Book Notes: Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss

16 min readAug 20, 2017

This is the first 700+ page book I’ve ever read. It’s been a great read. That being said, Ferriss has this way of speaking of his interviewees as more than they are; he speaks of them so reverentially that it might put some readers off. It didn’t bother me, however. I filter the sales-pitch-like talk when it shows up a few times. Regardless, there is gold in this book. If read correctly, applied properly and internalized thoroughly the lessons in this book will change your life.

As Ferriss mentions, this book is essentially a distilled version of all the conversations with his podcasts guests. It contains the key lessons, quotes, books suggestions, etc. that he’s noted down in his book of notes. So the following is my notes of his notes. My notes are split the same way the book is split — into Healthy, Wealthy and Wise.

Healthy

Amelia Boone:

She’s found that Sauna improves her endurance
Rehearses worst case scenario to become more resilient
A lot of his guests seems to have this trait. They ponder on the numerous ways things can go wrong, that when they re-base themselves in reality, they’re much stronger.

Dr. Rhonda Patrick:

Hot and Cold treatment has numerous health benefits.

Christopher Summer:

“‘Flexibility’ can be passive, whereas ‘mobility’ requires that you can demonstrate strength throughout the entire range of motion, including the end rangers.”

Jason Nemer:

“In yoga, there’s this philosophy, svaha, I call it ‘F*ck it, let go’…”
“If I had to prescribe two things to improve health and happiness in the world, it’d be movement and play.”

Peter Attia:

“Going 16 hours without eating generally provides the right balance of autophagy (recycling or cellular components) and anabolism (muscle building).”

Charles Poliquin:

“A good strength coach should get a female, no matter what her body fat is, to be able to do 12 chin-ups in 12 weeks.”
Use herb called “Gotu Kola” to get rid of scar tissue and stretch marks.
“Magnesium is probably one of the best anti-aging material.”
Go-to recipe before sleep: glutamine and physician-prescribed probiotics (vary the brands) before bed.
TF (Tim Ferriss) takes NAC (N-acetyl cysteine) before bed to reduce glucose levels, and lower anxiety the next day.
Mobility in the ankle is what decreases the probability if any lower extremity injuries. If you do static stretching of the calves, and you don’t finish with a contraction, you’re more likely to get an injury.

Pavel Tsatsouline:

“Halos and Cosssak Squats are one of the most brief and high-return warmups.”
“Strength is the mother quality of all physical abilities.”
“Lift heavy, not hard.”
“Anything more than 5 reps is bodybuilding”
“Training is something that should be enjoyed — If you’re training for maximal strength, you should feel better after your workout than you did when you walked in. There is a huge neural component.”
“If you want to master pull-ups, you need to develop your hollow position.”

Gabby Reece:

Go first: Say hello first, smile first…
Tim’s observation of Gabby and Laird as a couple — There is always a lot of physical touch and the pervasive feeling is one of warmth.
“If the woman can refrain from trying to change or mother her partner, she has a greater opportunity of putting herself in a position where the guy will respect her.”
Advice for your 30-year old self: “Not to take anything personally, but also don’t hold yourself back.”
Laird’s advice to his 30-year old self — “exercise compassion everyday”.

James Fadiman:

The word psychedelic (Greek for mind-revealing) is generally used to refer to compounds that can reliably separate you from your ego and occasion mystical or transcendental experiences.

Martin Polanca & Dan Engle:

When talking about Ayahuasca — you go through deep psychological healing, oftentimes pre-verbal healing around traumatic issues that [occurred] between birth and age 4. From a development psychological perspective, this is when most of the long-term personality traits are formed.

Kelly Starrett:

Best way to judge whether you’ve slept well (for men) — When you wake up, do you or do you not have a boner? If no boner, we have an issue.
Sleep hygiene — you need to sleep in pitch darkness, no light whatsoever.
After lying in on your mattress for 5 minutes, if you feel the need to cross your feet, then your bed is too hard.
Use Vans, Chuck Taylors or other similar zero-drop shoes. If not you will systematically shorten your heel cords (Achilles) with bad shoes.

