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Q&A with Tim — The Art of Male Friendship, Reinvention in The Age of AI, & More — Transcript

by Tim Ferriss · 11,927 words · 1,747 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00As I get older, I think the rule number
0:01one is don't get injured because they
0:04accumulate. And then number two,
0:06something's better than nothing. So if
0:09for whatever reason, life got in the
0:11way, you were defeated, and you're not
0:13going to be able to make it to the gym
0:15for an hour, it's like, look,
0:18do 10 laps in the pool, do 20 push-ups,
0:21do something. There's no excuse that you
0:24can give that would take those types of
0:27options away. So rather than pushing it
0:31and pushing it and pushing it to another
0:33day, just scaling down to something
0:35minimal. And I think if you do that
0:37consistently, it's pretty hard to lose.
0:40I am going to just hop into it. Take
0:42advantage of everybody being here.
0:45Thanks for joining. There were a lot of
0:47questions submitted, hundreds upon
0:48hundreds. Narrowed that down to a few
0:50dozen and I will answer a handful and
0:54then we'll hop to the live feed and
0:55answer questions there. So the first
0:57question is from Christine and here it
1:01is. Over the years we've watched you
1:02going through quite a transformation
1:04from a driven hyperoptimized logical
1:06business investor to a grounded
1:08relationship focused man talking openly
1:09about trauma, mental health struggles
1:11and meditation. What are your comments
1:13on the transformation? And for someone
1:14who is still stuck in the driven
1:17hyperoptimized logical phase and sees
1:19that they need to change something, what
1:20advice would you give? So the first
1:23observation
1:25or perhaps question I would pose in
1:27response to that is are you stuck? Maybe
1:30you're not stuck. And I say that because
1:34my shift certainly eventually, and it
1:38took me decades to get there, focusing
1:40on
1:41addressing childhood sexual abuse and so
1:44on, which I've written about
1:45extensively, so I won't belabor it here
1:47and drag people into that, was because I
1:51recognized
1:52over time that the 17 separate problems
1:55I thought were separate were in fact all
1:57stemming from this unressed elephant in
2:01the
2:02that required
2:04some
2:06I don't want to say handling maybe it's
2:08metabolizing maybe it's revisiting maybe
2:10it's recontextualizing as an adult so
2:14that was a necessary step for me I
2:16couldn't proceed past go without
2:18addressing that I don't think everyone
2:19requires that and
2:23there are tools I think that almost
2:24anyone can benefit from that may steer
2:27you towards introspection or more
2:31internal validation versus external
2:32validation. Like some of you will
2:35recognize this. The book Awareness by
2:37Anthony Dlo. I still read it at least
2:38once a year. There are frameworks that I
2:42think nearly anyone can benefit from
2:44like IFS internal family systems and I
2:47did a live session on this podcast with
2:50the founder of IFS Richard Schwarz. I
2:53would caution though that just as you
2:56frame the question as being stuck in a
3:00driven hyper optimized phase, it is just
3:04as easy, if not easier, to get stuck in
3:08doing the quote unquote work. And you
3:11only have to visit Austin to see what
3:13I'm talking about. There are lots of
3:15people who can't seem to get past a
3:21hyper reflective
3:24neverending cycle of polishing the self.
3:29And I think that
3:31any obsession with the self, whether
3:33that is validated by others through your
3:36bank account or achievements or getting
3:39pats on the back for doing the quote
3:41unquote work, is poisonous and excess,
3:44right? The dose makes the poison. And I
3:46think it applies here. So I would say
3:48maybe you're not stuck. Number one, that
3:50deserves from some examination. That
3:53deserves some examination.
3:56But I do think awareness, IFS, there are
3:58a handful of things that anyone that I
4:00know certainly has benefited from or can
4:03benefit from. So I would start there.
4:06So I'll leave it there for now.
4:09The next question is from Mike R. Much
4:14of your work focuses on reversible
4:16experiments, but the stakes of
4:17reinvention rise in your late 40s when
4:19career, family, health, plus financial
4:21responsibilities make big moves harder
4:24to test. How would you distinguish a
4:26genuine next chapter from an impulse to
4:28escape your current life? Would you use
4:31a 30-day experiment, or is there a
4:33better framework for evaluating a major
4:35career/life pivot? So, I'm going to try
4:38to keep this short, but I would say read
4:41a blog post by Derek Civers that is
4:44titled There are always more than two
4:46options. And you can find that very
4:48easily, but it is civersopson.
4:52So that's siv.rsoptions.
4:59And let's see if I can pull this up for
5:01a second. And in effect, he says when
5:05people say they only have two options,
5:06it means they got stuck. Once people get
5:08two options, they start comparing pros
5:10and cons of those two and forget to
5:11think of more. As an example, a friend
5:13was trying to decide whether to stick
5:14with his frustrating job or quit and
5:16start his own company. I suggested some
5:17other options. This is all reading from
5:19his blog post. Bullet number one, build
5:20your new company outside of work hours.
5:22Do this until the income from the new
5:23company is 50% of your salary, then
5:25quit. Bullet two, show up to your job
5:27but secretly just work for your own
5:28company all day. Do this until you get
5:30fired. Bullet three, bring your new
5:32company idea to your boss and propose it
5:34as a division of their company so you
5:35can stay on salary. Last bullet, do
5:37neither and move to New Zealand to be a
5:39tour guide. After exploring more
5:41options, my friend realized that he
5:42didn't actually want to start a new
5:43business. He was just avoiding fixing
5:45his current situation. All right. I'm
5:48not saying that's the case for you,
5:49Mike, but I would say that you probably
5:53have a lot of options you could list out
5:56if you took the time. And we all fall
5:59prey to the A versus B trap, but there's
6:02almost you can always come up with C, D,
6:04E, F, and G. So that would be step
6:06number one for me. And then
6:10beyond that, I would say
6:14write down all the things that you find
6:18might lead you to want to escape your
6:21current life, right? What are those? And
6:24I think a lot about something that Chris
6:27Bosch shared in a conversation with me
6:30on this podcast. He's an 11time NBA
6:32All-Star and he talked about in the
6:35context of gratitude metaphorically if
6:37you were to sit around a table and he
6:39might have been crediting someone else
6:40but if you had five people and they all
6:42put all their problems on the table you
6:44would pick your problems right back up.
6:46So sometimes your problems seem really
6:48bad because you are most intimate with
6:51what you experience. But if you were to
6:53take all of the insecurities and
6:56friction and challenges and relationship
6:58wos of your five best friends, put
7:00everything on a table, you might rush to
7:02pick up your own problems again. So I I
7:05would say that
7:07as a thought exercise, that is that is
7:08also valuable.
7:1130-day experiments, I'm always a fan of
7:13two to four week experiments, but you
7:15don't have to make it binary, right? You
7:17could do it after hours, you could do it
7:18on the weekends. This is something that
7:21I've recommended in the 4-hour work week
7:23with respect to developing your own
7:26businesses or lifestyle muses and I
7:28still think it applies to many many many
7:30different things. And coming back to
7:32dose, there may be something that you
7:34really enjoy in small doses. And this
7:37also hearkens back to a story in the
7:414-hour work week which dives into let's
7:44just say surfing. If you love surfing
7:47maybe on the weekends because it is an
7:49alternative a contrast to what you do
7:52throughout the week that does not mean
7:53that you would enjoy surfing as your job
7:56if you had it as an obligation from
7:58Monday to Friday. Right? So you want to
8:01expand the volume of something like that
8:04to test the hypothesis before you jump
8:07from A to B. So, I'm not sure if that
8:10answers your question super directly,
8:12but that's how I might try to think
8:14through it. All right, next question is
8:18from Nathan B and he talks about, you
8:20know, his father watched electricity
8:22reach his community and these various
8:25technological changes over time and then
8:28I'll hop to the I think the crux of the
8:31question. So
8:34in effect AI feels different and I would
8:36agree with that not merely another tool
8:38but dot dot dot dot dot five-year
8:41predictions now seem almost unserious.
8:43So here's my question. If you were a
8:45capable but nonf famous intellectually
8:47curious person responsible for
8:49protecting and providing for a family
8:51determined to remain useful, healthy,
8:53financially resilient, and morally
8:54grounded. What concrete practices,
8:57skills, relationships, and experiments
8:58would you prioritize during the next 12
9:00months to prepare for the coming decade?
