Transcript

#734: In Case You Missed It: March 2024 Recap of "The Tim Ferriss Show"

0:00 This episode is brought to you by Five Bullet Friday. My very own email newsletter. It's become one of the most popular email newsletters in the world with millions of subscribers. And it's super, super simple. It does not clog up your inbox. Every Friday I send out five bullet points, super short. Of the coolest things I've found that week, which sometimes includes apps, books, documentaries, supplements, gadgets, new self experiments, hacks, tricks. and all sorts of weird stuff that I dig up from around the world. You guys, podcast listeners and book readers, have asked me for something short and action packed for a very long time. Because after all the podcasts, the books, they can be quite long. And that's why I created Five Bullet Friday. It's become one of my favorite things I do every week. It's free, it's always gonna be free, and you can learn more at Tim.blog forward slash Friday. That's Tim.blog forward slash Friday. I get asked a lot how I meet

0:53 guests for the podcast, some of the most amazing people I've ever interacted with. And little known fact, I've met probably twenty five percent of them because they first subscribe to Fible Friday. So you'll be in good company. It's a lot of fun. Five Bullet Friday is only available if you subscribe via email. I do not publish the content on the blog or anywhere else. Also, if I'm doing small in-person meetups, offering early access to startups, beta testing, special deals, or anything else that's very limited, I share it first with Five Bullet Friday subscribers. So check it out. Tim.blog forward slash Friday. If you listen to this podcast, it's very likely that you'd dig it a lot. And you can, of course, easily subscribe anytime. So easy peasy. Again, that's Tim.blog forward slash Friday. And thanks for checking it out, if the spirit moves ya.

1:42 Optimal minimal. At this altitude, I can run fly out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. And I'll do a personal question. No, it is seeming like that. My cybernetic organism, living tissue over metal endoscopy. Hello, boys and girls, this is Tim Ferris. Welcome to another episode of the Tim Ferris Show, where it is my job to deconstruct world class performers of all different types, to tease out the routines, habits, and so on that you can apply to your own life.

2:18 This is a special in between episode which serves as a recap of the episodes from the last month. Features a short clip from each conversation in one place, so you can jump around, get a feel for both the episode and the guest, and then you can always dig deeper by going to one of those episodes. View this episode as a buffet to whet your appetite. It's a lot of fun. We had fun putting it together and for the full list of the guests featured today, see the episode's description probably right below where we Press play in your podcast app, or as usual, you can head to Tim.blog slash podcast and find all the details there.

2:53 Please enjoy. First up Legendary actor Scott Glenn, whose acting career spans nearly sixty years and includes performances in Apocalypse Now. The right stuff.

3:08 The silence of the lambs And the Born Ultimatum As well as a return to HBO this year for season three. Of the white lotus.

3:20 What advice let's just say Ten years from now your grandkids are listening to this. And they're wondering what life advice I would give them both the lessons I learned from Sir Lawrence and from my dad. Which is if you love it, make it your life. Right along with that.

3:37 Be tenacious. Warren. That the most important thing about being knocked down is getting back up. And if you couldn't put yourself in the spot where you say I don't care how many times I get knocked down, I'm getting back up every single time and going after what I want.

3:53 That's the answer. I mean again I'm in a bar with Laurence Olivier. Who created the National Theater of England. Who was the biggest movie star in the world

4:04 was the m most creative stage actor in the world and director. He he done everything. My question to him was What is it? That you need to make it in this business. Yeah.

4:18 Timing? Right place at the right time. Is it contacts? Knowing the right people. Or is it just working on your skills? And becoming better and better at what you do. He said, My dear boy, none of the above. Develop very strong jaw muscles, learn how to bite on and not let go.

4:36 I said you're telling it's just Pure tenacity. His answer was Yes. If you're a monk outside the gates with a beggar's bull and you stay out there long enough

4:46 They'll finally get sick of seeing you open the gates and let you in. Next up Barbara Corcoran An investor shark for the past fifteen seasons on ABC's Emmy Award winning shark tank.

