Navigating Career Choices to Tackle Global Challenges

Q&A with Tim on Wealth and Money, Book Recommendations, Advice on Taking Advice, C.S. Lewis, Relationships, Behavior Change and Self-Awareness, Why We Are All (Mostly) Making It Up as We Go, and Much More | Brought to you by MANSCAPED premium grooming products, 80,000 Hours free career advice for high impact and doing good in the world, and Helix Sleep premium mattresses. 

Welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show, where it is usually my job to sit down with world-class performers of all different types to tease out the habits, routines, favorite books, and so on that you can apply and test in your own life. This time, we have a slightly different format, and I’m the guest. 

As some of you know, to celebrate the 15th anniversary of The 4-Hour Workweek, which was first published on April 24th, 2007 (4/24/07), I signed 424 copies of the book. As thousands of you threw your hat in the ring to win a signed copy, I wanted to do something special for all the entrants. So, I invited those folks to a private YouTube Q&A. This episode is the recording of that session. 

I answered many questions on a variety of topics, including startup investments, IFS therapy, my views on wealth and money, C.S. Lewis, lower-back pain, solitary time and its challenges, lessons from Kevin Kelly, books I’m currently reading, maintaining relationships, Japan travel tips, from whom to take advice (and how to evaluate advice), self-awareness, behavior change, my current alcohol consumption (or lack thereof), and much, much more.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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This episode is also brought to you by 80,000 Hours! You have roughly 80,000 hours in your career. That’s 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year for 40 years. They add up and are one of your biggest opportunities, if not the biggest opportunity, to make a positive impact on the world. Some of the best strategies, best research, and best tactical advice I’ve seen and heard come from 80,000 Hours, a nonprofit co-founded by Will MacAskill, an Oxford philosopher and a popular past guest on this podcast.

If you’re looking to make a big change to your direction, address pressing global problems from your current job, or if you’re just starting out or maybe starting a new chapter and not sure which path to pursue, 80,000 Hours can help. Join their free newsletter, and they’ll send you an in-depth guide for free that will help you identify which global problems are most pressing and where you can have the biggest impact personally. It will also help you get new ideas for high-impact careers or directions that help tackle these issues.

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[09:07] Do I still invest in startups?

[09:54] We’ve already got TED Talks. Why not Tim Talks?

[10:49] Have I considered moving out of the US?

[11:53] How do I mitigate risks in an increasingly contentious society?

[13:39] Which interview has had the greatest personal impact on me?

[15:38] Would I publish another volume of Tribe of Mentors or Tools of Titans?

[17:17] Have I ever explored the side of IFS that helps folks explore inherited trauma/energy?

[19:12] Did making more money make me happier?

[24:48] What do I consider to be a healthy view of money?

[26:21] Have any interviews been conducted but never published?

[32:03] What do I find compelling about C.S. Lewis?

[34:57] How do I get things done when I’m having a bad day?

[36:39] What does my meditation practice look like these days?

[37:57] Are Ivy League graduate schools worth the cost?

[39:49] Most valuable lesson from The Lion Tracker’s Guide?

[40:37] How do I handle overly political family and friends?

[41:24] Recommended essayists (aside from John McPhee)?

[42:00] Thoughts on Rudolph Steiner?

[42:14] Do I have a future as a fiction author?

[43:39] Best recent purchase of under $250?

[44:58] Recommendations for learning more about Japanese martial arts culture?

[46:01] Did I lose my razor?

[46:23] If I could only recommend one book right now, what would it be?

[46:44] Which one to three skills make acquiring more skills easier or irrelevant?

[50:16] Favorite childhood fairy tale or folk story?

[51:32] The ups and downs of learning German?

[54:58] When will the world get to smell Tim Ferriss Fragrance for Men?

[55:49] What role has downtime had on the severity of my depression?

[59:47] Recent reading that has influenced my thoughts about parenthood?

[1:04:16] Dream guests?

[1:06:57] Did I take a break from investing because of market losses?

[1:09:21] How do I feel about the bear market now?

[1:10:48] How is my self-compassion journey going?

[1:14:03] How do I manage my extensive network of relationships?

[1:19:22] Advice for 21-year-old Tim?

[1:19:42] Have any of the principles from The 4-Hour Workweek become obsolete?

[1:22:30] Three must-sees when visiting Japan?

[1:25:30] Most beautiful location visited?

[1:25:50] System for choosing a business focus?

[1:26:45] Strategies for coping with the sudden loss of a loved one?

[1:29:50] Reasons for moving from San Francisco to Austin?

[1:31:16] Do we rely too much on advice from people who don’t understand our lives?

[1:36:04] Is it possible to share a life with someone whose interests don’t match ours 100 percent?

[1:43:10] Self-discipline advice for ADHD folks who have already tried everything?

[1:45:09] How do we develop the resilience to deal with tough times ahead of their arrival?

[1:47:35] Things I’ve changed my mind about in the past year?

[1:51:35] Do I still observe a slow-carb diet?

[1:51:57] Advice for securing startup funding?

[1:55:10] Why did I stop asking my guests who they consider to be successful?

[1:58:32] Am I planning to run drunk dial shows again?

[1:59:09] Podcasting tips for introverts?

[2:00:35] A guest I could interview any day or every day?

[2:00:55] Which of my own books would I recommend to a Ferriss first-timer?

[2:01:23] Larry David?

[2:01:33] Am I still using Evernote?

[2:01:56] What would be on my billboard these days?

[2:03:28] Parting thoughts.

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For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.

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Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more.

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