5 Bullet Archive

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.

Most votedMost mentionedFirst mentionedRecently mentioned
🎲 Shuffle 5
0

How to overhaul America’s schools

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · hub.jhu.edu

“How to overhaul America’s schools.” This quick read includes fascinating history, snippets of which are below; current standouts in the US; and models from overseas. Here’s a preview: The “rebuild” part of the book’s title is significant. Until the late nineteenth century, U.S. schools were what education experts call pluralistic. Local governments funded Christian, Jewish, and nonsectarian schools alike, and they all taught a “consistent body of academic knowledge,” a core set of subjects all students were expected to know, Berner says. Today, she adds, pluralism serves as the model for most— Tim Ferriss
0

Psychedelics gave terminal patients relief from their intense anxiety

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · Meryl Davids Landau · washingtonpost.com

“Psychedelics gave terminal patients relief from their intense anxiety” by Meryl Davids Landau (Washington Post). Alternate link if the former doesn’t work. This is one of the most beautiful articles I’ve ever read covering first-hand accounts and challenges related to psychedelics. It also offers helpful metaphors for anyone struggling with “partial completeness,” even if you never take any of these drugs. From the article: In addition to his enhanced calmness, he remarked in November that taking the drug seemed to have deepened the connection he felt toward the friends and family who had str— Tim Ferriss
0

So you wanna de-bog yourself

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · Adam Mastroianni · experimental-history.com

“So you wanna de-bog yourself” by Adam Mastroianni. I only just found Adam, but his writing is some of the most hilarious—and helpful—I’ve seen in a long time. Really worth the read. Big thanks to Crazy B for sending this to me.— Tim Ferriss
0

The Right Kind of Stubborn

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · paulgraham.com

“The Right Kind of Stubborn.” I especially like the first half of this essay plus the synopsis in the last two paragraphs. Great distinctions to keep in mind, such that you keep an open mind.— Tim Ferriss
0

▶How I sold 50,000 copies of my self-published book

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · youtube.com

“How I sold 50,000 copies of my self-published book.” If you prefer reading, Paul also shares the details of royalties and sales per platform (Kindle, Audible, etc.) in this blog post. The full breakdown is under the “Money, Money, Money” subheading. I personally found the real-world examples of self-publishing vs. traditional publishing economics most interesting, and the “Mistakes” section is worth heeding for anyone considering self-publishing.— Tim Ferriss
0

Chimpanzees seen self-medicating with healing plants when sick or injured

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · washingtonpost.com

“Chimpanzees seen self-medicating with healing plants when sick or injured” (Washington Post). Thanks to Dr. Mark Plotkin of Amazon Conservation Team for sharing this. Alternate link. From the article: The team observed two chimpanzee communities in the Budongo Forest for four months each. They tracked what the great apes ate and analyzed components of 13 plant species that seemed wholly unappetizing to a chimpanzee, such as bark and resin, to determine whether the materials had healing effects. … Those struggling the most with parasites—something the scientists ascertained through testing the— Tim Ferriss
0

FDA advisors voted against MDMA therapy – researchers are still fighting for it

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · Rachel Nuwer · bbc.com

FDA advisors voted against MDMA therapy – researchers are still fighting for it (BBC) by Rachel Nuwer. There is a make-it-or-break-it moment unfolding right now for psychedelic medicines. By August 11, the FDA will decide whether or not to approve MDMA therapy as a treatment for PTSD. This is decades in the making and will have ripple effects for the broader future of psychedelics in the US. The data clearly show that the FDA should approve, but it’s been thrown into confusion by an advisory committee almost entirely without knowledge of these compounds. Longtime readers know I’ve spent 10+ ye— Tim Ferriss
0

Elephants call each other by name, study finds

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · theguardian.com

“Elephants call each other by name, study finds.” From the article: “A team of international researchers used an artificial intelligence algorithm to analyze the calls of two wild herds of African savanna elephants in Kenya. The research ‘not only shows that elephants use specific vocalizations for each individual, but that they recognise and react to a call addressed to them while ignoring those addressed to others,’ the lead study author, Michael Pardo, said.” Related: “How AI is decoding the animal kingdom.”— Tim Ferriss
0

Who Runs the Best U.S. Schools? It May Be the Defense Department.

