Tools of Titans

by Timothy Ferriss

  I’ve occasionally bolded lines within quotes. This is my emphasis, not the guest’s.

  How to Read Quotes—The Micro

  . . . = Portion of dialogue omitted

  [words in brackets] = additional information that wasn’t part of the interview but may be necessary to understand what’s being discussed, or related info or recommendations from yours truly

  How to Read Quotes—The Macro

  One of my podcast guests, also one of the smartest people I know, was shocked when I showed him his raw transcript. “Wow,” he said. “I generally like to think of myself as a decently smart guy, but I use past, present, and future tense like they’re the same fucking thing. It makes me sound like a complete moron.”

  Transcripts can be unforgiving. I’ve read my own, so I know how bad it can be.

  In the heat of the moment, grammar can go out the window, to be replaced by false starts and sentence fragments. Everyone starts an ungodly number of sentences with “And” or “So.” I and millions of others tend to use “and I was like” instead of “and I said.” Many of us mix up plural and singular. This all works fine in conversation, but it can hiccup on the printed page.

  Quotations have therefore been edited in some cases for clarity, space, and as a courtesy to guests and readers alike. I did my best to preserve the spirit and point of quotes, while making them as smart and readable as possible. Sometimes I keep it fast and loose to preserve the kinetic energy and emotion of the moment. Other times, I smooth out the edges, including my own stammering.

  If anything sounds silly or off, assume it was my mistake. Everyone in this book is amazing, and I’ve done my best to showcase that.

  Patterns

  Where guests have related recommendations or philosophies, I’ve noted them in parentheses. For instance, if Jane Doe tells a story about the value of testing higher prices, I might add “(see Marc Andreessen, page 170),” since his answer to “If you could have a billboard anywhere, what would you put on it?” was “Raise prices,” which he explains in depth.

  Humor!

  I’ve included ample doses of the ridiculous. First of all, if we’re serious all the time, we’ll wear out before we get the truly serious stuff done. Second, if this book were all stern looks and no winks, all productivity and no grab-assing, you’d remember very little. I agree with Tony Robbins (page 210) that information without emotion isn’t retained.

  Look up “von Restorff effect” and “primacy and recency effect” for more science, but this book has been deliberately constructed to maximize your retention. Which leads us to . . .

  Spirit animals

  Yes, spirit animals. There wasn’t room for photographs in this book, but I wanted some sort of illustrations to keep things fun. It seemed like a lost cause, but then—after a glass or four of wine—I recalled that one of my guests, Alexis Ohanian (page 194), likes to ask potential hires, “What’s your spirit animal?” Eureka! So, you’ll see thumbnail spirit animals for anyone who would humor me and play along. The best part? Dozens of people took the question very seriously. Extended explanations, emotional changes of heart, and Venn diagrams ensued. Questions poured in: “Would a mythological creature be acceptable?” “Can I be a plant instead?” Alas, I couldn’t get a hold of everyone in time for publication, so drawings are sprinkled throughout like Scooby snacks. In a book full of practicality, treat these like little rainbows of absurdity. People had fun with it.

  Non-profile content and Tim Ferriss chapters

  In all sections, there are multiple non-profile pieces by guests and yours truly. These are typically intended to expand upon key principles and tools mentioned by multiple people.

  URLs, websites, and social media

  I’ve omitted most URLs, as outdated URLs are nothing but frustrating for everyone. For nearly anything mentioned, assume that I’ve chosen wording that will allow you to find it easily on Google or Amazon.

  All full podcast episodes can be found at fourhourworkweek.com/podcast. Just search the guest’s name, and the extended audio, complete show notes, links, and resources will pop up like warm toast on a cold morning.

  In nearly every guest’s profile, I indicate where you can best interact with them on social media: TW = Twitter, FB = Facebook, IG = Instagram, SC = Snapchat, and LI = LinkedIn.

  Your Send-off—The 3 Tools that Allow All the Rest

  Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse is recommended by many guests in this book. There is one specific takeaway that Naval Ravikant (page 546) has reinforced with me several times on our long walks over coffee. The protagonist, Siddhartha, a monk who looks like a beggar, has come to the city and falls in love with a famous courtesan named Kamala. He attempts to court her, and she asks, “What do you have?” A well-known merchant similarly asks, “What can you give that you have learned?” His answer is the same in both cases, so I’ve included the latter story here. Siddhartha ultimately acquires all that he wants.

  Merchant: “. . . If you are without possessions, how can you give?”

  Siddhartha: “Everyone gives what he has. The soldier gives strength, the merchant goods, the teacher instruction, the farmer rice, the fisherman fish.”

  Merchant: “Very well, and what can you give? What have you learned that you can give?”

  Siddhartha: “I can think, I can wait, I can fast.”

  Merchant: “Is that all?”

  Siddhartha: “I think that is all.”

  Merchant: “And of what use are they? For example, fasting, what good is that?”

