Q&A with Tim — How to Live with Urgency, Find Joy, and Fight Complacency (#778)

Welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show, where it is usually my job to sit down with world-class performers of all different types to tease out the habits, routines, favorite books, and so on that you can apply and test in your own life. 

This time, we have a slightly different format, and I’m the guest! 

As some of you know, I tested a “fan-supported model” in 2019, but I ended up returning to ads by request. That’s a long story, and you can read more about it at tim.blog/podcastexperiment. I recently sat down on Zoom with some of the supporters, which is the episode you are about to hear. 

I answer questions on how I’ve changed my mind around parenthood, what’s next for me and how I am thinking about next steps, how I find joy, how to live with urgency, my advice for career reinvention in the age of AI, avoiding complacency and ruts, and much, much more.

Please enjoy!

This episode is brought to you by Ramp easy-to-use corporate cards, bill payments, accounting, and more; Helix Sleep premium mattresses; and AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, or on your favorite podcast platform.

This episode is brought to you by Ramp! Ramp is corporate card- and spend-management software designed to help you save time and put money back in your pocket. Ramp has already saved more than 25,000 customers—including other podcast sponsors like Shopify and Eight Sleep—more than 10 million hours and more than $1 billion through better financial management of their corporate spending.

With Ramp, you’re able to issue cards to every employee with limits and restrictions and automate expense reporting, allowing you to close your books 8x faster on average. Your employees will no longer need to spend hours submitting expense reports. In less than 15 minutes, you can get started issuing virtual and physical cards and making payments, whether you have 5 employees or 5,000. Businesses that use Ramp save an average of 5% on total card spending and related expenses in the first year. And now, you can get $250 when you join Ramp. Just go to ramp.com/Tim.

This episode is brought to you by AG1! I get asked all the time, “If you could use only one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually AG1, my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body in 2010 and did not get paid to do so. I do my best with nutrient-dense meals, of course, but AG1 further covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system. 

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This episode is brought to you by Helix Sleep! Helix was selected as the best overall mattress of 2024 by Forbes, Fortune, and Wired magazines and many others. With Helix, there’s a specific mattress to meet each and every body’s unique comfort needs. Just take their quiz—only two minutes to complete—that matches your body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress for you. They have a 10-year warranty, and you get to try it out for a hundred nights, risk-free. They’ll even pick it up from you if you don’t love it. And now, Helix is offering 20% off all mattress orders at HelixSleep.com/Tim.

Want to hear my last Q&A? Have a listen here, where I discuss reinvention, optimization, intriguing investments, modern dating, personal heresies, taking a barbell distribution approach to life, cheap but choice art, making room for the irrational, workout routines for older parents, music I like, and much more.