5:02 And host of the top business channel on Patreon. Barbara in your pocket. I would add another superpower in So much that I've seen of you and heard and watched The one thing I have never

5:17 scene and maybe I've just missed it, but I have never heard you take a victim perspective. And I have heard you say, for instance, that the difference between successful people and others is how long they spend Feeling sorry for themselves. I've also heard you say

5:34 And I'm paraphrasing here, so if I get it wrong, please correct me. So far you're right, Jim. That you are at your best when you're being talked down to by a man or something like that. Definitely. And

5:44 I would love for you to Perhaps tell the story of your fifty-one percent partner and the founding of the company. But also I'm so curious where that resilience and ability to reframe What other people could take

6:00 as victimization and turn it into something To your advantage. 'Cause I've seen that over and over again in your story. It's such an important part. I mean recovering from failure. in my book is ninety five percent of life. If you're gonna have a good life.

6:14 You better be really good at getting back up like a jack in the back. Boom, boom, boom, just get back up, get back up. I think I got that, honestly, by being dyslexic. Because when you're The kid in class that's dumb, you're a failure by anybody's standard. And you're constantly put down or look down on.

6:34 And I was embarrassed. I learned shame in the classroom. Terrible thing for a child to feel like a nobody just'cause they don't have a certain skill set. But that definitely taught me about I had to go to school every day. I had to go back and sit there and hope they didn't call on me for reading, whatever. And I got used to being a loser like that.

6:52 And getting back up and just I just had to go to school. So I got early training in that area. And I also learned from running salespeople my whole life that really was the only difference between the superstars that I had making two, three million dollars a year and people made an average of forty five thousand, which was the norm. How does a superstar do it? You know, I became a student of that.

7:14 I used to think it was connections I would hire for that. Work ethic I would hire for that. Who did they know in real estate, high price real estate I would hire for that? And then I realized that's just a starting gate. It gets you in easy.

7:28 But when it comes down to it's how well you get back up and how long you take to feel sorry for yourself. They drove me crazy, too. but I admired my superstars so much because of that ability. I could see them like you could punch them around. They go, Ha ha the back. And so I learned from them too, you see? Next up

7:52 Seth Godin Author of twenty one international bestsellers, including Purple cow. Lynchpin The dip.

8:00 This is Marketing. And his new book. The Song of Significance A new manifesto for teams.

8:11 How do you choose Or think about kind of next chapters or how what advice might you Give me as I contemplate. But what's next type of question. You know, I think

8:23 It's very kind of you to say I'm very good at it. I don't think I'm good at it, but because I'm sort of in public and I do it in a certain way. It's noted. You know, I did five years of Akimbo, it was in the top one percent of all podcasts, and then I just stopped.

8:38 And I stopped. Not because I didn't love it, I did love it. I stopped because if I kept doing it, there's something else I wouldn't do instead. And Creating a vacuum.

8:50 Is required So that I will do the hard work of filling the vacuum. But if I Just keep doing the thing.

8:59 Then there is no vacuum. And Sometimes the technology changes. That's why Spinnaker went away. That's why you couldn't keep making V CR games.

9:09 It's why my head start in the CD rom business was worthless because CD ROMs went away. I'd like to In every time I did this being a pioneer in a new media space'cause that's For me the funny spot. And then when the technology changes, I gotta move on.

9:24 But Podcast technology's never gonna change. I mean you're noting there's a Change in The production format, and that is a change. So in my case

9:33 What I'm trying to do It's not maximize. My Income per hour spent. Nor am I trying to maximize the size of my audience.

9:43 What I'm trying to maximize is Are the people I'm serving Glad that I did. That I showed up to solve an interesting problem. And two. As I build the stack of things on the bookshelf behind me

9:57 Can I point to them and say That was interesting and generous, and I'm glad I did it. And You know, that's part of it. Limited attention span theater.

10:06 So it's not for everybody. But my whole point of view is that life is projects. It is not a job. And when you Stop the podcast and created that vacuum. Did you already have something That

10:21 Was pending that you need to create that vacuum for, or did you create the vacuum and then wait for something to get pulled into it? Not to strain the metaphor, but you get the idea. No, you're not straining it. If there's something pending, it's not a vacuum. There have been times when something so good came along I did it and then had to remove things so I could do it. You know, when a few of us started Squid Doo, which was one of the first social networks I had a completely or reorganized my life because we built the fortieth biggest website in the US with only eight employees. So we were busy.

