tools of titans summary

December 22, 2021

Goals/Key Ideas

success, however you define it, is achievable if you collect the right field-tested beliefs and habits.
the superheroes you have in your mind (idols, icons, titans, billionaires, etc.) are nearly all walking flaws who’ve maximized 1 or 2 strengths)
- you succeed because you find your unique strengths and focus on developing habits around them.
what might you do to accomplish your 10-year goals in the next six months if you had a gun against your head?
routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition
learn things once and use them forever
a toolkit for changing your life.
judge a man by his questions rather than his answers
it contains low-hanging fruit with immediate returns. Think of the bite-sized rules within these pages as PED(s) - performance-enhancing details
look for the black sheep who fit your unique idiosyncrasies. Keep an eye out for the non-traditional paths.
borrow liberally, combine uniquely, and create your bespoke blueprint.
this book is a buffet. Here’s how to get the most out of it
- skip liberally: skip anything that doesn’t interest you.
  - like 50%, love 25%, and never forget 10%
- skip, but do so intelligently
  - return to it later and ask yourself, “why did I skip this?” Did it offend you? Seem beneath you? Seem too difficult? And did you arrive at that by thinking it through, or is it a reflection of biases inherited from your parents and others? very often, “our” beliefs are not our own
  - This practice is how you create yourself instead of discovering yourself.
the context and original language teach you how to THINK like a world-class performer, not just regurgitate quotes. That is the crucial meta-skill we’re aiming for.
3 tools that allow all the rest
- I can think: of having good rules for decision-making and having good questions you can ask yourself and others
- I can wait: being able to plan the long-term, play the long game, and not misallocate your resources
- I can fast: being able to withstand difficulties and disaster. Training yourself to be uncommonly resilient and have a high pain tolerance.

HEALTHY

Exercise

Ferriss emphasizes the importance of exercising to improve fitness, never hurting yourself, and don’t go overboard. Working out somewhere with a soft surface is recommended.
consistency is what’s important
AcroYoga helps relax, loosen the muscles and prepare the body for sleep.
Training the areas of weakness is the area that causes the most physical pain. Thus, the body and mind must be prepared to deal with chronic pain.
Muscle strength workouts stabilize the body’s metabolism, bone health, and immune system. Gaining strength in these areas creates a sense of confidence to continue strength training, flexibility and endurance in others.
Recommend exercises like races, jumps, and squats for pure muscle extension.
Sneakers have slight heel rises, which causes them to extend the Achilles heel and affect the ankle’s mobility. So you should avoid them. Instead, wear sneakers with flat soles and keep your toes and heels aligned at the same height.
Hard mattresses keep your muscles extended. Soft beds are best for modern humans sitting in an office or car.
The ideal place to sleep is in a hammock. Try an acupressure mattress, which helps relieve back pain.
daily simple strength exercise:
- one-arm kettlebell swing
- Turkish kettlebell get-up
- kettlebell goblet squat

Breathing

combining exercises with Breathing
- Do as many pushups as possible in one set. Stop short of failure. Note down how many you did and rest for 30 minutes.
- Repeat the following 40 times: maximum inhale followed by a ‘let go’ exhale - dropping your chest sharply
- on the final round, inhale, exhale, then do another set of pushups. See if you can do more pushups after this.

Mobility

requires that you demonstrate strength throughout the entire range of motion, including the end ranges.
Kelly Starrett: try squatting to the ground while keeping your feet and knees together. This indicates your mobility in the motion range in your hip and ankle.
Recommend doing light, narrow-stance overhead squats in combination with cossack squats as a way of improving your mobility in these areas.
Keep the heels flat on the ground, your knees directly above your toes, and your hips as close to the ground as possible when you switch.
Cow stretch (aka cat-cow or cat camel in yoga). Spend as much time as you can in a low lunge and work on shoulder rotation using the Burgener warm-up.