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · Sarah Mervosh · nytimes.com

“Who Runs the Best U.S. Schools? It May Be the Defense Department.” by Sarah Mervosh (New York Times). Alternate link if trouble with the above. >From the article, and bolding is mine: While the achievement of U.S. students overall has stagnated over the last decade, the military’s schools have made gains on the national test since 2013. And even as the country’s lowest-performing students—in the bottom 25th percentile—have slipped further behind, the Defense Department’s lowest-performing students have improved in fourth-grade math and eighth-grade reading. “If the Department of Defense schoo— Tim Ferriss
0

The Secret To Hosting A Party For The Ages

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · Elsa Maxwell · vogue.co.uk

“The Secret To Hosting A Party For The Ages.” This short piece is hilarious and tactical in equal measure. It was originally published in Vogue in 1930 by Elsa Maxwell, whom George Bernard Shaw described as “the eighth wonder of the world.” Hat tip to Sriram Krishnan for mentioning this in his X thread about curating private WhatsApp groups. Miss Maxwell had a way with words: I have often been moved to sudden inward unholy laughter when, upon entering salon or ballroom, I first catch sight of the harassed and anguished face of an unhappy hostess, so obviously suffering at being trapped by her — Tim Ferriss
0

Gut Microbiota in Anxiety and Depression: Unveiling the Relationships and Management Options

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

“Gut Microbiota in Anxiety and Depression: Unveiling the Relationships and Management Options.” Something must be in the air, as several people have sent me this in the past few months. Thanks to each and every person. Here are a few snippets of many that stuck out to me: Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species were found to be capable of reducing depression to a large extent. The points mentioned above suggest that gut microbiota has a role in developing anxiety and depression. Anxiety and depression are gut–brain axis disorders that can be treated with the help of the gut microbiota, which— Tim Ferriss
0

Wounded orangutan seen using plant as medicine

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · bbc.com

“Wounded orangutan seen using plant as medicine.” (BBC) This isn’t a trivial observation. For more, see “Active self-treatment of a facial wound with a biologically active plant by a male Sumatran orangutan.” Hat tip to Dr. Mark Plotkin of Amazon Conservation Team (ACT).— Tim Ferriss
0

Can psychedelics treat people with a severe brain injury?

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · Jonathan Moens · nationalgeographic.com

“Can psychedelics treat people with a severe brain injury?” by Jonathan Moens for National Geographic. (Alternate link.) This is a deeply researched and deeply moving piece. It underscores some of the hopes and gaps related to treating “disorders of consciousness.” Coverage of psychedelics tends to overstate how much we understand, and this is a good counterbalance with open questions. Here is an excerpt: At the heart of this scientific initiative is the notion of brain “complexity.” In neuroscience, complexity is a measure of how diverse and unpredictable brain activity is. Brain activity tha— Tim Ferriss
0

Fashion’s Desert Graveyard

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · John Bartlett · nationalgeographic.com

“Fashion’s Desert Graveyard” by John Bartlett for National Geographic. From the article: Between 2000 and 2014, clothing production doubled and consumers began buying 60 percent more clothes and wearing them for half as long as they once did. … Duty-free ports encourage economic activity, as goods are imported and often reexported without the usual taxes and fees. The duty-free port was established in Iquique in 1975 to help generate jobs and improve an ailing local economy. Chile became one of the world’s largest importers of used clothes, which transformed Iquique. As fast fashion exploded, — Tim Ferriss
0

