
Pour your tea into your mug, stir to mix and enjoy. Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss. Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss distills insights from hundreds of interviews with top performers in business, sports and thought leadership. The book is divided into three sections, healthy, wealthy, and wise, each offering practical tips and life lessons.
Ferris presents actionable advice on morning routines, productivity hacks, and philosophical reflections in a conversational and accessible style. Whether you’re looking to improve your health, increase productivity, or find inspiration, Tools of Titans provides a wealth of valuable knowledge. The five minute journal, 5MJ, to be answered in the morning.
I am grateful for. 1, 2, 3. What would make today great? 1, 2, 3, daily affirmations. I am to be filled in at night. Three amazing things that happen today. 1, 2, 3. This is similar to Peter. Demand us three wins. Practice, see page. How could I have made today better? 1, 2, 3. I ask myself this every morning as I fill out the 5MJ, and I pick my favorite three for that day.
An old relationship that really helped you, or that you valued highly. Oh, an opportunity you have today. Perhaps that’s just an opportunity to call one of your parents, or An opportunity to go to work. It doesn’t have to be something large. Oh, something great that happened yesterday, whether you experienced or witnessed it.
Something simple near you, or within sight. This was a recommendation from Tony Robbins. The Gratitude points shouldn’t all be my career and other abstract items. Temper those with something simple and concrete. A beautiful cloud outside the window. The coffee that you’re drinking. The pen that you’re using, or whatever it might be.
Meditation allows me to step back and gain a witness perspective, as with psychedelics, so that I’m observing my thoughts instead of being tumbled by them. I can step out of the washing machine and calmly look inside it. Listen to a guided meditation from Sam Harris, page 454, or Tara Brack, page 555.
Maria Popova of brainpickings. org, page 406, listens to the same recording every morning. Tara Brack’s Smile guided meditation recording from the summer of 2010. Macro, commit to at least one 7 day cycle. I hate to say it, but I think less is worthless. But what if you think of your to do list, past arguments, or porn for 19.
5 minutes out of 20? Do you get an F in meditation? No. If you spend even a second noticing this wandering and bring your attention back to your mantra, or whatever, that is a successful session. My session’s a 99 percent monkey mind, but it’s the other 1 percent that matters. Peace. If you’re getting frustrated, your standards are too high or your sessions are too long.
His book, Joy on Demand, is one of the most practical books on meditation that I’ve found. In many of my public talks, I guide a very simple ten second exercise. I tell the audience members to each identify two human beings in the room and just think, I wish for this person to be happy, and I wish for that person to be happy.
That is it. I remind them to not do or say anything, just think. This is an entirely thinking exercise. The entire exercise is just 10 seconds worth of thinking. Everybody emerges from this exercise smiling, happier than 10 seconds before. This is the joy of loving kindness. It turns out that being on the giving end of a kind thought is rewarding in and of itself.
Once an hour, every hour, randomly identify two people walking past your office and secretly wish for each of them to be happy. Jane told me, I hate my job. I hate coming to work every single day. But I attended your talk on Monday, did the homework on Tuesday, and Tuesday was my happiest day in seven years.
Total immersion swimming by Terry Loughlin. My confidence came from my vision. I am a big believer that if you have a very clear vision of where you want to go, then the rest of it is much easier. I felt that I could win it, and that was what I was there for. I wasn’t there to compete. I was there to win.
Write down the three to five things, and no more, that are making you the most anxious or uncomfortable. They’re often things that have been punted from one day’s to do list to the next, to the next, to the next, and so on. Most important usually equals most uncomfortable, with some chance of rejection or conflict.
For each item, ask yourself, If this were the only thing I accomplished today, would I be satisfied with my day? Will moving this forward make all the other to dos unimportant or easier to knock off later? Put another way, what, if done, will make all of the rest easier or irrelevant? If you consistently feel the counterproductive need for volume and doing lots of stuff, Put these on a post it note.
Being busy is a form of laziness, lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions. Words That Work, written by Republican political strategist Frank Luntz. Hope is not a strategy. Luck is not a factor.
Fear is not an option. I bought the journal. Spiritual Windshield Wipers. Once we get those muddy, maddening, confusing thoughts, nebulous worries, jitters, and preoccupations on the page, we face our day with clearer eyes. The process matters more than the product. Dan Gable, whose epic rants in the hard to find Doc Competitor Supreme are worth finding.
Language mean the limits of my world. Give the mind an overnight task read jots down problems in a notebook that he wants his mind to work on overnight. Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious. http: TheBusinessProfessor. com Thomas Edison, Kevin Kelly’s 1000 True Fans to Literally Millions of People.
Many guests in this book have done the same. If you only read one article on marketing, make it this one, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. TF, that last Genghis Khan book has been recommended to me by several billionaires. Music for Sleep Justin listens to Max Richter’s From Sleep, a composed album with a shortened version on Spotify.
There’s an artist called Mute Button that has high quality, long field recordings. The gentle rain sounds plus sleep timer are fantastic. It’s not about ideas, it’s about making ideas happen. I’d put it on every college campus in the world. In our youth, we are wonderfully creative and idealistic. Truth is, young creative minds don’t need more ideas.
They need to take more responsibility with the ideas they’ve already got. Sierra Club founder John Muir used to express amazement at the well heeled travelers who would visit Yosemite only to rush away after a few hours of sightseeing. Muir called these folks the time poor, people who were so obsessed with tending their material wealth and social standing that they couldn’t spare the time to truly experience the splendor of California’s Sierra wilderness.
As Thoreau put it, the best part of one’s life earning money in order to enjoy questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it. Thus, given an unlimited amount of choices, we make none. Quitting, whether a job or a habit, means taking a turn so as to be sure you’re still moving in the direction of your dreams.
In this way, quitting should never be seen as the end of something grudging and unpleasant. Rather, it’s a vital step in beginning something new and wonderful.