Everything Tim Ferriss has recommended in 5-Bullet Friday — 2,095 books, articles, quotes, films, products and more, gathered from 480 issues since 2015. Browse by category, sort by what the community values or how often Tim has returned to it, and spend your 25 votes on what matters most to you. Each item's note is quoted from Tim's own words in the newsletter.
“Many clients of mine come to me with a genuine and deep desire to let go but often have no idea how to go about it, as their ‘letting go muscle’ is completely atrophied. Often all that is needed is simply for the person to give himself or herself permission to let go.” —
“Are you stuck in movie logic? Consider just saying what the problem is” by Cate Hall. LOVED this article. Incredibly tactical and useful. There’s a good chance you’ll be able to use something from it within the next week.— Tim Ferriss
TANK M3 Push Sled. This is, bar none, the best sled I have ever used for pushing or pulling. 10–15-minute workouts in the morning sun have become my favorite way to set the stage for a great, mood-elevated day. The ease of rotation and traction makes it perfect for even a gravel driveway like mine. From the description: “Designed with patented Mag-Force™ Resistance Technology, the TANK M3 delivers scalable intensity, accommodating many fitness levels while minimizing the need for weight plates and clunky user swaps. The TANK M3’s three-wheeled design glides effortlessly across turf, rubber, or— Tim Ferriss
“The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.” — , This is Water
It would appear that I have presbyopia—text on my phone, small fonts on supplement bottles, etc. are getting blurry. I asked all of you on X, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn whether you have found any treatments (exercises, eye drops like pilocarpine, surgeries, others) to be worth the investment and risk profile. Thank you to everyone who offered tips! There are a few overlapping recommendations in the responses and in the reading that one specialist sent me: “The Present and Future of Mitochondrial-Based Therapeutics for Eye Disease.”— Tim Ferriss
Vashon Island Coffee Dust. One of the simplest ways to reduce glucose/insulin spikes and improve health (and lose more fat) is to change how you drink your daily coffee. A lot of readers of The 4-Hour Body have thanked me for the tip to use cinnamon and/or vanilla extract instead of their usual milk and sugar. Achtung! Some artificial sweeteners (sucralose, saccharin, acesulfame-K, etc.) can trigger insulin release through taste receptors or metabolic pathways, even in the absence of carbohydrates. Now, cinnamon is great, but it can lose its novelty. That’s where Vashon Coffee Dust comes in: “— Tim Ferriss
Resetting your cellular data stats on an iPhone. I was consuming mobile data at an unusually high rate (e.g., “You have 10% remaining for the next 10 days”), and I followed these steps to figure out what the hell was gobbling it up. Step one is resetting your cellular data stats to zero, which most of us did years ago, if ever: “To reset these statistics, go to Settings > Cellular, scroll to the bottom, then tap Reset Statistics.” Within a few hours, I knew who the offenders were and could minimize overages.— Tim Ferriss
“How to be more emotionally intelligent (without trying so hard)” by Joe Hudson. Joe Hudson has coached top leaders at OpenAI, Alphabet, Apple, and more. He has worked with everyone from Sam Altman to Ev Williams. Numbers 4, 7, 8, and 9 are a few of the many that struck a chord with me.— Tim Ferriss
“I was disappointed in myself for not being tough enough to take the flak, disappointed and ashamed. But as pilgrims must discover if they are to complete their quest, we are led to truth by our weaknesses as well as our strengths.” — Let Your Life Speak by Parker J. Palmer
“Chatri Sityodtong, CEO of ONE Championship — From Dirt Poor to Top-10 Sports-Media Franchise, The $100M Breakfast, Dominating Social Media (30B+ Views/Year), Key Strategic Decisions, and The Moneyball of Fight Matchmaking.” ONE has become one of my favorite sports-watching experiences. To watch tonight’s fight live at 9 p.m. ET, if you’re in the US or Canada, just tune in to Amazon Prime. Live elsewhere? Just select your country here to see other viewing options. ONE’s YouTube channel also features fantastic highlights from past fights.— Tim Ferriss
“WTF? Marc Maron ends his podcast after 16 years” by Steve Bennett. This is a wonderfully warm closing of the curtain. Endings can be as beautiful as beginnings, and I think Marc’s words are worth savoring. His podcast was one of the handful in 2012–13 that inspired me to start my own.— Tim Ferriss