9:03So, that is a tall order. It's a very
9:05good question. I don't know if I can and
9:09I don't think it would be helpful
9:10actually maximally for me to try to
9:12parse that into each bullet point. But I
9:15can tell you how I've been thinking
9:17about this with respect to teaching
9:20children or upskilling yourself or maybe
9:25creating a flack jacket of sorts. And I
9:29have approached this from dozens of
9:31different angles and I keep coming back
9:34to
9:36learning,
9:38asking questions, written and verbal
9:41communications and negotiating. Those
9:43are a handful of skills that I think
9:45will remain constant. And I could defend
9:50each of those, but I will say that with
9:53AI and certainly with so many people
9:55having their massive bank accounts and
9:59net worths tied into this, there is a
10:02lot of selling of all of the change that
10:05is coming. And there is a lot of change
10:06that is already here and it's going to
10:08accelerate. But
10:11the more things change, the more certain
10:14things I think remain constant, right?
10:16The necessity of in real life close
10:19human relationships is not going away as
10:21a prerequisite for mental and spiritual
10:24health, right? That social component, we
10:26could just call it social health, which
10:27includes all of that. But I would focus
10:30on learning. And this is going to sound
10:31like I'm shilling my own bags here, but
10:34the metalarning section of the 4-hour
10:36chef, I think the 4-hour chef is a book,
10:38tried to do too much, but the very first
10:40section, which is something like 80
10:42pages on metalarning, I do think is
10:45worth a revisit if you haven't in a
10:47while. And learning once you try to
10:51break it down into its constituent
10:53building blocks
10:55really comes down in many cases to
10:57asking questions. And the asking of
11:00questions is important not just for
11:02interviewing other people or asking
11:04questions of other people to try to
11:06separate fact from fiction. It's equally
11:08important for asking yourself questions.
11:11And this is where all things are
11:13interrelated and awareness by Anthony
11:15Dlo and so on will tie into this 8020
11:18analysis. It's really a collection of
11:21questions for examining your assumptions
11:24and separating signal from noise. Uh so
11:28we come down to asking questions and
11:30then we have written communications and
11:32verbal communication. And I think in
11:36many cases and Kevin Kelly for instance
11:38the founding editor of Wired magazine
11:40would say that he doesn't write what he
11:42knows. He writes in order to better
11:44understand what he thinks to figure out
11:46what he thinks. And I don't think these
11:49are going away. Uh, sure you could try
11:52to just walk and talk into an LLM, and I
11:54do that as well, but there's a lot of
11:56bias built into that, not just by the
11:58people who design the systems, but by
12:01the force of memory function across
12:04different chats and threads, you're
12:06going to get a lot of self-reinforcing
12:08feedback. So, I do think getting offline
12:12like I did today, I spent 90% of my day
12:15today with pen and paper. And maybe that
12:18just dates me as a boomer, but I don't
12:20think so. It removes distraction and I'm
12:23able to be much more nonlinear off of a
12:25keyboard where I have to hit return to
12:28go down, right? I really like to use
12:30arrows and so on. So, anything that will
12:33improve written comms, there are many
12:35books on this certainly on writing well
12:37by Zincer. Verbal comms you can, it's
12:41going to sound so antiquated, but like
12:43join a local toast masters or something
12:45like that. get used to standing up and
12:47talking and that would be on the group
12:49side and then separately negotiating
12:52that's not going anywhere. So learning
12:54how to propose and craft deal structure
12:59for in most cases ideally win-win
13:02outcomes but that's not reality 100% of
13:05the time but negotiating whether that's
13:07and these are some older callbacks for
13:10me but the secrets of power negotiating
13:13by Dawson I remember had a huge impact
13:14on me getting past no had a large impact
13:17on me there are other books that provide
13:19frameworks and I've interviewed a lot of
13:20these people so you can also
13:23look at the archive of the podcast for
13:25people involved with the Harvard
13:26negotiating project and I actually
13:28interviewed one of the co-authors of
13:30getting to yes it's William Yuri and
13:33those are all worth jumping into but
13:35learning asking questions written comms
13:37verbal comms and negotiating is really
13:40where I would focus. I think that those
13:43are
13:44meta skills that can be applied across
13:50disciplines to almost every everything
13:51and anything. So that's probably where I
13:54would focus in terms of morally
13:56grounded. I mean, man, read philosophy.
13:59Philosophy is not for people in academic
14:02ivory towers. In my opinion, if you look
14:04back, it's learning how to live. And I
14:08think that you can establish consistent
14:10moral codes. Religion would be another
14:12option. Certainly not averse to that.
14:14There are many different paths to the
14:17same goal, which is having rules that
14:20you follow consistently that allow you
14:23to view yourself as a morally grounded
14:25person. All right. Next is [snorts]
14:29from Mason H. when you returned from
14:34your sbatical in 2024. So FYI, on the
14:3710th anniversary of the podcast, some of
14:38you might remember I took a four-month
14:40hiatus where we republished episodes. I
14:43didn't record or publish any new
14:44episodes. And part of this was to
14:47experiment with Killing the Golden
14:49Goose. Does the world end? When I bench
14:52the goose for a short period of time and
14:55I had a lot of fear around that. Turns
14:56out, as with most fears, it was
14:59ungrounded
15:00and it was fine. But here's the
15:02question. When you returned from your
15:03sobatical in 2024, you set a new set of
15:05rules for the kind of podcast you were
15:07going to do moving forward. Which of
15:09those rules have made it in the last two
15:11years and which did you discard?
15:14Any generalizable insights for those of
15:16us trying to stay in blue oceans in our
15:18own endeavors? All right. So, the last
15:20part about generalizing, I would say if
15:22you haven't read it, read the blue ocean
15:24strategy. It is going to be increasingly
15:28critical and important and certainly for
15:31a lot of businesses existential
15:33in the coming years. This is going to
15:36become more and more valuable real
15:38estate to figure out how to navigate.
15:41All right, so the blue ocean strategy.
15:43The other generalizable insight would be
15:45fear setting. Use that exercise. You can
15:47find it for free online. I did a TED
15:49talk about it. You don't have to buy
15:51anything. Use that to stress test your
15:54fears related to any action. What is
15:56holding you back? Right? What are the
15:57costs of inaction? It's all laid out
15:59very clearly. So look at that. But to
16:01answer your question, I thought why rely
16:04on my recollection? Because sometimes
16:07our own assessments and recollection,
16:10memory is an act of creating or
16:12recreating might be self- serving,
16:15right? I I might hallucinate to look at
16:18things more favorably. So I asked one of
16:20my key employees what his answer would
16:23be and the rules that stuck which ended
16:27up being very gratifying. Number one, no
16:30book launching episodes, right? So
16:32changing the rules around book launches.
16:33That was probably the biggest change.
16:35Just did not want to be in the podcast
16:38aosphere rotation of the same guests
16:40being on 20 podcasts at a time. Number
16:42two, living legends.
16:45wanted to interview people who are older
16:48who perhaps had either not been on
16:50podcasts or might not be on many
16:51podcasts before they could no longer do
16:55that and operate at a high level for a
16:57few hours. So we had Andrew Won 84,
17:01Richard Baylor 80, Tish Robbie 74, Wayde
17:05Davis 72, David White, Frank Miller,
17:07Danny Hillis, right? There are many
17:09examples and whether or not these
17:11episodes had maximum downloads, I would
17:14not expect them to because a lot of
17:15these names are relatively unknown
17:18compared to celebrities certainly and
17:21everything is being pushed to short
17:22clips with name recognition or
17:24sensational stuff and I try to avoid
17:26both of those. I really enjoyed doing
17:28this and the only way I'm gonna have any
17:30endurance
17:32in playing any game I choose to play,
17:34which includes podcasting, is if I enjoy
17:36doing it. Because if I enjoy doing it, I
17:39have this prerequisite foundational
17:41layer of energy which allows me in turn
17:44to have attention which allows me to
17:46take advantage of time and outlast
17:48trends. Okay? So, and that could still
17:51be a fatality, right? If everything gets
17:53pushed to LLMs or whatever, but you get
17:57the idea. Number three, experiments. So,
18:00co-hosting episodes with like Nick
18:01Kakonis, Kevin Kelly, I should do more
18:03of that. So, it was nice to do this
18:04review. Thank you for the question.
18:06guided meditations with Henry Shookman,
18:08the meditation Mondays. If you haven't
18:10had a chance to check those out, go
18:11check them out. You will feel better if
18:14you incorporate them. Tim's Foundry
18:16Kitchen, haven't given up on that one.
