AI-powered
podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
The Tim Ferriss Show
#756: Anne Lamott and Josh Waitzkin
Jul 19, 2024
Authors Anne Lamott and chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin share insights on taming inner critics, finding grace, and embracing unique strengths. Topics include radical self-care, spirituality, mindfulness, training mental performers, and balancing training and presence in parenting and martial arts.
02:17:52
Episode guests
AI Summary
Highlights
AI Chapters
Episode notes
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
- Embrace uniqueness to enable authentic self-expression and excellence in any field.
- Cultivate intense learning from personal and others' experiences to deepen understanding.
- Scarcity principle sharpens focus, prioritization, and quality in habit formation and creativity.
- Excellence requires acute intuition for optimal decisions in high-stakes situations.
- Periodic reflection and routine questioning enhance creativity and direction in pursuing potent ideas.
- Thematic interconnectedness in education fosters holistic understanding and systemic creativity among students.
Deep dives
Helix Sleep Mattresses Tailored to Preferences
Helix Sleep provides 14 unique mattresses tailored to individual sleep preferences including memory foam layers for side sleepers and models with responsive foam for stomach and back sleepers. The Helix Sleep Quiz helps find the best mattress fit with a 100-night risk-free trial and 10 to 15-year warranties on American-made mattresses.
Helix Elite Collection for Specific Sleep Positions
Helix's newest Elite Collection offers six mattress models with extra foam layers and micro-coils tailored for various sleep positions and firmness preferences. Each Elite mattress includes a 15-year warranty and a 100-night trial. Listeners can get 25-30% off and two free pillows on all mattress orders at helixsleep.com/tim.
Shopify's Commerce Platform Revolutionizing Businesses Worldwide
Shopify, a leading commerce platform, empowers businesses of all sizes globally. Starting as a solution for Tim Ferriss's e-commerce business, Shopify now offers tools for entrepreneurs to start, run, and grow businesses seamlessly across multiple sales channels. Shopify provides the best converting checkout and expert support for success.
Celebration of Podcast Milestones and Favorites
To mark the podcast's 10th anniversary and 1 billion downloads, Tim Ferriss curated a special episode featuring some of his favorite guests and moments over the past decade. Encouraging listeners to enjoy both well-known and lesser-known guests who have impacted his life, the episode highlights transformative stories and insights.
Cultivating a Core Meditation Practice
It is essential to establish a core meditation practice in conducive environments before progressing to chaotic settings. Daily meditation, practiced during peaceful moments like early mornings or evenings, lays a foundation for focused attention. This initial training sets the stage for later applying meditation techniques in turbulent situations, nurturing resilience and focus.
Embracing Individuality and Funk
Encouraging individuals to embrace their uniqueness and eccentricities leads to authentic self-expression. Understanding the entanglement of brilliance and eccentricity is crucial for those striving for excellence in any field. Crafting training programs and lifestyles that resonate with an individual's core promotes unobstructed self-expression, rather than conforming to a standard mold.
Learning from Others' Experiences
Harnessing the ability to learn intensely from the experiences of others, as much as from personal experiences, is a powerful skill to cultivate. Visualizing scenarios or narratives with great intensity enables individuals to derive deep insights and physiological responses comparable to firsthand encounters. This approach aids in developing a profound understanding and wisdom through empathetic learning.
Applying the Principle of Scarcity in Growth
The principle of scarcity emphasizes the importance of focusing on essential elements in habit formation, learning, and creativity. Sparing resources and attention for crucial aspects yields more potent results. A disciplined application of scarcity sharpens focus, encourages prioritization, and sustains quality in growth processes.
Navigating the Razor's Edge of Optimal Decision Making
Achieving excellence involves treading the fine line between optimal decisions and potential blunders. Thriving in high-stakes situations demands acute intuition and the ability to make finely tuned judgments. Staying attuned to essential details, maintaining focus on core principles, and embodying excellence enable effective navigation of critical decision-making junctures.