Recovery

hyperthermic conditioning, aka calculated heat exposure.
- It probably would improve your endurance and increase your GH (growth hormone levels).
- Regular saunas post-workout. Just 20 minutes 3-4 times a week at a temperature of 160-170 F can be highly beneficial for reducing DOMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness)
cold therapy to improve immunity and mood and increase fat loss.
- Start small, and end your shower with 30-60 seconds of pure cold water. Then, gradually increase the time spent under cold water.
Drinking a large amount of water daily to maintain optimum health. Add a pinch of salt to your water to aid with hydration.
Use manuka honey bandages for treating wounds. Manuka honey is very expensive, produced only in Australia and New Zealand, and evaluated by medicine to improve the immune system and prevent colds.
Oolong tea, the goto kola leaf liquid extract, is believed to have the power to improve stretch marks and cellulite on the body, and the Hitachi magic wand vibrator, is used to soothe muscles.

food diets

eating ‘pop tarts’ cookies for breakfast before competitions
people should only eat carbohydrates or sugars if they have a good body mass index. A person should have less than 10% body fat
mix coffee with butter or specific supplements like hydrolyzed gelatin mixed with beetroot powder

low-carb

the low-carb and ketogenic diet for optimum health
- the keto diet is essentially a low-carb, high-fat diet designed to imitate the state of fasting.
- Rather than using blood sugar (glucose) as your energy source, the body becomes dependent on ketones derived from fat. Few benefits are fat loss, better body composition, potential anti-cancer effects, improvement of oxygen consumption, and increased overall strength and health.
- Repeat the same low-carb meals regularly. For example, have the same thing for breakfast every day, do the same for lunch, and if you require some variation, you can mix up your dinners.
- Never drink calories.
- Avoid fruit, too many sugars in fruit.
- Measure your body fat percentage. If you can see this dropping, then you’re on the right track.
- Take one day off per week and eat whatever you want.
Fasting can help re-setting your body and immune system, stimulating stem-cell regeneration. It is recommended to try a 5-day fast 2-3 times per year.

Intermittent fasting

eats one meal a day in a four-hour window, followed by twenty hours of fasting
This strategy is in line with the ketogenic diet, in which the body begins to use stored fat as an energy source rather than using glucose. This results in burning body fat and increased ability to gain muscle.
Intermittent fasting helps to expel cancer cells from the body. However, ketogenic diets are about 80% fat, and you should avoid starches.
Exogenous ketones are also recommended: supplements that help the body achieve or maintain the highest performing ketogenic states. However, these supplements are costly and can induce nausea and induce vomiting.

Medicating

the daily use of the diabetes drug metformin. Metformin can help prevent cancer and is the most promising anti-aging drug nowadays.
Takes small dosages of lithium, which is a drug against bipolarity. It is believed that such low dosages can improve mood and brain functions.
Substances such as Psilocybin, Mescaline, and Ayahuasca can separate the subject from the ego and thus provide a transcendental experience.
Psychedelic drugs treat depression, addiction, and even anxiety.

5-morning rituals

make your bed daily. By making your bed, you’re working on your first task of the day, and achieving this will inject you with pride. This will motivate you to continue in the same manner throughout your day.
Meditate. Aim for 10-20 minutes per day.
Less than a minute of exercise. Upon walking, smash out 5-10 reps of something, whether press-ups, squats, or sit-ups. This isn’t considered a workout but can significantly affect blood flow and mood improvement.
Make ‘titanium tea.’ Ingredients: Pu-Erh-aged black tea. Dragon well green tea (or other green tea). Turmeric and ginger shavings (often also Rishi brand). Add hot water and steep for 1-2 minutes. Once done, add 1-2 tbsp of coconut oil
journal. Take 5-10 minutes to write down some thoughts. Then, answer a few questions about what you’re grateful for, what would make the day better, and daily affirmations.

“I may be the laziest mindfulness instructor in the world because I tell my students that all they need to commit to is one mindful breath a day—just one. Breathe in and breathe out mindfully, and your commitment for the day is fulfilled. Everything else is a bonus.”

Wealthy

pricing and the silicon valley

should not undervalue your product and not charge enough. By not charging enough for a product, you’re only undercutting yourself. You’re left with not enough money actually to market the product.
Know the value of what you are selling. Don’t get greedy and aim for volume.

say yes

when you’re earlier in your career, the best strategy is to say ‘yes’ to every little gig. You never know what the lottery tickets are.
If you don’t instinctively think, “HELL, YES, I WILL DO THAT,” then say ‘no.’
Once you’ve found your rhythm and made progress, it’s time to stop filling your time with menial and mediocre tasks.

busy

being busy means lacking priorities, so commit to things worth it and reject the rest.
“Being busy is most often used as a guide for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions.”
One way to deal with procrastination and business is to identify just ONE must-do daily task.

don’t be a dog

what if mindset, anything you do, anything you change, consider the possible results of that in one day, one week, one month, or one year? Always be thinking ahead and have a plan for success.

Investing

obsession with not losing money. Before entering any business opportunity or investment, ask yourself what the downside is and how you can be protected against it.
Obsessed with asymmetrical risk and reward. This essentially means that they are focused on minimum risk with maximum results.
Asset allocation and margin of safety to diversify your portfolio in case you make wrong decisions.
Passionate about giving and being generous. It wasn’t tight or overly frugal.

Gut investing

start by exploring an idea emotionally, than do traditional due diligence using objective data.
When researching ideas emotionally, take the novel features and think about how they will impact users’ emotions and play out over the long run.

startups and making money

if you have set well-thought-out and intelligent rules, then FOLLOW THE RULES NO MATTER WHAT. You set the rules with intentions, don’t break them when something tempting comes up.
Most startups will fail. So to cover your losses, you need to ensure that the successes are worth it.
When it comes to investing and angel investments, you must be 100% comfortable losing all of your money. Therefore, you should only gamble with an amount you can afford to lose.
Limit angel investment funds to 10-15% of your liquid assets. Nevermore.
When designing a product, you must be keen to use the product yourself. If it’s not something you’re interested in, avoid it.

systems vs. goals

by focusing on ‘systems’ rather than ‘goals,’ you allow yourself to improve your skills and relationship without focusing too much on the outcome.
Develop and improve transferable skills.
Don’t treat your systems as a binary pass/fail situation. Instead, consider systems as something that can have a snowball effect.
“If I’ve learned anything from podcasting, it’s don’t be afraid to do something you’re not qualified to do.”

the formula for success

either be the best at one specific thing or be very good (top 25%) at two or more items. The first option is almost impossible, which few people will ever achieve. But the second strategy is simple and something everyone is capable of.
Add public speaking as one of your two (or more) skills, combining being an excellent public speaker with any other skill, and you have the recipe for some pretty decent success.

“Capitalism rewards rare and valuable things. You make yourself rare by combining two or more “pretty goods” until no one else has your mix.”

just ask

in business, you have to get comfortable asking for things.
Confident enough to put yourself out there. The following 5-6 times you order a coffee, ask for 10% off. Doing this a few times will improve your confidence and help you get comfortable with asking.

stress test beliefs

before releasing a product or service, exposing them to proper scrutiny is essential. For example, select the first ten people (red team) to critique and break an idea apart.

It’s not what you know. It’s what you do consistently.

Knowledge is redundant without consistent, purposeful action. A similar theme addressed by Peter Thiel is that education does not equate to learning. Thiel is more interested in what people learn rather than what educational credentials they are working on.
Zero to one questions:
- The monopoly question: are you starting with a significant share of a small market?
- The secret question: have you identified a unique opportunity that others don’t see?
- The distribution question: do you have a way not just to create but deliver your product?

resilience

preparing for the worst conditions enables individuals to stand up when faced with failures and falls
Guru Tony Robbins has a great morning routine for developing strength. His method involves diving into the ice water for 30 to 90 seconds. That prepares his body to take action and trains his mind. When it says it will do something, such as entering an icy river, it doesn’t matter if it will feel uncomfortable. He can do it.
Playing Tetris between 6-24 hours after a traumatic episode helps prevent post-traumatic stress disorder and other trauma-related problems. In addition, Tetris is a visual replacement strategy that helps with other obsessions, addictions, eating compulsions and insomnia.

Developing discipline

everyone wants freedom, but few people have the discipline to reach it.
in the modern world of technology, social networking and unlimited distractions, the ability to focus on a single task is a “superpower.”
some progression in flexibility and mobility can only be achieved by regular physical exercise rather than intensity.