Jane McGonigal:

Something she believes in that other people think is crazy — “You should never publicly criticize anyone or anything unless it is a matter of morals or ethics.” (pg. 134) This is an interesting take on criticism.

Adam Gazzaley:

Humans don’t only just use 10% of their brains. “The most complex structure in the entire universe doesn’t have just a vacant parking lot waiting for someone to drive in and start building. It’s all used all the time, and in complex ways that we don’t always understand.”

Coach Sommer:

The following are quotes from his letter to Tim, regarding Tim’s frustration on not getting results.

“…this impatience in dealing with frustration is the primary reason that most people fail to achieve their goals. Unreasonable expectations timewise, resulting in unnecessary frustration, due to a perceived feeling of failure. Achieving the extraordinary is not a linear process.”
“Learn to enjoy and appreciate the process. This is especially important because you are going to spend far more time on the actual journey than with those all too brief moments of triumph at the end.”
“The single decision is one of the most powerful tools in the toolbox.”

Things I Need To Try — From Healthy Section

Gymnast strong warmup — (pg. 14)
Dips with RTO — (pg. 16)
Hinge rows — (pg. 16)
Wim Hof’s breathing exercise — (pg. 42)
Wim Hof’s cold exposure — increases fat loss, improves immune function and elevates mood
Amelia Boone’s breathing ladder with burpees as a warmup — (pg. 89)
Laird Hamilton’s post workout drink — (pg. 94)
Flotation tank , try 2 to 3 times — (pg. 110)
Sleeping with no lights whatsoever — (pg. 126)
Honey + ACV (Apple Cider Vinegar) — 2 tbsp of ACV, 1 tsp of honey stirred into 1 cup of hot water before bedtime
To incorporate into morning rituals — 5 to 10 reps of something (<1 min)
30 to 60 seconds of cold shower at the end of the shower — This is something that I’ve incorporated into my routine and have actually grown to enjoy.
To add in tea — turmeric and ginger shavings
Morning pages or a morning 5 minute Journal
Take one deep breath a day — a 15 to 20 minute meditation can get overwhelming and burdensome for some people. Sometimes just trying one mindful breath whenever you can is very helpful. I have been trying this lately and I think it’s been helping.
Chade-Meng Tan’s “Just Note Gone” exercise (pg. 156)
Chade-Meng Tan’s “Wishing for random people to be happy” exercise (pg. 158)
Aromatherapy diffuser with germanium oil (pg. 209) — relaxes you.
Morning shake — frozen banana, hemp powder, almond milk, dried plum, walnuts in a blender. (pg. 241)
Recipe for oatmeal vodka (pg. 245)

Wealthy

Marc Andreessen:

Marc talks about how to not overestimate the people on pedestals (pg. 174). This relates to something Chamath Palihapitiya’s mentions in an interview where he talks about how when we write about people in retrospect, we always tend to over exaggerate the characteristics of the “successful” people.
“Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call ‘life’ was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”
This is very true. But somehow I have not been able to internalize this. It’s probably due to the inherent human nature of over-complicating success.
When talking about Warren Buffet’s investments — “Basically he’s betting against change. We’re betting for change.”

Derek Sivers (pg. 185):

“If more information was the answer, then we’d all be billionaires with perfect abs.” This is a constant reminder that my book notes is all well and good, but it won’t bear any fruit if it’s not put into action.
Derek, just like me now, has been writing book notes for many years. Considering that his friends didn’t have the patience to read all the books that he has read, they asked him to give him the TLDR. So Derek came up with a list of directives that he has distilled from all the books he has read.
Some of the directives:
- “How to thrive in an unknowable future? Choose the plan with the most options. The best plan is the one that lets you change your plans.
- Be expensive
- Expect Disaster
- Own as little as possible
“Don’t be a Donkey” — one of the best lessons from Derrick (pg.187). Buridan’s Ass Fable — A story about how a “donkey stood halfway between a pile of hay and a bucket of water. He just keeps looking left to the hay, and right to the water, trying to decide. Hay or water, hay or water? He’s unable to decide, so he eventually falls over and dies of both hunger and thirst. A donkey can’t think of the future. If he did, he’d realize he could clearly go first to drink the water, then go eat the hay. Don’t be a donkey. You can do everything you want to do. You just need foresight and patience.”
If it’s not a “f*ck yeah!” it’s a “no”. Since most of us say yes to too much stuff and then eventually end up getting worn out and don’t have time to do the things that we really want to do.
If you keep saying you’re busy, this means you don’t have your life in control. This is something I’ve thought about quite a bit. Sometimes we use “I’m really busy” as a social indicator to show that we are “busy” creating something of value. When the truth is if we had out sh*t together, and we are doing things that we want to do in life, we wouldn’t be “busy”.
Some things he believes that other people think is crazy:
Move to a new country every 6 months for the rest of your life.
Music and people don’t mix. Music should be appreciated alone without seeing or knowing who the musicians are.