Maximizing Creativity and Learning Potency
Optimizing creativity involves surfacing periodically to reflect on the most potent directions to pursue instead of consistently grinding. Applying routines like posing important questions to the unconscious mind at the end of the workday and brainstorming in the morning enhances creative focus and direction. The importance of framing internal versus external thoughts, such as stopping mid-sentence to provide a foothold for continuing work the next day, promotes a sense of direction over continuous activity, fostering sustainable creativity.
Thematic Interconnectedness in Education
Promoting thematic interconnectedness in education encourages students to explore how principles manifest across various subject matters and disciplines simultaneously. By integrating a single learning principle into diverse subjects, students dismantle the boundaries between different fields, fostering a holistic understanding of concepts. Addressing the segregation of disciplines and promoting collaborative learning among teachers across different subjects can nurture a systemic approach to creativity and learning, encouraging students to discover connections and synergies across diverse areas.
This episode is a two-for-one, and that’s because the podcast recently hit its 10-year anniversary and passed one billion downloads. To celebrate, I’ve curated some of the best of the best—some of my favorites—from more than 700 episodes over the last decade. I could not be more excited. The episode features segments from episode #522 "Anne Lamott on Taming Your Inner Critic, Finding Grace, and Prayer" and #148: "Josh Waitzkin, The Prodigy Returns."
Please enjoy!
Sponsors:
Momentous high-quality supplements: https://livemomentous.com/tim (code TIM for 20% off)
Helix Sleep premium mattresses: https://HelixSleep.com/Tim (25–30% off all mattress orders and two free pillows)
Shopify global commerce platform, providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business: https://shopify.com/tim (one-dollar-per-month trial period)
Timestamps:
[00:00] Start
[04:49] Notes about this supercombo format.
[05:51] Enter Anne Lamott.
[06:21] What is it about Bird by Bird that has affected so many people so deeply?
[07:18] Where the title of Bird by Bird originated.
[09:40] How Neal Allen helps people tame (but not discard) their inner critic.
[10:45] Who controls the dial when you're tuned in to KFKD radio?
[11:51] How Anne recommends I pursue my fiction writing aspirations.
[12:37] The pros and cons of Anne's upbringing.
[19:08] What does being "spiritually fit" mean to Anne?
[24:40] How radical self-care became an imperative for Anne.
[32:25] The dark night that turned Anne's son Sam's life around.
[38:10] Enter Josh Waitzkin.
[38:43] On Dreaming Yourself Awake by B. Alan Wallace and Brian Hodel.
[39:58] Casual exercise.
[40:52] Josh's terrifying experience with the Wim Hof method.
[45:52] How Josh uses "flow" as therapy.
[48:19] Initiating a flow state.
[50:45] Cognitive biases and armchair professors.
[55:07] Developing high-level sensitivity and listening to your senses.
[57:53] Strategies for on-boarding newcomers to mindfulness training.
[1:02:40] Paddlesurfers in peril.
[1:03:36] Embracing the funk.
[1:06:03] On parenting.
[1:15:07] Fixed perspectives and growth mindsets.
[1:17:34] On training somatic sensitivity.
[1:22:06] On mitigating the dangers of a fixed identity.
[1:24:32] Marcelo Garcia and the principle of cultivating quality as a way of life.
[1:30:19] Quality and presence in parenthood.
[1:33:42] The fire-walking process.
[1:40:11] Translating techniques learned from martial arts to less obvious activities (like investing).
[1:42:19] Building slack into the system.
[1:46:17] Scarcity in the learning process.
[1:54:27] Josh's daily journaling process.
[1:56:25] Thematic interconnectedness in the context of education.
[2:04:08] The Art of Learning Project.
[2:05:59] Parting thoughts.
*
For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.
For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsors
Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday.
For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.
Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.
Follow Tim:
Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss
Instagram: instagram.com/timferriss
YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss
Facebook: facebook.com/timferriss
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferriss
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, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Get the Snipd
podcast app
Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
AI-powered
Discover
highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode
Save any
moment
Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways
Share
& Export
Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more
AI-powered
podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover
highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode