Tim Ferriss - 5-Bullet Friday — July 28, 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.

Short TED Talk I’m watching

“Give yourself permission to be creative” by Ethan Hawke. This clocks in at roughly nine minutes. And thanks to Laird Z. for the recommendation. From the description: “Reflecting on moments that shaped his life, actor Ethan Hawke examines how courageous expression promotes healing and connection with one another—and invites you to discover your own unabashed creativity. ‘There is no path till you walk it,’ he says.”

What I’m reading

​Esther Crawford’s experience and lessons learned at Twitter. Esther was hugely helpful to me and my team during some Twitter login hiccups in December, and I found this long tweet fascinating. Many of her lessons and observations apply to scores of tech companies and, indeed, companies in general.

Tech trick I’m beyond excited to have discovered

​Sort by unread messages in iMessage. This has reduced my device anxiety tremendously. I get a lot of texts but will often lose unread messages several scrolls down and forget about them, disappointing a friend or losing a fun opportunity in the process. Last week, I was hanging out with a bunch of tech-savvy friends, and I noticed that one of them had an “Unread Messages” folder in iMessage. WTF?! I’d been begging Apple for this feature for years but had never seen it. He suggested it was because I hadn’t updated my iOS, but all of us were up-to-date, and he was the only one with this amazing folder on his phone. After some detective work, my friend Matt figured out how to implement it (Settings > Messages, then scroll down to Message Filtering, then turn on Filter Unknown Senders. In the Messages conversation list, tap Filters, then tap Unread Messages), and you can find the step-by-step instructions here. Thanks, Apple! I’d also love to request the ability to archive messages in iMessage, but being able to sort by unread is at least half the battle. Special thanks to JZ and Matt!
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P.S. iOS 17 has a slew of new iMessage features coming in September, and one I am excited about is automatic transcription of voice memos. Also, don’t forget that you can now mark iMessage messages as “unread” by swiping right on them and tapping the blue magic…

Comedy special I’m watching

​JEW by Ari Shaffir (@arishaffir), available for free on YouTube. This special will offend everyone, and I think that’s kinda the point. I and my friends, including Jewish friends, found this HILARIOUS, and I actually learned a ton while laughing my ass off. To make a show like this feel like a casual conversation requires superhuman effort, and Ari nailed it. מזל טוב!

Book excerpt I’m pondering

“Tibetan Buddhist texts liken this type of addictive behavior to ‘licking honey off a razor.’ The initial sensation may be sweet, but the underlying effect is quite damaging. Seeking satisfaction in others or in external objects or events reinforces a deep and often unacknowledged belief that we, as we are, are not entirely complete; that we need something beyond ourselves in order to experience a sense of wholeness or security or stability.”​
— Joyful Wisdom by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche (with Eric Swanson)
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You can complement this edition of 5-Bullet Friday with my conversation with The War of Art author Steven Pressfield, my recent appearance on ultra-endurance athlete Rich Roll’s podcast, and my interview from this week with Jack Kornfield, one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West.
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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