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By Using Money As The Scapegoat And Work As Our All-consuming Routine, We Are Able To Conveniently Disallow Ourselves To Do Otherwise: 'john, I'd Love To Talk About The Gaping Void I Feel In My Life, The Hopelessness That Hits Me Like A Punch In The Eye Every Time I Start My Computer In The Morning, But I Have So Much Work To Do! I've Got At Least Three Hours Of Unimportant Email To Reply To Before Calling Prospects Who Said 'no' Yesterday. Gotta Run!

-Tim Ferriss

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By Using Money As

Tim Ferriss

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By Using Money As The Scapegoat And Work As Our All-consuming Routine, We Are Able To Conveniently Disallow Ourselves To Do Otherwise: 'john, I'd Love To Talk About The Gaping Void I Feel In My Life, The Hopelessness That Hits Me Like A Punch In The Eye Every Time I Start My Computer In The Morning, But I Have So Much Work To Do! I've Got At Least Three Hours Of Unimportant Email To Reply To Before Calling Prospects Who Said 'no' Yesterday. Gotta Run!

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What I Don't Like Is Snark For Snark's Sake. If You Are Going To Make Fun Of Me, At Least Be Witty While Doing It.

The Golden Years Become Lower-middle-class Life Revisited. That's A Bittersweet Ending.

Believe It Or Not, It Is Not Only Possible To Accomplish More By Doing Less, It Is Mandatory. Enter The World Of Elimination.

To Enjoy Life, You Don't Need Fancy Nonsense, But You Do Need To Control Your Time And Realize That Most Things Just Aren't As Serious As You Make Them Out To Be.

There Are Two Synergistic Approaches For Increasing Productivity That Are Inversions Of Each Other: 1. Limit Tasks To The Important To Shorten Work Time (80/20). 2. Shorten Work Time To Limit Tasks To The Important (parkinson's Law). The Best Solution Is To Use Both Together: Identify The Few Critical Tasks That Contribute Most To Income And Schedule Them With Very Short And Clear Deadlines.

What's The Worst That Could Happen?

Online I See People Committing 'social Media Suicide' All The Time By One Of Two Ways. Firstly By Responding To All Criticism, Meaning You're Never Going To Find Time To Complete Important Milestones Of Your Own, And By Responding To Things That Don't Warrant A Response. This Lends More Credibility By Driving Traffic.

Companies That Start By Redesigning The Economics Of An Industry Often Finish By Redesigning The Whole Industry-and Owning It.

It's Very Easy To Confuse Confident Motion With Being Productive - And They're Not The Same Thing. Productive To Me Means Measurable Outcomes That Apply To My Most Important To-dos That Positively Affect My Life. That's It.

There Is Always More Information Than Attention

You And Your Friends Could Plan The Trip Of A Lifetime In 6-18 Months To Visit The Completed School, Teeming With Dozens Or Hundreds Of Students Who Greet You With Smiles And Thank You Letters. You'll Know It's Your School Because Your Names Will Be On The Door.

Doing Less Is Not Being Lazy. Don't Give In To A Culture That Values Personal Sacrifice Over Personal Productivity.

One Can Steal Ideas, But No One Can Steal Execution Or Passion.

Black And White

Ninety-nine Percent Of People Believe They Can't Do Great Things, So They Aim For Mediocrity.

Different Is Better When It Is More Effective Or More Fun.

The Universe Doesn't Conspire Against You, But It Doesn't Go Out Of Its Way To Line Up The Pins Either. Conditions Are Never Perfect.

There Are Two Components That Are Fundamental To Enjoy Life And Feel Good About Yourself: Continual Learning And Service.

Age Doesn't Matter. An Open Mind Does.

Tomorrow Becomes Never. No Matter How Small The Task, Take The First Step Now!

The Book Is First And Foremost Something I Made For Myself.

Which 20% Of Sources Are Causing 80% Of My Problems And Unhappiness? Which 20% Of Sources Are Resulting In 80% Of My Desired Outcomes And Happiness?

I Really Feel Like Knife Skills - Not Just In The Kitchen, But In Life - Are Really Critical.

The First Thing I Would Do For Anyone Who's Trying To Lose Body Fat, For Instance, Would Be To Remove Foods From The House That He Or She Would Consume During Lapses Of Self-control.

It Isn't Enough To Think Outside The Box. Thinking Is Passive. Get Used To Acting Outside The Box.

If You Don't Have Time, The Truth Is, You Don't Have Priorities. Think Harder; Don't Work Harder.

