Tools of Titans
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Eisen, Jonathan: Shackleton (TV miniseries)
Engle, Dan: Racing Extinction (doc), Neurons to Nirvana (doc), Searching for Sugar Man (doc)
Fussell, Chris: Restrepo (doc)—should be required viewing for every U.S. citizen. The Commanding Heights (doc)—based on Dan Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw’s book of the same name. Bush’s War (doc)—Frontline
Fussman, Cal: The Walk, Cinema Paradiso, Man on Wire (doc)
Foxx, Jamie: The Pianist
Ganju, Nick: Forrest Gump
Gazzaley, Adam: Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (doc)
Godin, Seth: Man on Wire (doc), Exit Through the Gift Shop (doc), The Matrix
Goldberg, Evan: Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Adaptation, The Princess Bride, The Fast and the Furious, Rejected (short film), Kids in the Hall (TV), Absolutely Fabulous (TV), Second City Television (TV)
Goodman, Marc: Ghostbusters (1984), WarGames, Sneakers, The Net, any movie with Bill Murray or Dan Aykroyd in it
Hamilton, Laird: Blackfish (doc), Senna (doc), On Any Sunday (doc)
Harris, Sam: Recommendation to watch Christopher Hitchens, a brilliant speaker
Holiday, Ryan: Gladiator, This Is Spinal Tap
Honnold, Alex: Star Wars, Gladiator
John, Daymond: BBC’s Planet Earth
Johnson, Bryan: Man on Wire (doc), Exit Through the Gift Shop (doc), Cosmos (doc)
Kagan, Noah: Commando, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Jinx (doc)
Kamkar, Samy: Into Eternity (doc), We Live in Public (doc), Revenge of the Electric Car (doc)
Kass, Sam: Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story (doc)
Kelly, Kevin: Man on Wire (doc), The King of Kong (doc), A State of Mind (doc)
Koppelman, Brian: Fight Club, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (doc), Don’t Look Back (doc), Roger and Me (doc)
Libin, Phil: Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, House of Cards (TV), Game of Thrones (TV), Top Gear (TV)
MacAskill, Will: Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends (documentary series)
MacKenzie, Brian: Spinning Plates (doc)
McChrystal, Gen. Stanley A.: The Battle of Algiers
McGonigal, Jane: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), G4M3RS (doc), The King of Kong (doc)
Miller, BJ: Waiting for Guffman, The Kentucky Fried Movie, The Groove Tube, Grizzly Man (doc)
Mullenweg, Matt: Citizenfour (doc), Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap (doc), Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (doc)
Neistat, Casey: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Little Dieter Needs to Fly (doc)
Nemer, Jason: Marley (doc), I Know I’m Not Alone by Michael Franti (doc), Happy (doc)
Norton, Edward: The Revenant, Rust and Bone, The Godfather, Goodfellas, A Prophet, The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Birdman, Biutiful, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Shōgun (miniseries), The Century of the Self (doc), The Power of Nightmares (doc), The Cruise (doc)
Novak, B.J.: Adaptation, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Casablanca, Pulp Fiction, The Naked Gun, Catfish (doc), To Be and to Have (doc), The Overnighters (doc)
Ohanian, Alexis: Food Inc. (doc), Planet Earth (doc), Jiro Dreams of Sushi (doc)
Palmer, Amanda: Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory (doc), Happy (doc), One More Time with Feeling (doc)
Patrick, Rhonda: Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (doc), Planet Earth (doc)
Paul, Caroline: Maidentrip (doc)
Polanco, Martin: The Crash Reel (doc), Waste Land (doc), Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (doc)
Poliquin, Charles: The Last Samurai, Gladiator, The Imitation Game, 22 Bullets. Also: The History Channel and documentaries from National Geographic, and Tarantino movies
Potts, Rolf: Grizzly Man (doc)
Reece, Gabby: Food Inc. (doc), Roger and Me (doc), Bowling for Columbine (doc), Crumb (doc)
Richman, Jessica: The Edge
Robbins, Tony: Inside Job (doc)
Rogen, Seth: Pulp Fiction, Clerks, Rushmore, Bottle Rocket, Adaptation, The Princess Bride, Fawlty Towers (TV), Kids in the Hall (TV), Monty Python’s Flying Circus (TV), Second City Television (TV)
Rose, Kevin: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Inglourious Basterds, Food Inc. (doc)
Rubin, Rick: 20,000 Days on Earth (doc)
Sacca, Chris: The Big Lebowski
Schwarzenegger, Arnold: Brooklyn Castle (doc)
Sethi, Ramit: Jiro Dreams of Sushi (doc)
Shinoda, Mike: House of Cards (TV), The Godfather, The Usual Suspects, Fight Club, Seven, Ninja Scroll, WALL-E, Princess Mononoke
Silva, Jason: Inception, The Matrix, The Truman Show, Vanilla Sky, eXistenZ, The Beach, Maidentrip (doc)
Sivers, Derek: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Skenes, Joshua: Chef’s Table (TV)
Sommer, Christopher: The Legend of Tarzan
Spurlock, Morgan: Scanners, An American Werewolf in London, Making a Murderer (TV), Mr. Robot (TV), Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (doc), The Jinx (doc), Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (doc), Brother’s Keeper (doc), The Thin Blue Line (doc), The Fog of War (doc), Hoop Dreams (doc), Stevie (doc), Life Itself (doc)