David Mamet’s Writing Memo

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · screencraft.org

David Mamet’s Writing Memo. Even if you don’t give a shit about writing, you’ll enjoy reading this outraged and brilliant five-page memo from David Mamet. He curses like a sailor and imparts the wisdom of a sage. David won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for his plays Glengarry Glen Ross and Speed-the-Plow. Here are two excerpts from his excellent memo to the writing staff of the TV show The Unit. I preserved the CAPS of his writing for the second part for proper impact: Question: What is drama? Drama, again, is the quest of the hero to overcome those things which prevent him fr— Tim Ferriss
0

101 Additional Advices

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · Kevin Kelly · kk.org

“101 Additional Advices” by Kevin Kelly. Regular readers know that I consider Kevin one candidate for the real-world most interesting man in the world. He turns 73 in a few days, and I always read his short, bulleted lists of advice.— Tim Ferriss
0

How a Hater Accelerated My Startup’s Timeline By a Year, Overnight

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · Niels Hoven · piratewires.com

“How a Hater Accelerated My Startup’s Timeline By a Year, Overnight” by Niels Hoven. This is a wonderful story of how an online attack backfired and ended up 10xing positive attention to a startup. I love when karma lands in the right place at the right time. Mentava is one of my few investments in the edtech space; another is NoRedInk. To get on the waitlist for Mentava’s software before it opens to the public, just go here: mentava.com.— Tim Ferriss
0

Food from Thin Air

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · Sarah Kuta · hub.jhu.edu

“Food from Thin Air” by Sarah Kuta. Teaser: “It sounds like science fiction, but Johns Hopkins scientists are making food from air. The revolutionary project could someday help feed soldiers in rugged, hard-to-reach places or sustain victims of natural disasters until normal supply chain operations can resume.”— Tim Ferriss
0

Decluttering books

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · tim.blog

Decluttering books. Even folks like Mark Manson make cameos answering the following questions I posted on Twitter/X: “The topic is decluttering books -- Anyone out there have advice for donating, getting rid of, or organizing an excess of books? What mental tricks or systems do you use to thin books out of your house?”— Tim Ferriss
0

A stealth attack came close to compromising the world’s computers

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · economist.com

“A stealth attack came close to compromising the world’s computers.” Alternate link. From the article: “On March 29th Andres Freund, an engineer at Microsoft, published a short detective story. In recent weeks he had noticed that SSH—a system to log on securely to another device over the internet—was running about 500 milliseconds more slowly than expected.” As one tweet put it, “The xz backdoor was initially caught by a software engineer at Microsoft. He noticed 500ms lag and thought something was suspicious. This is the Silver Back Gorilla of nerds. The internet final boss.” Or as The New Yo— Tim Ferriss
0

You can’t hoard life

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · Oliver Burkeman · ckarchive.com

“You can’t hoard life” by Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. Hat tip to Chris Williamson for sending this to me.— Tim Ferriss
0

Ketamine is being sold as a depression wonder drug. For some, it’s making everything worse.

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · Anna Silman · businessinsider.com

“Ketamine is being sold as a depression wonder drug. For some, it’s making everything worse.” Please try this alternate link if you have any trouble accessing the article. This is a timely and important piece by Anna Silman (@annaesilman). In the last three years, I’ve seen more high-functioning people derailed by ketamine than any other substance.— Tim Ferriss
0

Lululemon’s Founder Is Racing to Cure the Rare Disease Destroying His Muscles

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · Ari Altstedter · bloomberg.com

“Lululemon’s Founder Is Racing to Cure the Rare Disease Destroying His Muscles” by Ari Altstedter (Bloomberg). Alternate article link, in case you have any issues accessing using the previous one. >From the sub-heading: “For decades, Chip Wilson has been facing a form of muscular dystrophy. Now the notoriously unfiltered billionaire is spending $100 million to cure it.” Sometimes, the ultra-rich can produce breakthroughs in medicine, if they’re willing to spend big and take risks. Chip is willing to do both. Survival is one hell of a motivator. Here’s one excerpt from the piece: “If you’re goi— Tim Ferriss
0