10:51 This is not what I'm talking about. I am talking about an actual uncomfortable Vacuum. Where you feel like you're never gonna work again. Where nothing can possibly be worth

11:02 What you gave up. And That's hard to do. Yeah, it is hard to do. So just to put a Put a microscope on that.

11:12 I have as means of Backstory. Done this for periods of time and have found it deeply, deeply uncomfortable. Sometimes fruitful, oftentimes not terribly fruitful.

11:24 In part I think because when I create that vacuum I don't know if the best way to Embrace the vacuum is to basically just stare at the wall and watch paint dry or to do something else and My mind just kind of folds in on itself. You create the vacuum.

11:38 And then what do the next few weeks look like in terms of how you spend your time day to day or week to week? I think a fundamental difference between you and me. There are so many of them. But one of them as I am here talking to what, the world tango champion? Former world record holder. Yes. Is

11:55 The only thing I have a world record in. is being part of the largest Co author.

12:03 Book signing in history in which me and four hundred other people all signed our book at the same time. Because I am not a high performer. I am interested. And being interesting is really important to me.

12:17 But I am not holding myself to the standard you hold yourself in so many ways. And so I could imagine That The thing that gives me comfort.

12:27 Might Not make you happy. Right. For sure. I agree with all of that.

12:32 And how does that difference translate to what you would do in the weeks following creating The vacuum after say stopping the podcast. 'Cause I guess you have activities that you're still carrying forward. It's not like you're Completely idle. You're writing still presumably. If someone

12:47 Looked at me. From the outside. I think that they would see that My days Aren't

12:54 That different I am not shipping public Work. Because I don't ship junk. But I am

13:02 internally creating lots of mediocre work. And Basically creating straw people. And saying, What would this be like? And then what would that be like? And here's this thing and I sat with my sixty or eighty watt laser cutter and I cut this thing out. What do I think of that?

13:18 And Um That Invention cycle Is

13:25 Joyful. But I can't do it forever. Because I also need the satisfaction of shipping the work and not giving in to resistance. So

13:33 What I'm doing When I was a book packager We sold Hundred and twenty books in ten years, a book a month. But I had more than eight hundred books on my hard drive ready to go. Not finished but

13:45 Two page, five page proposals. Because The only way to have a w finished proposal for me is to have an unfinished one that you didn't ship. What is it and this is probably a fundamental question I should have asked earlier, but

13:58 What do you get from writing And having written as consistently as you. Heaven do. What is the payoff? Like why do that? Okay, so the biggest payoff is simple.

14:09 Not in terms of Equity is stock value, but in terms of The noise in my head. The biggest benefit is I will be writing tomorrow because it's Friday.

14:18 Not because I've written the perfect blog post. That Every single day. Something gets published by me because I decided that twenty four years ago. Not because I have

14:30 reconsidered each day whether this one is good enough. Mm-hmm. And Even if no one read my blog. I would still do it.

14:39 And I'm very fortunate that people give me the benefit of the doubt. No it. Then I am not guaranteeing this is the best thing I ever wrote and they're still willing to look at. So that's lovely. In terms of

14:51 My professional practice is Again, back to genre. Having A sinecure, a platform. Where

15:01 For a long time if you type blog into Google, I was the first match. Because I just showed up more than just about anybody. There's a lot of value to saying This is my lane.

15:12 And you can count on me in this lane. And for someone who is as peripatetic as I in there. Creative pursuits. Having those

15:22 turned out to be a really useful thing. Last but not least Hugh Howie The New York Times bestselling author of war.

15:34 Beacon twenty three, sand, machine learning, and Half home and more than a dozen other novels. I read in the process of doing research, which is always fun for me to do with friends when I have them on the podcast, because otherwise it'd be really creepy to do like a bunch of like Google Slithing on my friends. And I was wondering, I think you gave the advice and I'm wondering if it still applies that writers not take days off.

16:02 That's one. That could be one of those don't believe everything you read on the internet. The second is related to writing for I think it was a book review website. Yeah. And becoming accustomed to working on deadline.