18:17I'm going to do more of that. That
18:19actually had a lot of impact behind the
18:20scenes, but again, wasn't one of the
18:24most downloaded episodes of the last
18:26year. But in terms of impact in a few
18:29very important ways that we were
18:31tracking that are not reflected on
18:34Spotify or Apple podcasts very
18:37successful and then the simplify your
18:38life episodes which I really really
18:40really enjoyed doing those compilations
18:42then we had a couple of household names
18:44right we had a handful of household
18:45names Tim Mcgra and so on which were fun
18:47so that 9010 split meaning I'm going to
18:50interview people in a barbell strategy
18:51who are either relatively unknown like
18:54Tish Robbie who's the air parent of Dr.
18:57Seuss. Amazing story. You should check
18:59it out. Last name is spelled R A B or
19:03Tim McGirl, right? Almost everybody,
19:05let's just say within certain
19:07demographics knows who that is. A lot of
19:10fun. And people who also who have just
19:12not been on podcasts like Steve Young.
19:15All right, so that is the answer to that
19:18question. All right, the next one is
19:20from Alec B.
19:22And my answer will be pretty short to
19:24this. I'm a therapist, so building
19:26emotional closeness is literally my job,
19:28and it's always come easy with women.
19:30But I've never cracked male friendship.
19:32If you were a 30-some with zero old
19:34friend groups to lean on, what's the
19:36actual first move? And how do you get
19:38past how weird it feels to initiate with
19:40another guy? All right, let me tell a
19:42story first. So, I was in the mountains
19:45of Montana with a small group of guys.
19:49This has shown up in some of my writing
19:51a couple months ago. and we're sitting
19:53around this fire chatting and we're
19:56having these really deep conversations
19:59after a full day of activities together.
20:02All right, so while we're doing the
20:04activities, we're hiking, we're carrying
20:06weight, we're tending llamas, long
20:08story, we're fishing, we're like
20:11climbing over rocks and doing stuff that
20:13is somewhat dangerous. All of that is
20:17activities together. And then late at
20:19night, I think me there was some tea.
20:21There might have been some whiskey. Who
20:23knows? And later on, we were going to
20:25grab some really magnified binoculars
20:27and look at the full moon standing up on
20:29a rock, which ended up being incredible,
20:30by the way, if you have something with a
20:32stabilizer. But while we were around the
20:34fire, we were having this very deep
20:36conversation. And one of the guys there
20:39said, "You know why this works so well?"
20:42And he said, "You know why also perhaps
20:44men in particular, and not saying this
20:46is limited to men, but love fires so
20:48much, is no eye contact. You're staring
20:51at the fire. It's not some weird sitdown
20:54session where two guys are staring at
20:57each other, which I think activates some
21:01type of
21:02millions of year old machinery that
21:05reads as threat. We're just sitting
21:07around a fire. No one's making eye
21:08contact. It's kind of dark and we're
21:10talking about all of this deep stuff,
21:11right? But it was a relatively small
21:14percentage of the total day. And this is
21:17a long way of saying that I think men
21:20and women are pretty different and women
21:23are much more adept at the face-to-faced
21:26verbal social element for lots of
21:29fantastic evolutionary reasons. And uh I
21:33think men just require and I'm talking
21:35about like I guess like uh
21:38heteronormative whatever whatever but
21:41maybe not. That's my reference point of
21:43course is shared activities. Men just
21:46bond in different ways and I've tried
21:50both. I've tried everything in between.
21:52I've tried the extremes, right? And I
21:56would just find activities. There was
21:58another question from someone else about
22:00moving to a new city. How would you
22:01build relationships?
22:04My answer would be to
22:07really have all of it revolve around
22:09shared activities. So, take your pick,
22:11right? Is it morning swims? I like to do
22:14something active. Is it rock climbing?
22:16Is it fill in the blank? Something
22:19inherently social where you have a
22:21partner or people you're working with?
22:24Maybe it's a run, right?
22:27That is followed by some beers on fill
22:30in the blank place, right? There's a lot
22:32of this stuff out there. But those are
22:34some of my thoughts. May not be the most
22:37research supported, but I think it's
22:40evolutionarily supported. And certainly
22:42when I look at all of my male friends
22:45who have the closest male friendships,
22:48whether they are from 20 years ago or
22:50from a year or two ago, shared projects
22:54or shared activities is the answer. And
22:57I have some relatively new male
22:59friendships, say with Alan Lee. Have we
23:01had a lot of deep conversations? Yeah.
23:03But did we spend a year like building a
23:05card game together? Yes. You get to see
23:08kind of through the cracks
23:11and indirectly talk about a lot of deep
23:14stuff without actually
23:17opening the kimono and talking about it
23:19head-on, right? And I think that's one
23:24example that comes to mind. All right,
23:26long answer, but let's hop into the live
23:31questions. I'm going to see what we have
23:34here. Thank you, Hannah. Love your
23:36episodes with women authors like Annne
23:38Lamont, Liz Gilbert, Margaret Atwood,
23:39and Cheryl Strade. Yeah, for sure. Mary
23:41car is also just phenomenal. If you
23:44haven't heard that one, check that one
23:45out, please. All right, question about
23:47the Saint protocol. This is a TMS
23:49protocol that I've used for generalized
23:51anxiety disorder and OCD. I have
23:54actually tested a number of things since
23:57can be incredibly effective getting in
24:00some people 70 to or I should say some
24:02groups of people 70 to 80% remission in
24:05treatment resistant depression, things
24:06like that. So, it's accelerated TMS.
24:09You're applying basically a paddle or a
24:12helmet to your head to affect different
24:14brain regions. And sometimes it's not so
24:17much a chemical issue. You just have
24:19anatomical structures that are kind of
24:20firing in the wrong order, right? It's
24:22as if you were trying to say drive a
24:25manual car, but you were using the
24:27clutch and shifting the gears and so on
24:29out of order. You kind of have to get
24:31those in the right sequence. And I'm
24:32simplifying, but this is one way to look
24:36at it.
24:37There is a company that I recently got
24:39involved with maybe six to 12 months ago
24:41called Ampa Health AMA and Jonathan
24:45Downer, Dr. Jonathan Downer is involved
24:48with this company and they have
24:50developed a one-day protocol. So instead
24:52of 5 days, which is sane, you're getting
24:5410 stimulations a day. It's pretty much
24:57all you're doing for a week. What
24:59they've done is compress that into a
25:01single day and they with what they call
25:03the 1D protocol they pre-administer a
25:06drug called descloerene which is
25:08actually an antibiotic. They just give
25:09you a small amount that induces helps
25:12induce plasticity.
25:15So I was able to get 3 to four months of
25:18complete relief after one day which is
25:21bananas. I mean it still blows my mind.
25:24And I'm focused at this point more on
25:27these ultra condensed, possibly
25:30pharmacologically enhanced options
25:32because most people can't take 5 days
25:34off of work. Most people can't afford
25:37what is involved in traveling to 5 days
25:40of treatment, but a single day suddenly
25:43really opens up the aperture of who this
25:46could help. So I am paying a lot of
25:49attention to that area and might have
25:51more on that soon. question from Craig.
25:53I'm gonna keep trying to answer these.
25:55There's a lot of questions coming in, so
25:57it kind of got bumped, but Craig was
26:00asking me keys to building a long-term
26:05dedicated fan base. Honestly, the best
26:09advice I could give, I think, is just
26:12like be try to be your authentically
26:14weird self and follow your own
26:15obsessions. And if something at least in
26:18the non-fiction space, right, if you are
26:22contending with a problem,
26:25a challenge, a dream, and you're trying
26:27to figure out how to get to that, I
26:29think the personal is the most
26:30universal. So don't try to read the tea
26:33leaves to guess what your audience
26:35wants. Just do what is interesting to
26:38you, right? Don't be ashamed of your
26:40obsessions. And that's going to come up
26:42in some later answers as well.
26:46And if you do that, you know, at least
26:48you're taking care of yourself along the
26:50way. You know, there's a lot more to it,
26:53but the tools, the platforms, the
26:55formats, all of that changes over time,
26:58but this is how I think about it. And
27:00also, I'm not aiming to impact a 100
27:03million people, right? I'm like, well,
27:05this helped me. Maybe it'll help
27:07somebody else. Let me take good notes.
27:09I'll share it. And if it really helps
27:10five people, I will consider that very,
27:13very well worth the time.