My appearance on To Dine For with Kate Sullivan. My first appearance on PBS! I grew up on PBS, and certain series, like Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth (video, audio), left an indelible mark. In To Dine For with Kate Sullivan, four-time Emmy Award-winning journalist Kate Sullivan accompanies guests to their favorite restaurants and explores their lives and thinking. Kate kindly invited me last summer to join her in New York City. I picked Hearth, which was founded by Chef Marco Canora, whom many will recognize from his extensive appearances in The 4-Hour Chef as one of my main teachers. — Tim Ferriss
“Well-rounded doesn’t cut” by Derek Sivers. Pair with “1,000 True Fans” by Kevin Kelly for a potent combo. These two philosophies will become even more valuable in the coming AI deluge of machine-created content. To surf above the tsunami, I suggest one human-scale win at a time. Think big first, and you’ll likely get lost, defeated by AIs instructed to do the same. Think small, and you’ll have a better chance of enduring… and snowballing into something big.— Tim Ferriss
“You’re never so centered on yourself as when you’re depressed. You’re never so ready to forget yourself as when you are happy. Happiness releases you from self. It is suffering and pain and misery and depression that tie you to the self. Look how conscious you are of your tooth when you have a toothache. When you don’t have a toothache, you’re not even aware you have a tooth, or that you have a head, for that matter, when you don’t have a headache.” —
“Dick Garwin Fought Nuclear Armageddon. He Hid a 50-Year Secret.” by William J. Broad (The New York Times). I deeply enjoyed this riveting profile of an incredible man, arguably the most influential scientist you’ve never heard of. From the piece: “Richard Garwin’s role in designing the hydrogen bomb was obscured from the public, even his family, as he advised presidents and devoted his life to undoing the danger he created.” Click here if you have any issues reading through the above link. Here’s one excerpt that pulled me in: “Dr. Garwin never officially joined any president’s cabinet, as [H— Tim Ferriss
Conan O’Brien Must Go, S1E4 (Ireland). This series was recommended to me by one of my employees, and it’s been a godsend during an unexpectedly stressful week. No matter how preoccupied I’ve been, Conan’s insanity and antics right before bed have been the perfect send-off to sleep. This episode made me laugh so hard that my dog was concerned.— Tim Ferriss
“Annie Dillard on Unselfconsciousness” by Maria Popova (The Marginalian). This is a beautiful reflection on excerpts from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, which was recommended to me by Craig Mod. Here’s a taste: “I have often noticed that even a few minutes of this self-forgetfulness is tremendously invigorating. I wonder if we do not waste most of our energy just by spending every waking minute saying hello to ourselves.”— Tim Ferriss
“For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.” — (American writer, director, and producer) “The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.” — Sydney J. Harris (Chicago Sun-Times columnist)
Flow. Thanks to Kevin Rose for the recommendation. I found this incredibly calming after a super stressful week. Here is the description: “From the boundless imagination of filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis comes this thrilling animated spectacle, a wondrous journey through realms natural and mystical. A courageous cat teams up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog in search of dry land after their home is devastated by a great flood. Together they must rely on trust, courage, and wits to survive the perils of a newly aquatic planet.” At the 97th Academy Awards, Flow won Best Animated Feature a— Tim Ferriss
Versa Gripps. Due to torn tendons near my right elbow, I’m doing a lot more dumbbell work, which includes leg workouts. In longer sets, the limiting factor is often the grip in that arm, but normal lifting straps are a pain in the ass for dumbbells. That’s where Versa Gripps come in. I actually first used these in the late ’90s, so it was fun to rediscover them. They’re surprisingly versatile.— Tim Ferriss
Steve Albini’s letter to Nirvana. This is the four-page letter audio engineer Steve Albini sent to Nirvana, pitching himself to produce their album In Utero. Hat tip to Alex Danco on the Dialectic podcast. Early in the letter, Steve writes: I’m only interested in working on records that legitimately reflect the band’s own perception of their music and existence. If you will commit yourselves to that as a tenet of the recording methodology, then I will bust my ass for you. I’ll work circles around you. I’ll rap your head in with a ratchet… I have worked on hundreds of records (some great, some — Tim Ferriss
