The Tim Ferriss Show
#136: Naval Ravikant on Happiness Hacks and The 5 Chimps Theory

When a guest is nominated for "Podcast of the Year," that's usually a good sign to bring them to the show for more. That's why Naval Ravikant (@naval) is back, and this time, he's answering your questions. For those of you that missed round 1, Naval is the CEO and a co-founder of AngelList. He has invested in more than 100 companies, including more than a few “unicorn” mega-successes.

Maybe most importantly, he has developed a diverse set of skills and knowledge that are invaluable. Even if you have no interest in startups or investing, this will be well worth your time. In this episode, Naval answers your top 10 questions from Reddit, including topics such as,

  • Artificial intelligence
  • Most recommended books
  • Happiness hacks
  • Conflict resolution
  • Startup tips
  • And much, much more...

Enjoy these fascinating insights from Naval.

Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast.

This podcast is also brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple and world-famous investors. It has exploded in popularity in the last 2 years and now has more than $2.5B under management. In fact, some of my good investor friends in Silicon Valley have millions of their own money in Wealthfront. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it’s all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams.

Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they’ll show you—for free–exactly the portfolio they’d put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Or, as I would, you can set it and forget it.  Well worth a few minutes: wealthfront.com/tim.

This podcast is brought to you by Athletic Greens. I get asked all the time, “if you could only use one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is, inevitably, Athletic Greens. It is my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body and did not get paid to do so. Get 50% off your order at Athletic Greens.com/Tim.

 

Direct download: Tim_Ferriss_Show_-_Naval_Ravikant_1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:36am EDT

#135: Luis Von Ahn on Learning Languages, Building Companies, and Changing the World

Luis von Ahn (@luisvonahn) is an entrepreneur and computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He is known for inventing CAPTCHAs, being a MacArthur Fellow ("genius grant" recipient), and selling two companies to Google in his 20's. Luis has been named one of the 10 Most Brilliant Scientists by Popular Science Magazine, one of the 50 Best Brains in Science by Discover, one of the Top Young Innovators Under 35 by MIT Technology Review, and one of the 100 Most Innovative People in Business by FastCompany Magazine.

Luis is currently the co-founder and CEO of Duolingo, a language learning platform created to bring free language education to the world. With more than 100 million users, it is the most popular way to learn languages in the world, and it is the most downloaded app in the Education category on both iTunes (5-star average, 3,300+ reviews) and Google Play.

I first met Luis as an early investor in Duolingo, and every time I meet him, I learn something new.

In this conversation, we talk about:

  • What 2-3 books and resources he'd recommend to entrepreneurs
  • Language learning tips
  • The clever way he caught cheating students at Carnegie Mellon
  • Early mentors and key lessons learned
  • The story of building and selling reCAPTCHA
  • How to recruit and vet technical talent
  • Duolingo's most surprising sources of users, and much more...

Enjoy!

Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast.

This podcast is brought to you by 99Designs, the world's largest marketplace of graphic designers. I have used them for years to create some amazing designs. When your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99Designs.

I used them to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body, and I've also had them help with display advertising and illustrations. If you want a more personalized approach, I recommend their 1-on-1 service. You get original designs from designers around the world. The best part? You provide your feedback, and then you end up with a product that you're happy with or your money back. Click this link and get a free $99 upgrade. Give it a test run.

This episode is also brought to you by Headspace, the world’s most popular meditation app (more than 4,000,000 users).  It’s used in more than 150 countries, and many of my closest friends swear by it.  Try Headspace’s free Take10 program —  10 minutes of guided meditation a day for 10 days. It’s like a warm bath for your mind. Meditation doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive, and it’s had a huge impact on my life. Try Headspace for free for a few days and see what I mean.

Direct download: Tim_Ferriss_Show_-_Luis_von_Ahn.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:39pm EDT

#134: The Tao of Seneca

This is a special episode that is the result of more than 10 years of dreaming. For years, I've been studying Stoicism, but I've always had a particular interest in The Tao of Seneca. What is the Tao of Seneca? There's a collection of letters called, "The Moral Letters to Lucilius." And I have read this entire collection of letters and other letters of Seneca, the author, probably more than 100 times. It has been my constant companion for at least the last 10 years. And I have given various forms of these letters to more friends than I can even count and several hundred acquaintances -- I feel that strongly about it. So when people ask me about my favorite book, I say this collection of letters.

The problem has been there is no good audio edition. So I, for many months now, have made this my passion project to create The Tao of Seneca: Practical Letters from a Stoic Master. Three volumes, and it covers them all. Here's the description:

The Tao of Seneca is an introduction to the stoic philosophy through the words of Seneca. Thought leaders in Silicon Valley tout the benefits of stoicism, and NFL management (coaches and players, alike) have embraced it because the principles make them better competitors.

This episode features letter #13, "On Groundless Fears." Stoicism is a no-nonsense philosophical system designed to produce dramatic real-world effects. Think of it as an ideal operating system for thriving in high-stress environments. This is your guide.

Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast.