27:15All right, moving down. Sebio, still
27:19using kettle bells in your training.
27:21What's an average week of training look
27:22like for me recently? I do still use
27:25kettle bells, especially for overhead
27:27pressing. I don't do as much swinging as
27:30I used to simply because of some lower
27:33spinal issues. But I will do cleans and
27:36then from cleans into shoulder pressing.
27:39My workout routine right now is pretty
27:42simple. The backbone, pun intended, of
27:45that is lifting two to three times a
27:47week. That really is the crux of it. I
27:50just think for longevity,
27:52weight training, if I had to choose one
27:54modality, would be the pick. So, I'm
27:57roughly breaking that into pushing
27:59exercises, pulling exercises, and legs.
28:01And those are my three weight training
28:03workouts per week. Each one's about an
28:05hour. Then yoga, one to two times a
28:08week. I really like a yangar yoga
28:11specifically for alignment and use of
28:14props and so on. It's very adaptable in
28:16that way. And then some form of movement
28:18daily. Biking, swimming, walking. And as
28:22I get older, I think the rule number one
28:24is don't get injured because they
28:26accumulate. And then number two,
28:28something's better than nothing. So, if
28:31for whatever reason, life got in the
28:33way, you were defeated, and you're not
28:36going to be able to make it to the gym
28:37for an hour, it's like, look,
28:40do 10 laps in the pool, do 20 push-ups,
28:43do something. There's no excuse that you
28:46can give that would take those types of
28:50options away. So, rather than pushing it
28:54and pushing it and pushing it to another
28:55day, just scaling down to something
28:58minimal. And I think if you do that
29:00consistently, it's pretty hard to lose
29:02over time. And that was
29:04overlapping a lot with a question from
29:06Barbara C. How are you staying fit these
29:08days physically, mentally, and
29:10soulfully? Mentally and soulfully,
29:12honestly, it's having being very clear
29:15on the one or two things that you are
29:16focused on, say professionally. and then
29:19being very very clear on the one or two
29:21relationships that you are focused on
29:23most. And then booking stuff with your
29:28friend group. And you you can identify
29:30the most quote unquote important friends
29:33for all of those things I just mentioned
29:35by doing a past year review. And people
29:37can look up past year review to see how
29:40I do that. That'll pop right up. All
29:42right. Here's one from Stephen. What
29:43workouts from the 4-hour body are you
29:45still prioritizing in your routines?
29:46There's there's a lot from the 4-hour
29:48body. In the reversing injuries chapter,
29:50you had chop and lift, those types of
29:53exercises where you're basically in a
29:54half kneeling position with a cable
29:56pulley and you're rotating from kind of
29:59like bottom right to top left or say top
30:02right to bottom left or switching to the
30:05other side. I think that kettle bells
30:09still have a place, right? I'm not doing
30:10as many swings, but doing single sided,
30:15you know, one arm presses, for instance,
30:16with kettle bells can, I think, be
30:19incredibly effective for the time
30:21invested. I am certainly using some
30:24variant of AAM's protocol. So, typically
30:27in my weightlifting workouts, I'm going
30:29to be doing very strength focused stuff.
30:32So, it might be kind of greasing the
30:33groove along the lines of Pavle Tatsulin
30:36where I'm doing 10 sets of two pull-ups,
30:39right, with like 30 to 60 seconds in
30:41between, very submaximal, right? And
30:45then at the end of the workout, I'll do
30:47some type of pulling movement with a
30:495-second up 5-second down cadence to
30:52failure. Right? So, that would be
30:53reminiscent of AAM's protocol. And you
30:57know by and large if you look at my body
30:59I mean it has from a body composition
31:03perspective strength perspective the
31:05spine issues have affected axial loading
31:08top down loading somewhat but you know
31:11I've been able to maintain very very
31:13well between say 30 and almost 50 now.
31:17So if you look at it like what I'm doing
31:19seems to be working. There are always
31:20tweaks to be made, but I think simple
31:23works where complex fails a lot of the
31:25time. All right, this is from Aaron G.
31:30Imagine that your next podcast guest is
31:32a high school senior who will become one
31:34of the most successful people of their
31:35generation, but today they look
31:36completely average. What skills,
31:39abilities, qualities would you be
31:40listening for that teachers or schools
31:42often overlook? This is pretty simple
31:45and this is also how I find a lot of
31:47interesting technologies, stuff on the
31:49cutting edge
31:51before it makes it to the mainstream.
31:53And that can inform how you invest. That
31:55can inform how you think about life.
31:57It's just a fun way to explore
32:00this thing called being human. I would
32:02look at what they're doing on the
32:05weekends and evenings. Probably I would
32:07look at what these kids are doing
32:10related to their obsessions. What are
32:12their obsessions? Are they doing any
32:14projects? Are they using initiative to
32:18create things?
32:20Are those approaches unorthodox? Are
32:22they self-eing? If they're teaching
32:24themselves something, what are they
32:25teaching themselves? Right? And what are
32:27the lessons beneath that? Because you
32:29might be tempted to dismiss something
32:31quickly. If it's like, ah, okay, it's
32:32Minecraft. Who cares? It's like, well,
32:34hold on a second. You know, what is that
32:35actually teaching? All right, which
32:37elements of that are they best at? All
32:38right, which elements are they most
32:40interested in? All right,
32:43those are the types of things that I
32:44would be looking for. All right, next
32:46one is Niha G. How do you distinguish
32:49between needing a vacation, being burned
32:51out, and simply having outgrown the life
32:54you've built? And once you realize
32:55you've outgrown it, what would you do to
32:57hone in on what needs to change? I'm
32:59only going to address the first part of
33:00that. So, how do you distinguish between
33:02needing a vacation, being burned out,
33:04and simply having outgrown the life
33:06you've built? So, step number one would
33:08be take a vacation. since that is a
33:12temporary intervention and if that fixes
33:14the problem then you know that perhaps
33:17was the answer right so if you're asking
33:19yourself a question is it abcd or should
33:22I do abcd if there's one that is of
33:24short duration try it cross it off the
33:26list right that would be the first thing
33:29and then you know being burned out might
33:31be related to needing a vacation and
33:34then simply having outgrown the life
33:36you've built I would say take a mini
33:38retirement and
33:40That is another concept from the 4-hour
33:43work week. I still do it once or twice a
33:45year. This is taking
33:48ideally at least three or four weeks
33:53away from your usual routine or
33:55business, right? And I frame it in or
34:00through the lens of business for say
34:02entrepreneurs a lot. This is most
34:05applicable to people who are
34:07self-employed or most easily applied
34:09although literally thousands of people
34:11who have done this who are employed. So
34:13there's flexibility. But the the reason
34:16three or four weeks is important is that
34:18if you take a week off, maybe even two
34:21and you don't change anything before you
34:23leave,
34:25you can try to triage while you're gone.
34:26So you'll be tempted to hop in and put
34:29out small fires before they become big
34:30fires. And when you come back, you can
34:33end up doing two to three weeks of
34:36damage control to reverse all the things
34:38that went wrong. When it's three or four
34:41weeks or 5, 6, 7, 8 weeks, all of a
34:44sudden, before you leave, you have to
34:48take a very hard look at your systems,
34:51your policies, how well you are
34:55eliminating things, automating things.
34:58If you're doing a lot of things that
35:00don't need to be done in the first
35:01place, you might stop those. You might
35:03hit pause on a bunch of things for that
35:06three to four week period and see what
35:08happens. Much like I did with my podcast
35:09soatical, right? And by doing that once
35:13or twice a year, you're effectively
35:15doing a controlled burn, which prevents
35:17much bigger forest fires and it gives
35:19you also perspective much like writing a
35:23book. Right now, I am on a new draft of
35:26a book and I let it sit for a few weeks
35:29because I cannot look at it with fresh
35:31eyes. I'm too close to all the problems
35:33in every edit until I've let it marinate
35:36for a few weeks. So, the benefit of a
35:39mini retirement, and I'm sure people
35:42have written about this online, so you
35:44don't necessarily have to buy the 4-hour
35:45work week, is that you have to set up
35:49systems and policies and improve all of
35:52that before you leave. And by the way,
35:55leave could mean that you're in the same
35:57place, although I do recommend a change
35:59of geography for this.
36:02And then when you come back, you will
36:05also be able to look at things with
36:07fresh eyes and a clearer vision I would
36:10say. Right? So that is probably the
36:13approach that I would take when I am in
36:17doubt
36:18or a lot of different problems are
36:20starting to cohhere together and I'm
36:22having trouble separating them.
36:25In the immediate term, I will start
36:27doing TM meditation again twice a day.
36:29Right? Arnold Schwarzenegger found this.
36:31A lot of problems tend to glom on to one
36:33another and it seems unresolvable.
36:35Meditation twice a day, specifically
36:37twice a day is important. You could also
36:39use, you know, the Way app by Henry
36:40Shooklin or someone else. Twice a day is
36:42important. And I have theories for why
36:44that's the case, but just do that for
36:46like a week or two. And then if there's
36:49still lots of outstanding questions and
36:52it just seems like you're spinning too
36:53many plates, I will try to get a mini
36:56retirement on the calendar. And it
36:57doesn't need to be next week. could be
36:59two months, three months from now, but
37:01get it on the calendar and then defend
37:03it. That is how I approach it. May or
37:05may not apply to your situation.
37:09Hopefully that wasn't boring as
37:11Next question is,
37:15I'm not sure if this is going to be
37:16helpful, but I'll just throw it out
37:18there because it's a simple response. Is
37:19McKinley W. And I apologize if this is a
37:24dissatisfying answer on my part, but I
37:26work in public education. and have spent
37:27years in child and teen mental health
37:28and suicide prevention. Thank you for
37:30that first and foremost. It's super
37:32important work. What advice would you
37:33give to practitioners and educators who
37:35are caring for our youth through
37:36unprecedented times? I'm going to just
37:38hop in for a second. I would look very
37:40very closely at Jonathan Height Hi Dt
37:44not only his books but also what he's
37:46doing with his small group of
37:47researchers. They've actually changed
37:50certain legislation on a state-by-state
37:52basis for restricting phone use in
37:55schools and I think it's very very
37:58interesting. So take a look at that.
38:00Getting back to the question, you've had
38:01many great guests who have touched on
38:03this and you've shared boldly about your
38:04own experience. What would you say to a
38:0516-year-old in 2026?
38:08I would say that,
38:12you know, this
38:15everything on this Black Mirror is
38:17designed to hijack your free will and to
38:21turn you into a puppet of the machine of
38:24some type, one machine or another,
38:26whether that's meta or fill in the
38:30blank, right? And
38:33that
38:35this could be a digital mini retirement.
38:37I would try to get them off of social
38:38media for a period of time and then talk
38:41to them. Be like, "Hey, this is going to
38:43be an experiment. You can get back on it
38:44and use it 10 times as much, but I'm
38:47going to challenge you and we're going
38:48to come up with a plan for other things
38:50that you can do. Delete the apps from
38:52your phone for 3 to four weeks. We're
38:57going to do an assessment beforehand to
38:59look at how you feel, your anxiety
39:02levels, maybe depressive symptoms, how
39:05much you're getting done, what you say
39:07you want to do versus how you're
39:08spending time. And then we're going to
39:10look at it afterwards. And no
39:13expectations, no pressure on what you do
39:15with those results. But let's start
39:17there. And you know, if you want to have
39:21a beautiful life that has some element
39:25of peace of mind and healthy
39:27relationships, I think it'll benefit
39:28you. If you want to be a world beater
39:30and you want to build anything or
39:34operate at the highest levels in any
39:35way, also this will help you. So, I
39:38would probably pitch it that way. That's
39:39what I would do. All right.
39:43Next one is going to be a little inside
39:45baseball, but I'm going to jump into it
39:47because it's a topic that I love. This
39:49is from Sebastian, and I'm going to
39:52abbreviate this a little bit. All right,
39:54so I've talked a lot about language
39:56learning in the past, and I've had blog
40:00posts and resources from people like
40:02Benny Lewis, the Irish Polyglot. And
40:05Seb's question or Seby's question is,
40:07has any of this thinking changed with
40:08advancements in AI?
40:11And here are some questions. What's the
40:13purpose of language learning? If in the
40:14end we're all plugged in with a chip and
40:15blah blah blah, what does language
40:17learning provide for the human
40:18experience? So for me, number one,
40:23actually population level, zoom out.
40:25There seem to be some crazy longevity
40:27and cognitive benefits to language
40:29learn. This is relatively new. I put it
40:32in the fib Friday newsletter, so I can't
40:34recall it from memory, which is ironic.
40:36I get it. But there seem to be some
40:38really significant benefits to acquiring
40:40multiple languages. Secondly, it doesn't
40:43take that long to get conversationally
40:46functional in a new language. You
40:49probably know this already, but between
40:508 to 12 weeks, and not to beat a dead
40:53horse, but again, the metalarning
40:54section of the 4-hour chef goes into
40:56this at length. And I've written a lot
40:58on the blog, Tim. I think there's a
41:00section called language learning, but if
41:01you just search language learning,
41:03you'll be able to find a ton of stuff.
41:04So, it's also not as heavy a lift as
41:07people expect, right? To get to a point
41:09where you have a thousand words, you can
41:11go to a country and navigate
41:1480% of your transactional conversations
41:18in a restaurant, at a hotel, whatever,
41:20all in your target language. You could
41:22probably actually do that in about 2
41:24weeks. I know that sounds crazy,
41:27but I believe that is entirely
41:29achievable. And I've taught people to do
41:31that. There are plenty of other people
41:32out there who teach folks. it's very
41:34very achievable right so it seems like
41:37limited downside in terms of time
41:40investment and very high durable upside
41:43but the purpose of language learning for
41:44me also is that you know I agree with
41:48vitkinstein that the limits of our
41:51language are the limits of our world and
41:53there are whether it's through
41:55grammatical structure or vocabulary or
41:58words like you know saaji in Portuguese
42:01which is actually pretty close to like
42:02nutskashi in Japanese or right this term
42:06for dappled light in Japanese
42:10or the phrases like Maywaku in Japanese
42:13which is
42:16people have heard
42:17right
42:20is like pain in the ass. So Maywoko is
42:22like when somebody does you a favor you
42:24don't walk when someone does you like a
42:26favor you don't really want or gives you
42:27a gift you don't want and then you feel
42:29obliged to do stuff for them and it's a
42:31huge pain in the ass. All of that is
42:33compressed into this one expression
42:35which is just beautiful, hilarious, fun.
42:39And we've all heard that, you know, the
42:42Inuit have 30 words for different types
42:44of snow. Hawaiians have many, many, many
42:47different words for various types of
42:49rain. Also, some of them are location
42:51dependent, like rain at a specific
42:53place. All of these concepts broaden
42:57your ability to experience life, right?
43:01In the same way that if you're looking
43:03around here where I'm sitting or you're
43:07driving around and
43:09walking through the woods, let's just
43:10say, and what you see are trees. That's
43:14what you see, trees and plants. But you
43:17don't have any specific knowledge that
43:18allows you to see anything really more
43:21than that. Perhaps somebody could put
43:23two different types of leaves in your
43:24hand. You'd be able to say, "Yes,
43:25they're different." But if you went on a
43:27walk, as I will do with say a botist or
43:31somebody who works at a local
43:35plant shop, doesn't have to cost much
43:37money, be 20 bucks. And they start to
43:40describe to you, for instance, oh,
43:43you're in upstate New York. Here are the
43:45six to eight trees that constitute more
43:48than 90% of all the trees, right? And
43:51here's how you tell them apart. And by
43:54the way, here are the three different
43:55leaf structures that matter. Or with
43:58birds, here's how owl feet are different
44:00from pasarine, which are different from
44:02this. Right? Suddenly, because you have
44:06these labels,
44:07your experience of reality is much
44:10higher resolution. And when it's higher
44:13resolution, when you have also, and
44:15these are not exactly the same thing,
44:17but a better frame rate, I think you
44:19extend your experiential lifespan. All
44:21right? Right. So, if you want to live in
44:25full color HD as opposed to black and
44:27white, and if you want to be able to
44:30watch super slow-mo,
44:32right, to extend your life without
44:35waiting for some magical biological
44:37intervention that all the billionaires
44:38are funding to live forever. Probably
44:40not going to happen anytime soon. You
44:42can do that right now. And one of the
44:44ways that I find helps is by learning
44:47languages. All right, [snorts] that was
44:49a that was a long one. And I didn't even
44:51get to the second part. All right. So,
44:52have I thought about how to
44:53systematically integrate AI into
44:55language learning process.