“Teu Sorriso” (Spotify, YouTube) by Paraíso (Jex Opolis Remix).— Tim Ferriss
“When I’m in writing mode for a novel, I get up at four a.m. and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for ten kilometers or swim for fifteen hundred meters (or do both), then I read a bit and listen to some music. I go to bed at nine p.m. I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind.” —
“Henry Miller’s 11 Commandments of Writing and His Daily Creative Routine” byMaria Popova. For my personal reorientation towards book writing, I bolded a few as reminders: 1. Work on one thing at a time until finished. 2. Start no more new books, add no more new material to ‘Black Spring.’ 3. Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand. 4. Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time! 5. When you can’t create you can work. 6. Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers. 7. Keep human! See people, go places, drink — Tim Ferriss
Wispr Flow. From the homepage: “Effortless voice dictation in every application: 3x faster than typing, AI commands and auto-edits.” This came highly recommended by two friends, so I decided to give it a shot. Thus far, it’s far superior to other voice dictation that I’ve tried. For real prose, I continue to believe that deep thinking is the limiter and not any word-per-minute typing rate, but this is a great tool for banging out quick emails and messages.— Tim Ferriss
“The future will be better than you expect it to be. It always has been. You would not have been here if your present matched your past fears, would you?” —
“Key Personnel” by Brennen Jensen. I know nothing about piano but found this exploration of the niche to be fascinating. Kudos to Brennen on the writing, which made me think of early John McPhee. Did you know there are $999 piano-tuning apps on the App Store? Here’s a taste from the beginning, edited for space: Scores of musical luminaries have performed or visited [the Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall]: Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, Hilary Hahn. At this year’s Peabody Commencement ceremony, the singular Stevie Wonder played a trio of his timeless songs from the Friedb— Tim Ferriss
There are now multiple deep-fake scams on Instagram and elsewhere that show “videos” of me recommending stocks. Those are AI-generated and not me. My only real account on Instagram is @timferriss. Be safe out there! Thank you to everyone who flagged this.— Tim Ferriss
“Song of the Cedars.” Past podcast guest Giuliana Furci shared this song with me. Beyond being a lovely and calming listen, as The Guardian explains, there is more to the story: A forest in Ecuador could be recognised as the co-creator of a song under a groundbreaking legal proposal. A petition is to be— Tim Ferriss
“o3 Beats a Master-Level Geoguessr Player.” GeoGuessr is an online geography game that drops players into random Google Street View scenes and asks them to guess where they are. It became super popular during COVID, and there are ranking systems for human players, who must learn about writing systems, local fauna, and much more… and/or use technology to augment their abilities. If you want to see a spooky-good demo of what good players can do, check out this 34-second video. Last month, OpenAI’s o3 model outscored a Master I–ranked human, correctly naming all five countries and twice landing w— Tim Ferriss
“The best way to stop headphone tangles.” I’ve gone back to cabled headphones for most things. After losing at least $750 worth of AirPods and having lots of dropped calls and battery-life issues, I’m going retro. The biggest hassle is always the rat’s nest of tangles, and this video provides a short and sweet solution.— Tim Ferriss
“Do you want to be right or happy? You can’t be both.” —
“One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day. Never lose a holy curiosity. ... Don’t stop to marvel.” —
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut. This is probably my favorite book of the last two years. The prose is gorgeous, and it reads as if your favorite biography and a fever dream had a love child. I’ve never encountered such a wellspring of rich historical accuracy and mind-bending imagination. It was first recommended to me by an iconic filmmaker, and I pushed it off, thinking to myself, “If I can’t separate the fact from the fiction, what’s the point?” I was perhaps missing the point. First, I think the separation is pretty obvious. Second, you should read this book for — Tim Ferriss