16:16 And I'd just love you to speak to the importance of that because I know for me I think of myself occasionally as a writer. If I don't have a deadline Man. I am not terribly productive.

16:27 Yeah. There's the deadline piece if you could speak to that and then just how you would suggest people Train themselves. To write. Is it daily? Is it?

16:36 Few days a week, is it? Something else. So I can only speak So it works for me, but I will say that I found that I have m way more in common with other writers than we are dissimilar. Like I hear the same laments like you were just mentioning. I know you and I have a lot of the same

16:50 Hang up. I hate writing, but I love having written. Yeah. Right. Everyone loves to have like gotten some Pages behind them. And I tried for twenty years to be a writer.

17:02 From age twelve to thirty two. My number one bucket list. And no one was stopping me but myself. But for twenty years I couldn't do it.

17:11 And honestly, like all I had to do was write a little bit every day and I would write a book. That's all I ever wanted. And so how can you get in the way Of yourself. Do it as writers.

17:22 And once I unlock the ability to write. My fear was ever Turning that. Switch back off. And that's where I think the daily habit is critical.

17:31 Like I wrote today before I Came here and it's Saturday. And I'll write on the plane and I'll write in the back of an Uber, I'll do whatever it takes to get Some words then that day. Is there a certain amount or is it just

17:42 Something. It used to be. I used to try to do like two thousand words a day. Wow. It's a lot of words. Yeah. Now if I do a thousand words a day and What I find helpful in my Word document. Whatever I'm working on, there's the word count.

17:57 written in the document at the end, wherever I'm writing. And when I start my Daily session as I'm writing, I can see at the bottom of the word Document. what the current count is and I can just see the comparison.

18:08 That gives me my Like you need to do a little more. And then once I'm done for the day I update that number. to the day's number. And so I'm always just trying to march that that forward. It sounds

18:18 Calculated and cold? But if you just sit around waiting for inspiration and try to write a few sentences here and there. You'll never stay with the story enough to know what it's even about. When you said Effectively, when you turned on the spigot, you're afraid of turning it off. So you kept up this daily practice. But how did you, after so many years

18:35 Turn it on in the first place. Like what was the catalyst? You mentioned the review website I was writing for. So I was trying to help a friend get this crime mystery thriller website up and running and he was doing the film movie side of it and I was doing the books. And I just put a call out to publishers. It was a beautiful website that he had made. So sharing the URL of seeing this is what we're doing. And I started getting a flood of books in the mail.

18:58 And for a reader like me, this was like Christmas every day. I was getting more books than I could review, so I was having to go through and see which ones appealed to me. And I was building bookshelves all over my house to house these things for one genre. Yeah, for one genre. And but it was the biggest genre. Yeah. It was like the one that publishers make a lot of their money on. And

19:18 In order to keep up with it, I started reading and reviewing a book a day. And this is all I was doing. I'd done this in college too. I'd gone through a period of like two years where I was reading a book a day as a challenge. And some of these are four hundred page books. So you're not doing much else. Yeah. Just that.

19:33 I didn't know how good this was gonna be for my writing. But absorbing that much prose. Just made it. So easy for me to tap into Not only the

19:45 ability to string words together. But All the plot. elements that I was absorbing. From

19:51 Weeks and weeks and weeks of absorbing this many books. And then I was also writing that review every day. And so I was getting a daily writing habit. And That

20:00 Wasn't even a job. I wasn't getting paid to do this. I was doing it for a friend to try to Get a website going. 'Cause I love reading. But that experience is what made it possible for me to write.

20:11 Is there any Mount Rushmore of Fiction books. They come to mind, right? This is is not a fixed list, but whatever comes to mind, if you were to say like And I'll make this personal, so

20:23 I've been experimenting with Short fiction. For the last year or so. Think I will do quite a bit more. Possibly in screenplay format, which I definitely want to talk to you about at some point. Oh, cool. But

20:34 What are some books people should consume? Or that I might want to consume. Two Provide myself with really good nutrition. for absorbing some of what you're describing.

20:46 I think reading Beautiful prose is almost like striking a tuning fork before your writing session. I think it's really Awesome to pick up. There's several things you can do. You can read stuff that's nonsense, but beautiful, like some Proust, and you can just turn to any part of Proust, it's all the same.