Seth Godin:

The two most important things to teach kids: 1) how to lead and 2) how to solve interesting problems.
“The way you teach kids to solve interesting problems is to give them interesting problems to solve. And then, don’t criticize them when they fail. Because kids aren’t stupid. If they get in trouble every time they try to solve an interesting problem, they’ll just go back to getting an A by memorizing what’s in the textbook.”

Law of Category:

“If you can’t be first in a category, set up a category you can be first in.”
“Forget the brand. Think categories.”
“Everyone is interested in what’s new. Few people are interested in what’s better”

Things I Need To Try — From Wealthy Section

Overnight task — Reid Hoffman writes down a problem in his notebook right before bed. One that’s been bothering him and uses that before bed so that his mind can work on it overnight. Studies have shown him how much more powerful the subconscious mind is in processing large amounts of data compared to the conscious mind.
Scott Adam’s affirmations (pg. 266)
Star gazing as therapy (pg. 401)
Cheryl Strayed’s longhand writing prompts (pg. 516)
Jar of Awesome (pg. 570)

Wise

Maria Papova:

“Guilt is interesting because guilt is the flip side of prestige, and they’re both horrible reasons to do things.”
“Ours is a culture where we wear our ability to get by on very little sleep as a kind of badge of honor that symbolizes work ethic, or toughness, or some other virtue — but really, it’s a total profound failure of priorities and of self-respect.”
We hear and read so much rhetoric on how “sleep is for losers” or “if you’re sleeping more than a certain number of hours, you’re wasting time”. Over the course of the past few years, I’ve realized how wrong this outlook on sleep is.
Worst advice she has heard — “follow your dreams”.

Will MacAskill:

Will has summarized some key metrics by which to measure job satisfaction: “…whether the job provides a lot variety, gives you good feedback, allows you to exercise autonomy, contributes to the wider world — Is it meaningful? Is it making the world better? — and also, whether it allows you to exercise a skill that you’ve developed.”

Alain De Botton:

His whole chapter is a must-read.

Lazy: A Manifesto:

This is one of the best sections of the book.
The whole chapter is worth reading, but I’ll highlight one quote: “ I’m not suggesting everyone quit their jobs — just maybe take the rest of the day off. Go play some skee-ball. F*ck in the middle of the afternoon. Take your daughter to a matinee. My role in life is to be a bad influence, the kid standing outside the classroom window making faces at you at your desk, urging you just this once to make some excuse and get out there, come outside and play.”

Naval Ravikant:

Listen to his podcast. I’ve listened to it more than a handful of times. He is one of the best podcast guests that’s ever been on TF’s show.
From Naval’s Laws:
- Anger is hot coal that you hold in your hand while waiting to throw it at someone else.
- Reading (learning) is the ultimate meta-skill and can be traded for anything else.
- All the real benefits in life come from compound interest.
- Love is given not received.
The best quote from Naval (it’s a long one):
“If you study even the smallest bit of science, you will realize that, for all practical purposes, we are nothing. We’re basically monkeys on a small rock orbiting a small, backwards star in a huge galaxy, which is in an absolutely staggeringly gigantic universe, which itself maybe part of a gigantic multiverse. This universe has been around for probably 10 billion years or more, and will be around for tens of billion years afterwards. So your existence, my existence, is just infinitesimal. It is like a firefly blinking once in the night. Nothing that we do lasts. Eventually you will fade, your works will fade, your children will fade, your thoughts will fade, this planter will fade, the sun will fade… it will all be gone. If you don’t believe in an afterlife, then you [should realize] that this is such a short and precious life, it is really important that you don’t spend it being unhappy. There is no excuse for spending most of your life in misery.” (pg. 552)

Stephen Dubner:

Spotlight effect: We think that everybody must be caring about what we do. Truth is, nobody gives a crap what you do.

