The Tim Ferriss Show

"Most of us should spend less time on most decisions and we should spend a lot more time on a few key decisions." — Ramit Sethi Ramit Sethi (@ramit), author of the New York Times bestseller I Will Teach You To Be Rich, has become a financial guru to millions of readers in their twenties, thirties, and forties. He started his website, iwillteachyoutoberich.com, as a Stanford undergraduate in 2004, and he now hosts over a million readers per month on his blog, newsletter, and social media...

This episode originally aired in 2015. You can find the show notes of the episode here. “To me, ‘busy’ implies that the person is out of control of their life.” – Derek Sivers Derek Sivers (@sivers) is one of my favorite humans, and I call him often for advice. Think of him as a philosopher-king programmer, master teacher, and merry prankster. Originally a professional musician and circus clown, Derek created CD Baby in 1998...

"A true creator knows that you follow the thing to where it's going, not to where you think it ought to go."— Adam Savage Adam Savage (Twitter: @donttrythis Instagram: @therealadamsavage Facebook: therealadamsavage) has spent his life gathering skills that allow him to take what's in his brain and make it real. He's built everything from ancient Buddhas and futuristic weapons to fine-art sculptures and dancing vegetables...

“I think a big part of knowing that you’re right is working as hard as you can to prove that you’re wrong. And if you can’t, well, there’s only one option left, which is: you’re probably right.” — Kevin Systrom Kevin Systrom (@kevin) is an entrepreneur and the co-founder (with Mike Krieger) of Instagram. While at Instagram, Kevin served as the CEO, where he oversaw the company’s vision and strategy and daily operations...

"I'm just so fundamentally optimistic, and I barrel forth in life with this attitude that everything is going to be absolutely fine and go my way." — Amanda Palmer Amanda Palmer (@amandapalmer) is a singer, songwriter, playwright, pianist, author, director, blogger, and ukulele enthusiast who simultaneously embraces and explodes traditional frameworks of music, theatre, and art...

"You can systematize innovation even if you can't completely predict it." — Eric Schmidt Eric Schmidt (@ericschmidt) is Technical Advisor and Board Member to Alphabet Inc., where he advises its leaders on technology, business and policy issues. Eric joined Google in 2001 and helped grow the company from a Silicon Valley startup to a global leader in technology...

“The biggest problem we run into is going, ‘This is who I am, this is what I’m like, this is how I function’ while failing to notice that you don’t do that anymore.” — Neil Gaiman Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) is the bestselling author and creator of books, graphic novels, short stories, film and television for all ages, including Neverwhere, Coraline, The Graveyard Book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, The View from the Cheap Seats and the Sandman series of graphic novels...

"An overactive ego is a tyrant." - Michael Pollan Michael Pollan (@michaelpollan) is the author of seven previous books, including Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire, all of which were New York Times bestsellers. A longtime contributor to The New York Times Magazine, he also teaches writing at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley where he is the John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Science Journalism...

“All these things you’re sure are true — what if they weren’t?” — Safi Bahcall Safi Bahcall (@SafiBahcall) is the author of Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas that Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries. Loonshots describes what an idea from physics tells us about the behavior of groups and how teams, companies, and nations can use that to innovate faster and better. It has been selected for The Washington Post‘s 10 Leadership Books to Watch for in 2019, Inc...

Welcome to a special episode called Tea Time with Tim, in which I solicited phone numbers and called a handful of you to field any questions that you might have. Among other topics, we discuss:How to go about finding a mentor.The meaning of life.How to extinguish anxiety.Cocktails.Relationship advice.Training into confidence.Without further ado, please enjoy this tea-fueled Q&A! This podcast is brought to you by Peloton, which has become a staple of my daily routine...