The Tim Ferriss Show

#460: Maria Popova on Writing, Workflow, and Workarounds (Repost)

Sep 6, 2020

Maria Popova, the brilliant mind behind the blog Brain Pickings, dives deep into her creative process and the art of curating wisdom. She shares her struggles with authenticity versus mass appeal and the challenges of managing online engagement. Insightful discussions on productivity unveil the importance of sleep and mindfulness, while her unique note-taking philosophy sheds light on the complexities of knowledge synthesis. Maria also emphasizes the value of community and gratitude in pursuit of idealism, leaving listeners inspired and reflective.

01:43:13

Episode guests

Maria Popova

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Highlights

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Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Pursuing a meaningful life requires authenticity and resisting conformity to superficial trends.

Sleep is vital for peak brain performance, allowing for deep reading and synthesis of ideas.

Creating a positive and supportive online community by curating genuine dialogue is crucial for digital platforms.

Deep dives

Maria Popova's Brain Pickings: Exploring the Intersection of Literature and Philosophy

Maria Popova, the founder of Brain Pickings, is a reader and writer whose work focuses on exploring ideas, knowledge, and the human experience. Brain Pickings started as a small newsletter sent to a few friends and has grown into a massive online platform with millions of monthly readers. Popova's aim with Brain Pickings is to provide a subjective lens on what matters in art, literature, and life. She curates and shares hidden gems from a wide range of disciplines and historical periods, shedding light on the human condition and how to live a good life.

How to Resist the Temptation to Dum Things Down

00:53

The Writing Process for 'The Four Hour Work Week'

02:22

If you don't have the patience to read something...

01:19

Mindfulness Practitioner's Guided Meditations and Podcast

02:05

Intro

2min

Exploring the Mind of a Knowledge Curator

6min

The Struggles of Pronunciation and the Power of Reading

2min

Curating Authenticity in Writing and Literature

23min

Embracing Sleep and Mindfulness for Productivity

14min

Reclaiming Philosophy and Navigating Note-Taking Technologies

5min

Navigating Note Management Challenges

4min

Navigating Online Presence and Personal Growth

17min

Navigating Online Engagement

18min

10.

Navigating Guilt and Authenticity in Decision-Making

11min

11.

Gratitude and Encouragement in Pursuing Idealism

2min

Maria Popova (@brainpicker) is a reader and a writer who writes about what she reads on Brain Pickings, which is included in the Library of Congress permanent web archive of culturally valuable materials. She is the author of Figuring, the editor of A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader, and the creator and host of The Universe in Verse, an annual charitable celebration of science through poetry at the interdisciplinary cultural center Pioneer Works in Brooklyn.

Brain Pickings is Maria’s one-woman labor of love — an inquiry into how to live and what it means to lead a good life. From Mark Twain to Oscar Wilde and everyone in between, Maria finds the hidden gems. She is also PROLIFIC and makes me look like a sloth.

In this in-depth conversation, we cover just about everything: how it happened, her workflow, how she writes (and workarounds to problems), how her site generates revenue, her workouts, and many more details. If you want to know the habits of a hyper-productive person, this episode is for you.

This interview originally aired in 2014. You can find the show notes here: https://tim.blog/2014/10/21/brain-pickings/

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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.