44:57There are lots of people who have lots
44:59of takes on this. And you know, I was
45:01one of their earliest investors, so I'm
45:03I'm kind of biased here, but I don't
45:05think so. You know, like if anyone's
45:06going to crack AI for language learning,
45:09I do think it's going to be Dolingo.
45:10They're already using it. There may be
45:12some AI native companies that approach
45:13it, but I do think Duolingo is probably
45:15ahead of the game. There are lots of
45:16other options. So for instance, just in
45:18the last few weeks, Instagram
45:20autodubbing has become really good and
45:24my team sent me a clip of me speaking in
45:26Japanese, right? So the random show and
45:28there was a segment and it was my voice.
45:31It sounds like me dubbed into, as far as
45:35I can tell, perfect Japanese, idiomatic
45:38perfect Japanese. And I was like, "Holy
45:50Now, I don't want to spend all day
45:52listening to myself, but because I knew
45:54the content of that conversation,
45:57I was able to improve my my Japanese,
45:59which is already pretty good. It's not
46:00perfect, but it's advanced. I was able
46:02to improve my Japanese in five minutes
46:04of watching something, watching content
46:07I knew in this target language, right?
46:10So, you can use AI. I think one of the
46:12more interesting
46:14uses of AI for language learning for
46:17kids specifically or younger people uh
46:19older people too would be personalizing
46:21the experience based on your interests
46:23based on what you want to learn.
46:26What native content can I aggregate that
46:30will be interesting to you? Right? Like
46:32the Dualingo Spanish podcast was
46:33phenomenal. I don't know what the
46:35equivalent is in Mandarin. I'm trying to
46:37brush up on my Mandarin Chinese right
46:39now. And it's like, well, I would love
46:42to do that. So, I'm going to go to, and
46:45I just did this earlier today, ChatGpt
46:47or Claude, and ask them that question. I
46:49liked the Dualingo Spanish podcast,
46:51which by the way, at one point was like
46:52one of the top 10 podcasts or 20
46:54podcasts in the world. Crazy. And I want
46:56the equivalent for Mandarin. What might
46:58that look like? Now, if it doesn't
47:00exist, I would imagine that within a
47:03year, AI will be able to create that for
47:06me. And that would be a great use case
47:09for me for AI enhancing language
47:13learning. But frankly, old and boring
47:16and analog I think works fantastic
47:19because as soon as you are learning a
47:21language on this, you are competing,
47:26your attention is competing with a
47:28thousand other distractions that are
47:31more tantalizing than using spaced
47:34repetition or super memo or something
47:36like that. Ani to acquire vocabulary,
47:39right? So,
47:41I like printed out flashcards. I like
47:45watching, for instance, anytime you're
47:46watching Netflix or whatever, Amazon
47:49Prime. Okay, here's the thing. I don't
47:51actually believe you learn a target
47:53language. Let's say Italian. I've been
47:54watching some Italian movies recently. I
47:56love Italian as a language.
47:58I can watch, say, Roberto Benini.
48:01Incredible, right? Life is beautiful.
48:03But if I miss something and I'm watching
48:05English subtitles, if I miss it, I miss
48:07it. I don't get it. However, if I have
48:10spent, let's just say 72 hours getting
48:14using a
48:17Lonely Planet phrase book intended for
48:19travelers about Italian. They give you
48:20like a 10-page grammar overview. If I
48:23have a basic understanding, then I can
48:26watch a movie I know in and out, right?
48:28Die Hard Babe is one of my favorites.
48:32the born identity, whatever, where you
48:34know the dialogue,
48:36snatch, whatever it might be, and then
48:39just turn on the subtitles in your
48:41target language. So now I'm watching,
48:43like right now I'm watching Parks and
48:45Wreck, and we're going to come back to
48:47Parks and Wreck, but I'm watching from
48:48season 1, episode 1 through Parks and
48:51Wreck. It's highly conversational, lots
48:53of different characters, and you can
48:55watch it as you would normally watch it,
48:57or you can just turn on some subtitles
48:58in whatever your target language is, and
49:00you will acquire a lot of language, a
49:03lot of vocab. All right, so not sure
49:07that is helpful, but that's how I'm
49:09thinking about it. And I'm definitely
49:10going to be learning more languages, so
49:12I do think about this. All right, let's
49:16hop into.
49:19And my laptop battery is doing so well.
49:21I can't believe I've ever recorded
49:23podcasts indoors. Ludicrous. Should
49:26always do it outside with nice weather
49:28like this. All right, I'm going to hop
49:30back into the live chat and see if we
49:33got anything I can hop into. Also, some
49:37of you have heard me talk about this.
49:39Michelle Thomas. M I C H E L T H O M A
49:42S. Michelle Thomas method. If you want
49:44something you can listen to and really
49:46acquire the fundamentals of a language
49:49in a week or two, the Michelle Thomas
49:52method is outstanding. The languages he
49:55recorded himself, which I think are
49:56French, Spanish, Italian, maybe
49:59certainly German are world class. The
50:03Korean that I went through, I was very
50:05skeptical that anyone other than
50:06Michelle would be able to use his method
50:08to teach well, and it was awesome.
50:11So, I would I would take a very close
50:13look at Michelle Thomas. His background
50:15is nuts. Okay.
50:18Michael R. What's one of your recent
50:20favorite TV shows or movies? All-time
50:23favorite TV shows or movies? Well, I've
50:25I just mentioned some of my favorite
50:26movies. And when I'm writing a new book,
50:29very often I'll write late at night and
50:30I will take one of my favorite movies
50:32and I'll play it on the TV or on a
50:34projector and mute it and then I'll just
50:36listen to music. But I like having the
50:38company late at night so it doesn't feel
50:40too isolating. And it's been different
50:42movies for different books. But I mean
50:45I've seen Babe like a thousand times.
50:47I've seen Born Identity like a thousand
50:49times. Spirited Away I've probably seen
50:51a few hundred times cuz I'm playing them
50:53every night, right? And there are many
50:56others right now. And this comes to a
51:00question someone else asked. Len a I've
51:03always enjoyed your what purchase under
51:05$100 has made a big impact question. Why
51:07have you stopped asking that? I don't
51:09have a great answer to that. And do you
51:11have any new purchases that would make
51:12such a list? And this ties into favorite
51:14TV shows. All right. So, I had like
51:17millions of people, I had seen many
51:19short clips on social of parks and
51:22wreck, parks and recreation. I'd even
51:24seen one or two episodes, but I had
51:25never watched it as the good Lord
51:28intended, which is from season 1,
51:30episode one all the way through. And
51:32there are 120 plus episodes and goodness
51:36gracious is that a fantastic show. It is
51:39just wholesome goodness, you know, 90%
51:42of the time. I think familyfriendly 99%
51:45of the time. Not that I care about that
51:47right now, but it's so positive and such
51:51a feelgood pallet cleanser given the
51:54insanity that we get waterboarded with
51:55all day through doom scrolling. And even
51:58if you don't want to be subjected to it,
52:00it's just everywhere. It really has
52:02turned into this nightly ritual with my
52:05lady and we just watch one episode every
52:08night, one or two. So good. And that's
52:10literally months and months of payoff
52:12because they have seven seasons. So
52:13buying the full seven seasons is my best
52:16purchase of under $100. This is from
52:18Timothy K. You've said walking is my
52:21number one daily hack. I'm just
52:23revisiting the memory banks to try to
52:26confirm that I've said that, but doesn't
52:28really matter what actually happens in
52:29my mind on those walks. that doesn't
52:31happen at a desk intentional or does it
52:33just unfold?
52:35I will say that it's it's not always
52:38about what happens in the mind. I just
52:40pay even though I might be known in some
52:43circles as a early stage tech investor
52:45and blah blah blah blah blah. So, I'm
52:47looking at the new new new new new new
52:49thing. I pay more attention to the old
52:52old old thing and evolutionary drives
52:57that have withtood millennia and
52:59millions of years
53:02to prove durable. And we're designed to
53:04move. We're designed to walk a lot,
53:06right? And most of us don't do as much
53:09of that as we have evolved to be capable
53:12of. So, I just find the health benefits,
53:15the mood elevation.
53:17It is across the board beneficial to me.