Unbeknownst To Most Fun-loving Bipeds, Not All Stress Is Bad. Indeed, The New Rich Don't Aim To Eliminate All Stress. Not In The Least.

Massive Elimination Is The Most Important Step And The Most Neglected Step For Entrepreneurs.

Most People Are Good At A Handful Of Things And Utterly Miserable At Most.

But You Are The Average Of The Five People You Associate With Most, So Do Not Underestimate The Effects Of Your Pessimistic, Unambitious, Or Disorganized Friends. If Someone Isn't Making You Stronger, They're Making You Weaker.

If We Define Risk As 'the Likelihood Of An Irreversible Negative Outcome,' Inaction Is The Greatest Risk Of All.

But If It's Tolerable Mediocrity, And You're Like, 'well, You Know It Could Be Worse. At Least I'm Getting Paid.' Then You Wind Up In A Job That Is Slowly Killing Your Soul And You're Allowing That To Happen. Comfort Can Be A Very, Very Dangerous Thing.

Pacifists Become Militants. Freedom Fighters Become Tyrants. Blessings Become Curses. Help Becomes Hindrance. More Becomes Less.

I'm Not A Big Believer In Long-term Planning And Far-off Goals. In Fact, I Generally Set 3-month And 6-month Dreamlines. The Variables Change Too Much And In-the-future Distance Becomes An Excuse For Postponing Action.

I Do My Best Writing Between 10 P.m. And 5 A.m.. Almost Every Friend I Have Who Is A Consistently Productive Writer, Does Their Best Writing Between 10 P.m. And 8 A.m. My Quota Is Two Crappy Pages Per Day. I Keep It Really Low So I'm Not So Intimidated That I Never Get Started. I Will Do The Gathering Of Interviews And Research Throughout The Day. I'll Get All My Notes And Materials Together And Then I'll Do The Synthesis Between 10 P.m. To Bed, Which Is Usually 4 Or 5 A.m.

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What Do You Want?' Is Too Imprecise To Produce A Meaningful And Actionable Answer.

People Are Fond Of Using The Its Not What You Know, Its Who You Know Adage As An Excuse For Inaction, As If All Successful People Are Born With Powerful Friends. Nonsense.

I Have Scary Eyes. I Look Like The Guy In 'american History X,' Yes. I Remember Coming Home From School And Asking My Mum If I Could Get An Eye Transplant, And Of Course She Declined.

You Can Lose Money And Make It Back, You Can't Do That With Time.

If You Are Insecure, Guess What? The Rest Of The World Is, Too.

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I'll Repeat Something You Might Consider Tattooing On Your Forehead: What We Fear Doing Most Is Usually What We Most Need To Do.

The Way That You Become World-class Is... By Asking Good Questions.

One Of The Bigger Misconceptions Of Learning Is That Many Skills Take A Lifetime To Get World-class At, Or 10,000 Hours To Become World-class At.

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The Blind Quest For Cash Is A Fool's Errand.

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Sometimes You Need To Go On A Low-information Diet.

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Are You Better Off Than You Were One Year Ago, One Month Ago, Or One Week Ago? If Not, Things Will Not Improve By Themselves.

Language Learning Deserves Special Mention. It Is, Bar None, The Best Thing You Can Do To Hone Clear Thinking.

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Think Big And Don't Listen To People Who Tell You It Can't Be Done. Life's Too Short To Think Small.

Personal Branding Is About Managing Your Name - Even If You Don't Own A Business - In A World Of Misinformation, Disinformation, And Semi-permanent Google Records. Going On A Date? Chances Are That Your "blind" Date Has Googled Your Name. Going To A Job Interview? Ditto.

For Most People, Life Would Be Boring Without Meaningful Work.

I Do Not Equate Productivity To Happiness. For Most People, Happiness In Life Is A Massive Amount Of Achievement Plus A Massive Amount Of Appreciation. And You Need Both Of Those Things.

The Way We Measure Productivity Is Flawed. People Checking Their Blackberry Over Dinner Is Not The Measure Of Productivity.

For Uncommon Solutions, You Have To Look In Uncommon Places.

A Recession Is Very Bad For Publicly Traded Companies, But It's The Best Time For Startups. When You Have Massive Layoffs, There's More Competition For Available Jobs, Which Means That An Entrepreneur Can Hire Freelancers At A Lower Cost.

I've Seen The Promised Land, And There Is Good News. You Can Have It All.