Use the power of affirmations in your favour,

choose a particular goal you want to achieve and write that goal on a piece of paper 15 times daily.
The important thing is not the method but its focus and commitment.
By focusing your memory and mind on a particular goal, you’re utilizing a part of your brain known as the reticular activation system. As a result, the universe begins to send opportunities he never imagined, things he saw as coincidences but which continued to happen.

have real fans

to make money, you only need 1000 true fans. A “true fan” is someone who will buy everything you produce. It is important to differentiate that this approach will help you make money but not a fortune.
https://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking

Wisdom

being mentally tough

pushing yourself harder than ever before to do something you didn’t realize you were capable of.
Get into situations with a group where you have difficulties and discomfort.
Establish fear and make people overcome it.

Using pride and fear,

use your pride as a motivator.
If you are terrified of the humiliation that failure can bring, then use that as your motivation to succeed.
Fear is designed to keep us safe.
Don’t let it rule you.
Ask yourself if your fear should be a top priority.

fear-setting

to embrace fear, you must define the worst-case scenario for any event or outcome. Understand precisely what would happen and identify how you might be affected.
By defining your fears, you’ll find that you’re working towards conquering these fears.
Rate the negative outcome on a scale of 1-10 and consider whether they are permanent or temporary.
Next, consider what actions you would take to correct the adverse outcomes. Finally, how easy would it be to get back on track?
Cost-benefit analysis.

“In other words, you’re risking an unlikely and temporary 3 or 4 for a probable and permanent 9 or 10.”

perfectionism

can be paralyzing
lead to low self-esteem and unhealthy relationships
often. A by-product of perfectionism is procrastination.
No one is perfect, and you shouldn’t want to be.

Tactics for dealing with haters

don’t focus on how many people don’t get it or don’t get you. Focus on how many people do
expect that people will take things personally. 10% of people will find a way to take anything personally
when in doubt - starve it of oxygen (ignore it)
don’t over-apologize.
You can’t reason someone out of something they didn’t reason themselves into
don’t try to get everyone to like you. Confront the people who need confronting
if you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish
living well is the best revenge.

on happiness

“the most important trick to being happy is realizing that happiness is a choice you make and a skill you develop. You choose to be happy, and then you work at it. It’s just like building muscles.”

90% of our thoughts are based on our fears. Which only leaves 10% left for focusing on desire.
Desire is your commitment to being unhappy until you get what you want.
If you spend your day desiring things you don’t have, you’re destined to be disappointed.
So select your desires carefully and only have one big desire at any time to maintain a sense of peace. On the other hand, if you have too many desires at one time, then unhappiness is inevitable.
Having an obsession with yourself is a constant cause of suffering
practice kindness, in which you desire the happiness of others, and in return, you feel happier.
Practice saying the words “I love you” in her mind whenever she meets a stranger before she even talks to them.
- This practice is a way of ensuring that she is not judged negatively. Criticism and negative judgement are a way to feel superior while avoiding introspection.
seeks to be the first to smile at someone and say ‘hello’ - to friends and even strangers.

“Happiness is wanting what you have.”

3 options

when facing a new situation, there are three options: you can change it, accept it, or leave it. It’s essential to choose one of these options and not the terrible fourth option: sitting around, wishing you could change it, but simply accepting it, or wishing you could leave it, but changing it, etc…

Deloading

training hard, then having a de-load week where the volume and intensity reduced significantly. It’s about using this as downtime for the body to recover and prepare for the next intensity period.
Ferriss explains that he’ll batch an intense period of complex and similar tasks such as podcasting, emails, writing blogs and accounting. He’ll then alternate this with scheduled periods of downtime where he can do whatever he wants.
“Deloading blocks must be scheduled and defended more strongly than your business commitments. The former can strengthen and inform the latter, but not vice versa.”

Meditation

meditation practice is typically recommended in the morning routine.
Meditation has been associated with a wide range of physiological and mental benefits, including lower blood pressure, improved cognition and lower levels of anxiety

time management

busy is a sign that your mind is out of control and chaotic
being available and having time for others and yourself means that you are in control of your day and life.
The chronic culture of occupation reflects the lack of priorities and the lack of self-respect.
10 minutes a day is all you need to be efficient, and being busy is not a valid excuse because if you do not have 10 minutes, you do not have a life.

