Everything Tim Ferriss has recommended in 5-Bullet Friday — 2,154 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.
Unstoppable: My Life So Far by Maria Sharapova. I got an early review copy of this after our podcast together, and it’s absolutely fantastic thus far. It is co-authored by Rich Cohen, whose books The Fish That Ate the Whale and The Sun & The Moon & The Rolling Stones blew me away (Ryan Holiday and others are also huge fans). If you like autobios and stories of persistence, this is definitely worth checking out.— Tim Ferriss
The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance— Tim Ferriss
Many of you have been asking me for more long-form blog posts, and -- in particular -- about startup investing and how to get started. This post — while for informational purposes only and not investment advice — is intended to show you how one successful investor approached the early-stage game.— Tim Ferriss
The Intelligent Plant by Michael Pollan (@michaelpollan).— Tim Ferriss
The Four-Letter Code to Selling Just About Anything by Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) of The Atlantic. How can you learn to sell anything? Study an immigrant who did exactly that, of course. This piece is mostly biography but sprinkled with enough how-to that you can apply it to your own businesses (e.g. Spotify case study). Which is related to my next bullet...— Tim Ferriss
An excellent explanation by Stratechery of how/why Amazon might use WholeFoods for scaling something like “Amazon Grocery Services.” The entire piece is worth reading, but in short: to justify an investment in massive infrastructure that provides a competitive moat and advantages of scale, Amazon first needs a correspondingly massive internal “customer” for said infrastructure. Video that caught my attention, sent to me by a world-class— Tim Ferriss
This tweet storm by Naval Ravikant on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Here is a useful summary. If you’d like a Bitcoin and Blockchain 101 class, my recent podcast episode with Nick Szabo and Naval covers the basics, as well as some wilder stuff (“The Quiet Master of Cryptocurrency”).— Tim Ferriss
DISCLAIMER: I’M NOT A DOCTOR AND DON’T PLAY ONE ON THE INTERNET. Stop Bleeding, Heal Wounds, and Soothe Sunburns with a Tea Bag Now, on to the story… I don’t think I would have believed this, had I not seen it directly and looked it up afterward. A friend was recently in a surfing accident that split his head open like a Gallagher watermelon. He went to a nearby snack shop, bought black tea bags, and wrapped them on the injury, which was pouring blood everywhere. Within 5 minutes, the bleeding had stopped and remained stopped for a one-hour car drive to the nearest hospital, where the doctor s— Tim Ferriss
"Race Happy." This is a great piece on competing vs. happiness by 4x world champion Amelia Boone (@ameliaboone). Many people, including me, feel a constant tension between striving to achieve and appreciating what they have. This can also manifest as doing what you “should” versus doing what you love. “Race Happy” delves into all of this. If you want more, listen to Amelia’s appearance on the podcast here.— Tim Ferriss
This Hedge Fund Manager Bets He Can Dull Your Sweet Tooth (Bloomberg) One of the investors who seeded Dr. Michael Burry -- remember The Big Short? -- years later found a solution for his own sugar cravings, and now he’s out to convert the world. He doesn’t need the money, and now he doesn’t need candy bars, either. If you want to skip the text and test drive the lozenge (gymnema sylvestre (GS) + zinc), here it is. I’ve grown interested in GS, as it appears it may not only blunt perception of sweetness, but also affect post-meal (postprandial) glycemic response.— Tim Ferriss
How to Grow Human Organs in Pigs. The entire piece in Scientific American is worth reading, and the ethical considerations alone will make your head spin.— Tim Ferriss
How One Engineer Made His Hobby Pay Off.— Tim Ferriss
A single night light exposure acutely alters hormonal and metabolic responses in healthy participants. (Albreiki MS, et al. Endocr Connect. 2017.)— Tim Ferriss
“Germ warfare: some types of intestinal bacteria may boost the body’s ability to fight malignancy.” Just search “germ warfare” in this PDF of Scientific American magazine. The findings are preliminary, but I found the section beginning with the following fascinating: “They determined that another bacterial genus, Bacteroides, allowed the animals to eliminate injected tumors…”— Tim Ferriss
DOOMSDAY PREP FOR THE SUPER-RICH (New Yorker) -- “Some of the wealthiest people in America—in Silicon Valley, New York, and beyond—are getting ready for the crackup of civilization.” I’m not super rich, but I do enjoy a good apocalypse read as much as the next guy. I might even be part-prepper, as readers of “WILD” section in The 4-Hour Chef know. One of my editors laughed at recommendations in early drafts of that section… until Hurricane Sandy caught NYC with its pants down two weeks later. #generatorandwater— Tim Ferriss
World Happiness Report 2016 -- This compares self-reported happiness across countries around the world. It’s a fascinating read and a great reminder to be grateful. Dozens of countries are included, including Bhutan, often thought of as “the world’s happiest country” due to the emphasis on so-called Gross National Happiness (GNH) instead of GDP. Spoiler -- It is not the world’s happiest, at least based on these data, and there’s a lot to dig into when considering how best to optimize your own happiness.— Tim Ferriss
Remember the incredible “Man Who Studied 1,000 Deaths to Learn How to Live” from my podcast, BJ Miller, MD? This is the most beautiful and powerful article about him that I’ve ever read, courtesy of NYT Magazine. Take the time to read it. It might change your life. At the very least, it will make you feel emotions you probably need to feel.— Tim Ferriss
Why Stoicism is one of the best mind-hack ever devised by Lary Wallace— Tim Ferriss
I just want to do One Big Thing by Nick Burka And Core Archery: Shooting With Proper Back Tension by Larry Wise— Tim Ferriss
Man of Extremes: The Return of James Cameron (New Yorker): James Cameron is a beast worth studying. Love him or hate him, this profile will make you fascinated by him. Few humans are as ballsy or capable.— Tim Ferriss
Meditation Plus Running as a Treatment for Depression by Gretchen Reynolds (The New York Times) -- Thought-provoking piece on how meditation + running might be better for anti-depressive effects than either separately. I’m planning on testing this using an ergometer (rower).— Tim Ferriss
What’s In My Bag (2016 edition) by Matt Mullenweg — Matt (@photomatt) is one of my favorite humans, the founding developer of WordPress (powers 25%+ of the Internet), and one of the most sophisticated gear heads on the planet. This article covers all the gear and gadgets he currently carries as Everyday Carry (EDC) in his backpack. It’s one hell of a list. For a hilarious tequila-infused podcast with Matt, listen to our wide-ranging conversation here, which covers productivity, polyphasic sleep, and more.— Tim Ferriss
One of the questions I’m constantly asked is, “How do I get influencers to help me?” I wrote a new blog post that outlines what works with true “influencers”– people who can single-handedly make or break a product launch. Specifically, I share an e-mail from Andrew Zimmern (@andrewzimmern) that gets nearly every “influencer” element right.— Tim Ferriss
The Machiavelli of Maryland by Thomas Meaney— Tim Ferriss
10,000 Hours with Reid Hoffman: What I Learned by Ben Casnocha— Tim Ferriss