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People Feel Personally Slighted If You Don't Respond To Them In 30 Seconds And Treat Email As Instant Messenger.

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Alternating Periods Of Activity And Rest Is Necessary To Survive, Let Alone Thrive. Capacity, Interest, And Mental Endurance All Wax And Wane. Plan Accordingly.

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Money Is Multiplied In Practical Value Depending On The Number Of W's You Control In Your Life: What You Do, When You Do It, Where You Do It, And With Whom You Do It.

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If The Challenge We Face Doesn't Scare Us, Then It's Probably Not That Important.

Three Ingredients Of Luxury Lifestyle Design Are Time, Income, And Mobility.

Writing Is Thought Crystalized On A Piece Of Paper, Which Can Then Be Reviewed.

Happiness Can Be Bought With A Bottle Of Wine And Has Become Ambiguous Through Overuse.

Bottles Of Wine

Slow Down And Remember This: Most Things Make No Difference. Being Busy Is A Form Of Mental Laziness-lazy Thinking And Indiscriminate Action.

At Least Three Time Per Day At Scheduled Times, He Had To Ask Himself The Following Question: Am I Being Productive Or Just Active? Charney Captured The Essence Of This With Less-abstract Wording: Am I Inventing Things To Do To Avoid The Important? He Eliminated All Of The Activities He Used As Crutches And Began To Focus On Demonstrating Results Instead Of Showing Dedication. Dedication Is Often Just Meaningless Work In Disguise. Be Ruthless And Cut The Fat.

I Encourage Active Skepticism - When People Are Being Skeptical Because They're Trying To Identify The Best Course Of Action. They're Trying To Identify The Next Step For Themselves Or Other People.

At Its Core, I Don't View Facebook As A Social Network. I Think It Could Become The Driver's License Of The Internet. And Beyond That, It Can Become The Pipes And The Plumbing Upon What Most Of The Internet Is Built. I Think It's Very Well Positioned.

Remember—boredom Is The Enemy, Not Some Abstract "failure.

Sports Just Happen To Be Excellent For Avoiding Foreign-language Stage Fright And Developing Lasting Friendships While Still Sounding Like Tarzan.

The Best Entrepreneurs I've Ever Met Are All Good Communicators. It's Perhaps One Of The Very Few Unifying Factors.

What We Fear Doing Most Is Usually What We Most Need To Do.

Doing Something Unimportant Well Does Not Make It Important.

Poisonous People Do Not Deserve Your Time. To Think Otherwise Is Masochistic.

Doing The Unrealistic Is Easier Than Doing The Realistic.

The Fishing Is Best Where The Fewest Go. There Is Just Less Competition For Bigger Goals.

Nothing Can Match The Wonderment That Comes From Staring Up Into The Star-filled Canopy Above And Realizing That You Are A Part Of That Creation.

After Decades Of Hauling Telescopes Around In The Back Of Vans And Going Up To High Altitude Locations And So Forth, I Did Finally Build An Observatory, Here On Sonoma Mountain.

If It's Important To You And You Want To Do It 'eventually', Just Do It And Correct Course Along The Way.

I Didn't Even Like White Wine. Then I Tasted It And Bought A Case. It Was The First Case Of Any Wine I'd Ever Bought.

I Still Feel There Are Much Smarter Self-promoters Out There Than Me. I Am Very Methodical About My Messaging, And I Know How To Gain Attention Very Quickly.

Perfection Is An Impossible Destination

Learn The Art Of The Pitch And Of Messaging.

Do Not Expect Work To Fill A Void That Non-work Relationships And Activities Should Work Is Not All Of Life. Your Co-workers Shouldn't Be Your Only Friends. Schedule Life And Defend It Just As You Would An Important Business Meeting. Never Tell Yourself "i'll Just Get It Done This Weekend."

Short, Sweet, And To The Point. Clear Writing, And Therefore Clear Commands, Comes From Clear Thinking. Think Simple.

I Will Take As A Given That, For Most People, Somewhere Between Six And Seven Billion Of Them, The Perfect Job Is The One That Takes The Least Time.

Don’t Follow A Model That Doesn't Work. If The Recipe Sucks, It Doesn't Matter How Good A Cook You Are.

There Are Tons Of Things In Your Home And Life That You Don't Use, Need, Or Even Particularly Want. They Just Came Into Your Life As Impulsive Flotsam And Jetsam And Never Found A Good Exit. Whether You're Aware Of It Or Not, This Clutter Creates Indecision And Distractions.

