Tim Ferriss - 5-Bullet Friday — July 14, 2023

Hi All!

Here is your weekly dose of 5-Bullet Friday, a list of what I’m pondering and exploring. Feel free to forward this along to friends.

Book I’m enjoying

​The Filmmaker Says: Quotes, Quips, and Words of Wisdom. Short and sweet. I dog-eared a lot of pages in this book, which then inspired lovely twists and turns in my experiments with fiction and artwork. Here’s a short process video on the latter for those interested.

Woman I had to learn more about

​Sadie Farrell, better known as “Sadie the Goat.” They just don’t make female NYC river pirates like they used to. Here’s a teaser from Wikipedia: “Upon encountering a lone traveler, she would headbutt, like a charging goat, a man in the stomach.” Her entry is short and definitely worth the read. Don’t gloss over the ear part. Thanks to N. for intro’ing me to this incredible character.

Article I’m reading

“Meet the Psychedelic Boom’s First Responders” by Chris Colin for WIRED. This is one of the best articles related to psychedelics that I’ve read in a long time. It reinforces a very important, and often misunderstood, point. As mentioned in the piece: “Difficult is not necessarily bad.”
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Most classical psychedelics could be considered anti-escapist; if you want to avoid your problems, your addictions, your past trauma, the things you’re ashamed of, and so on, these are the wrong drugs. It should be no surprise that when these things are put into inescapable high resolution for anyone, it can be highly unpleasant (i.e., “bad”) but that facing these truths and catalyzing meaningful changes (e.g., quitting smoking or heroin or bad relationships) are part of what makes psychedelics so unbelievably powerful for certain cases.
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The term “bad trip,” which is even used by some medical associations and regulatory groups, needs to be replaced. It is misleading and will lead to some truly bad policies and protocols. As this WIRED piece demonstrates, and as any seasoned facilitator with several hundred sessions will tell you, it is often the deeply difficult experiences, characterized by being largely unpleasant, that have the greatest transformative effects on patients, IF excellent pre-session, in-session, and post-session care are provided. Sometimes, short-term hard can be incredibly long-term beneficial. “Good trip” and “bad trip” are too nebulous and too prone to being wielded by people with special interests (or no firsthand experiences themselves) to favor their incentives. Those terms are imprecise in a field that desperately needs more precision. Instead, I suggest using “safe” or “unsafe” trip as the critical binary distinction, and safety can be applied to physical safety as well as psychological safety. Contributing factors would include, but not be limited to, screening, medical intake, prep, in-session guidance, and post-session care and longer-term integration.
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So, in summary: safe vs. unsafe, not good vs. bad. I suggest reading the WIRED piece, which is excellent on multiple levels. To save you the one stumble I had, here is the origin of “Potemkin.” And I’m really honored to have supported Fireside Project via the Saisei Foundation.

Coffee grinder I’m testing

​Fellow Gen 2 Ode Brew Grinder. The Gen 2 Ode makes me think of the legendary Dieter Rams and his “10 principles for good design.” It’s one of the few devices that I absolutely love using every morning. The elegance—in aesthetics, function, and space efficiency—really tickles my OCD. All that said, please be forewarned that this beauty is very expensive. If you’re looking for a more economical option that still does the job, I also have this burr grinder in Austin. If you want a portable hand grinder, you might try this. All of these devices combine well with today’s P.S.

Passage I’m pondering

“And so it is that most people have no idea how beautiful the world is and how much magnificence is revealed in the tiniest things, in some flower, in a stone, in tree bark, or in a birch leaf. The grown-ups, going about their business and worries, and tormenting themselves with all kinds of details, gradually lose the perspective for these riches that children, when they are attentive and good, soon notice and love with their whole heart. And yet the greatest beauty would be achieved if everyone remained in this regard always like attentive and good children, simple and pious in sensitivities, and if people did not lose the capacity for taking pleasure as intensely in a birch leaf or a peacock’s feather or the wing of a hooded crow as in a mighty mountain or a splendid palace. What is small is not small in itself, just as that which is great is not—great. A great and eternal beauty passes through the whole world, and it is distributed fairly over that which is small and that which is large; for in such important and essential matters, no injustice is to be found on earth.”​
— Rainer Maria Rilke​
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You can complement this edition of 5-Bullet Friday with what I consider “Psychedelics 101”; my first interview with How to Change Your Mind author Michael Pollan on the science of psychedelics; and Trip of Compassion, a powerful documentary on healing trauma with MDMA.
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And, as always, please give me feedback on Twitter. Which bullet above is your favorite? What do you want more or less of? Other suggestions? Please let me know. Just send a tweet to @tferriss and put #5BulletFriday at the end so I can find it.
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Have a wonderful weekend, all.
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Much love to you and yours,
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Tim

P.S. COCKPUNCH Coffee is back! This sold out nearly immediately last time, so we did another run and made things a whole lot sexier.

The FTZ House Blend is available for a round two (1,234 bags in total this time)! Last time, we limited orders to two bags per customer, but there is no limit on this run. Here is the official description from the website below: “This medium-roast coffee is bright and expressive, like a Southern Jaquan after three shots of espresso. It sports a juicy body with lasting sweetness, reminiscent of summer flings and butterfly wings. Flavor notes sing of lime, orange blossom honey, and vanilla. For if not to sing, WTF are we doing here?” Grab your bag or bags at Cockpunch.com/coffee.