Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers

By Tim Ferriss

    Warning: Very long

    Tim Ferriss, the host of a show named after him, has interviewed more than 100 famous people on his show to learn what they do and how they achieved world-class performance. He has condensed hundreds of thousands of hours of interviews down to no less than 736 pages in hopes of helping others with tips from "titans".

    In the introduction, Ferriss explains that all these people have certain characteristics in common. They ask the big questions and have uncommon habits. They believe failure is unsustainable and maximize strengths to compensate for weaknesses.

    Part 1: Healthy

    Amelia Boone: Boone is one of the world's most decorated obstacle course racers. She has amassed over 30 victories and won a championship 8 weeks after knee surgery. In addition, she is a full-time attorney and does some ultra running. Some tactics she employs are hydrolyzed gelatin with beetroot powder, a rumble roller (foam roller with protruding sections), dry needling, and saunas.

    Rhonda Perciavalle Patrick, Ph.D.: She has done research on aging, cancer, mitochondrial metabolism, and apoptosis. She recently published a paper on vitamin D regulation of serotonin in the brain. In her interview, Dr. Partick talked about stem cells, which can be stored from baby teeth and wisdom teeth for later in life. In addition, hyperthermic conditioning, or calculated heat exposure can increase growth hormones and improve endurance.

    Christopher Sommer: He is a former U.S. National Team gymnastics coach and founder of GymnasticBodies. His 40 years of observing top athletes allowed him to create the Gymnastics Strenght Training (GST). Here are some of the things he has learned. You should always work on the deficiencies you are most embarrassed by because it is the only way they will get better. Mobility, or strength through an entire range of motion, is better than flexibility. Consistency is better than sporadic intense training. The book also includes a variety of exercises, including the QL Walk, Ring Turn Out, Hinge Rows, and Ag Walk (Google it).

    Dominic D'Agostino: He is an associate professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine. His specialty is metabolic therapies, including ketone, which is what is described in this chapter. A ketogenic diet is a high-fat diet that mimics fasting, causing your body to use ketones for energy instead of glucose. This induces ketosis, which can be measured at less than 0.5 mmol of BHB in your blood. Ketosis can help you lose fat, prevent cancer, use oxygen better, and increase strength.

    Patrick Arnold: Arnold is considered the "father of prohormones". He created the steroid THG and several others. Today, he is innovating ketone supplementation. Some legal performance enhancers that he finds useful are ursolic acid spray, which helps with body recomposition, exogenous ketone drinks for workouts, and metformin for antiaging.

    Joe De Sena: He is the co-founder of the Death Race, Spartan Race, and several others. He has competed in a variety of grueling marathons and races and is also a strategic businessman. He started participating in insane competition events while working on Wall Street to get away from the hectic life there and created the Death Race in order to break people by making them do things they had never done before.

    Wim "The Iceman" Hof: He is a Dutch world record holder with more than 20 total. His world records are related to extreme temperatures, hence the nickname "Iceman". Cold exposure can, in fact, be used to improve immune function, increase fat loss, and elevate mood. 

    Jason Nemer: Nemer is the creator of AcroYoga, which blends yoga, Thai massage, and acrobatics. AcroYoga requires two people, a base and a flyer, and they do what it sounds like. The base is usually more experienced and supports the flier.

    Dr. Peter Attia: He is a former ultra-endurance athlete, and has conducted research on immune-based therapies for cancer at the National Cancer Institute. He often enters ketosis like the author, and he utilizes glute medius workouts to strengthen his lateral stability. It is surprisingly difficult, and he calls it the reverse thigh master. 5 blood tests he generally recommends are the APOE genotype, LDL particle number via NMR, the Lp(a) via NMR, OGTT, and IFG-1.

    Justin Mager, MD: Dr. Mager has helped the author with many experiments, and he believes that people should look and care about themselves more often. With blood tests, they are just a snapshot of one moment, which does not reflect you as a person. Also, context matters when are "optimizing", so you have to understand what a test is actually supposed to show you.