Bryan Johnson:

Challenge all assumptions — Monkey and bananas story on page 612.

Good by Jocko Willink: Good read.

Things I Need To Try — From Wise Section

Stan’s workout routine (pg. 437)
Death countdown clock — Memento mori (pg. 471)

Quotes I like:

“The worst thing you can ever do is think that you know enough. Never stop learning. Ever.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger (pg. x)

“You are forced to shed artificial constraints, like shedding a skin, to realize that you had the ability to renegotiate your reality all along. It just takes practice.” — TF (Tim Ferriss) (pg. xix)
Context: When talking about the constraints you place in your head to accomplish your goals in 10 years when you could try to accomplish them in the next 6 months.

“Questions are your pickaxes and your competitive advantage.” — TF (pg. xix)

“The variation is the consistency. As a software engineer might say, “That’s not a bug. It’s a feature!” Borrow liberally, combine uniquely, and create your own bespoke blueprint.” — TF (pg. xxi)
Context: When talking about not following the traditional path.

“The superheroes you have in your mind (idols, icons, titans, billionaires, etc.) are nearly all walking flaws who’ve maximized 1 or 2 strengths.” — TF (pg. xxiii)

“I agree with Tony Robbins that information without emotion isn’t retained.” — TF (pg. xxv)

“Tell people what you want, not what you don’t want, and keep it simple.” — TF (pg. 52)
Context: When talking about how to tell your partner in Acroyoga what you want. A lesson that can be applied to life. This reminds me of Tony Robbins’ lesson that he learned when drifting (cars) — when drifting, make sure to look where you want to go, and not where you don’t want to go.

“There is a big difference between understanding something (what you want in a physician) and simply knowing its name or labeling it.” — TF (pg. 73)

“If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you’re the asshole.” — Raylan Givens (Character in TV Show ‘Justified’) (pg. 95)

“As a woman, we’re taught as young girls, ‘Hey, be nice. Nice girls act like this,’ so it takes a long time to get to a place of ‘I’m going to do things, say things, and believe in things that people aren’t going to like, and I’m going to be okay with that.” — Gabby Reece (pg. 97)

“If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.” — Lao Tzu (pg. 104)

“Why would I be wound up? I’m either ready or I’m not. Worrying about it now ain’t gonna change a damn thing. Right? Whatever’s gonna happen is gonna happen. I’ve either done everything I can to be ready for this, or I haven’t.” — Floyd Mayweather (pg. 130)
Context: When Paul Levesque walked into Mayweather’s locker room, he found him lying on his couch watching a basketball game.

“My work isn’t done tonight. My work was done 3 months ago, and I just have to show up.” — Whitney Cummings (pg. 131)

“What am I continuing to do myself that I’m not good at? Improve it, eliminate it, or delegate it.” — TF (pg. 131)

“I’ve learned an important trick: To develop foresight, you need to practice hindsight.” — Jane McGonigal (pg. 133)

“The opposite of play isn’t work. It’s depression.” — Jane McGonigal (pg. 133)

“We do not rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training.” — Archilochus (pg. 149)

“The goal is not to “quiet the mind,” which will give your brain a hyperactive tantrum; the goal is to observe your thoughts.” — TF on meditation (pg. 152)

“Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy.” (Not my circus, not my monkey) Polish proverb (pg.163)
Meaning: It’s not my problem, it’s none of my business

“Whether you are raising money, pitching your product to customers, selling the company, or recruiting employees, never forget that underneath all the math and MBA bullshit talk, we are still emotionally driven human beings. We want to attach ourselves to narratives. We don’t act because of equations. We follow our beliefs. We get behind leaders who stir our feelings.” — Chris Sacca (pg. 168)
I think this is one of the best quotes in the book.