“25 Principles of Adult Behavior” by John Perry Barlow. John was a lyricist for the Grateful Dead and a founding member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Many bullets will seem obvious, but a few of them found me at the right time and really resonated: Avoid the pursuit of happiness. Seek to define your mission and pursue that. Become less suspicious of joy.— Tim Ferriss
“Putting these conclusions together, this controlling insight can serve as the One Thing you need to know about happy marriage: Find the most generous explanation for each other’s behavior and believe it.” ― , The One Thing You Need to Know: ...About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success
Auren. “Auren and Seren are a new type of entity with superhuman emotional intelligence, memory, and therapeutic capability.” My team has been testing this app, and they find it helpful with a warning that the Seren personality can be challenging and confrontational. Hat tip to Ben Thompson from Stratechery who found the app impressive and its use as a life coach helpful. Pro tip: To preserve your privacy, after downloading the app on iOS, sign up with Apple and hide your name and email address.— Tim Ferriss
“Graham Duncan: Talent Whisperer.”— Tim Ferriss
The Eagle Huntress. This documentary follows Aisholpan, a 13-year-old Kazakh girl, as she trains to become the first female in twelve generations of her family to become an eagle hunter, a tradition that has been handed down from father to son for centuries. You can watch the trailer here.— Tim Ferriss
“Supreme Illusion” (YouTube, Apple Music, Spotify) by Thievery Corporation (Nickodemus Remix).— Tim Ferriss
“It is not happiness that makes us grateful. It’s gratefulness that makes us happy.” —
How to Heal the Anxious Self. I had the pleasure of sitting down with poet David Whyte for an interview a few months ago, and he proved as wonderful in person as he is on the page. During our conversation, he read from his most recent work, Consolations II. Now, I have a dog-eared hardcover copy by my bedside. It’s indispensable. No matter the challenge, dream, mystery, or feeling of stuckness, he has a poem or essay within that will help you. I’ve recently been rereading one of his essays in particular, and David kindly agreed to allow me to share it with you on my blog.— Tim Ferriss
Jodorowsky’s Dune. Sometimes, you can learn a lot from failures, which is why I (and Nassim Taleb) like the book What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars, for example. Jodorowsky's Dune is the hilarious telling of a spectacularly bold failure. My favorite parts are the highlights of lessons learned, as well as the stories of how team members later helped create spectacular successes (e.g., the Alien in Alien )). The later diaspora of talent reminded me of the incredible General Magic startup story, which you can learn about here. To give you a taste, here are a few quotes from the titular direc— Tim Ferriss
“Productivity” by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, makers of ChatGPT and more. From Sam: “I think I am at least somewhat more productive than average, and people sometimes ask me for productivity tips. So I decided to just write them all down in one place.”— Tim Ferriss
“You come to understand that most people are neither for you nor against you, they are thinking about themselves. You learn that no matter how hard you try to please, some people in this world are not going to love you, a lesson that is at first troubling and then really quite relaxing.” —
My collaboration with LALO Tequila. This collaboration between yours truly and LALO is not available for purchase, as it was made exclusively for podcast guests on the 10-year anniversary of the podcast, but I wanted to share this video and associated still photos. The Wixárika people are one of the oldest known Indigenous groups still using peyote (hikuri) in a traditional context. This collaboration has already put more than $100,000 USD into the betterment of Wixárika communities, whose sacred lands are under threat from mining companies and other commercial interests. Visit the Goodness Sa— Tim Ferriss
The Universe in Verse. In 2017, Maria Popova of The Marginalian fame, created the first Universe in Verse event, which featured great prose paired with rich poetry, all celebrating and deepening our relationship to science and art. If you’d like to see me read a Walt Whitman poem for the 2024 event in Austin—nervous as a whippet being pelted with plums—watch 1:36:13 in this video onward. It was my first time ever reading poetry publicly, as I was a last-minute replacement for a cancellation. Great recipe for fear sweats. Maria recently turned The Universe in Verse into a gorgeous, thought-prov— Tim Ferriss
