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.
This one is not suitable for work. It was sent to me by a veteran friend who interfaced with military intelligence, and now, I can’t stop forwarding them to other friends. So… you’re welcome? It’s a one-two combo: “Dealing with a dolphin’s ‘urges’ - The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins” “Teaching a dolphin to speak English - The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins”— Tim Ferriss
“What advice do I give to my students?” by Dr. Michael Levin. This is a really profound piece, and I’ll be rereading it. It offers actionable advice for creating a meaningful life, harnessing creativity, generating ideas, and more. The initial focus on science and academia might throw some readers off, so I’ll suggest my personal favorite sections: “What not to do” and “Some specific personal techniques.”— Tim Ferriss
“Everything Is Television” by Derek Thompson. This is a superb piece. If you are online, you should read it. If you create online, you should read it twice. If you’re in a rush, just read the Meta anti-monopoly comments and look at the graphs. Derek’s observations and citations largely explain my deliberate down-scaling of video over the last few years, in addition to concerns around audience capture and privacy. Last, it’s always bothered me when techno-optimists insist AI will make the masses all a leisure class with more time than ever before for learning, knitting, or whatever. Putting asi— Tim Ferriss
“AI is killing the web. Can anything save it?” (The Economist). Alternate link if blocked. This is an important facet of the AI conversation that should get more airtime. What happens when the commercial lifeblood of much of the web—advertising and subscriptions—gets replaced by LLMs? What happens if Google, Wikipedia, and many more get wholly or partially displaced? For a quick teaser with some eye-popping numbers, watch this short clip from Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare. As always, I think there are opportunities hiding in the disruption.— Tim Ferriss
“All Kings, a Retreat for Men, Tackles Masculine Rage, Sadness and Trauma” by Joseph Bernstein (The New York Times; alternate link). This is a great complement to The Work documentary I featured in this newsletter long ago, which will tear your heart apart and put it back together. I am going to donate $10,000 to All Kings, a nonprofit organization, as I believe in the mission. Every $1,000 sponsors a new member.— Tim Ferriss
They’re Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson. Terry originally made his mark in the science-fiction community with his short story Bears Discover Fire, which won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards. They’re Made Out of Meat, a short story you can read in minutes, has quite a fan base on the Internet and has been adapted for audio, video, and film. You can hear it performed on This American Life here.— Tim Ferriss
“Pmarca Guide to Career Planning Part 2: Skills and education.” Long ago, Marc Andreessen, famed technologist and billionaire investor, had a blog with amazing advice. Then he took the whole thing down. The link in this bullet is a pirated copy of one of his essays from 2007, and there is a lot that overlaps with Sriram’s advice. I’ve basically built my career on some version of this, and it can apply to anyone—a new college student, someone mid-career seeking reinvention, and much more: “Seek to be a double/triple/quadruple threat. Scott Adams—the creator of Dilbert—nails it: If you want an a— Tim Ferriss
"Some people struggle after psychedelics. A new study wants to help." If you have experienced difficulties after taking a psychedelic, you may be eligible to participate in a study sponsored by Emory University. Click here to learn more. Adverse events and challenges are underreported, and it’s incredibly important to study them. They’re not as rare as you might think, and given the power of the tools, we need to find better and better ways to mitigate risk and treat people when they are destabilized. This isn’t for “bad trips,” per se; it’s about the after-effects. As explained on the website— Tim Ferriss
Guidelines for Ketamine Use. While ketamine holds incredible potential for treating certain conditions (e.g., acute suicidality, depression, chronic pain), I’ve also seen lives unravel because of its addictive properties, and it’s become a Faustian alcohol replacement for many. This PDF is one of the best overviews of ketamine-assisted therapies I’ve found, primarily because it also addresses mitigating the risks of addiction and long-term health consequences from excessive, chronic use. There is a baby in the bath water, but you need to know how to separate them. I found this to be a valuable— Tim Ferriss
“Impact of Long-Term Fasting on Skeletal Muscle: Structure, Energy Metabolism and Function Using 31P/1H MRS and MRI.” From the conclusions section: “Long-term fasting [250 kcal/day] did not alter muscle metabolism or performance, nor induced structural or inflammatory changes. The decrease in muscle volume is minor when accounting for glycogen and water depletion during fasting. Fat is relocated to the intracellular compartment of myocytes. Both anaerobic and aerobic metabolic pathways remain unchanged after 12 days of fasting in both sexes and older subjects. This suggests that human muscles,— Tim Ferriss