Lacking An External Focus, The Mind Turns Inward On Itself And Creates Problems To Solve, Even If The Problems Are Undefined Or Unimportant. If You Find A Focus, An Ambitious Goal That Seems Impossible And Forces You To Grow, These Doubts Disappear.

I Take Notes Like Some People Take Drugs.

Having A Size 9 Foot Is Fantastic Because Almost All Of The Shoe Companies Do Their Prototyping In Size 9, So If You Visit A Place Like Nike Headquarters, You Can Try Every Sort Of Wacky, Out-there Model.

The Least-crowded Channel For Meeting High Profile Bloggers Is In Person. Email Is The Most Difficult, The Most Crowded... I'm A Top 1,000 Blogger, Not A Top 100 Blogger, And I Get Hundreds Of Pitches By Email Every Week. Most Of Them I Don't Even See Because My Assistant Declines Them.

Most People Can Do Absolutely Awe-inspiring Things. Sometimes They Just Need A Little Nudge.

The Decent Method You Follow Is Better Than The Perfect Method You Quit.

Get Good At Being A Troublemaker And Saying Sorry When You Really Screw Up

If Someone's Criticism Is Completely Unfounded On Data, Then I Don't Want To Hear It. It Doesn't Hold Up To Scrutiny.

Just Because You Are Embarrassed To Admit That You're Still Living The Consequences Of Bad Decisions Made 5, 10, 20 Years Ago Shouldn't Stop You From Making Good Decisions Now. If You Let Pride Stop You, You Will Hate Life 5, 10, And 20 Years From Now For The Same Reasons.

I Think Willpower Is Very Valuable.

When You Try To Do Something Big Its Hard To Fail Completely.

Learn To Be Difficult When It Counts. In School As In Life, Having A Reputation For Being Assertive Will Help You Receive Preferential Treatment Without Having To Beg Or Fight For It Every Time.

The Truth Is That Since The First Book, I Have Wanted To Emulate Benjamin Franklin And Put Together A Healthy, Wealthy And Wise Trilogy And So Healthy Was 'the 4-hour Body,' Wealthy Was 'the 4-hour Workweek' And Then Wise Is 'the 4-hour Chef.'

Focus On Impact, Not Approval. If You Believe You Can Change The World, Which I Hope You Do, Do What You Believe Is Right And Expect Resistance And Expect Attackers. Keep Calm And Carry On!

The Key To Having More Time Is Doing Less, And There Are Two Paths To Get There, Both Of Which Should Be Used Together: (1) Define A Short To-do List And (2) Define A Not-to-do List.

The Best Way To Improve Mental Performance, Is To Improve Physical Performance

The Opposite Of Love Is Indifference, And The Opposite Of Happiness Is Boredom.

People Are Smarter Than You Think. Give Them A Chance To Prove Themselves.

Changing The World Doesn't Require Much Money. Again, Think In Terms Of Empowerment And Not Charity. How Much Were Gandhi's Teachers Paid? How Much Did It Cost To Give Dr. Martin Luther King The Books That Catalyzed His Mind And Actions?

I'm Prepared To Do Battle For A Dream That Is Worth Dreaming.

Work Is An Activity That Is Financially-driven Or One That You'd Like To Do Less Of.

To Do The Impossible, You Need To Ignore The Popular.

Money Doesn't Change You; It Reveals Who You Are When You No Longer Have To Be Nice.

Excitement Is The More Practical Synonym For Happiness, And It Is Precisely What You Should Strive To Chase. It Is The Cure-all.

Just A Few Words On Time Management: Forget All About It.

It Is Far More Lucrative And Fun To Leverage Your Strengths Instead Of Attempting To Fix All The Chinks In Your Armor. The Choice Is Between Multiplication Of Results Using Strenths Or Incremental Improvement Fixing Weaknesses That Will, At Best, Become Mediocre. Focus On Better Use Of Your Best Weapons Instead Of Constant Repair.

In All Cases Where Doubt Crops Up, Ask Yourself, "if I Had A Gun To My Head And Had To Do It, How Would I Do It?" It's Not As Hard As You Think.

Slowing Down Doesn't Mean Accomplishing Less; It Means Cutting Out Counterproductive Distractions And The Perception Of Being Rushed.

Creating Demand Is Hard. Filling Demand Is Easier. Don't Create A Product, Then Seek Someone To Sell It To. Find A Market - Define Your Customers - Then Find Or Develop A Product For Them.