21:01 The beginning of a story reads just like the middle of his stories? But the way A good translation of Proust. flows that I amic pentameter. The run on sentences.

21:11 It's like it's You start to hear The tonal quality of Good music. in words and then you can start to sing in that key.

21:20 Yours. Some of the books I've read Recently I think Up to my writing. One was this is how you lose the time war.

21:28 Which is just so good. Yeah, it's so good. That is an incredible book. And it's short. And it's one of those that you could just pick up and read again to like remind yourself. What writing can sound like. Also fascinating because it was written by two authors. Yeah. Who alternated back. Alternated back and forth. Which is structural to the story, which works. Cersei? Have you read that?

21:46 I haven't yet read it. I have seen so many people reading it. I've seen friends reading it. Took me forever to to read that. The prose in that book is so special. And we'll Make you a better writer.

21:59 Just recently. Yes, another one that someone recommended was Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Oh yeah, I haven't heard of it. I try to read that like five times and it was the hottest thing. And I never gave it enough of a chance, but when I finally finished it, I was like, That's what I'm aiming for.

22:13 Am I writing. And why did it take you five times? I've heard this from a lot of people. So if you're hear this recommendation and you want to read the book. Get through the first like seventy or eighty pages. And I know it's like I'd rather read something that's capture me from the first page. This book pays off.

22:28 So th those are recent books that have that have recommended Lincoln Highway to me. Lincoln Highway. Anything by Amore. Immortals is one of the It's just a book full of literary and narrative magic tricks. It's wild. He upsets me. Because he he he wasn't even a writer as his primary. Yeah, yeah. Super successful investment banker. You know, it's like a a Michael uh Lewis kind of story.

22:55 Like super successful other ways. But it turns out the the quality of reading that he does and the he's just one of the smartest human beings. I've ever met. But his writing.

23:05 There's a short story collection coming out. I am this year called uh Table for Two. Get it on day one because there's one short story particular in there. That is the cleverest thing I've ever read. So he's another one that

23:18 I'll read his works in order to remind myself like what we're aiming for. And his wordsmithing is beautiful. Yeah. But it's not Proust, right? It doesn't matter. Strive to be that. It's clear. But his clever is so clear.

23:33 And the story arcs and character development and the weaving. Mm. Right. He's like sitting at A loom of prose. and just like weaving these carpets and you don't see the finished pattern. Until after you say an hour and you're like, Oh my God. Yeah. I didn't see that coming at all. He's a genius and he works hard at it.

23:53 You know, it spins the the years and time it takes. That's a level of writing that it's fun to aspire to, but I know I'll never reach. But you have to have like loftier goals than Your expected outcome.

24:07 And now here are the bios for all the guests. My guest today is someone I've wanted to have on the podcast for years. We did the interview at his house in Idaho. He has no social media, no website. And his name is Scott Glenn. He is a legend. Scott Glenn's acting career spans nearly sixty years. His impressive film resume includes performances in Apocalypse Now, Urban Cowboy, The Right Stuff, Silverado, The Hunt for Red October.

24:34 The Silence of the Lambs, Backdraft, The Virgin Suicides, and The Born Ultimatum. I would venture that every single one of you would recognize His face. More recently, Scott has appeared on the small screen. as Kevin Garvey Senior. In the leftovers.

24:48 The blind sensei stick in Marvel's Daredevil and the Defenders. And as the retired sheriff Alan Pangborn in Castle Rock. This year Scott will return to HBO to join season three of The White Lotus. And there is so much more to his story. He has I would consider it the gold medal trifecta.

25:06 In terms of mastery across life. My guest today is not only incredibly successful in her various endeavors.

25:18 She is Absolutely hilarious. And I burst out laughing a lot in this conversation. I had a blast. I think you will enjoy it as well. Barbara Corcoran. Barbara Corcoran has been an investor slash shark for the past fifteen season on ABC's four time Emmy Award winning show Shark Tank, investing in more than one hundred businesses to date. Even more impressive to me, she is also the founder of an eponymous real estate company, the Corcoran Group, which she started with a$1,000 loan after leaving her job as a waitress in New York City. You've seen this name everywhere. It's on signs, buildings. all over the place. Over the next twenty five years, she would parlay that$1,000 into a five billion dollar real estate.