“Psychedelic Therapy Crashed and Burned. MAHA Might Bring It Back” by John Semley (WIRED). As the young whippersnappers might say, there’s a lot of tea in this one.— Tim Ferriss
“Decreased PTSD symptoms following a lucid dreaming workshop: A randomized controlled study.” Description: “A pilot study showed significant PTSD symptom reduction among participants following an online lucid dreaming workshop. The workshop, spanning 22 hours over six consecutive days, taught participants lucid dreaming induction techniques and how to use lucid dreaming to transform their nightmares and integrate their trauma.” I’ll be digging back into this world soon. For an introduction to lucid dreaming, check out my blog post titled “Lucid Dreaming: A Beginner's Guide.”— Tim Ferriss
“Everything I Know about Self-Publishing” by Kevin Kelly. Kevin is the founding editor of WIRED magazine and a listener favorite on the podcast. His latest blog post on self-publishing covers practically everything: going the traditional route, on-demand, digital, distribution, crowd-funding, promotion, subscriptions, and more. Here’s the introduction: In my professional life, I’ve had several bestselling books published by New York publishers, as well as many other titles that sold modestly. I have also self-published a bunch of books, including one bestseller on Amazon and two massive hit Ki— Tim Ferriss
“Why Mitochondria Are More Like a Motherboard Than the Powerhouse of the Cell” (Scientific American). Alternate link: From the article: All well and good, you may think. What does all this mean for my health or how long I’m going to live? The short answer is that it may have everything to do with human health. Diabetes, neurodegenerative conditions, cancer and even mental health illnesses are all emerging as metabolic disorders involving malfunctioning mitochondria. And these findings are indicating new routes for intervention. ... When cells are injured or stressed, they may leak mtDNA into t— Tim Ferriss
“New hope for Alzheimer’s: lithium supplement reverses memory loss in mice” (Nature) “Research on reversing Alzheimer’s reveals lithium as potential key” (The Washington Post). Alternate link: From the subheadline: “Years of investigation by scientists at Harvard has revealed that lithium is deeply involved in Alzheimer’s disease, a finding that could lead to new treatments.”— Tim Ferriss
“The Death of Partying in the U.S.A.—and Why It Matters” by Derek Thompson. Here’s one choice excerpt: Between 2003 and 2024, the amount of time that Americans spent attending or hosting a social event declined by 50 percent. … The death of the party fits into a broader social phenomenon that I called “The Anti-Social Century” in a cover story for The Atlantic. At a time of surging anxiety and mental distress, Americans spend more time alone today than in any period in recorded history. Ahem, so Coyote…— Tim Ferriss
“The Gut Microbiota Mediates the Anti-Seizure Effects of the Ketogenic Diet30520-8# )” by Christine A. Olson, Elaine Y. Hsiao, et al. in Cell. If you only have 60 seconds, see the press release here. This could be a glimpse of something really, really important, even if you don’t care about epilepsy. It’s not a brand-new publication, but it was new to me, and it ties into a few experiments I’m currently running on myself. Here is an excerpt: “Mice treated with antibiotics or reared germ-free are resistant to KetoDiet-mediated seizure protection. Enrichment of, and gnotobiotic co-colonization w— Tim Ferriss
“How I practice at what I do” by Tyler Cowen. Also from Tyler (source): “‘What is it you do … that is comparable to a pianist practicing scales?’ If you don’t know the answer to that one, maybe you are doing something wrong or not doing enough.”— Tim Ferriss
65 Notes to Myself by Seth Godin. Gems upon gems in this one.— Tim Ferriss
“The Hyperstitions of Moloch” on Latent.Space. If I were to update The 4-Hour Workweek, I would most certainly include case studies that use the frameworks and approaches in this piece. Disclaimer: I have only read the text and have not yet listened to the accompanying podcast. More on Latent.Space: “A technical newsletter, podcast, and community by and for the rising class of AI Engineers, focusing on the business and technology of this new AI summer.”— Tim Ferriss
Lead pigment in turmeric is the culprit in a global poisoning mystery by Gabrielle Emanuel. Hat tip to perihelions on Hacker News.— Tim Ferriss
“Why Japan Counts 72 Microseasons” by Ligaya Mishan for T: The New York Times Style Magazine. (Alternate link.) This is a beautiful exploration of Japanese culture, seasons, ritual, and even time itself. It was part of the much larger NYT Style Magazine culture issue called “J is for Japan.” I read this article as “S is for Seasonality,” and here’s a teaser from the first page: Although the Japanese government officially adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1873, the spirit of the traditional Japanese calendar persists. Modeled after the lunisolar Chinese calendar introduced in the early seventh — Tim Ferriss