The 24 Best Places to Go in 2024

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · cntraveller.com

“The 24 Best Places to Go in 2024” If you have any clear favorites, please let me know on Twitter @tferriss! I’ll start referring to it as “X” in 2030.— Tim Ferriss
0

String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · amazon.com

String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis. “Federer Both Flesh and Not” is considered one of Wallace’s best essays, and it doesn’t disappoint. I’m not a tennis player, and that didn’t affect my enjoyment of this writing one iota. The essay was first published in The New York Times as “Federer as Religious Experience” in 2006. Here are two excerpts to give you a taste: There are three kinds of valid explanation for Federer’s ascendancy. One kind involves mystery and metaphysics and is, I think, closest to the real truth. The others are more technical and make for better journalism. The meta— Tim Ferriss
0

Anatomy Of A Twitter/X Account Takeover Hack

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · avc.xyz

“Anatomy Of A Twitter/X Account Takeover Hack.” If Fred Wilson can get caught, so can you, and this short post is a great reminder. NOTE ON TWO CURRENT TIM FERRISS SCAMS: First, there are multiple scammers emailing people from “The Tim Ferriss Show,” offering to pay them to appear on the podcast. These are all a scam. I don’t pay people to appear, and no one has ever paid me to appear on the show. The grift appears to be this: they eventually get you on a Zoom call, have you share your screen, then either take over your Facebook page (possibly to drain crypto wallets with fake offerings) or co— Tim Ferriss
0

You Don’t Need More How-To Advice — You Need a Beautiful and Painful Reckoning

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · tim.blog

“You Don’t Need More How-To Advice — You Need a Beautiful and Painful Reckoning.” If you like it, please leave a comment on the blog post. Here is the opener: For most of us, the how-to books on our shelves represent a growing to-do list, not advice we’ve followed. Several of the better-known tech CEOs in San Francisco have asked me at different times for an identical favor: an index card with bullet-point instructions for losing abdominal fat. Each of them made it clear: “Just tell me exactly what to do and I’ll do it.” I gave them all of the necessary tactical advice on one 3×5 card, knowing— Tim Ferriss
0

No Biological Free Lunches

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · tim.blog

“No Biological Free Lunches.” It’s alarming how many folks now treat “T” or “TRT” (testosterone replacement therapy) as something akin to taking a multivitamin, when they never would have considered taking androgenic-anabolic steroids (AAS) a few years earlier. Like Patagonian toothfish has become Chilean sea bass on fashionable menus worldwide, it’s quite the rebrand story, but that doesn’t change the underlying biology, which is nuanced. I explore this, performance-enhancing drugs in general, and much more in my brand-new blog post here. Included are some personal experiences with anabolics,— Tim Ferriss
0

Overlooked No More: Beatrix Potter, Author of ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · nytimes.com

“Overlooked No More: Beatrix Potter, Author of ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’” via JZ, Dr. Jeffrey Zurofsky from The 4-Hour Chef. From the article: With “The Tale of Peter Rabbit,” Beatrix Potter created what would become one of the world’s best-known children’s book characters. The book, about a cheeky rabbit who steals vegetables from the garden of one Mr. McGregor and loses his coat and shoes in a narrow escape, became a literary juggernaut that has sold more than 45 million copies. It also spawned a merchandising empire and has left an indelible imprint on children’s book publishing. But Potte— Tim Ferriss
0

The Acceleration of Addictiveness

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · Paul Graham · paulgraham.com

“The Acceleration of Addictiveness” by Paul Graham (@paulg). This was strongly recommended to me by Matt Mullenweg, who was recently on the podcast. To give you a taste, here are two excerpts that I highlighted for myself: One sense of “normal” is statistically normal: what everyone else does. The other is the sense we mean when we talk about the normal operating range of a piece of machinery: what works best. These two senses are already quite far apart. Already someone trying to live well would seem eccentrically abstemious in most of the US. That phenomenon is only going to become more pron— Tim Ferriss
0