This podcast is brought to you by Athletic Greens. I get asked all the time, “if you could only use one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is, inevitably, Athletic Greens. It is my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body and did not get paid to do so. Get 50% off your order at Athletic Greens.com/Tim.

This podcast is also brought to you by 99Designs, the world's largest marketplace of graphic designers. I have used them for years to create some amazing designs. When your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99Designs.

I used them to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body, and I've also had them help with display advertising and illustrations. If you want a more personalized approach, I recommend their 1-on-1 service. You get original designs from designers around the world. The best part? You provide your feedback, and then you end up with a product that you're happy with or your money back. Click this link and get a free $99 upgrade. Give it a test run.

Direct download: Seneca_EP_FINAL.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:31am EDT

This episode, I sit down with Edward Norton (@EdwardNorton). Edward is an actor, filmmaker and activist. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards for his work in Primal Fear, American History X, and Birdman. He has starred in scores of other films, including Fight Club, The Illusionist, and Moonrise Kingdom.

Unbeknownst to most people, Edward is also a serial startup founder (e.g. CrowdRise; here’s my current campaign), a UN ambassador for biodiversity, a massively successful investor (e.g. early Uber), a pilot, and deeply involved with wilderness conservation.

In this conversation, we cover a lot of ground, including:

  • His beginnings in acting, and what early mentors taught him
  • What separates great actors from mediocre actors, as illustrated through an early Marlon Brando story 
  • Edward’s physical preparation for American History X (and camera trickery)
  • The importance of surfing
  • His favorite books, documentaries, underrated films and filmmakers, and essays (The Catastrophe of Success, etc.)
  • His advice to his 20- and 30-year old self
  • And much more...

And here’s a bonus, another favorite book he remembered after we stopped recording: Buddhism Without Beliefs.

Enjoy!

This podcast is brought to you by 99Designs, the world's largest marketplace of graphic designers. I have used them for years to create some amazing designs. When your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99Designs.

I used them to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body, and I've also had them help with display advertising and illustrations. If you want a more personalized approach, I recommend their 1-on-1 service. You get original designs from designers around the world. The best part? You provide your feedback, and then you end up with a product that you're happy with or your money back. Click this link and get a free $99 upgrade. Give it a test run.

This podcast is also brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple and world-famous investors. It has exploded in popularity in the last 2 years and now has more than $2.5B under management. In fact, some of my good investor friends in Silicon Valley have millions of their own money in Wealthfront. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it’s all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams.

Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they’ll show you—for free–exactly the portfolio they’d put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Or, as I would, you can set it and forget it.  Well worth a few minutes: wealthfront.com/tim.

 

Direct download: Tim_Ferriss_Show_-_Edward_Norton.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:36pm EDT

#132: Chris Sacca on Shark Tank, Building Your Business, and Startup Mistakes

Sometimes one interview just isn't enough. That was certainly the case with my good friend, Chris Sacca. Chris (who I interviewed before) was recently the cover story of the Midas Issue of Forbes magazine. He was on the cover because he's a newly minted billionaire and the proprietor of what will likely be the most successful venture capital fund in history: LOWERCASE Capital.

He's an early-stage investor in companies like Twitter, Uber, Instagram, Kickstarter, and many more.

Also, he wears cowboy shirts, has a great beard, and is hilarious, which is reason enough to bring him back for more. In this episode, he answers all of your most pressing questions based on your votes and feedback.s You'll find some fantastic responses, ranging from life advice to business recommendations and everything in between.

Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast.

This episode is brought to you by Foodist Kitchen. Sometimes the most life-changing habits are the ones we put off, and learning to cook is at the top of that list. I only finally took the plunge when writing The 4-Hour Chef, and it turned my eating and my life into high definition. Foodist Kitchen is a 30-day program that teaches you how to cook without recipes, and I highly recommend it. Chopping and sautéing are just a small part of the whole deal -- you also need to know what flavors taste good together and what it means to cook until done.

Foodist Kitchen brings all these skills together so you can walk into the kitchen, open the fridge, and have an intuitive sense of what to cook and how to do it. It was created by Darya Rose, who's a friend of mine and one of my cooking mentors for The 4-Hour Chef. She has offered a $15 discount off your membership, so check out FoodistKitchen.com/Tim to learn more about the program.

This episode is also brought to you by Exo Protein. These guys are making protein bars using cricket protein powder. Before you screw your face up and look disgusted, I bet they taste better than any protein bar you've ever had before! With recipes that were developed by a three-Michelin-starred chef, the bars are paleo-friendly, with no gluten, no grains, no soy, no dairy, etc., and they won't pop up your glycemic response. In fact, they're less processed than any other protein bars you'll be able to find.

Exo Protein is offering a deep discount to Tim Ferriss Show listeners -- if you go to ExoProtein.com/Tim today, you can try a sampler pack with all of the most popular flavors for less than $10. This is a startup with limited inventory that sells out all the time, so act fast!