“Origami is revolutionizing technology, from medicine to space” by Maya Wei-Haas. (Alternate link.) From the sub-headine: “The centuries-old art of folding paper is yielding new applications in spacecraft, architecture, and even the human body.” A few excerpts to whet your appetite: Despite origami’s current popularity in science and technology, researchers’ early folding forays met resistance. Hull still remembers a discussion he had in 1997 with a program officer from the National Science Foundation (NSF), a U.S. government agency that supports research and education. Hull was outlining a po— Tim Ferriss
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“Graham Duncan: Talent Whisperer.”— 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
“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
“Brewing tea removes lead from water.” “In a new study, Northwestern University researchers demonstrated that brewing tea naturally adsorbs heavy metals like lead and cadmium, effectively filtering dangerous contaminants out of drinks. Heavy metal ions stick to, or adsorb to, the surface of the tea leaves, where they stay trapped.” Not all tea is created equal, so click the link to read the details.— Tim Ferriss
“Who broke the sperm bank?” by Mark Ellwood (Financial Times). From the article: “American sperm has become one of the country’s priciest resources. By weight, super-premium semen ($4,000 or more for a gram) now costs more than Beluga caviar (up to $3 a gram for roe), which represents a tenfold rise in price over the past decade.”— Tim Ferriss
“Efficacy of Adjunctive D-Cycloserine to Intermittent Theta-Burst Stimulation for Major Depressive Disorder.” From the Key Points: “In this double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial that included 50 participants, those receiving intermittent theta-burst stimulation with adjunctive D-cycloserine (100 mg) had significantly greater improvements in depressive symptoms compared with stimulation with a placebo.”— Tim Ferriss
“50 Years of Travel Tips” by Kevin Kelly. Regular readers know that I consider Kevin one candidate for the real-world most interesting man in the world. He’s also always a font of good advice. He has traveled to more far-flung places than anyone I know, and he did a lot of it before the Internet, smartphones, or Google Maps. This list of tips is gold. Here’s a teaser intro for you: I’ve been seriously traveling for more than 50 years, and I’ve learned a lot. I’ve traveled solo, and I’ve led a tour group of 40 friends. I’ve slept in dormitories and I’ve stayed in presidential suites with a butl— Tim Ferriss
“The Philosopher L. A. Paul Wants Us to Think About Our Selves” by Alice Gregory in The New Yorker. (Alternate link.) Huge thanks to Denise Koller of Harvard Business School for introducing me to L.A. Paul’s work. The subheadline underscores something I’ve been thinking about recently: “To whom should we have allegiance—the version of ourself making choices, or the version of ourself who will be affected by them?” For instance, if certain transformative decisions change how we relate to ourselves and the world around us (having kids, getting a cochlear implant, trying LSD, etc.), should we thi— Tim Ferriss
“Why strict churches are strong” (Slate). You can read the associated paper here. TL;DR: discourage free riders who take more from a community than they give.— Tim Ferriss
“How to like everything more” by Sasha Chapin. For more from Sasha, see his “50 things I know.”— Tim Ferriss
“Jerry Seinfeld, Ichiro Suzuki, and the Pursuit of Mastery” by Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan).— Tim Ferriss
“The risks of mixing ayahuasca and SSRIs: 5 Questions for UCLA psychiatry professor Charles Grob.”— Tim Ferriss
“A Simple 2025 Reboot — My Short Letter to a Friend Who Wants to Get In Shape.” I first penned this in 2021, but it still works like a charm today.— Tim Ferriss
“The Extremely Offline Joy of the Board Game Club” (The New York Times). Alternate link. “Hungry for in-person interaction, Gen Z and millennial players are joining old-fashioned chess, mahjong and backgammon groups.” One notable statistic: “The habit appears to have made it out of lockdown: The number of board game events organized using the invitation service Partiful quadrupled in the past year, the company said.”— Tim Ferriss
“52 things I learned in 2024” For at least a decade, Tom Whitwell, founder of Music Thing Modular, has been documenting the 52 things he’s learned each year. You can find previous editions at this link. Here are a few sample entries from this year: To highlight tax evasion, South Korea introduced ugly neon green number plates for company cars worth more than $58,000. Luxury car sales fell 27%. Ozempic is a modified, synthetic version of a protein discovered in the venomous saliva of the Gila monster, a large, sluggish lizard native to the United States. Medellin in Colombia has cut urban tempe— Tim Ferriss
