Tim Ferriss
Tim Ferriss is the father of my deep interest in self-development and I strongly recommend his work for everyone who is starting out on their own journey.
I read the "4-Hour Work Week" at some point in the past and stumbled across his name again in 2014 as the host one of the leading podcasts on iTunes:
The Tim Ferriss - Show
It's a long-form interview podcast with top performers from all walks of life.
One of the reasons he started the podcast was that he wanted to learn what made all these great people great.
And that's what he thoroughly works out in each of his interviews.
I started listening to his then-current episodes and worked my way back through his archives whenever I was waiting for a new episode.
This gave me a lot of practical knowledge on how people think about the world and how they solve the problems they are facing. I also never thought how much successful people actually struggle themselves. They just never let that stop them.
Certain themes were evident across experts from various domains. So I tried out most of these things, kept what worked and discarded what didn't.
It also gave me ideas for transferring concepts to my own life. I tried out those as well and - once again - kept what worked and discarded what didn't.This method of A/B-testing things in your own life is actually one of these concepts.
And I also heard from all people or books I list here from his show, directly or indirectly.
That's why he is the father of my self-development journey and I can't thank him enough for that. I paid him for 2 books of his and with a weekly addition of 1 to the immense download numbers of his podcasts. And he gave me all that in exchange...fucking great deal!
I love his latest book "Tools of Titans". It's a summary of 300 podcast interviews where Tim extracted the most valuable lessons he learned from each guest and presents them in an individual chapter. This book allows you to study the most important points from 500+ hours of podcasts in a fraction of the time. It's a must-read for everyone interested in self development and improvement.
Here are a couple more links to Tim's creations:
- Tim's Website
- 5-Bullet-Friday - his free weekly newsletter featuring 5 items he wants to share with his audience
- Tim's TV Shows Fear{less} and The Tim Ferriss Experiment
- Causes he believes in and supports
- "The 4-Hour-Chef" - A book on learning disguised as a cookbook
- "The 4-Hour-Body" - A book to get in shape with minimal time investment
- Introduction to Kettlebell Swings - An exercise I do since 2 years with great effects