Maybe not practical for a physician but an interesting read. I read this a decade ago and thought it was snake oil. Reading this again in 2019, with a fresh perspective, there are definitely some important points he makes… Also check out his latest book
Tim Ferris definitely has some unique ideas. Not your typical “guru” and definitely a flawed human being like the rest of us but – and this is important – a sceptic and extremely rational person. Don’t agree with his supplement selling 🙂 but otherwise has some great points.
- Inactivity is not the goal. Doing that which excites you is. You spent two weeks negotiating your new Infiniti with the dealership and got $10,000 off? That’s great. Does your life have a purpose?
- Money is multiplied in practical value depending on the number of W’s you control in your life: what you do, when you do it, where you do it, and with whom you do it. I call this the “freedom multiplier.”
- There is much to be said for the power of money as currency (I’m a fan myself), but adding more of it just isn’t the answer as often as we’d like to think. In part, it’s laziness. “If only I had more money” is the easiest way to postpone the intense self-examination and decision-making necessary to create a life of enjoyment—now and not later. By using money as the scapegoat and work as our all-consuming routine, we are able to conveniently disallow ourselves the time to do otherwise.
- Most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.
- The fishing is best where the fewest go, and the collective insecurity of the world makes it easy for people to hit home runs while everyone else is aiming for base hits. There is just less competition for bigger goals. Doing big things begins with asking for them properly.
- What is the opposite of happiness? Sadness? No. Just as love and hate are two sides of the same coin, so are happiness and sadness. Crying out of happiness is a perfect illustration of this. The opposite of love is indifference, and the opposite of happiness is—here’s the clincher—boredom. Excitement is the more practical synonym for happiness, and it is precisely what you should strive to chase. It is the cure-all. When people suggest you follow your “passion” or your “bliss,” I propose that they are, in fact, referring to the same singular concept: excitement. This brings us full circle. The question you should be asking isn’t, “What do I want?” or “What are my goals?” but “What would excite me?”
- This is how most people work until death: “I’ll just work until I have X dollars and then do what I want.” If you don’t define the “what I want” alternate activities, the X figure will increase indefinitely to avoid the fear-inducing uncertainty of this void. This is when both employees and entrepreneurs become fat men in red BMWs.
- I simply looked at those who were 15–20 years ahead of me on the same track, whether a director of sales or an entrepreneur in the same industry, and it scared the hell out of me.
- The worst that could happen wasn’t crashing and burning, it was accepting terminal boredom as a tolerable status quo. Remember—boredom is the enemy, not some abstract “failure.” The existential vacuum manifests itself mainly in a state of boredom.
- How is it possible that all the people in the world need exactly 8 hours to accomplish their work? It isn’t. 9–5 is arbitrary.
- What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients.
- Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
- Meetings are an addictive, highly self-indulgent activity that corporations and other organizations habitually engage in only because they cannot actually masturbate. 🙂
- Meetings should only be held to make decisions about a predefined situation, not to define the problem.
- Remember, profit is only profitable to the extent that you can use it. For that you need time.
- I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.
- By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day.
- If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.
- “But, you don’t understand my situation. It’s complicated!” But is it really? Don’t confuse the complex with the difficult. Most situations are simple—many are just emotionally difficult to act upon. The problem and the solution are usually obvious and simple. It’s not that you don’t know what to do. Of course you do. You are just terrified that you might end up worse off than you are now. The average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain.
- I know too well that it’s easier to live with ourselves if we cite an external reason for inaction.
- People say that what we are seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think this is what we’re really seeking. I think what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive.
- Gain a language and you gain a second lens through which to question and understand the world.
- Recapturing the excitement of childhood isn’t impossible. In fact, it’s required.
- “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something … almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. – Steve Jobs