“A Man Was Murdered in Cold Blood and You’re Laughing? What the death of a health-insurance C.E.O. means to America” by Jia Tolentino (@jiatortellini) for The New Yorker. Click here or here if you have any issues reading the article at the above link. I don’t love the main headline, but the writing and research are top-notch. The following quote from the nonprofit People’s Action appears early on: “We know there is a crisis of gun violence in America. There is also a crisis of denials of care by private health insurance corporations including UnitedHealth.” To be clear up front, I view the ass— Tim Ferriss
“Low-Intensity Continuous Ultrasound Therapies—A Systematic Review of Current State-of-the-Art and Future Perspectives.” I’ve been experimenting with low-intensity continuous ultrasound (LICUS) for the past week to contend with shoulder pain and rehab while training for sports. My left shoulder was completely reconstructed in 2004. Thus far, the results have seemed almost miraculous, and I’m eager to see if it lasts or improves with 3x/weekly treatments. Given the plausible mechanisms for enhanced regeneration of muscle tissue and cartilage (see “LICUS Effects on Tissue Regeneration” at the ab— Tim Ferriss
Roger Federer’s letter to Rafael Nadal: “Vamos, @RafaelNadal! As you get ready to graduate from tennis, I’ve got a few things to share before I maybe get emotional…” Click here to continue reading.— Tim Ferriss
“63 principles” by Nabeel S. Qureshi. Nabeel is currently a stealth startup founder but was previously at Palantir. He has been a visiting scholar in AI at the Mercatus Center as well as an Emergent Ventures awardee.— Tim Ferriss
“This scientist treated her own cancer with viruses she grew in the lab.” From the article: “Beata Halassy discovered in 2020, aged 49, that she had breast cancer at the site of a previous mastectomy. It was the second recurrence there since her left breast had been removed, and she couldn’t face another bout of chemotherapy. Halassy, a virologist at the University of Zagreb, studied the literature and decided to take matters into her own hands with an unproven treatment. A case report published in Vaccines in August outlines how Halassy self-administered a treatment called oncolytic virothera— Tim Ferriss
“How Artificial Intelligence Gave a Paralyzed Woman Her Voice Back” (UCSF). Teaser: “Breakthrough brain implant and digital avatar allow stroke survivor, Ann, to speak with facial expressions for the first time in 18 years.” If you want to see a video demo of this technology, click here. Semi-related reading: Stem cell transplant gives hope for treating age-related sight loss (New Scientist).— Tim Ferriss
“Could a Drug Prevent Hearing Loss from Loud Music and Aging?”— Tim Ferriss
“Mini-retirements are all the rage, but what exactly does it entail — and can you afford to take one?” If you have any issues accessing, try this link.— Tim Ferriss
“Psilocybin for dementia prevention? The potential role of psilocybin to alter mechanisms associated with major depression and neurodegenerative diseases.”— Tim Ferriss
“Francis Ford Coppola Bet More Than $100 Million on His Legacy. Now What?” (WSJ). From the article: “The director talks about his passion project, Megalopolis, including reports of problems on set and how he paid for the film.” Writer Trung Phan shared the below article summary on Twitter of how Coppola financed Megalopolis: In 2021, Coppola merged his winery with Napa-based Delicato Family Wines Merged business valued at $650m Secured a $200m line of credit from a bank using his remaining stake in winery (he sold a piece as part of merger) He filmed in Georgia and bought a Days Inn hotel for — Tim Ferriss
“Bacteria are talking” by Annie Roth in Johns Hopkins Magazine. Here is a taste: She discovered that all bacteria produce the same autoinducer, also known as the universal communication molecule or “autoinducer 2,” allowing them to communicate across species. Bassler next began to wonder whether bacteria had species-specific languages. She examined all known autoinducers and noticed an interesting pattern: They all shared the same base structure, but many had a unique addition for intraspecific (i.e., within one species) communication. Think of this chatter as “private, secret conversations,” — Tim Ferriss
My New Rules for Podcasting – To Keep Things Interesting.— Tim Ferriss
The 22 Pixar rules of storytelling. Here are some of my personal faves: #1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes. #4: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___. #6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal? #7: Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front. #9: When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the mater— Tim Ferriss
“Masters of Love.” (The Atlantic). Alternate link. This is the best article on courtship, love, and dating that I’ve read in years. It’s not only well-researched and full of memorable insights, it’s very actionable and gives labels to concepts you can use.— Tim Ferriss
“They’re Ignoring MrBeast’s Rules of YouTube, and Thriving.” (New York Times) Try this alternate link if you have any issues accessing. Hat tip to Cyrus Kowsari, Senior Producer at ONE Championship, which has become my favorite appointment viewing with friends. If you have Amazon Prime in the US or Canada, you can watch it. And if you want a rare chance to see the action in-person in the US, check out their September 6th event in Denver. The fight card looks incredible.— Tim Ferriss