  Siddhartha: “It is of great value, sir. If a man has nothing to eat, fasting is the most intelligent thing he can do. If, for instance, Siddhartha had not learned to fast, he would have had to seek some kind of work today, either with you, or elsewhere, for hunger would have driven him. But, as it is, Siddhartha can wait calmly. He is not impatient, he is not in need, he can ward off hunger for a long time and laugh at it. ”

  * * *

  I think of Siddhartha’s answers often and in the following terms:

  “I can think” → Having good rules for decision-making, and having good questions you can ask yourself and others.

  “I can wait” → Being able to plan long-term, play the long game, and not misallocate your resources.

  “I can fast” → Being able to withstand difficulties and disaster. Training yourself to be uncommonly resilient and have a high pain tolerance.

  This book will help you to develop all three.

  I created Tools of Titans because it’s the book that I’ve wanted my entire life. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

  Pura vida,

  Tim Ferriss

  Paris, France

  1

  Healthy

  “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”

  —Lao Tzu

  “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

  —J. Krishnamurti

  “In the end, winning is sleeping better.”

  —Jodie Foster

  “I’m not the strongest. I’m not the fastest. But I’m really good at suffering.”

  Spirit animal: Carp

  * * *

  Amelia Boone

  Amelia Boone (TW: @ameliaboone, ameliabooneracing.com) has been called “the Michael Jordan of obstacle course racing” (OCR) and is widely considered the world’s most decorated obstacle racer. Since the inception of the sport, she’s amassed more than 30 victories and 50 podiums. In the 2012 World’s Toughest Mudder competition, which lasts 24 hours (she covered 90 miles and ~300 obstacles), she finished second OVERALL out of more than 1,000 competitors, 80% of whom were male. The one person who beat her finished just 8 minutes ahead of her. Her major victories include the Spartan Race World Championship and the Spartan Race Elite Point Series, and she is the only three-time winne
r of the World’s Toughest Mudder (2012, 2014, and 2015). She won the 2014 championship 8 weeks after knee surgery. Amelia is also a three-time finisher of the Death Race, a full-time attorney at Apple, and she dabbles in ultra running (qualified for the Western States 100) in all of her spare time.

  ✸ What would you put on a billboard?

  “No one owes you anything.”

  ✸ Amelia’s best $100 or less purchase?

  Manuka honey bandages. Amelia has scars all over her shoulders and back from barbed-wire wounds.

  ✸ Most-gifted or recommended book

  House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski: “This is a book that you have to hold, because there are parts of it where you need to turn it upside down to read it. There are certain pages where, you are reading it, and it turns in a circle. . . . This is a book that’s an entire sensory experience.”

  Amelia’s Tips and Tactics

  Hydrolyzed gelatin + beet root powder: I’ve consumed gelatin for connective tissue repair in the past. I’ve never stuck with it long term because gelatin takes on a seagull poo–like texture when mixed into cold water. Amelia saved my palate and joints by introducing me to the Great Lakes hydrolyzed version (green label), which blends easily and smoothly. Add a tablespoon of beet root powder like BeetElite to stave off any cow-hoof flavor, and it’s a whole new game. Amelia uses BeetElite pre-race and pre-training for its endurance benefits, but I’m much harder-core: I use it to make tart, low-carb gummy bears when fat Tim has carb cravings.

  RumbleRoller: Think foam roller meets monster-truck tire. Foam rollers have historically done very little for me, but this torture device had an immediate positive impact on my recovery. (It also helps you sleep if used before bed.) Warning: Start slow. I tried to copy Amelia and did 20-plus minutes my first session. The next day, I felt like I’d been put in a sleeping bag and swung against a tree for a few hours.

  Rolling your foot on top of a golf ball on the floor to increase “hamstring” flexibility. This is infinitely more helpful than a lacrosse ball. Put a towel on the floor underneath the golf ball, lest you shoot your dog’s eye out.

  Concept2 SkiErg for training when your lower body is injured. After knee surgery, Amelia used this low-impact machine to maintain cardiovascular endurance and prepare for the 2014 World’s Toughest Mudder, which she won 8 weeks post-op. Kelly Starrett (page 122) is also a big fan of this device.

  Dry needling: I’d never heard of this before meeting Amelia. “[In acupuncture] the goal is not to feel the needle. In dry-needling, you are sticking the needle in the muscle belly and trying to get it to twitch, and the twitch is the release.” It’s used for super-tight, over-contracted muscles, and the needles are not left in. Unless you’re a masochist, don’t have this done on your calves.

  Sauna for endurance: Amelia has found using a sauna improves her endurance, a concept that has since been confirmed by several other athletes, including cyclist David Zabriskie, seven-time U.S. National Time Trial Championship winner. He considers sauna training a more practical replacement for high-altitude simulation tents. In the 2005 Tour de France, Dave won the Stage 1 time trial, making him the first American to win stages in all three Grand Tours. Zabriskie beat Lance Armstrong by seconds, clocking an average speed of 54.676 kilometers per hour (!). I now use a sauna at least four times per week. To figure out the best protocols, I asked another podcast guest, Rhonda Patrick. Her response is on page 7.

  ✸ Who do you think of when you hear the word “successful”?