53:19If I'm walking, sometimes it's going to
53:21be just letting my mind wander, trying
53:25to let ideas percolate from wherever the
53:27muse might yank them if I'm working on a
53:29book, might be listening to an audio
53:32book, might be doing phone calls. But
53:34walking, walking, walking. I mean,
53:35there's you can fix a lot of problems by
53:37walking. And when I say walking, I mean
53:39walking like two hours plus a day is a
53:41lot of walking. But for me, like any
53:45amount of walking helps, but just like
53:47meditating twice a day is fundamentally
53:49different for me. Like if you can
53:51meditate,
53:53for instance, like if you could choose
53:5515 minutes twice a day or 30 minutes
53:57once a day, I do 15 minutes twice a day.
54:00And similarly with the walking, any
54:01amount helps, but
54:04there seems to be something kind of
54:06magical that happens after at least an
54:08hour, right? Preferably two. So that's
54:11that's where I'll leave that. My top tip
54:14for more restful sleep at the moment
54:15when falling asleep is fine, but hitting
54:17a full night's rest is challenging.
54:21I think that's a question.
54:24I mean, number one, look, if you're
54:26waking up to pee a lot, stop drinking
54:28water an hour or two before you go to
54:30bed, two hours, right? Just like stop
54:32drinking so much water. I drink water
54:34compulsively, right? So, that is
54:36something that I have to tell myself.
54:40And putting aside drugs and all that
54:43kind of stuff cuz I don't think we want
54:44to get into that rabbit hole right now.
54:48you know, falling asleep for me. So,
54:50cutting down on primary insomnia or
54:52onset insomnia.
54:55The TMS, the one day TMS has just been
54:58remarkable for that.
55:00So, people can look up Ampa Health if
55:02they want to try to find a place that
55:04might offer a one day. It's called the
55:061D protocol. You can also look up
55:07literature on that. But otherwise, sun
55:12lots of exercise. So boring. Isn't that
55:15boring? But if I get plenty of sun
55:19exposure,
55:21if I'm seeing lots of natural light,
55:22especially when the sun is going down,
55:24like right now, I mean, in the morning,
55:25yes, to wake up, but also plenty of
55:27light exposure
55:29and I am exercising so that I feel
55:33tired. It sounds so ridiculous for me to
55:36seg, but it bears repeating because it I
55:39think in modern environments, and modern
55:42life, it's very easy to do what? to
55:45suffer from a deficiency of sunlight,
55:48get very little sunlight exposure, and
55:50to not be tired because you're sitting
55:52in front of one of these screens at 18
55:54in for the majority of the day. So,
55:58those would be a few. It's another
56:00reason why I like to walk because I can
56:01get a lot done if I push this horrible
56:04thing called the inbox to phone calls
56:06and then just do a few hours of calls,
56:09which I do almost every Tuesday when I'm
56:11having one-on-one calls with my direct
56:13reports as an example.
56:17Let me know if you have follow-ups on
56:18that, but that's what comes to mind.
56:21This is a question uh let's see if I can
56:23answer this. I didn't have immediate
56:26thoughts. This is a question from
56:27Oxanna. As someone who naturally values
56:29privacy, how did you reconcile that with
56:31choosing such a public career and has
56:33that changed over time? Well, the first
56:35thing I would say is that I didn't
56:36really
56:39think through choosing a public career
56:41because the first book was turned down
56:43by 25 plus publishers and then bought
56:46for nothing. And my expectation was that
56:49it wasn't going to do very much. And
56:51even though I stacked the deck so that
56:54it would have a snowballs chance in
56:56hell, I did not expect it to blow up.
56:59And by the time it did blow up and then
57:02I was saying yes to things and became
57:04publicly exposed, the genie was out of
57:06the bottle, toothpaste was out of the
57:08out of the toothpaste tube, however you
57:09want to think about it.
57:11But if I could hit, you know, control Z,
57:15there are times when I would be tempted
57:17to say yes, I would take that. And I
57:20think the silver lining on it is that
57:23the half-life of fame is just getting
57:25shorter and shorter and shorter. Some of
57:28you might remember, let's just call it
57:2910 years ago, you would get a hilarious
57:31meme video and that video would make the
57:33rounds for like a week. How long do the
57:36videos make the rounds now? 60 seconds,
57:413 hours, one day.
57:44It's everything is becoming more
57:47ephemeral in the world of sort of
57:49digital visibility and over time like I
57:52might you know shut of the podcast or
57:54stop doing video
57:56because I have no no desire for more
57:59facial recognition.
58:02But I think depending on what you're
58:05trying to do, for better and for worse,
58:07if you're maybe in growth mode, it's
58:09going to get harder and harder to have
58:11any kind of
58:14durable public profile. Now, on the flip
58:17side, it's going to get easier and
58:18easier for everyone to find you. So, I
58:21do think it's important to think about
58:24digital protections, privacy
58:25protections, and so on. But that's a
58:27much longer conversation for another
58:28time. But yes, I am paranoid and
58:31incredibly
58:33focused on privacy. I think that privacy
58:36in some ways, even though it was a let's
58:38call it a god-given right for millennia
58:42upon millennia,
58:44it is now a luxury of sorts, right? If
58:47you do not take proactive action, if you
58:50do not have defenses put up, like your
58:52whole life is on display or available
58:55for the right for the right technical
58:58person who can do a deep dive or for the
59:01right price, right? So, you really and
59:03there are tools you can use like incogns
59:05for scraping stuff off the web. I think
59:07that's just going to become a privacy
59:10survival imperative if you want it. Then
59:12there's other stuff that's interesting.
59:13You know, if you want like private
59:15money, right, which by the way, like for
59:17a long time, cash was that. Now it's
59:19like go to your bank and try to take out
59:21$9,000. You're going to get
59:22cross-examined. Government doesn't like
59:24private money, even though the default
59:27was kind of fiat currency for a long
59:29time, which allowed you to kind of live
59:30your life and do your thing without
59:32having big brother breathing on your
59:33face at every second. So, you know,
59:35stuff like Zcash is kind of interesting.
59:37Obviously, crypto can lead you into
59:40dangerous waters and you can lose
59:41everything very quickly. But I do find
59:43some of the privacy coins and stuff
59:45interesting. So, we'll see where all
59:47that goes. That does not mean invest, by
59:49the way. It is very, very easy to lose
59:52all your money in that stuff. All right.
59:55This one is from Josh. Tim, what are
59:58three to five things in your life now
1:00:00that you happily pay top dollar for? In
1:00:02other words, what luxuries do you think
1:00:03are absolutely worth upgrading for?
1:00:07I'm going to mention a few. The first is
1:00:11massage and manual therapy. And I wanted
1:00:14to mention this first because even when
1:00:16I was very poor right out of school and
1:00:21driving around in a used handme-down
1:00:24minivan that the the rear seats have
1:00:26been stolen out of, I'm not making this
1:00:28up. like really a A+ piece of car
1:00:32and had a bunch of roommates and like
1:00:35slept on a futon a lot.
1:00:38I saved my money for manual therapy,
1:00:40meaning massage therapy once a week and
1:00:44like not for relaxation, for like sports
1:00:46massage, fix the broken car type of
1:00:50work. And that is a commitment that I
1:00:54made early because I saw the dividends
1:00:55and I really think it is paid off over
1:00:58time and I think that is the core
1:01:01component of my longevity sort of health
1:01:05span
1:01:07constellation of things. So that's one.
1:01:09I really try to get massage work done
1:01:11with a good therapist once a week. And
1:01:14again a little is better than nothing.
1:01:16Can't afford an hour? Do 30 minutes.
1:01:17Can't afford 30 minutes? Try to find
1:01:19somebody to do 15 minutes. I guarantee
1:01:20you, you can find somebody who can help
1:01:23you out even if they're only working on
1:01:25your IT bands for 5 minutes. Like scale
1:01:28back instead of going to zero. All
1:01:30right. Ease of travel. I just I think
1:01:32travel can be very stressful the more
1:01:34people you have involved. I've got a
1:01:36dog. D. So, anything that makes travel a
1:01:40bit smoother, a bit easier, right? It's
1:01:42like, you know, I was their first
1:01:44adviser. So, again, full disclosure, but
1:01:46like clear TSA precheck. anything that
1:01:49makes travel a little bit easier. If
1:01:51it's going to be a hassle to lug your
1:01:52stuff around, if you hurt your elbow and
1:01:54you've got heavy luggage, ship your
1:01:56luggage, right? There's a lot you can
1:01:58do. When I was spending a lot of time in
1:02:02New York City, I actually stayed at the
1:02:04same hotel most of the time. And what I
1:02:07did at one point is I bought a trunk, a
1:02:10big trunk, and I put a week's worth of
1:02:13clothing and some of the supplements I
1:02:16always use and a bunch of the stuff that
1:02:18is in my like everyday carry in my
1:02:21primary home. And I just had a trunk of
1:02:23stuff that they stored in the basement
1:02:25at the hotel. What did that mean? I
1:02:28never had to pack. I could grab a
1:02:30toothbrush and get on a plane and go to
1:02:32New York and I was totally covered. had
1:02:34a couple of different pairs of shoes,
1:02:35had workout outfits, everything, right?