17 questions that changed Ferriss’ life

reality is largely negotiable
if you stress-test the boundaries and experiment with the “impossible,” you’ll quickly discover that most limitations are a fragile collection of socially reinforced rules you can choose to break at any time
What if I did the opposite for 48 hours?
- What if I did the opposite of all the other sales guys for 48 hours?
  - What if I only asked questions instead of pitching
  - what if I studied technical material, so I sounded like an engineer instead of a sales guy?
  - what if I ended my emails with, “I understand if you’re too busy to reply, and thank you for reading this far,”
what do I spend a silly amount of money on? How might I scratch my itch?
What would I do/have/been if I had $10 million? What’s my real TMI (target monthly income)?
- life style costing
what are the worst things that could happen? Could I get back here?
- fear setting
What would I do if I could only work 2 hours per week on my business?
- 80% (or more) of your desired outcomes result from 20&(or less) of your activities and inputs.
- What 20% of customers/products/regions produce 80% of the profit?
- Putting 90% of retail customers on autopilot with simple terms and standardized order processes.
what if I let them make decisions up to $100? $500? $1000?
- To get huge, good things done, you need to be okay with letting the small, bad things happen
- people’s IQs seem to double as soon as you give them responsibility and indicate that you trust them.
What are the least six minor crowded channels?
Imagine if I couldn’t pitch my product directly?
- People don’t like being sold products, but we all want to be told stories.
what if I created my real-world MBA?
- my real-world MBA
do I need to make it back the way I lost it?
What if I could only subtract to solve problems?
- What should we simplify?
- What should I put on my not-to-do list?
What might I put in place to allow me to go off the grid for 4-8 weeks without phone or email?
- It forces you to put systems and policies in place.
- Empower other people with rules and tools, separate the critical few from the trivial many
hunting antelope or field mice?
- Which one of these, if done, would render all the rest either easier or completely irrelevant?
Could it be that everything is fine and complete as is?
- Cultivating more daily appreciation and present state awareness.
- You have to want what you already have.
What would this look like if it were easy?
How can I throw money at this problem? How can I “waste” money to improve the quality of my life?
- If you’ve got enough money to solve the problem, you don’t have the problem
- spend money to earn time as time is non-renewable.
No hurry, no pause.
- You can get 95% of the desired results by calmly putting one foot in front of the other.
- Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.
- Luxury is feeling unrushed. No hurry, no pause.
article from Tim Ferris
- 17 Questions that changed my life

Exercises to try

Write down ten ideas each morning in a notebook. Sample prompts like

10 craziest things I could do
10 old ideas I can make new
10 ridiculous things I would invent
10 books I can write
10 people I can send pictures to.

Focusing on systems rather than short-term goals.

Daily structured gratitude journaling

an old relationship that really helped you or valued highly
an opportunity you have today. Perhaps that’s just an opportunity to call one of your parents or a chance to go to work
something significant that happened yesterday, whether you experienced or witnessed it.
Something simple near you or within sight.

joy of loving-kindness

during the way, randomly identify two people who walk past you or are standing or sitting around you. I secretly wish for them to be happy. “I wish for this person to be happy.”

commit to doing one pushup before bed

write down the 20% of activities and people causing 80% or more of your negative emotions

decision making

tonight or tomorrow morning, think of a decision you’ve been putting off and challenge the fuzzy “what ifs” holding you hostage. If not now, when? If left at the status quo, what will your life and stress look like in 6 months? In 1 year? In 3 years? Who around you will also suffer?

Think about being a ten-year-older version of myself

“what would I probably tell myself as an older version of myself?’ start living by the answers and grow exponentially.

Write two pages of uninterrupted flow to flex the muscle of generating content without judgment.

something you don’t remember
your darkest teacher
the memory of physical injury
when you knew it was over
being loved
what you were thinking
how you found your way back

todo

review https://www.grahammann.net/book-notes/tools-of-titans-tim-ferriss

Quotes

“Learn to confront the challenges of the real world, rather than report to the protective womb of academia.”