I Feel Love: MDMA for Autism and Social Anxiety

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · Rachel Nuwer · tim.blog

“I Feel Love: MDMA for Autism and Social Anxiety” by Rachel Nuwer. “Why You Should Seek More Awe in the New Year” by Ashley Stimpson. Every time I’ve done a past-year review (PYR), a pattern emerges: peak positive emotional experiences are correlated to awe at least 70% of the time. For at least the past 3–5 years, this has been so consistent that I often determine what big blocks to schedule in the new year based on potential for awe. The payoffs include time dilation and, more broadly, traversing the miraculous canvas of full human experience. Friends have asked me why I do silent retreats i— Tim Ferriss
0

Would you do it if you could? Advanced DNA testing for embryos is here — and it’s fraught.

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2024 · bostonglobe.com

“Would you do it if you could? Advanced DNA testing for embryos is here — and it’s fraught.” Click here if you have any issues accessing the link. From the article: “This has somewhat flown under the societal radar, but it’s happening,” says Todd Lencz, a professor of psychiatry and molecular medicine in the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and a leading researcher on the new genetic testing of embryos. “It’s not a question of if it will happen, or what the technology will be in three years. People are doing this now.”— Tim Ferriss
0

Safety First: Potential Heart Health Risks of [Psychedelic] Microdosing

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · Dr. Kelan Thomas · blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu

“Safety First: Potential Heart Health Risks of [Psychedelic] Microdosing” by Dr. Kelan Thomas. From the conclusion: “It is important to differentiate the potential risk associated with prolonged and repeated microdosing from the very limited physiological safety risk posed by a few ‘macrodoses’ given weeks or months apart for psychedelic-assisted therapy. That said, given the lack of clinical trial evidence showing any clear benefit for microdosing, and the concerning theoretical safety risk of VHD [valvular heart disease], it is worth proceeding with caution and, at the very least, taking som— Tim Ferriss
0

What’s in My Bag, 2023

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · ma.tt

“What’s in My Bag, 2023.” I have never met anyone more meticulous about everyday carry than Matt Mullenweg. Each year, he publishes an updated “What’s in my bag” blog post, and this is the latest. For a fun comparison, see this photo of Matt’s gadgets from nearly a decade ago.— Tim Ferriss
0

Steve Young, girls flag football, and finding the next calling

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · Dan Pompei · theathletic.com

“Steve Young, girls flag football, and finding the next calling” by Dan Pompei for The Athletic. Try this link if you are having any trouble accessing the above.— Tim Ferriss
0

The Great Cash-for-Carbon Hustle

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · Heidi Blake · newyorker.com

“The Great Cash-for-Carbon Hustle” by Heidi Blake for The New Yorker. This is an outstanding piece, and here is an excerpt to give you a taste: One sprawling fraud, described by French police as “the heist of the century,” had cost tax authorities five billion euros. After it was exposed, the Danish government admitted that eighty per cent of the country’s carbon-trading firms were fronts for the racket. … BP and Shell had opened carbon-trading desks, and the Saudi government did, too. Gilles Dufrasne, of the nonprofit Carbon Market Watch, observed that credits could be traded over and over be— Tim Ferriss
0

New XPrize Will Award $101 Million to Innovators Who Can Reverse Aging

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · forbes.com

“New XPrize Will Award $101 Million to Innovators Who Can Reverse Aging.” From the article: “On Wednesday, the XPrize Foundation announced its new $101 million ‘Healthspan’ XPrize, which aims to reward research teams that can develop therapies which measurably reverse age-related degradation across three domains in otherwise healthy adults aged 65–80: cognition, immune system, and muscle function.”— Tim Ferriss
0

Take a Wife … Please!