25:58 business and we get really deep into the weeds about early decisions, critical inflection points, and oh my God, some of her stories are just Incredible. Barbara is the author of the national bestseller Shark Tales, How I Turned One Thousand Dollars Into a Billion Dollar Business, and host of the Top Business Channel on Patreon. Barbara in your pocket, which provides exclusive content created for entrepreneurs at every level. On Patreon, Barbara will dive deep into the topics most important in business today. Give an inside look at how she runs her business and works with her shark tank companies. and join members live to answer their toughest questions. You can find Barbara on TikTok, on Instagram,

26:38 LinkedIn all Barbara Corcoran and you can find Barbara in your pocket at patreon dot com slash Barbara Corcoran. One of my favorite people. To ask for advice. Is Seth. Gooden.

26:54 And this is a walk and talk, which means Seth and I were walking and talking while we recorded this. And I had many burning questions I wanted to ask. He did not fail to deliver. a lot of sage advice, tactical, practical wisdom and What more can I say? The guy's a gem, he delivers every time. Who is Seth Godin, you might ask? Seth Godin is the author of twenty one international bestsellers that have changed the way people think about work.

27:24 His books have been translated into thirty-eight languages, and Seth's books include Tribes, Purple Cow, Lynchpin, The Dip, and This Is Marketing. Seth writes one of the most popular marketing blogs. 8500, 8500 plus daily blog posts, just to put that into perspective. And two of his TED Talks are among the most popular of all time. He is the founder of the Alt MBA, the social media pioneer Squiddoo and Yo-Yo Dine, one of the first internet companies. His latest book is The Song of Significance. A new manifesto for Teams. You can find him at SethGoden.com and you can find Seth's blog at Seth's. blog. So you can go to both of those for a lot of resources. And I'm gonna just reiterate why we did this format the way we did it. Because there's too much sitting in the world. It's not good for you. We weren't evolved to do it. And I am trying to counteract the

28:21 to do podcasts in a fixed location. This isn't good for my health. And it's certainly not good for your health to force you to consume it that way. So I'm at least experimenting with being out and about doing something that we are designed to do, and that is walk.

28:43 My guest today is my friend Hugh Howie. And man o man, do I love having conversations with you. I always learn so much, I laugh so much. But who is Hugh? Hugh is the New York Times best selling author of Wool. Beacon twenty three, Sand Machine Learning, halfway home.

29:00 And more than a dozen other novels. His silo trilogy was recently adapted by Apple TV, becoming their number one drama of all time. A series based on his novel Beacon Twenty Three starring Lina Heaty, also released last year with season two due in March. Hugh's works have been translated into more than forty languages and have sold millions of copies around the world. Lives in New York City with his wife, Shay. You can find him at huhowie.com. That's huh.com. And on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

29:31 As Hugh Howie, we talk about all sorts of things, creative process, we talk about his publishing journey from a small press to self publishing, to hitting the New York Times list with a self published book. to a first of its kind print only deal with a big five publisher. He breaks all the rules and he is a very original thinker. and also a prolific, prolific. producer of all things. Hey guys, this is Tim again. Just one more thing before you take off, and that is Five Bullet Friday. Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little fun before the weekend?

30:08 Between one and a half and two million people subscribe to my free newsletter, my super short newsletter called Five Bullet Friday. Easy to sign up, easy to cancel. It is basically a half page that I send out every Friday to share the coolest things I've found or discovered or have started exploring over that week. It's kinda like my diary of cool things. It often includes articles I'm reading, books I'm reading, albums perhaps, gadgets, gizmas, all sorts of tech tricks and so on that get sent to me by my friends, including a lot of podcast guests, and these strange esoteric things end up in my field, and then I test them and then I share them with you. So if that sounds fun, again, it's very short, a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend, something to think about. If you'd like to try it out, just go to Tim.blog slash Friday. Type that into your browser, Tim.blog slash Friday, drop in your email, and you'll get the very next one. Thanks for listening.