What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

• Should I Have Kids: Six Tips to Help You Decide If You Want to Start a Family | Vox
• Keep Your Identity Small | Paul Graham
• Why You Should Care About Many Things | Mark Manson
• The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss | Amazon
• The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman by Timothy Ferriss | Amazon
• A Fictional World Built for These Chaotic Times | The Legend of CØCKPUNCH
• The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics by Dennis O’Neil | Amazon
• New York Comic Con | NYCC
• Masterpieces of Fantasy Art by Dian Hanson | Amazon
• Funding Cutting-Edge Scientific Research | Saisei Foundation
• Are NFTs Dead? Exploring the Rise and Fall | Trakx
• The World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game | Dungeons & Dragons
• The World’s Premier Trading Card Game | Magic: The Gathering
• Ranger Tim Takes Aim | Kevin Rose, Instagram
• Definition of Backcountry Skiing, Slackcountry, Sidecountry, and Off Piste | The Backcountry Ski Touring Blog
• Steven Rinella on Hunting (And Why You Should Care), Reconnecting with Nature, Favorite Trips, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #470
• The Art of Prompts — Asking the Right Questions to ChatGPT | Devon Geography
• Inside the Actors Studio | Bravo TV
• Fresh Air | NPR
• Tame Your Work, Organize Your Life | Evernote
• Your Connected Workspace for Wiki, Docs, and Projects | Notion
• The Five-Minute Journal | Amazon
• Sabbatical: Definition and How It Works | Investopedia
• The Random Show — Lessons from Tim’s Sabbatical, Alzheimer’s Breakthroughs, Kevin Tries a Medium, Fitness Tools and Protocols, Book Recommendations, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #766
• Daniel Day-Lewis Ends Seven-Year Retirement to Act in His Son’s Film | NPR
• What Are Hungry Ghosts? | Lion’s Roar
• Kurt Vonnegut on the Secret of Happiness: An Homage to Joseph Heller’s Wisdom | The Marginalian
• My Healing Journey After Childhood Abuse (Includes Extensive Resource List) | The Tim Ferriss Show #464
• Delicious Brews for Discerning Cocks | CØCKPUNCH Coffee
• How Five Different Religions Deal with Grief | Refinery29
• On Grief and Grieving by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and David Kessler | Amazon
• Dr. Peter Attia — The Science and Art of Longevity, Optimizing Protein, Alcohol Rules, Lessons from Glucose Monitoring with CGMs, Boosting Your VO2 Max, Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease, Early Cancer Detection, How to Use DEXA Scans, Nature’s Longevity Drug, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #661
• From Life Span to Health Span | Harvard Medical School
• Act Now, Live Longer | Biograph
• 10 Health and Performance Benefits of Creatine | Healthline
• Peter Attia Dives Deep on Statins (Side Effects and the Best Alternatives) | FoundMyFitness
• The Effects of Microplastics on Your Health and How to Reduce Them | Huberman Lab
• Optimize Your Water Quality and Intake for Health | Huberman Lab
• Magic Pill — Johann Hari and the New “Miracle” Weight-Loss Drugs | Tim Ferriss
• No Biological Free Lunches | Tim Ferriss
• Handmade Art You Can Use Every Day | Joel Cherrico Pottery
• Dewey Stuart (1898-1910) | Find a Grave Memorial
• The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin | Amazon
• Rick Rubin, Legendary Producer — Timeless Methods for Unlocking Creativity, Secrets Hidden in Plain Sight, The Future with AI, Helpful Distractions, Working with Strong Personalities, Breaking Out of “The Sameness,” and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #649
• Quote by E.L. Doctorow: “Writing Is Like Driving at Night…” | Goodreads
• Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien | Amazon
• Explore Tolkien’s Oxford with Guide Rob Walters | Paseos Guiados
• The Stages of the Hero’s Journey | Stuart Voytilla
• Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope | Prime Video
• Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card | Amazon
• The Legend of CØCKPUNCH Podcast
• Arcane: League of Legends | Netflix
• Arcane: Bridging the Rift | League of Legends
• Katana | Wikipedia
• Stratocaster: The World’s Greatest Electric Guitar | Fender
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) | Cleveland Clinic
• Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality by Anthony de Mello | Amazon
• Zen Master Henry Shukman — 20 Minutes of Calm, Plus the Strange and Powerful World of Koans | The Tim Ferriss Show #560
• Henry Shukman — Zen, Tools for Awakening, Ayahuasca vs. Meditation, Intro to Koans, and Using Wounds as the Doorway | The Tim Ferriss Show #531
• Meditation Training Program | The Way
• Fear-Setting: The Most Valuable Exercise I Do Every Month | Tim Ferriss
• Future-Proof Your Career: AI-Resilient Job Strategies | Horton International

SHOW NOTES

• [00:05:09] Q&A format and ground rules.
• [00:05:35] My shift in perspective on parenting and fatherhood.
• [00:08:14] New creative directions: games, comics, animation.
• [00:10:30] Identity diversification.
• [00:18:01] Simple pleasures: outdoor activities, meditation, archery.
• [00:23:21] Using AI to keep questioning fresh and relevant.
• [00:27:12] Breaking through periods of feeling unsuccessful.
• [00:35:25] Exploring the fringes and growing personally over the past decade.
• [00:44:52] Longevity protocols and handling grief.
• [00:53:41] Coping with the loss of a pet.
• [00:55:00] Ecstatic creativity à la Rick Rubin and CØCKPUNCH.
• [01:03:37] Physiological awareness and self-regulation.
• [01:08:48] Finding career relevance in an AI-transformed landscape.
• [01:16:48] Parting thoughts.

PEOPLE MENTIONED

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The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for “Best of Apple Podcasts” three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it’s been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.