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · Olga Khazan · theatlantic.com

“Take a Wife … Please!” by Olga Khazan for The Atlantic. Here’s an alternate link if the prior link gives you trouble. Hat tip to Spider Monkey for putting this on my radar.— Tim Ferriss
0

Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon’ Complex

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · Michael Schulman · newyorker.com

“Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon’ Complex” by Michael Schulman for The New Yorker. Ridley Scott is the filmmaker behind cult classics and mega-blockbusters, such as Blade Runner, Gladiator, Alien, Black Hawk Down, and many more. He is also the director behind the iconic Apple “1984” commercial. Millions know his movies, but far fewer realize that Ridley didn’t release his first feature film until he was 40. Bonus: for a 10-second laugh involving Ridley Scott that you won’t get in the profile, take a gander at this.— Tim Ferriss
0

Olympic Basketball & The Grateful Dead

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · sportshistoryweekly.com

“Olympic Basketball & The Grateful Dead.” The opener: “In 1992, the iconic Grateful Dead music band helped sponsor Lithuania’s national basketball team, a talented but financially-strapped squad that went on to win bronze at the Barcelona Olympics. Their story was a magical tale of tie-dyes, basketball glory, and the birth of a new nation.”— Tim Ferriss
0

Jason Blum: How the producer behind the latest ‘Exorcist’ film is making the most profitable movies in Hollywood

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · Devin Gordon · fortune.com

“Jason Blum: How the producer behind the latest ‘Exorcist’ film is making the most profitable movies in Hollywood” by Devin Gordon for Fortune. Click here if you have any issues reading at the above link. Below is a snippet from the article, which applies to publishing and other industries: In Hollywood, Blum’s company is renowned for its low-cost, high-reward “Blumhouse system” of moviemaking, the core of which is a simple proposition: To keep budgets down—which used to mean $5 million to $8 million back in the Insidious days and now means more like $10 million to $12 million—the creative pri— Tim Ferriss
0

The Game Master: Matthew Mercer takes Dungeons & Dragons very seriously.

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · Luke Winkie · slate.com

“The Game Master: Matthew Mercer takes Dungeons & Dragons very seriously. But he never expected to become the once-geeky game’s first household name” (Slate) by Luke Winkie. As some of you know, I grew up playing D&D and still have all of my treasures. But not even in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the resurgence of the game and massive breakout hits like Critical Role, which have turned into both cultural phenomena and business successes. It all makes me smile. Here’s a taste from the above article: “On paper, it sounds like something nobody would give a shit about,” said Mercer. “We— Tim Ferriss
0

Curious what I and 5BF subscribers have found most interesting this year?

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · tim.blog

Curious what I and 5BF subscribers have found most interesting this year? I collected and curated the 25 most popular items from 5-Bullet Friday so far this year in a short blog post here: “25 of My Favorite Books, Articles, Gadgets, Tech, and More (So Far in 2023).”— Tim Ferriss
0

MDMA Therapy Inches Closer to Approval

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · MAPS Public Benefit Corporation · nytimes.com

“MDMA Therapy Inches Closer to Approval” (The New York Times). Rachel Nuwer writes: “MDMA-assisted therapy seems to be effective in reducing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a study published on Thursday. The research is the final trial conducted by MAPS Public Benefit Corporation, a company that is developing prescription psychedelics. It plans to submit the results to the Food and Drug Administration as part of an application for approval to market MDMA, the psychedelic drug, as a treatment for PTSD, when paired with talk therapy.” Additional reading in Nature: “MDMA-— Tim Ferriss
0

Is Bach the greatest achiever of all time?

