Reading Notes For:
My reading notes for, Tools of Titans, by Tim Ferriss. Thee for our work week, the for our body. Tools of Titans the tactics routines and habits of billionaires icons and world class performers 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. Happiness is wanting what you have.
We are wired and programmed to do what’s safe and what’s sensible. I don’t think that’s the way to go. I think you do things because they are just things you have to do. Or because it’s a calling. Or because you’re idealistic enough to think that you can make a difference in the world. When people seem like they are mean, they’re almost never mean.
They’re anxious. Don’t attribute to malice that which can be explained otherwise. Wasn’t it Bill Clinton who said that when dealing with anyone who’s upset? He always asks, Has this person slept? Have they eaten? Is somebody else bugging them? He goes through this simple checklist, When we’re handling babies and the baby is kicking and crying, we almost never once say, That baby’s out to get me.
Or, She’s got evil intentions. Offence versus defence, the more you know what you really want, and where you’re really going, the more what everybody else is doing starts to diminish. The moments when your own path is at its most ambiguous, that’s when the voices of others, the distracting chaos in which we live, don’t expect others to understand you.
To blame someone for not understanding you fully is deeply unfair, because, first of all, we don’t understand ourselves, and even if we do understand ourselves. We have such a hard time communicating ourselves to other people. Therefore, to be furious and enraged and bitter that people don’t get all of who we are is a really a cruel piece of immaturity.
If you live in America in the 21st century, you’ve probably had to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they are. It’s become the default response when you ask anyone how they’re doing. Busy. So busy. Crazy busy. It is, pretty obviously, a boast disguised as a complaint, and the stock response is a kind of congratulation.
That’s a good problem to have, or better than the opposite. This frantic, self congratulatory busyness is a distinctly upscale affliction, whose lamented busyness is purely self imposed. Work and obligations they’ve taken on voluntarily. Classes and activities they’ve encouraged their kids. Zoologist Conrad Lorenz calls, the rushed existence into which industrialized, commercialized man has precipitated himself and all its attendant afflictions.
Ulcers, hypertension, neuroses, etc. Inexpedient development or evolutionary maladaptation brought on by our ferocious intraspecies competition. He likens us to birds whose alluringly long plumage has rendered them flightless, easy prey. I can’t help but wonder whether all this histrionic exhaustion isn’t a way of covering up the fact that most of what we do doesn’t matter.
This busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance. A hedge against emptiness. Obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked. In demand every hour of the day. One of my correspondents suggests that what we’re all so afraid of is being left alone with ourselves.
Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice. It is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body. And deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration.
It is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done. Idle dreaming is often the essence of what we do, writes Thomas Pynchon, is a book called Dropping Ashes on the Buddha. It’s by Zen master Sung San, who was a Korean Zen monk. I read it when I was maybe 24, and it’s a short book, just a series of letters that this really funny, very direct, very no bullshit Korean monk wrote back and forth with his students in the 1970s.
It was one of those, oh my god I think I get it books, especially people who have told me that they are feeling kind of lost and or depressed or directionless. Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity. You’ll avoid the tough decisions, and you’ll avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted.
Colin Powell If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid. Epictetus To do anything remotely interesting, you need to train yourself to handle, or even enjoy, criticism. Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want. Anger is a hot coal that you hold in your hand while waiting to throw at someone else.
This idea that we’re either courageous or chicken shit is just not true, because most of us are afraid and brave at the exact same moment, all day long. Brini, lean into discomfort, because I think these seemingly impossible problems that we have around race and homophobia and the environment, and just the lack of love sometimes, are not going to be solved in a comfortable way.
So I guess my ask would be more of a big metaphysical ask. Give vulnerability a shot. Give discomfort its due. Because I think he or she who is willing to be the most uncomfortable is not only the bravest, but rises the fastest. Roosevelt’s famous arena quote. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly.
Who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. Shame versus guilt. Shame is, I am a bad person. Guilt is, I did something bad. Shame is a focus on self. Guilt is a focus on behavior. If you stress test the boundaries and experiment with the impossibles, you’ll quickly discover that most limitations are a fragile collection of socially reinforced rules you can choose to.
Break it any time. Number one, what if I did the opposite for 48 hours? Number two, what do I spend a silly amount of money on? How might I scratch my own itch? Number three, what would I do have be if I had 10 million dollars? What’s my real TMI? What’s my real target monthly income? TMI number four, what are the worst things that could happen?
Could I get back here? Number five, if I could only work two hours per week on my business, what would I do? Number six, what if I let them make decisions up to 100? 500? 1, 000? This experience underscored two things for me. One, to get huge good things done, you need to be okay with letting the small bad things happen.
Two, people’s IQs seem to double as soon as you give them responsibility and indicate that you trust them. Number seven, what’s the least crowded channel? Number eight, what if I couldn’t pitch my product directly? People don’t like being sold products, but we all like being told stories. Work on the latter.
Number nine, what if I created my own real world MBA? 10. Do I need to make it back the way I lost it? Number 11. What if I could only subtract to solve problems? Number 12. What might I put in place to allow me to go off the grid for four to eight weeks with no phone or email? Number 13. Am I hunting antelope or field mice?
A lion is fully capable of capturing, killing, and eating a field mouse. But it turns out that the energy required to do so exceeds the caloric content of the mouse itself. So a lion that spent its day hunting and eating field mice would slowly starve to death. A lion can’t live on field mice. A lion needs antelope.
Antelope are big animals. They take more speed and strength to capture and kill, and once killed, they provide a feast for the lion and her pride. A lion can live a long and happy life on a diet of antelope. The distinction is important. Are you spending all your time and exhausting all your energy catching field mice?
14. Could it be that everything is fine and complete as is? Number 15. What would this look like if it were easy? Number 16. How can I throw money at this problem? How can I waste money to improve the quality of my life? One of Dan’s sayings is, If you’ve got enough money to solve the problem, you don’t have the problem.
In the beginning of your career, you spend time to earn money. Once you hit your stride in any capacity, you should spend money to earn time, as the latter is non renewable. Number 17. No hurry, no pause. I asked Jamie how he teaches confidence to his children, and he said that he asks his daughters to explore their fears with the question, What’s on the other side of fear?
His answer is always, nothing. He elaborates, People are nervous for no reason, because no one’s gonna come out and slap you or beat you up. When we talk about fear, or a lack of being aggressive, holding someone back, it’s in your head.