    Charles Poliquin: He is one of the best-known strength coaches in the world. He has trained gold medalists and all-stars in a variety of sports. One important thing he has learned is that your carbs need to be earned. To deserve carbs after a workout, you need to have sub-10% body fat or vertical separation in your abs. Another thing he has found is that to increase testosterone, cortisol needs to go down because they both require the same raw materials. When your body is stressed, it produces more cortisol, reducing testosterone. 

    Pavel Tsatsouline: He is chairman of STrongFirst, Inc., a former physical training instructor for the Soviet special forces, and currently a subject matter expert to a variety of U.S. military branches. He usually has a simple breakfast of only coffee. His specialty is kettlebell workouts, and two good warmups are halos and cossack squats. A full exercise might include a one-arm swing, Turkish get-up, and a goblet squat.

    Laird Hamilton, Gabby Reece, and Brian MacKenzie: Hamilton is regarded as one of the best surfers of all time. Reece is a successful volleyball player, and MacKenzie is the founder of CrossFit Endurance. He challenges distance running and favors a more minimalist approach. The three of them also hold workouts that involve getting in the pool with dumbbells, then going from an ice bath to a sauna. They say you should learn to be assertive and go first.

    James Fadiman: He has been involved with psychedelic research since the 1960s. He is often referred to as America's most respected authority on psychedelics. Please note that many psychedelics are considered illegal, and also have toxins if taken in high doses. Psychedelics essentially generate expressions of the psyche on levels not normally observable. They have been used by indigenous cultures for years to treat depression, remove anxiety, end anxiety, and more. Many psychedelics resemble a molecule called DMT and act as the naturally occurring serotonin. In any case, all of them should be administered in the presence of someone who can guide you and be used in safe doses.

    Martin Polanco and Dan Engle: Polanco is the founder of Crossroads Treatment Center, which specializes in conquering powerful addictions. Engle is board-certified in psychiatry and neurology. He has researched traumatic brain injury and plant medicines. One type of psychedelic is ayahuasca. It is one of the "safer" ones, but spiritually, it is the equivalent of a brain surgeon. Afterward, you will be very open, and done properly, it can be a corrective experience. Ibogaine is a very strong psychedelic that has been used in Africa to treat addictions. It can be deadly for some people, and is definitely too strong for people who just want to explore the psychedelic experience.

    Kelly Starrett: He is a performance coach who has trained CrossFit athletes and various world-class athletes. He likes to drink as little water as possible, usually with a little bit of salt, because while dehydration usually is not a risk, low sodium concentrations in the blood are an issue. A good test for mobility is the campfire squat test, and if you can't squat all the way down, you are missing full hip and ankle motion. The overhead squat is a good solution. He is a proponent of good sleep habits.

    Paul Levesque: He is popularly known as Triple H, a 14-time world champion in WWE. His tip for avoiding jet lag is to do a quick workout as soon as you can after you get off the plane, because it helps reset your mind. In terms of goal setting, if you really want to achieve something, it should be a goal, not a dream.

    Jane McGonigal: McGonigal is a research affiliate at the Institute for the Future, with over 10 million views on her TED talks. She has written on how games make us better, and even finds that Tetris has therapeutic effects.

    Dr. Adam Gazzaley: He is the director of the Gazzaley Lab at UCSF, and the co-founder of Akili Interactive, a company developing therapeutic video games, and is also a co-founder and chief science advisor of Akili Interactive, a company that develops therapeutic video games. He acts as a scientific advisor to more than a dozen technology companies. When he hires people what he looks for is not a specific thing but rather, what it is that excites them.

    Chris Sacca: Sacca is an early stage investor in dozens of companies including Twitter, Uber, Instagram, and more. His strategy in investing is going on offense. By this he means taking the time to focus and build what he really wants, rather than going from coffee to coffee, day by day. To do this, he bought a cabin near Tahoe. He also recommends attending as many high level meetings in your workplace as possible. It is a good way to start getting to know things and people higher up.