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · Tyler Cowen · marginalrevolution.com

“Is Bach the greatest achiever of all time?” by Tyler Cowen (@tylercowen).— Tim Ferriss
0

How to Do Great Work

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · Paul Graham · paulgraham.com

“How to Do Great Work” by Paul Graham (@paulg). One of the many great reminders in this essay: “Competition can be an effective motivator, but don’t let it choose the problem for you; don’t let yourself get drawn into chasing something just because others are. In fact, don’t let competitors make you do anything much more specific than work harder. Curiosity is the best guide. Your curiosity never lies, and it knows more than you do about what’s worth paying attention to.”— Tim Ferriss
0

The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · Dennis O’Neil · amazon.com

The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics by Dennis O’Neil. Special thanks to Daniel Henriques for this recommendation. The advice is great, the sample scripts are a boon, and Dennis’ delivery is both deep and hilarious. Kudos to the author for a job spectacularly well done. It far exceeded my expectations. And… “Ten Burning Questions for John Wooden,” plus “Wooden as a Teacher: The First Lesson Was Shoelaces” Click here in case of any issues with accessing the latter link. This is a great case of optimizing the macro by refining the micro. For those who don’t recognize the name, John Wooden was n— Tim Ferriss
0

12 leverage points to intervene in a system

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · en.wikipedia.org

12 leverage points to intervene in a system. From the page: “Meadows started with the observation that there are levers, or places within a complex system (such as a firm, a city, an economy, a living being, an ecosystem, an ecoregion) where a ‘small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything.’” Pair it with “Theory of constraints.”— Tim Ferriss
0

The four-hour workday

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · Oliver Burkeman · ckarchive.com

“The four-hour workday” by Oliver Burkeman. Hat tip to Cal Newport for this one. I love Oliver’s perspective and writing style. >From the essay: “Something I’ve long understood about myself is that whenever I get stressed about the number of things on my plate, or anxious about the challenges of a specific project, it’s an excellent idea to do the opposite of what comes naturally to me.” For a perfect pairing, also take a look at Parkinson’s Law, a satirical but practical concept I explored a lot in The 4-Hour Workweek.— Tim Ferriss
0

Questions

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · Alexey Guzey · guzey.com

“Questions” by Alexey Guzey. The English is a little rough in places, but I found some of these questions to be excellent reminders and many others to be outstanding brain food.— Tim Ferriss
0

Esther Crawford’s experience and lessons learned at Twitter

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · twitter.com

Esther Crawford’s experience and lessons learned at Twitter. Esther was hugely helpful to me and my team during some Twitter login hiccups in December, and I found this long tweet fascinating. Many of her lessons and observations apply to scores of tech companies and, indeed, companies in general.— Tim Ferriss
0

The 50 Best Places to Travel in 2023

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · travelandleisure.com

“The 50 Best Places to Travel in 2023.” I am planning my next adventures, both in the U.S. and abroad, and this list had some unexpected gems.— Tim Ferriss
0

Meet the Psychedelic Boom’s First Responders

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · Chris Colin · wired.com

“Meet the Psychedelic Boom’s First Responders” by Chris Colin for WIRED. This is one of the best articles related to psychedelics that I’ve read in a long time. It reinforces a very important, and often misunderstood, point. As mentioned in the piece: “Difficult is not necessarily bad.” Most classical psychedelics could be considered anti-escapist; if you want to avoid your problems, your addictions, your past trauma, the things you’re ashamed of, and so on, these are the wrong drugs. It should be no surprise that when these things are put into inescapable high resolution for anyone, it can be— Tim Ferriss
0

Blood from the shoulder of Pallas

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · reddit.com

“Blood from the shoulder of Pallas.” For those who don’t recognize The Watchmen, it is considered the Citizen Kane of graphic novels. This excerpt is, I think, a beautiful reminder of how the mystical and measurable can intermingle.— Tim Ferriss
0

Global sperm counts are falling. This scientist believes she knows why

ArticlesTim featured this 1× · 2023 · Sarah Neville · ft.com

“Global sperm counts are falling. This scientist believes she knows why” by Sarah Neville for the Financial Times. From the article: “The mystery is this. Since the late 1930s, sperm counts around the world appear to have dropped significantly. While the decline was initially observed in Western countries, there is evidence of the same phenomenon in the developing world, and it seems to be accelerating. Swan, a Berkeley-trained statistician-turned-epidemiologist, believes she knows why.” If you have issues reading with the above link, try this.— Tim Ferriss