“Be your unapologetically weird self. Weirdness is why we adore our friends …” — Chris Sacca (pg. 169)

“In negotiation, he who cares the least wins.” — TF (pg. 179)

“We are what we pretend to be.” — Kurt Vonnegut (pg. 192)
Context: When things are going wrong in a certain situations, and you have no reason to be confident, just pretend. And eventually you will become what you pretend to be.

“Everyone is interesting. If you’re bored in a conversation, the problem’s with you, not the other person.” — Matt Mullenweg (pg. 202)

“I often find I just need to get over that initial hump with something that’s almost embarrassingly small as a goal, and then that can become a habit.” — Matt Mullenweg (pg. 205)

“Sometimes, you think you have to figure out your life’s purpose, but you really just need some macadamia nuts and a cold f*cking shower.” — Tony Robbins (pg. 213)

“Forget purpose. It’s okay to be happy without one. The quest for a single purpose has ruined many lives.” — James Altucher (pg. 249)

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” — Cus D’Amato, Mike Tyson’s trainer (pg. 253)

“Diversification works in almost every area of your life to reduce your stress.” — Scott Adams (pg. 268)

“If you want something extraordinary, you have 2 paths: 1) Become the best at one specific thing. 2) Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.” — Scott Adams (pg. 269)

“Specialization is for insects.” — Robert Heinlein (pg. 283)

“Amateurs built the Ark, professionals built the Titanic.” — Unknown (pg. 285)

“When you complain, nobody wants to help.” — Stephen Hawking (pg. 314)

“Money is a great servant but a horrible master.” — Adopted from Francis Bacon’s quote (pg. 324)

“Minutiae fit around the big things, but the big things don’t fit around the minutiae.” — TF (pg. 330)
Context: Do the big things/tasks first, the smaller goals will fit themselves around once the big goals are set in place.

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow! What a Ride!’” — Hunter S. Thompson (pg. 356)

“Money can always be regenerated. Time and reputation cannot.” — B.J. Novak (pg. 379)

“ The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” — Richard Feynman (pg. 391)

“He who suffers before it is necessary suffers more than is necessary.” — Seneca (pg. 398)

“Dig into your fears, and you’ll often find that the mental monsters are harmless scarecrows.” — TF (pg. 398)

“Don’t believe everything that you think.” — BJ Miller (pg. 401)

“To “fix” someone’s problem, you very often just need to emphatically listen to them.” — TF (pg. 405)

“Art and music and dance. Part of its poignancy is its purposelessness, and just delighting in a wacky fact of perhaps a meaningless universe and how remarkable that is.” — BJ Miller (pg. 405)

“ [Following your dreams] is impossible to do without self-knowledge, which takes years. You discover your ‘dream’ (or sense of purpose) in the very act of walking the path, which is guided by equal parts choice and chance.” — Maria Popova (pg. 411)

“On one level, wisdom is nothing more than the ability to take your own advice.” — Sam Harris (pg. 454)

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” — Anais Nin (pg. 462)

“Don’t only evaluate the potential downside of action. It is equally important to measure the atrocious cost of inaction.” — TF (pg. 469)

“Comedians become comedians so they can control why people laugh at them.” — Unknown (pg. 480)

“Happiness is wanting what you have.” — Bryan Callen (pg. 483)

“Honor those who seek the truth, beware of those who’ve found it.” Adapted from Voltaire. Amanda Palmer (pg. 522)

“Shame is ‘I am a bad person’. Guilt is ‘I did something bad’. Shame is a focus on self. Guilt is a focus on behavior.” Brene Brown (pg. 588)

“Be a skeptic, don’t be a cynic.” — TF’s mentor (pg. 591)

“What’s on the other side of fear? Nothing.” — Jamie Foxx (pg. 606)

“The notes are right underneath your fingers, baby. You just gotta take the time out to play the right notes. That’s life.” — Ray Charles (pg. 608)

“Life is not waiting for the storm to pass, its learning how to dance in the rain.” Adapted from Vivian Greene (pg. 611)

“They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.” — Mexican proverb (pg. 618)

“You must want to be a butterfly so badly, you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.” — Sekou Andrews (pg. 642)