For The Employee, The Goal Is To Have Full Access To Necessary Information And As Much Independent Decision-making Ability As Possible. For The Entrepreneur, The Goal Is To Grant As Much Information And Independent Decision-making Ability To Employees Or Contractors As Possible.

Just Because Something Has Been A Lot Of Work Or Consumed A Lot Of Time Doesn't Make It Productive Or Worthwhile.

The Goal Is Not To Simply Eliminate The Bad, Which Does Nothing More Than Leave You With A Vacuum, But To Pursue And Experience The Best In The World.

There Are Two Types Of Mistakes: Mistakes Of Ambition And Mistakes Of Sloth.

People Frequently Fail When They Try To Do Everything At Once. They Approach A Massive Project And Quickly Get Discouraged. Taking Small, But High-value Steps Takes Less Time, And You Learn More In The Long Run.

Personally, I Now Aim For One Month Of Overseas Relocation Or High-intensity Learning (tango, Fighting, Whatever) For Every Two Months Of Work Projects.

$1,000,000 In The Bank Isn't The Fantasy. The Fantasy Is The Lifestyle Of Complete Freedom It Supposedly Allows.

The Brain Is Where Most People Really Screw Up.

An Entrepreneur Isn't Someone Who Owns A Business, It's Someone Who Makes Things Happen.

Make Things Happen

Effectiveness Is Doing The Things That Get You Closer To Your Goals. Efficiency Is Performing A Given Task (whether Important Or Not) In The Most Economical Manner Possible. Being Efficient Without Regard To Effectiveness Is The Default Mode Of The Universe.

Do Not Overestimate The Competition And Underestimate Yourself. You Are Better Than You Think.

Self Confidence

I'm Not Averse To Making A Lot Of Money. But Where Does That End? I Hang Out With People With Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars. Is That The Standard By Which I Should Measure Myself? Where Does That Take You If You're In My Business? I Think It Takes You To Pretty Dark, Corrupt Places.

When You Elevate The Heels More So Than You Elevate The Sole Of The Foot, You Trigger A Cascade Of Compensations In The Knees And Hips That Cause Tight Hip Flexors, And Then Those Hip Flexors Cause Lower-back Pain.

I Have Plenty Of Money To Do What I Want To Do, And I Have The Relationships.

Relative Income Uses Two Variables: The Dollar And Time, Usually Hours.

Many A False Step Was Made By Standing Still.

Being Called A Huckster And A Charlatan Started Several Years Ago, So That's Something I'm Accustomed To. In Most Cases, It Doesn't Bother Me.

Luxury, To Me, Is Not Owning A Lot Of Stuff. Luxury, To Me, Is Feeling Unrushed.

Never Check Email First Thing In The Morning. Instead, Complete Your Most Important Task Before 11:00 A.m. To Avoid Using Lunch Or Reading Email As A Postponement Excuse.

As Far As Income Goes, There Are Three Currencies In The World; Most People Ignore Two. The Three Currencies Are Time, Income And Mobility, In Descending Order Of Importance. Most People Focus Exclusively On Income.

The Question You Should Be Asking Isn't, "what Do I Want?" Or "what Are My Goals?" But "what Would Excite Me?

You Don't Have To Travel, But I Find Extended Travel To Be A Helpful Tool For Reexamining Yourself And The Constraints You've Artificially Placed On Your Life. It's Easy To Believe Everything Has To Be Done One Way If You're Always In One Place Around The Same People.

To Make A Bestseller, There Are More Customers Than Just Your Customers: Selling To The End-user Is Just One Piece Of The Puzzle. In My Case, I Needed To First Sell Myself To The Publisher To Get Marketing Support And National Retail Distribution.

Being Able To Quit Things That Don't Work Is Integral To Being A Winner

There Is An Infinite Selection Of Things That I Could Test In Life, So I Generally Will Look For A Critical Mass Of Word That Comes Back To Me. At This Point I Have Hundreds Of Friends Who Are The Best At What They Do, Arguably Number One In The Country Or In The World. I Will Oftentimes Just Kind Of Throw A Volley Out To People, Ask Them What They're Obsessing On Or What They Find Interesting That's On The Fringe. If The Same Answer Comes Back A Few Times, I'm Like, "okay."

Awareness, Even At A Subconscious Level, Beats Fancy Checklists Without It, Track Or You Will Fail.

There Is A Direct Correlation Between Am Increased Sphere Of Comfort And Getting What You Want.

Getting What You Want

The Biggest Misconception About Work Is That You Need To Spend The Majority Of Your Time Doing It.

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