Direct download: Chris_Sacca_Pt_2_FINAL.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:37am EDT

#131: Eric Weinstein on Challenging “Reality,” Working with Peter Thiel, and Destroying Education to Save It

My guest this episode is my friend, Eric Weinstein (@ericrweinstein), managing director of Thiel Capital, a Ph.D in mathematical physics from Harvard, and a research fellow at the Mathematical Institute of Oxford University. We recorded at my house after Eric emailed me this question: "Wanna try a podcast on… psychedelics, theories of everything, and the need to destroy education in order to save it?"

He’s brilliant and hilarious. If you enjoyed my podcasts with Derek Sivers or Sam Harris, you’ll love this one.

We cover a lot of ground, including:

  • Living from first principles rather than the “consensus reality"
  • The genius of Kung Fu Panda
  • What it’s like working with Peter Thiel, and how Peter hired him
  • How to innovate when you risk being crucified by close-minded communities (and experts)
  • His favorite books
  • Why one of his favorite documentaries is about pornographers
  • And much more...

Also, be sure to check this out. Here is the Johns Hopkins psychedelic research I'm backing. Check out the supporters from tech and business.

Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast.

This podcast is brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple and world-famous investors. It has exploded in popularity in the last 2 years and now has more than $2.5B under management. In fact, some of my good investor friends in Silicon Valley have millions of their own money in Wealthfront. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it’s all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams.

Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they’ll show you—for free–exactly the portfolio they’d put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Or, as I would, you can set it and forget it.  Well worth a few minutes: wealthfront.com/tim.

This podcast is also brought to you by 99Designs, the worldís largest marketplace of graphic designers. I have used them for years to create some amazing designs. When your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99Designs.

I used them to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body, and I've also had them help with display advertising and illustrations. If you want a more personalized approach, I recommend their 1-on-1 service, which is non-spec. You get original designs from designers around the world. The best part? You provide your feedback, and then you end up with a product that you're happy with or your money back. Click this link and get a free $99 upgrade. Give it a test run.

 

Direct download: Tim_Ferriss_Show_-_Eric_Weinstein.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:31am EDT

#130: Daymond John and How to Turn Weaknesses into Strengths

Usually, it's my job to deconstruct world-class performers. This time around, the tables are turned. Many of you have wanted to hear me interviewed, so this week Daymond John (@thesharkdaymond), star of ABC's Shark Tank and the CEO and founder of FUBU, is in charge and asking the questions. Daymond has a new book called The Power of Broke, and he is an expert interviewer and interrogator. In this episode, you'll learn untold stories about my beginnings and the advantages that exist when you think you're at a disadvantage. If you've ever felt like a beginner in business or find your back against a wall, you will learn how to take your situation or a lack of resources and turn it into a strength.

Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast.

This podcast is brought to you by Audible. I have used Audible for years and I love audio books. I have 2 to recommend:

  1. The Graveyard Book by Niel Gaiman
  2. Vagabonding by Rolf Potts

All you need to do to get your free audiobook and a free 30-day trial is go to Audible.com/tim. Choose one of the above books, or choose between more than 180,000 audio programs. That could be a book, a newspaper, a magazine or even a class. It's that easy. Go to Audible.com/Tim and get started today. Enjoy!

This podcast is brought to you by TrunkClub. I hate shopping with a passion. And honestly I'm not good at it, which means I end up looking like I'm colorblind or homeless. Enter TrunkClub, which provides you with your own personal stylist and makes it easier than ever to shop for clothes that look great on your body. Just go to trunkclub.com/tim and answer a few questions, and then you'll be sent a trunk full of awesome clothes. They base this on your sizes, preferences, etc. The trunk is then delivered free of charge both ways, so you only pay for clothes that you keep. If you keep none, it costs you nothing. To get started, check it out at trunkclub.com/tim.

Direct download: Tim_Ferriss_Show_-_Daymond_John.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:15pm EDT

This episode is ~99% serious recommendations and resolutions for 2016.  

But I am joined by tech entrepreneur and investor, Kevin Rose, so it's at least 1% shenanigans.

The conversation is also a new experiment for The Random ShowO-tanoshimi dane!

For all previous episodes of The Random Show, including the infamous China Scam episode, click here.

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This episode is brought to you by Headspace, the world's most popular meditation app (More than 4,000,000 users).  It's used in more than 150 countries, and many of my closest friends swear by it.  Try Headspace's free Take10 program --  10 minutes of guided meditation a day for 10 days. It's like a warm bath for your mind. Meditation doesn't need to be complicated or expensive, and it's had a huge impact on my life. Try Headspace for free for a few days and see what I mean.

This podcast is also brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple and world-famous investors. It has exploded in popularity in the last 2 years and now has more than $2.5B under management. In fact, some of my good investor friends in Silicon Valley have millions of their own money in Wealthfront. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it’s all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams.

Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they’ll show you—for free–exactly the portfolio they’d put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Or, as I would, you can set it and forget it.  Well worth a few minutes: wealthfront.com/tim.

Direct download: TFS_2016_Recommendations_and_Resolutions_Random_Show.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:25pm EDT

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