    

    There are many more people who are included in this book (honestly I couldn't write them all out), but it all revolves around a few central topic that Ferriss end the book on. Always finding something positive in the situation, dealing with your fears, weaknesses, and biggest tasks first, and living a healthy lifestyle. It all contributes to being less stressed and having more freedom in your life to pursue what you want.

The New Yorker: The Tokyo Olympics' Unquiet Moment of Silence

By Louisa Thomas

    At the 2020 (yes, still called 2020) Tokyo Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony yesterday, the 1,000 spectators in attendance stood and were silent. It was a moment of silence for the lives lost during the pandemic. Then, a minute later, the music, shows, flags, and even a flying drone globe resumed, and Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic flame.

    Moments of silence, which occur far too often these days, represent an acknowledgment of the tragedy - but also an understanding that the game must go on. But as the music died down, you could hear protestors outside, demanding that the Games be stopped. Interestingly enough, the protests are for the same reason as the silence. In Japan, less than 30% of the population is vaccinated, and brining in 11,000 athletes, many of whom are unvaccinated, could be a health issue. The majority of the country's populace does not want the Games to be held now, and sponsors who have paid hundreds of millions bailed out. More than a hundred people associated with the Olympics have tested positive for COVID-19.

    

    The Games were originally supposed to be a "beacon of hope", symbolizing the world's return from the pandemic, which was also why the name 2020 was kept. Instead, it seems like a curse, a discombobulated affair with fewer athletes and almost completely empty stands. So what would it take for the Olympics to be canceled? They've often been called "too big to fail", even continuing two days after 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian terrorists.

    Perhaps the best reason to continue is the athletes, and the paths they pave. There have already been stories of recovery and devastating defeat on Day 1. After the moment of silence, the Games would go on.

TedEd: The ancient origins of the Olympics

A TedEd by Armand D'Angour

In 776 BCE, the Olympic games first took place in the ancient Greek city of Olympia as a tribute to the Greek god Zeus. They believed that competition fosters excellence, so they held a variety of competitions like running, poetry, singing, and more. The first games began with the 200 yard dash, but the games quickly evolved to include boxing, chariot racing, the pentathlon, and other events. Then in 391 AD, during the Roman Empire, the Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius banned the Olympic games, ending the millenia long tradition. 1500 years later, in 1896, the first modern games began in Athens, Greece, bringing thousands of athletes from around the world together in the world's largest sporting event.

National Geographic: How the Rosetta Stone unlocked the secrets of ancient civilizations

By Erin Blakemore

    In 1799, the Rosetta Stone was discovered in Egypt. But it wasn't an archaeological dig; instead, it was dug up by French soldiers creating defenses for an Ottoman attack. They tore down a nearby wall and found a stone fragment with three types of writing, including ancient Greek. Today, we know that it is an inscription affirming King Ptolemy V's royal cult.

    When the French invaded Egypt in 1798, they brought scientists and archaeologists with them to pick out objects of interest and take them back to France. But the British ultimately defeated the French for control of Egypt and took the artifacts, including the Rosetta Stone, to England, where it resides in the British Museum to this day.

    Scholars across Europe raced to decipher the stone, and notable contributions came from Thomas Young and Jean-François Champollion. Young, a scientist, looked at it as a mathematical problem. comparing other hieroglyphic texts to match phonetic sounds and piece words together. Champollion, who became known as the founder of Egyptology, cracked the code in 1822 by figuring out that the third script was demotic and the hieroglyphs were coptic.

    Eventually, more multilingual inscriptions were found, confirming this idea. But the iconic stele still generates controversy. Egypt has continually asked that the relic be returned, but it has adamantly remained in Britain, garnering 6 million visitors every year.

TedEd: Could we build a wooden skyscraper?