Jazz Kissa Octet, Yamagata by Craig Mod. Unique to Japan, jazz kissa are cafés that focus on the appreciation of recorded jazz music. Music is played for dedicated listening rather than as background music. The video includes a binaural recording (recorded with two microphones, so headphones are recommended for an immersive experience) of listening to “Sonora” off Ryo Fukui’s A Letter from Slow Boat at Octet jazz kissa in Yamagata, Japan.— Tim Ferriss
“You Are Not Late” by Kevin Kelly, written only three months after I first started the podcast way back in April 2014. At the time, I was told that the podcast ship had sailed and that I was late to the party. You are not late.— Tim Ferriss
“If you never change your mind, why have one?” ― , author of Lateral Thinking and Six Thinking Hats
“How to Lose 100 Pounds on The Slow-Carb Diet – Real Pics and Stories.” This how-to blog post was sparked by an email I received: “I just wanted to sincerely thank Tim for taking the time to research and write The 4-Hour Body. My mom, in her late 60s, lost 45 lbs and got off her high blood pressure meds that she had been on for 20+ years. She did all this in about 3 months. This means that I get to have her around for a long time.” Anyone can lose hope, and many people do when trying to lose weight. The Slow-Carb Diet (SCD) works almost beyond belief, and it affects much more than appearance. — Tim Ferriss
Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art by Lewis Hyde. This is a really fun book for anyone wanting to get into trickster mythology. Hyde offers a description of tricksters I hadn’t fully considered before my first reading: “In short, trickster is a boundary-crosser. Every group has its edge, its sense of in and out, and trickster is always there, at the gates of the city and the gates of life, making sure there is commerce. He also attends the internal boundaries by which groups articulate their social life. We constantly distinguish—right and wrong, sacred and profane, clean and — Tim Ferriss
Aqua Fizz Sparkling Water Maker. After more than a decade of using the standard plastic SodaStream for carbonated water at home, I’ve shifted to the Aqua Fizz, also made by SodaStream. To reduce my exposure to microplastics and possible endocrine disruptors, I’ve been replacing whatever plastic I can with glass or metal. This is an easy step in that direction, and while a tad more complicated in operation, it’s still dead simple to use.— Tim Ferriss
“Could The Last of Us Happen?” by Emily Gaines Buchler. This article discusses the work and book (What If Fungi Win?) of Arturo Casadevall, a world-renowned infectious disease doctor, regarding the threats and potential of fungi, including dangerous pathogens. If The Last of Us does not ring a bell, see the trailer here.— Tim Ferriss
Proust Questionnaire. Here is the Wikipedia page for the full backstory. Want to see a fun set of answers to these questions? Check out Patti Smith’s responses here. Want more? Grab the Vanity Fair book.— Tim Ferriss
Harvard Business School Case Study: “Tim Ferriss: What Might This Look Like If It Were Easy?” Harvard Business School (HBS) reached out last year to create a case study on my entrepreneurial journey, which tracks me from childhood to the current day. On a few levels, this is a full-circle dream come true, as one catalyst for starting my own companies was the ELE 491 “High-Tech Entrepreneurship” class at Princeton taught by Professor Ed Zschau. He used HBS case studies as the backbone of this class, and 20-plus years later, I still have all of them gathered in a three-ring binder. I owe special— Tim Ferriss
AwardTool. Hat tip to Chris Hutchins of All the Hacks for this recommendation. Description: “Discover the best award flight availability to maximize your points and miles.” Have random points scattered around various places that you don’t know how to use? This might help.— Tim Ferriss
“Donating Blood Changes Your Genes.” From the lede paragraph: “Recent research from the Francis Crick Institute has revealed intriguing genetic adaptations in the blood stem cells of frequent blood donors, supporting the production of new, non-cancerous cells without increasing cancer risk, as reported in the journal Blood.” Back in The 4-Hour Body, I recommended regular blood donation for a few reasons mentioned in this short article. This is a Perplexity-created synopsis curated by dailyed. Perplexity compiles and summarizes information from various online sources on a topic and creates a re— Tim Ferriss