Book: Tools of Titans – Wise

Tools of Titans” is a summary of Tim Ferris’s amazingly popular podcast. The caliber of people presented there is spectacular and the depth of knowledge amazing. I let myself split my book summary similarly to how TF has split it:

„Wise” part is pretty cohesive with „Wealthy”. Honestly, only after reviewing these notes I can see that this division is pretty arbitrary and TF really wanted to create a homage to Benjamin Franklins “Healthy, Wealthy & Wise”

Great questions, continued

  • what would I tell my 25-year-old self?’
  • ‘What are actually my ultimate goals in life, and how can I optimize toward them?’
  • [when we judge someone to be angry/bad] ‘Has this person slept? Have they eaten? Is somebody else bugging them?’
  • Talk to people about a thing they didn’t think they were going to talk about.
  • ‘When I had the opportunity, did I choose courage over comfort?
  • “Did I spend today chasing mice or hunting antelope?”
  • What do I spend a silly amount of money on? How might I scratch my own itch?
  • What are the worst things that could happen?
  • Is this the most audacious endeavor I can possibly conceive of?

Just be yourself – ( Making flaw into an asset continued )

I realy believe that good and bed are often entanged and once yoi get rid of the bad you loose good too.

  • It pays to write what you know.
  • it is so much less work just to be yourself.”
  • “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken”:
  • Tell the Truth. It’s the Easiest Thing to Remember

Ego is the enemy

As Ryan Holiday has put it, Ego is indeed the enemy. Most of our problems stem from the fact that we overfocus on ourselves.

  • Robbins: “Focus on me = suffering”
  • when you’re standing at the edge of your horizon, at death’s door, you can be much more in tune with the cosmos.”
  • Definitions of success are widely varied

My clippings

  • when you’re standing at the edge of your horizon, at death’s door, you can be much more in tune with the cosmos.”
  • What bullshit excuses do you have for not going after whatever it is that you want?
  • To “fix” someone’s problem, you very often just need to empathically listen to them.
  • don’t encourage more incompetence by rewarding it.
  • It always, always shows in the work when you resent it.
  • “What’s very fortunate, beautiful, wonderful, and also, in a weird way, tragic about modern society, is that crisis has been removed.
  • “The future is already here—it’s just unevenly distributed.”—William Gibson
  • code to AudioMolly.com, The Glitch Mob, and Infected Mushroom.
  • BlockBlock on OS X,
  • Gates of Fire, by Steven Pressfield.
  • what would I tell my 25-year-old self?’
  • the definition of success is being cool with your parents, your grandparents [if still alive], and your kids. Being able to navigate the difficult task of dealing with each other as human beings.”
  • ‘What are actually my ultimate goals in life, and how can I optimize toward them?’
  • Tony Robins Dickensian process
    • What has each belief cost you in the past, and what has it cost people you’ve loved in the past? What have you lost because of this belief? See it, hear it, feel it.
    • What is each costing you and people you care about in the present? See it, hear it, feel it.
    • What will each cost you and people you care about 1, 3, 5, and 10 years from now? See it, hear it, feel it.
  • In a world of distraction, single-tasking is a superpower.
  • afraid of, what I’m ashamed of, who I’m pretending to be, who I really am, where I am versus where I thought I’d be. . . . If you watched yourself from afar, if you met yourself, what would you say to yourself?
  • ‘Has this person slept? Have they eaten? Is somebody else bugging them?’
  • it: I am not busy. I am the laziest ambitious person I know.
  • And nature is still technically free, even if human beings have tried to make access to it expensive.
  • Cocktail Techniques by Kazuo Uyeda
  • Write about a time when you realized you were mistaken. Write about a lesson you learned the hard way. Write about a time you were inappropriately dressed for the occasion. Write about something you lost that you’ll never get back. Write about a time when you knew you’d done the right thing. Write about something you don’t remember. Write about your darkest teacher. Write about a memory of a physical injury. Write about when you knew it was over. Write about being loved. Write about what you were really thinking. Write about how you found your way back. Write about the kindness of strangers. Write about why you could not do it. Write about why you did. Spirit animal: Jaguar
  • “What is it that they can’t afford to say or think?”
  • It pays to write what you know.
  • it is so much less work just to be yourself.”
  • “Cynicism is a disease that robs people of the gift of life.”
  • “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken”:
  • “The teppanyaki grill. It’s a little tabletop grill [search “Presto 22-inch electric griddle”].
  • If you can’t see yourself working with someone for life, don’t work with them for a day.
  • Reading (learning) is the ultimate meta-skill and can be traded for anything else.
  • “You get paid for being right first, and to be first, you can’t wait for consensus.”
  • Be willing to fail or succeed on who you really are. Don’t ever try to be anything else.
  • “For me, a convenient place to work is a remote place among strangers where there is good swimming.”
  • Sleep with Me:
  • was, whenever we meet someone who we know doesn’t care about meeting us, my wife and I always try and come up with a trick question that throws them off. They kind of have to answer, or have
  • Talk to people about a thing they didn’t think they were going to talk about.
  • Once you don’t start at the beginning, your life just gets so much simpler.” TF: Search “5 great examples of in medias res” for more on this approach. In medias res literally means “into the middle things”
  • what I learned during the day that I want to be talking about it at 1:00 in the morning? And
  • “I cultivate empty space as a way of life for the creative process.”
  • Belief #1—It’s rarely a zero-sum game
  • the entanglement is fundamental to their being.
  • i realy believe that good and bed are often entanged and once yoi get rid of the bad you loose good to
  • “One of the biggest mistakes that I observed in the first year of Jack’s life was parents who have unproductive language around weather being good or bad.
  • ‘Look, Dada, it’s such a beautiful rainy day,’
  • I still use “mini-retirements” à la The 4-Hour Workweek a few times a year.
  • mini retiremeents ?
  • ‘When I had the opportunity, did I choose courage over comfort?’”
  • “Did Shakespeare Invent Love?” by Nerdwriter.
  • Brain Games,
  • Tell the Truth. It’s the Easiest Thing to Remember
  • the expression from Glengarry Glen Ross? ‘Always tell the truth. It’s the easiest thing to remember.’ . .
  • The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler,
  • What do I spend a silly amount of money on? How might I scratch my own itch?
  • What are the worst things that could happen?
  • People’s IQs seem to double as soon as you give them responsibility and indicate that you trust them.
  • People don’t like being sold products, but we all like being told stories. Work on the latter.
  • What might I put in place to allow me to go off the grid for 4 to 8 weeks, with no phone or email?
  • “Did I spend today chasing mice or hunting antelope?”
  • 15 pull-ups, 50 push-ups, 100 sit-ups 15 pull-ups (different grip), 50 push-ups 10 pull-ups (first grip) 10 pull-ups (second grip)
  • ‘Is this an itch, or is it burning?’
  • Is this the most audacious endeavor I can possibly conceive of?
  • “What assets might we have?”
  • ‘Try to look bigger. . . .’”
  • “The key is to do it early. Do it while you’re still shooting. First impression is everything. I’ll cut a trailer while I’m still shooting and send it to a studio. They’ll try to make their own, over and over, and they can’t get that first thing they saw out of their heads, ‘It’s still not as good as the one we saw.’”
  • “Let me see, what I can learn from this?”
  • “Enjoy it.”
  • What is something you believe that other people think is insane?
  • What obsessions do you explore on the evenings or weekends?
  • What have you changed your mind about in the last few years? Why?

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