Starrett, Kelly: On the Way to School (doc), Trophy Kids (doc), Amy (doc), Super Size Me (doc), Restrepo (doc)
Strauss, Neil: The Act of Killing (doc), Gimme Shelter (doc), The Fog of War (doc)
Teller, Astro: Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (doc)
Thiel, Peter: No Country for Old Men
Tsatsouline, Pavel: The Magnificent Seven (1960)
von Ahn, Luis: The Matrix, Jiro Dreams of Sushi (doc)
Waitzkin, Joshua: Searching for Sugar Man (doc), Riding Giants (doc), The Last Patrol (doc)
Weinstein, Eric: Kung Fu Panda, Rate It X (doc)
Willink, Jocko: Against the Odds—“A Chance in Hell: The Battle for Ramadi” (doc), Restrepo (doc), The Pacific (TV), Band of Brothers (TV)
Wilson, Rainn: Apocalypse Now, The Act of Killing (doc)
White, Shaun: 7 Days in Hell
Young, Chris: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Pulp Fiction, The Right Stuff
Zimmern, Andrew: Great Chefs (TV)
Acknowledgments
First, I must thank the Titans whose advice, stories, and lessons are the essence of this book. Thank you for your time and generosity of spirit. May the good you share with the world be returned to you a hundredfold. Readers, please see the thank-you list in “On the Shoulders of Giants” (page xi).
To the inimitable Arnold Schwarzenegger, thank you for the wonderfully thoughtful Foreword. Speaking as a Long Island kid raised on Commando and Predator, it’s a dream come true to have you in these pages. To Daniel Ketchell and the rest of his A-Team, thank you for the great work you do, and for helping me get to know the Terminator. The more time I spend with Arnold and those around him, the more impressed I am.
To Stephen Hanselman, my agent and friend, I told you to kick me in the head next time I wanted to do a “definitive” book. Good thing you forgot. Shall we get some jazz and whiskey now?
To the entire team at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, especially the superhuman Stephanie Fletcher and the amazing design and production team: Rebecca Springer, Emily Andrukaitis, Rachael DeShano, Jamie Selzer, Marina Padakis Lowry, Teresa Elsey, David Futato, Kelly Dubeau Smydra, Jill Lazer, Rachel Newborn, Brian Moore, Melissa Lotfy, and Becky Saikia-Wilson—you helped tame this beast and make it the ultimate playbook. Thank you for burning the midnight oil alongside me! To my publisher Bruce Nichols and his incredible team, including president Ellen Archer, my partner in crime Laurie Brown, Deb Brody, Lori Glazer, Stephanie Kim, Debbie Engel, and all members of the dedicated marketing and sales team, thank you for believing in this book and making magic happen.
To Donna S. and Adam B., th
ank you for holding down the fort while I was offline! The podcast wouldn’t exist, and I wouldn’t be able to do any of it, without you. Donna, sorry for Molly’s terrorizing of Hank. I’ll pay for the therapy. Adam, next time I’m at altitude, please knock the wine glass out of my hand.
To Hristo Vassilev and Jordan Thibodeau, many thanks for the research, double-checking of details, and endless support. Hristo, would you like a few hundred more Mediterranean wraps? Or calamari, perhaps? And don’t forget those 20 minutes of sun in the morning. . . .
To Amelia, you are the warrior princess of redlining. Words cannot express how much your help and support meant to me. Through all the SodaStreams and lost arrows, you never wavered. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Payment in nut butters and ice cream is in process.
To Kamal Ravikant, your proofreading laughs were much-needed medicine, and your suggested edits were much-needed feedback. Thank you for being a companion on the path.
I’d be remiss to leave out the kind folks who spent many hours educating me on the details, tech, and craft of podcasting in the beginning. Many thanks, gentlemen! Listed in alphabetical order by first name (and if I forgot anyone, please let me know):
Jason DeFillippo of Grumpy Old Geeks
John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur on Fire
Jordan Harbinger of The Art of Charm
Lewis Howes of The School of Greatness
Matt Lieber and Alex Blumberg of Gimlet Media
Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income
and Rob Walch of Libsyn
Last but not least, this book is dedicated to my parents, who have guided, encouraged, loved, and consoled me through it all. I love you more than words can express.
About the Author
TIM FERRISS is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and one of Forbes’s “Names You Need to Know.” He is an early-stage tech investor/advisor (Uber, Facebook, Alibaba, and more) and the author of three #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal betsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, and The 4-Hour Chef. The Observer and other media have called Tim “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his 100M-plus-download podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show.
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