“I am a big believer that if you have an obvious vision of where you want to go, the rest of it is much easier.”

“When you’re thinking of how to make your business bigger, it’s tempting to try to think all the big thoughts, the world-changing, massive-action plans. But please know that it’s often the tiny details that thrill someone enough to make them tell all their friends about you.”

“If you would not want to be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.” - Ben Franklin.

“What is the ultimate quantification of success? For me, it’s not how much time you spend doing what you love. It’s how little time you spend doing what you hate.”

“Once we get those muddy, maddening, confusing thoughts [nebulous worries, jitters, and preoccupations] on the page, we face our day with clearer eyes.”

“I have come to learn that part of the business strategy is to solve the simplest, easier, and most valuable problem.”

“So if you’re planning to do something with your life, if you have a 10-year plan of how to get there, you should ask: Why can’t you do this in 6 months?”

There are no actual rules, so make rules that work for you.

“I always advise young people to become good public speakers (top 25%). Anyone can do it with practice. If you add that talent to any other, suddenly you’re the boss of the people who have only have one skill.”

“At the end of the day, who cares? What’s the big deal? I’m here, I’m going to try my best, and I’m going to go home, and my family’s there. Even though my whole world’s wrapped up in this, who cares?”

“Greatness comes from humble beginnings. It comes from grunt work. It means you’re the least important person in the room - until you change that with results. There is an old saying, “say little, do much.”

“Truth is, young creative minds don’t need more ideas. Instead, they need to take more responsibility with the ideas they’ve already got.”

“In reality, long-term travel has nothing to do with demographics - age, ideology, income - and everything to do with personal outlook. Long-term travel isn’t about being a college student - it’s about being a student of daily life. Long-term travel doesn’t require a massive “bundle of cash”; it requires only that we walk through the world more deliberately.”

There is more freedom to be gained from practicing poverty than chasing wealth. Suffer a little regularly, and you often cease to suffer.

Life is not waiting for the storm to pass. Instead, it’s learning how to dance in the rain.

No, Accept reality, but focus on the solution. Take that issue, take that setback, take that problem, and turn it into something good. Go forward. If you’re part of a team, that attitude will spread throughout.

“Ours is a culture where we wear the ability to get by on very little sleep as a kind of badge of honour that symbolizes work ethic, or toughness or some other virtue - but really, it’s a total profound failure of priorities and self-respect.”

“Titans create their own rules, which allow them to transform their reality according to their will.”

“Everyone wants freedom, but few people have the discipline to reach it.”

“overestimate what we can accomplish a day, underestimate what we can accomplish in a year.”

“focus on small daily actions that compound over a long time.”

when in doubt, zoom out.

“it’s scary to put yourself out there, to expose yourself, to become vulnerable, but it makes all the differences. Be a man, woman in the arena. When you let your mind wander in its truly natural state, good things happen.”

want to get unstuck, go for a walk, no phone, no music, no podcast, just you, your thought and the fresh air.

“be deliberate about what you spend your time on and who you spend it with.”

“not matter how far you go, always remember, you didn’t make it on your own, pay it forward, be a mentor, be a champion for others, their growth should be your tremendous source of joy and pride.”

“The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.”

“Productivity is for robots. What humans are going to be good at is asking questions, being creative, and experiencing.”

Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.

judge a person by his/her questions rather than his/her answers.

“my goal for each reader to like 50%, love 25%, and never forget 10%.”

“Success, however you define it, is achievable if you collect the right field-tested beliefs and habits.”

“The superheroes you have in your mind (idols, icons, titans, billionaires, etc…) are nearly all walking flaws who’ve maximized 1 or 2 strengths…; you succeed because you find your unique strengths and focus on developing habits around them.”

I’m not the strongest. I’m not the fastest. But I’m good at suffering.

Everyone fighting a battle that you know nothing about

“Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.”

very often, “our” beliefs are not our own

“borrow liberally, combine uniquely, and create your bespoke blueprint.”

How do I become less competitive in order that I can become more successful?

Tell me something that’s true that very few people agree with you on.