Tools of Titans - Tim Ferriss - Review

Tim Ferris is an American entrepreneur, investor, podcaster and author of the well known book series, 4 hour work week, 4 hour body and 4 hour chef, all of them are aimed at lifestyle optimizations. On top of all the books his podcasts boasts of incredible depth with a range of personalities giving their interviews. (Do check out Tim Ferriss podcasts here)

At the outset, tools of titans is intense and voluminous to an extent wherein a reader will easily need multiple readings to get the full essence of it. The structure of the books isn’t formal and Tim has taken liberties on how he wanted to present the storyline. The idea is to land the concept in a straight-forward fashion rather than beating around the bush.

As mentioned earlier, the author is known for his podcasts while he has picked up 102 high performance individuals for his book. Tim categorizes these individuals into healthy, wealthy and wise based on their domain experience, achievements and the kind of conversations that opens up with them. A brief description along with the accomplishments of each personality is given, followed up with a bunch of standard questions and the chapter ends with tools or approaches the respective individual recommend. 

The recommendations are widespread, ranging from how to keep your focus high, tools to improve one’s productivity, techniques to increase max capacity in compound workouts and finally an approach to live a fulfilled life. 

There are a few therapy that are worth exploring and I have mentioned that one’s I liked. 

Post Traumatic Stress / Sleep disorder

Tetris has been found to be a therapy to overcome insomnia and has properties that can overwrite negative visualizations. It has proven to have such a large positive impact that post traumatic stress disorder can be cured by just playing the game consistently. I believe a lot of people reading this content would like to try this method out. 

Soul touching or fulfilment practice

Pick a complete stranger who stays close to you and wish him to be happy. It has to be performed with genuine intent and those who did, found the change over to be soul touching. 

Equine therapy

A horse is made completely free of it’s bridle and the task in hand is to take the horse from one corner of the ground to the other end without using any food, tools or equipment. Basically, one should learn to communicate to the horse with intension, win it’s trust and cross over to the other side. This experience is found to be therapeutic as it open us up from within in the course of forming a relationship with the horse. 

Ultimate leadership narratives

When Rome was on the verge of getting annihilated, the leaders called upon Cincinnatus to take charge, win the war and get the country in order. He was farming till then and took over the top leadership role reluctantly. But once he had accepted, there was complete commitment in taking charge of the army and led them to win the war by bringing all his countrymen together. Once the mission was accomplished, he gave up the emperor role and quietly went back to farming.

Such dispassion and lack of desire towards power despite full access to it, turns out to be a mindset that’s unheard of. He saved Rome not once but twice and gave up the leadership role on both the occasions post getting the country in order. 

Another example of exemplary mindset is the well known South African President - Nelson Mandela. Post his jail term, an interviewer asked how did he survive all the years in jail, for which NM replied “I didn’t survive, I prepared.”

Concept – ‘Reticular activation’

The reason why affirmations are effective is due to the brain setting up filters or hooks to catch only wavelengths that’s of interest to the respective person. Our brain can never process all the noise or information around us but it can be fine tuned to pick the ones that matter the most. 

An example is to consider a scenario wherein there is noise everywhere but amidst all the chaos someone calls out your name, will you not turn around? This is how affirmations work as well and that’s what TF terms as reticular activation. 

Micro dosing LSD

There are regions that I wouldn’t normally consider trying out. Like Albert Hofmann, inventor of LSD, considers micro dosing as the most neglected area in research. He has micro dosed LSD in the last few decades of his lifetime which enabled him to remain sharp till the age 101. 

Acting Vs Waiting – Special forces. 

The shift in mindset is reflected in how we prepare for our life. The general public can be found to be in a calm state of mind during absence of war but for the special forces these are tense moments as they are constantly trying the anticipate the unknown. However, the first sign of war brings down their cortisol levels there by exhibiting a calm state of mind while the general public can found to be in panic mode. 

The reason points to how one prepares for different life events and therefore throwing up contrary reactions to the exact same situations. 

Innovation to beat competition

In 1952, Hiroji Satoh was considered the worst player amongst the Japanese team. However, he made a small innovation that helped him dominate table tennis tournaments for the next few years. He glued two foam expanses on both sides of the table tennis bat that completely cut out the sound that emerged whenever the ball strikes it. This meant that the opponent player had no cue sound to pick up the timing and intensity of the shot. 

This enabled Hiroji to emerge as the unexpected champion of the international tournament and dominated the scene for the next few years. 

Picking out some of the outstanding quotes mentioned in the book:

• “When it comes to future, it’s far more important to be imaginative than be right”

• “We do not rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.”

• “It’s always the hard part that creates value.”

• “Amateurs built the ark while professionals built the titanic.”

• “Wisdom in life consists of elimination of the non-essentials.”

• “Earthquake delivers what the law promises – Equality of men!”

• “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”

• “A person’s success can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have.”

• “You can’t reason someone out of something when they didn’t reason themselves in.”

On the flip side, the entire volume of the book is unlikely to be relevant or even resonate concurrently with the respective reader. There are large sections that discussed Ayahuasca and Psychedelic use cases which was something far away from my life’s direction and hence a drag. So, feel free to skip them and move on to the next chapter. 

Overall, tools of titans is an outstanding book to read and is highly recommended.