Tim Ferriss - 5-Bullet Friday — August 25, 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 along if the spirit moves you.

This edition is brought to you by House of Macadamias. Be sure to see their offer in the P.S.

What I’m reading

​The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics by Dennis O’Neil. Special thanks to Daniel Henriques for this recommendation. The advice is great, the sample scripts are a boon, and Dennis’ delivery is both deep and hilarious. Kudos to the author for a job spectacularly well done. It far exceeded my expectations.
​
And…
​
​“Ten Burning Questions for John Wooden,” plus “Wooden as a Teacher: The First Lesson Was Shoelaces” Click here in case of any issues with accessing the latter link. This is a great case of optimizing the macro by refining the micro. For those who don’t recognize the name, John Wooden was nicknamed the “Wizard of Westwood,” and he won ten National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships in a 12-year period as head coach for the UCLA Bruins, including a record seven in a row. He was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame both as a player and as a coach, the first person ever in both categories.

Album I’m enjoying

​Panamericana by Federico Aubele. I wrote much of The 4-Hour Body to this album, and I still listen to it often, especially when winding down after a long day or full week.

What I’m using for better sleep

​Nayoya Acupressure Mat. This was originally introduced to me by acrobat phenom Andrii Bondarenko, but I’ve realized that the smaller portion intended for the neck is perfect for helping calm low-back stiffness and muscle spasms. I’ll lie on this for 5–10 minutes as I read before bed then ditch and go to sleep. It seems to substantially reduce tightness and discomfort throughout the night, and the neck-roll portion is much easier to pack for travel.

Wikipedia page I’m studying

​12 leverage points to intervene in a system. From the page: “Meadows started with the observation that there are levers, or places within a complex system (such as a firm, a city, an economy, a living being, an ecosystem, an ecoregion) where a ‘small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything.’” Pair it with “Theory of constraints.”

Quote I’m pondering

“A writer—and, I believe, generally all persons—must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.”​
— Jorge Luis Borges
(Click here to share on Twitter.)
​

​
You can complement this edition of 5-Bullet Friday with my interview with David and Daniil Liberman, the two brothers who live one life; my conversation with 11-time NBA All-Star Chris Bosh; and this video clip of me and Jimmy Fallon doing AcroYoga on The Tonight Show.
​
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.
​
Have a wonderful weekend, all.
​
Much love to you and yours,
​
Tim

P.S. Deal of the Week — House of Macadamias delicious and nutritious nuts!

I love macadamia nuts and have been enjoying them often since keto expert Dr. Dominic D’Agostino recommended them on the podcast in 2015. More recently, Andrew Huberman has mentioned macadamias as a snack of choice in GQ. They taste great, and with more monounsaturated fat (prevalent in the Mediterranean diet) than both olive oil and avocados, 27% fewer grams of carbs than almonds, and more than 50% fewer grams of carbs than cashews, they’re the perfect low-carb, keto-friendly, nutty snack. They’re also rich in rare omega-7s, which promote the natural production of collagen, an essential protein.
​
​House of Macadamias produces the best-tasting macadamia nuts I’ve ever eaten. That’s due, in part, to their location in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa, which provides the ideal temperature, altitude, soil composition, rainwater, and pristine mountain water for growing macadamias. Their founders are a brother and sister team with a macadamia-nut heritage—their grandfather was a macadamia farmer. They are part owned by 96 independent farmers in South Africa, which gets them first pick of the highest-quality macadamia nuts in the region to make their one-of-a-kind snacks, like their vegan, paleo, and keto-friendly chocolate-dipped macadamias. They really took their time to get these right, folks, with more than two years of flavor testing. I absolutely love them and have to force myself not to polish off several bags at a time. They have also just released the world’s first single-ingredient macadamia-milk packets with nothing added—100% macadamias, easy to take on the road with you. Just add water to make thick and creamy milk.
​
​Now, subscribers of 5-Bullet Friday can get free macadamia milk! Simply add macadamia milk (and at least one other item) to your cart and apply code TIM20 at checkout. Visit HouseOfMacadamias.com/Tim to discover some of the most delicious and nutritious nuts on the planet.