  “Triple H is a great example [of someone who’s transitioned extremely well from athlete to business executive]. So, Paul Levesque.” (See page 128.)

  Random Facts

  Amelia eats Pop-Tarts as part of her ritual pre-competition breakfast.

  Her record for unbroken double-unders (passing a jump rope under your feet twice with one jump) is 423, and is thus able to impress all CrossFitters. Unbeknownst to them, she was a state jump rope champion in third grade. Also unbeknownst to them, she ended at 423 because she had to pee so badly that she peed her pants.

  Amelia loves doing training runs in the rain and cold, as she knows her competition is probably opting out. This is an example of “rehearsing the worst-case scenario” to become more resilient (see page 474).

  She is a gifted a cappella singer and was part of the Greenleafs group at Washington University in St. Louis.

  Spirit animal: Coywolf

  * * *

  Rhonda Perciavalle Patrick

  Rhonda Perciavalle Patrick, PhD (TW/FB/IG: @foundmyfitness, foundmyfitness.com) has worked alongside notables including Dr. Bruce Ames, the inventor of the Ames mutagenicity test and the 23rd most-cited scientist across *all* fields between 1973 and 1984. Dr. Patrick also conducts clinical trials, performed aging research at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and did graduate research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where she focused on cancer, mitochondrial metabolism, and apoptosis. More recently, Dr. Patrick has published papers on a mechanism by which vitamin D is able to regulate the production of serotonin in the brain and the various implications this may have for early-life deficiency and relevance for neuropsychiatric disorders.

  The Tooth Fairy Might Save Your Life (Or Your Kids’ lives)

  Dr. Patrick introduced me to using teeth for stem-cell banking. If you are having your wisdom teeth removed, or if your kids are losing their baby teeth (which have a particularly high concentration of dental pulp stem cells), consider using a company like StemSave or National Dental Pulp Laboratory to preserve them for later use. These companies will send your oral surgeon a kit, and then freeze the biological matter using liquid nitrogen. Costs vary, but are roughly $625 for setup and then $125 per year for storage and maintenance.

  Mesenchymal stem cells can later be harvested from the dental pulp of teeth for useful (e.g., bone, cartilage, muscle, blood vessels, etc.), life-changing (e.g., motor neurons for repairing damaged spinal cord), or potentially life-saving (e.g., traumatic brain injury) treatments using your own biological raw materials.

  Heat Is the New Black

  “Hyperthermic conditioning” (calculated heat exposure) can help you to increase growth hormone (GH) levels and substantially improve endurance. I now take ~20-minute sauna sessions post-workout or post-stretching at least four times per week, typically at roughly 160 to 170°F. If nothing else, it seems to dramatically decrease DOMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness).

  Focusing on endurance and growth hormone, here are some observations from Dr. Patrick:

  “One study has demonstrated that a 30-minute sauna session twice a week for 3 weeks post-workout increased the time it took for study participants to run until exhaustion by 32% compared to baseline. The 32% increase in running endurance found in this particular study was accompanied by a 7.1% increase in plasma volume and 3.5% increase in red blood cell count.”

  “Two 20-minute sauna sessions at 80°C (176°F) separated by a 30-minute cooling period elevated growth hormone levels two-fold over baseline. Whereas, two 15-minute dry-heat sessions at 100°C (212°F) separated by a 30-minute cooling period resulted in a five-fold increase in growth hormone. . . . The growth hormone effects generally persist for a couple of hours post-sauna.”

  TF: Hot baths can also significantly increase GH over baseline, and both sauna and hot baths have been shown to cause a massive release in prolactin, which plays a role in wound healing. I usually stay in a hot bath or sauna for about 20 minutes, which is long enough to significantly elevate my heart rate. I push a few minutes past dynorphin release, which usually makes one feel dysphoric and want to get out (but *not* to dizziness or lightheadedness). Generally, I’ll listen to an audiobook like The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman during the heat, then cool off for 5 to 10 minutes using an ice bath (I put 40 pounds of ice in a large bath to get it to roughly 45°F; more details on page 43) and/or by drinking ice water. I’ll repeat this cycle 2 to 4 times.

  ✸ Three people
Dr. Patrick has learned from or followed closely in the last year

  Dr. Bruce Ames, Dr. Satchin Panda (professor at the Salk Institute in San Diego, California), Dr. Jennifer Doudna (professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at UC Berkeley).

  “If the best in the world are stretching their asses off in order to get strong, why aren’t you? ”

  Spirit animal: Falcon

  * * *

  Christopher Sommer

  Christopher Sommer (IG/FB: @GymnasticBodies, gymnasticbodies.com) is a former U.S. National Team gymnastics coach and founder of GymnasticBodies, a training system that I’ve tested for the last 8 months (no affiliation). As a world-renowned coach, Sommer is known for building his students into some of the strongest, most powerful athletes in the world. During his extensive 40-year coaching career, Coach Sommer took meticulous notes on his training techniques—his wins and failures—so that he could translate the best elements into a superior exercise system for both high-level and beginner athletes. His four decades of careful observation led to the birth of Gymnastics Strength Training (GST).