1:02:38Bathing suit, didn't need anything in
1:02:40one trunk. That's it. So,
1:02:44ease of travel would be number two. And
1:02:46then last, and I'm sure I could think of
1:02:48other stuff, but healthcare for myself
1:02:50and loved ones would be way up there.
1:02:53And that includes in some cases, and I'm
1:02:55fortunate that I have the means to do
1:02:57this, but for some people like for my
1:02:59parents and other people, paying for
1:03:00trainers, paying for doctors, paying for
1:03:03meal prep or meal delivery, right? This
1:03:05kind of thing. You know, it's like
1:03:10the man or woman who is well wants a
1:03:12million things. You know, the sick man
1:03:14or woman wants only one thing, not to be
1:03:16sick, right? The injured man or woman
1:03:18only wants one thing, not to be injured,
1:03:20right? So just really taking care of
1:03:22that is another place where I'm happy
1:03:25not just to spend a lot but to
1:03:26overspend. Right? So what does that
1:03:29mean? That means that feeling like I
1:03:32have an insurance policy or a safety net
1:03:34available just in case having say you
1:03:37know concierge medicine such that
1:03:41god forbid something happens and I need
1:03:43to get a hold of somebody at 2 a.m. on a
1:03:47Wednesday, a Saturday, whatever, that I
1:03:49can reach a doctor. It gives me a peace
1:03:52of mind that helps with everything else,
1:03:54even if I never use it. Right? It's like
1:03:55having a very safe car. Even if you
1:03:57never get into a head-on collision, god
1:04:00forbid,
1:04:02there's a reassurance that comes with
1:04:04having a very, very well-rated safe car
1:04:07for you and your family. So, I feel very
1:04:09similar to that. Just having the ability
1:04:12to do ABC, B, C, D, or E with respect to
1:04:16health, fitness, medicine, specialists,
1:04:19I find to be a very good investment. And
1:04:22by the way, sometimes you do need that
1:04:24stuff. And some of you may have seen the
1:04:28announcement in the New York Times, but
1:04:30I'm going to be getting very heavily
1:04:31involved in a startup called Neco
1:04:33Health, which is expanding to the US
1:04:35very soon. It's already in the UK and
1:04:38Sweden. if you want to check it out.
1:04:40Co-founded by Daniel Ek, the co-founder,
1:04:42longtime CEO of Spotify. Going to be
1:04:45doing some very interesting stuff. So,
1:04:46I'm hoping to make worldclass
1:04:48preventative health care available to
1:04:50millions of people.
1:04:53That is just the basis of everything
1:04:55else. If you don't have your health,
1:04:56what do you have? All right, that's a
1:04:58good one from Hannah. What's the one
1:05:01most important thing you're doing to
1:05:02prevent cognitive decline? Both my
1:05:05parents have Alzheimer's and I'm
1:05:06overwhelmed with all the hacks. I know
1:05:10how you feel because I have multiple
1:05:12relatives I'm caring for with
1:05:15Alzheimer's right now. I would say that
1:05:20if I had to pick one thing, it would be
1:05:21the exercise. Okay? So, if I had to pick
1:05:24one thing for cognitive health, it is
1:05:27the exercise. And my conversation with
1:05:29Dr. Tommy Wood gets into specifics
1:05:31around this, but I'll give you one
1:05:33example. doing something called the
1:05:35Norwegian 4x4, which is a type of
1:05:38interval training. Doing that, I want to
1:05:40say three times per week for 6 months,
1:05:45provided 5 years of benefits, something
1:05:48like that. And zone 2 also counts for
1:05:52mitochondrial health.
1:05:54Alzheimer's, frankly, is very poorly
1:05:56understood. And I think we're still in
1:05:58the dark ages in a lot of respects. I
1:06:00don't totally believe actually often
1:06:04don't believe and I'm no doctor. I don't
1:06:05play one on the internets. This is just
1:06:07my personal experience but the remove
1:06:10amalloid beta and towangles and all will
1:06:13be well hypothesis which a lot of
1:06:15therapeutics are predicated on. I really
1:06:18don't buy it. I think a lot of it is
1:06:20vascular dementia and some of it
1:06:22certainly is mitochondrial dysfunction.
1:06:24So I'm looking at things like I am
1:06:26taking uraliththna myself for checking
1:06:30in some respects a mitochondrial box
1:06:32paying a lot of attention to insulin
1:06:35sensitivity and glucose disposal. Again
1:06:37that comes back to the weight training
1:06:39but also doing plenty of intermittent
1:06:41fasting and so on. There is a supplement
1:06:44called that I think is pretty
1:06:46interesting. It's basically a
1:06:48sulforophane precursor plus a few other
1:06:52ingredients that I think help with like
1:06:54enzyatic conversion and things like
1:06:56that. But if I had to pick one, it would
1:06:59be the exercise. And then there's lots
1:07:02of other stuff I do, right? Like I don't
1:07:03know if you guys can see it, but like
1:07:07you know there's a barrel sauna over
1:07:08there. Sauna use is very interesting.
1:07:11Heat shock proteins, etc. So, I'm
1:07:13throwing a lot at it because it
1:07:14terrifies the living hell out of me. But
1:07:17I think you can pop all the pills you
1:07:19want and
1:07:21cobble together all sorts of mini
1:07:24interventions, but if you're not doing
1:07:25the exercise, if you're not eating good
1:07:27food, if you're spiking your glucose
1:07:29constantly over and over again and
1:07:32always eating by the clock and never
1:07:34doing any type of intermittent fasting,
1:07:36and by intermittent fasting, I'm talking
1:07:38about along the lines of a researcher
1:07:40named Mark Matson. So, at least 16 hours
1:07:43of fasting, preferably more, so that you
1:07:46deplete glycogen in your liver, and
1:07:47switch to some ketone production.
1:07:53If you're only cobbling together a lots
1:07:54of pills and potions, I don't think
1:07:57that's going to do it, but I'm throwing
1:07:59everything in the kitchen sink at it.
1:08:01So, hopefully that is somewhat helpful.
1:08:03If you guys think it would be
1:08:05interesting, at some point I might do a
1:08:06dedicated podcast, just a solo podcast
1:08:09talking about exactly what I'm doing for
1:08:12preserving cognitive health and
1:08:15function. Again, not that I'm a doctor
1:08:17or an MD, but frankly,
1:08:20a lot of those folks are so siloed and
1:08:22specialized that sometimes it's hard to
1:08:26assemble a full picture for practical
1:08:28implementation. And there are things
1:08:30coming hopefully down the line. I
1:08:32invested in a company called Jakcasta
1:08:34Neuroscience, J O C A S T A looking at
1:08:37injectable cloth for humans. Hopefully,
1:08:39I think cloth K l is very interesting
1:08:42and hopefully that'll be a therapeutic.
1:08:44But in the meantime, guess what provokes
1:08:46natural cloth production or release?
1:08:49Exercise of different types. So, when in
1:08:52doubt, get to the gym.
1:08:54All right, guys. I think that's all I
1:08:56have for right now. I'm going to hop off
1:09:00and get a bite to eat since I haven't
1:09:02had anything since a small breakfast.
1:09:04And
1:09:06I think we're going to wind down and
1:09:08come to a close in just a few moments.
1:09:11So, thank you everybody for the
1:09:13questions. Thank you for tuning in from
1:09:15around the world. And for those people
1:09:18who might be listening to this if we
1:09:19publish it, uh we will have show notes
1:09:22linking to all sorts of stuff that I
1:09:24mentioned at tim.blogmpodcast
1:09:25blog/mpodcast.
1:09:27And I'm not sure what the hell you would
1:09:30search to find this particular episode,
1:09:32but you're smart people. I'll let you
1:09:34figure it out. But the show notes will
1:09:35be at tim.blog/mpodcast.
1:09:37And once again, everybody, thanks for
1:09:39tuning in and hope to do another one of
1:09:41these soon.

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