By Stefan Al

Mjøstårnet is an 18 story tall building towering over the forests of Norway. But this isn't just any old building - it's the tallest wooden building on Earth. But even at the end of the 20th century, scientists believed a wooden building couldn't get over 6 levels. This is because regular lumber could handle forces parallel to its grain very well, but not forces perpendicular, meaning it couldn't withstand the weight of a tall building or the wind at high altitudes. However, the late 1800s brought about the creation of glue-laminated timber (glulam), and a century later, cross-laminated timber (CLT) was invented. In glulam, boards are stacked on top of each other and in CLT, layers are oriented opposite to each other. This meant glulam had significantly more tensile strength and CLT could withstand forces in both directions. These types of building materials can be made more easily than steel or concrete, and they are less likely to be permanently damaged in a fire. Additionally, they could help lower the 11% share that the construction industry has in global warming. Still, CLT and glulam are not as strong as steel and concrete, and require more wood than traditional construction. It's unlikely that they will be strong enough to support true 40-story skyscrapers, but even building up to 30-stories with a mix of steel and concrete could significantly lower our carbon footprint.

National Geographic: Why the U.S. once set off a nuclear bomb in space

By Brian Gutierrez

    On July 8th, 1962, the U.S. military prepared to launch a nuclear bomb miles into the air, a fusion bomb that was 500 times as powerful as the one that fell on Hiroshima. The bomb, Starfish Prime, would be one of the highest detonations ever and cause the nuclear powers to sign a treaty limiting the height of nuclear missile testing.

    Starfish Prime exploded at 250 miles into the atmosphere, around where the ISS orbits today. When it exploded above Hawaii, it lit up the night sky as far away as New Zealand, charged particles from the explosion colliding with the atmosphere and creating an artificial aurora. In Hawaii, it caused extensive blackouts, the collapse of the radio system, and made a siren go off.

    All this happened in the heat of the Cold War, when there were outlandish ideas like blowing up missiles on the Moon. Scientists were interested in knowing how the blast would interact with the Van Allen belts, which is essentially Earth's magnetic field. Most believed it would be a minor disturbance at worst.

    They were wrong. The massive plasma ball created a new radiation field called the Starfish Belt, with devastating consequences for the satellites that went through it. It eventually went away, but the threat of such an event occuring again is possible. Geomagnetic storms come periodically from the Sun, and if they are big enough, they have the effect of a nuclear bomb. In the 1800s, the Carrington Event created auroras in Australia and shocked telegraphers. But today, we rely much more on electronics than simple telegraphs. If the radiation is unchecked, the results could be devastating. Luckily, there is a potential remedy. If satellites hit the radiation belt with a certain frequency AM wave, the charged particles could be pushed into the atmosphere, where they would dissipate.

Time: Why Congress Deserves Its Own Emmy Category

By Philip Elliott

     Some may be wondering why the Emmy awards do not give out awards to a very entertaining category: politics. For the past few months, we've watched politicians give nightly performances on TV, arguing over Biden's infrastructure bill. If it does end up getting to Biden's desk, it likely won't resemble the original proposal, but rather a very banged-up version.

    Even though Democrats control both chambers of Congress and the White House, their road to victory will be far from easy. Their slim majorities mean they have to resort to things like reconciliation, which Republicans characterize as cheating, and the GOP 2022 election strategy is attacking Biden's Build Back Better agenda.

    There is even discord within the party, since legislators also have to appease people in their own localities. A key example is Senator Joe Manchin, who is one of the few Democrats who can win in a Republican state. The party knows how important he is, giving him newfound influence. Other congresspeople have battled to keep certain parts of the plan intact, and certain amounts of funding out. 

    An important note is that this bill is "two-tracked". There's one bill for $3.5 trillion that Dems can pass with 50 votes via budget reconciliation, which avoids the filibuster. However, this rule does have its limits, which means the second bill for $600 billion needs 10 Republican votes. Of course, this method has many top GOP members upset, so the drama will continue.

Air and Space: Branson and Bezos May Reach Space First, But Billionaire Jared Isaacman (Who?) Has Booked a Better Trip

By Tony Reichhardt

    In the 2000s, half a dozen wealthy non-astronauts went to space aboard extra seats on Russiann space vehicles. 20 years later, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and SpaceX are all preparing to launch more of the uber-rich into space onboard their privately owned spacecraft.

