Essentials
“Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.”
— W.H. Auden
Routine is the essential feature of man as Sloterdijk demonstrates in his book You Must Change Your Life. Many researchers nowadays acknowledge the chances that lie in behavioral therapy.
Tim Ferriss himself is a "cumpulsive Note-taker" "since age 18 or so". "8 feet of shelf space" of spine of notebook upon notebook" that he calls the collection of his "life’s recipes." Everything that he approaches, he approaches as a question of experiments.
How to become better? My example of Chess
A good chess player is not obviously a better chess-player, he only makes slightly better moves than you, until your position collapses. Success then is based on micro-advantages.
For us we have to develp a strategy. There is no wonder-medicine that will bring instant success. For Tim Ferriss these strategies are learned from the best that are sometimes compressed in small bites of knowledge.
“learn the macro from the micro.”
We live now, not in the future, or not in the past. The steps that we make now, determine our sucess. Therefore Tim Ferriss asks:
What makes these people different?
He emphasizes that "these world-class performers don’t have superpowers." They are men with flaws, but at again and again they make better decisions than you. Ferriss suggests the following questions for recognizing the importance of your micro-decisions now:
“What might you do to accomplish your 10-year goals in the next 6 months, if you had a gun against your head?”
Alll of this is intended to demonstrate that "you had the ability to renegotiate your reality all along. It just takes practice." and under the premise that "10x results don’t always require 10x effort." he tries to suggest some of the main strategies that focus on "the small things, done consistently, that are the big things (e.g., “red teaming” once per quarter, Tara Brach’s guided meditations, strategic fasting or exogenous ketones, etc.)."
Here are the major insights:
So what do we need to learn? Ferriss gives us a parrabel of Siddhartha
- More than 80% of the interviewees have some form of daily mindfulness or meditation practice
- A surprising number of males (not females) over 45 never eat breakfast, or eat only the scantiest of fare (e.g., Laird Hamilton, page 92; General Stanley McChrystal, page 435)
- Many use the ChiliPad device for cooling at bedtime
- Rave reviews of the books Sapiens, Poor Charlie’s Almanack, Influence, and Man’s Search for Meaning, among others
- The habit of listening to single songs on repeat for focus (page 507)
- Nearly everyone has done some form of “spec” work (completing projects on their own time and dime, then submitting them to prospective buyers)
- The belief that “failure is not durable” (see Robert Rodriguez, page 628) or variants thereof
- Almost every guest has been able to take obvious “weaknesses” and turn them into huge competitive advantages (see Arnold Schwarzenegger, page 176)
Siddhartha: “It is of great value, sir. If a man has nothing to eat, fasting is the most intelligent thing he can do. If, for instance, Siddhartha had not learned to fast, he would have had to seek some kind of work today, either with you, or elsewhere, for hunger would have driven him. But, as it is, Siddhartha can wait calmly. He is not impatient, he is not in need, he can ward off hunger for a long time and laugh at it. ”
I think of Siddhartha’s answers often and in the following terms:
“I can think” → Having good rules for decision-making, and having good questions you can ask yourself and others.
“I can wait” → Being able to plan long-term, play the long game, and not misallocate your resources.
“I can fast” → Being able to withstand difficulties and disaster. Training yourself to be uncommonly resilient and have a high pain tolerance.