    Jeff Bezos will be joining 3 other passengers on board Blue Origin's first passenger flight on July 20, the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

    A few weeks later, Richard Branson announced that he would be going up on his company, Virgin Galatic's first flight today, on July 11. He insists that this launch had nothing to do with Bezos's announcement, but he has been named Astronaut 001 despite the other pilots and crewmembers on the flight already having been to space on previous test flights.

    There are several others who are also waiting in line for their first commercial spaceflight, but perhaps the best trip that has been booked is one on September 15th via SpaceX's Crew Dragon, booked by billionaire Jared Isaacman, who comes in at #1164 on the Forbes billionarie list. Blue Origin and Virgin Galatic flights both last just minutes at relatively low altitudes. Isaacman's flight on the other hand, will take him and his crewmates into orbit for several days. He also plans to raise money for St. Jude Children's Hospital by auctioning off seats and donating some of his own money. He has arranged for a months-long NASA-like training program for all the astronauts, who are all rookies. SpaceX has even installed an enlarged window on the spacecraft, allowing for a better view of space than most astronauts have had.

Time: You Can't Tell the Story of 1776 Without Talking About Race and Slavery

By Robert G. Parkinson

    Even though most of us may not admit it, slavery and racial questions were at the heart of America's beginnings. John Adams said 40 years after 1776 that getting all 13 colonies to unite against Great Britain was quite difficult and unheard of in all of history. He essentially suggested that he and the other members of the Continental Congress performed a miracle. However, it covered up the work that he and his colleagues had been doing for years prior to the American Revolution.

    Recently, a new debate has been sparked over the role of race in American history, and the most scrutinized part of that history is the founding of this nation. As it turns out, leaders of the revolution were quite concerned about the British inciting slave rebellions all over the South once the war began. They began to put words like "treachery" and "instigated insurrection" into everyone's mouths. Finally, when the drafted the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the very last crime that King George was accused of involved enslaved and native populations joining King George against the Americans.

    Thomas Jefferson had written a passage about the slave trade, condemning it as an evil, cruel violation of humanity. However, the Continental Congress eliminated nearly the entire section, but retained the small part about domestic insurrections. They said that the King had attempted to bring natives from the frontier into the war, and by avoiding this, the patriots were in the right.

    Patriot leaders had found the one thing that all the colonies could agree on: racism. They mobilized these fears and prejudices to bring the nation together, but this would root the same in the American Republic.

Time: Supreme Court Upholds Arizona Voting Restrictions in Another Blow to Voting Rights Act

By Madeleine Carlisle and Sanya Mansoor

    On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that two controversial voting rights laws from Arizona do not violate the Voting Rights Act (VRA), weakening the landmark ballot. It was split along conservative/liberal lines, with Justice Samuel Alito writing for the 6-3 majority.

    The case, brought by the Democratic National Committee in 2016, claimed that two Arizona laws that ban ballot collection and require ballots cast in the wrong precincts to be thrown out discriminate against minorities. A federal appeals court had ruled in favor of the DNC in 2020, which was overturned by the Supreme Court.

    Since President Trump spread rumors about voter fraud in the 2020 election, a slew of Republican states have introduced similar voting restrictions, many of which experts say violate minority rights. This ruling affected Section 2 of the VRA, and a previous ruling had effectively eliminated Section 5 as well. The new ruling set out new "guideposts" for courts to use in the future, including weighing the size of the discriminatory impact of a given law, as well as what other options voters have to cast a ballot, both standards Brnovich and the Arizona GOP had argued for.

    Justice Elena Kagan wrote the dissent, saying that many new voting laws have still served to discriminate against minorities, and the VRA is still very important. Fortunately, the ruling does not completely eliminate the VRA, but it certainly makes it much harder to prosecute.

    The White Hosue released a statement saying that it was disappointed in the Supreme Court's decision, and called on legislators to pass more laws protecting voting rights.