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

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

• 
  Harper Bliss

  I'm the kind of person who laps up inspirational books like this one. I greatly enjoyed Tools of Titans, but I have to deduct a star because what kind of message does it send when out of the 114 people the author profiles for nuggets of greatness, insight, and wisdom, only 12 are women? (Yes, I counted.)
• 
  Dr. Appu Sasidharan (Dasfill)

  
  
  There is no need to write any introduction about Timothy Ferriss as most of you will be already familiar with him due to his books and his podcasts. This book contains interviews he did for his podcasts. You should be able to pick up the ideas that will help you from the plethora of information in this book. If you are a person who doesn't have this ability, there is a probability that it might confuse you as some of the interviewees are giving contrasting information in their interviews. This is a big book with around 700 pages, and you will take some time to finish it. As all the interviews are separated perfectly, you can pick up the interviews of people you like. But I strongly recommend you to read this book cover to cover as I got some valuable information from some of the interviews I least expected to help me.
  
  What I learned from this book
  1) Shame vs guilt
  What is the difference between shame and guilt? It is discussed in detail in this book by Brene Brown.
  

  “Shame is I am a bad person. Guilt is I did something bad. Shame is a focus on self. Guilt is a focus on behavior.”

  
  
  2) 8 step process of maximizing efficacy
  In this book, an eight-step process of maximizing efficacy is discussed, which can be useful to most of us.
  

  "Wake up at least 1 hour before you have to be at a computer screen. Email is the mind-killer. Make a cup of tea and sit down with a pen/pencil and paper. Write down the 3 to 5 things—and no more—that are making you the most anxious or uncomfortable. They're often things that have been punted from one day's to-do list to the next, to the next, to the next, and so on. Most important usually equals most uncomfortable, with some chance of rejection or conflict. For each item, ask yourself: "If this were the only thing I accomplished today, would I be satisfied with my day?" "Will moving this forward make all the other to-dos unimportant or easier to knock off later?" Put another way: "What, if done, will make all of the rest easier or irrelevant?" Look only at the items you've answered "yes" to for at least one of these questions. Block out at 2 to 3 hours to focus on ONE of them for today. Let the rest of the urgent but less important stuff slide. It will still be there tomorrow. TO BE CLEAR: Block out at 2 to 3 HOURS to focus on ONE of them for today. This is ONE BLOCK OF TIME. Cobbling together 10 minutes here and there to add up to 120 minutes does not work. No phone calls or social media allowed. If you get distracted or start procrastinating, don't freak out and downward-spiral; just gently come back to your ONE to-do"

  
  
  3) Sleep and Hustle culture
  This is a crucial topic that should be broached upon by the Millenials. Many people burlesquely boast that they sleep significantly less to show that they are hard workers. I am bemused by the lack of awareness of these callow influencers who are coercing their followers to sleep less by calling themselves the hustle culture perpetrators.
  

  "Ours is a culture where we wear our ability to get by on very little sleep as a kind of badge of honor that symbolizes work ethic, or toughness, or some other virtue—but really, it's a total profound failure of priorities and of self-respect"

  
  
  4) What is the most important investment you can make?
  People only think from a monetary perspective when they hear the word investment. The author tells us that there is a more important investment than money.
  

  "Investing in yourself is the most important investment you'll ever make in your life. . . . There's no financial investment that'll ever match it, because if you develop more skill, more ability, more insight, more capacity, that's what's going to really provide economic freedom. . . . It's those skill sets that really make that happen."

  
  
  5) Is being busy a form of laziness?
  Being busy is not lack of time; it's lack of priorities. You have to learn to say no to activities which are not at all our priorities inorder to manage the time more effectively.
  
  
  
  

  “Being busy is a form of laziness. Lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Being busy is most often used by the guys for avoiding a few of the critically important but uncomfortable actions. And when despite your best efforts, you feel like you are losing in your lives, remember even the best of the best sometimes feel this way. ”

  
  
  My favourite three lines from this book
  

  “Fighting emotions is like flailing in quicksand—it only makes things worse. Sometimes, the most proactive “defense” is a mental nod and wink.”

  
  
  

  “Productivity is for robots. What humans are going to be really good at is asking questions, being creative, and experiences.”

  
  
  

  “If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.- LaoTzu ”

  
  
  What could have been better?
  I think Timothy Ferriss should have included more women interviewees. The number of women interviewed is significantly less compared to men. Some of the recommendations, like book recommendations, seemed like cross advertisements of their friend's books which will make us cognizant and question the authenticity of some people interviewed in this book. Most of the interviewees seemed to have given genuine opinions, though. Only 2 or 3 people interviewed have this authenticity problem.
  
  Rating
  4/5 This book is like a condensed updated modern version of the book
  Encyclopedia Of World Biography which will be useful to almost everyone.
• 
  Maggie Stiefvater

  It is difficult to be exceptional.
  
  When I say "exceptional," I don't mean many of other adjectives people often use as synonyms: "gifted" or "genius." I mean quite simply, it is difficult to be an exception. A person who does not prove the rule. A person who experiences any part of the world differently than the majority. Everyone is exceptional in some department of their life. They have more or less aptitude for a skill. They have more or less eye sight, more or less focus, more or less physical strength, more or less attraction to Star Wars facts.
  
  At every step of life there are exceptions. Children who mature faster than their peers, children who cannot pick up the alphabet as easily. Women who get tall, men who stay short. Artists and anti-social personalities, leaders and insomniacs. "Exceptional" is neither good nor bad. It simply means that in that department, this person does not match. And when you don't match, it means that the world has probably not be set up for you in that area. It's been built around the majority. A lecture hall is set up to assume you have average hearing. School is structured to accommodate average learning styles. Cars are set up for people of average height. Society is set up to assume an average amount of extroversion, average sexuality, etc. etc. etc.
  
  When that lines up with how you experience the world, it means it's easier to travel through the world. You can either use the systems already in place, or you can watch how other people have succeeded and follow their paths.
  
  It becomes more complicated in each place that you are an exception, because you have to forge an exceptional road with fewer role models.
  
  This is a long-winded introduction for why I enjoyed this book. Ferriss has interviewed exceptional people from many corners of industry to find out their strategies for success. Many are celebrities folks will have heard of; others are successes who do their work out of the public eye. Athletes, actors, businesspeople. I found myself newly impressed by some of the humans inside this book and newly appalled by others. Regardless, they are all exceptions, and this book is about the different paths exceptional people have taken to cope, improve, and advance with the ways they are exceptional. Do I agree with all of them? No. Can I use all of them? No. Did many of them spur me to think about my habits differently and provide me with a fresh blueprint for new habits? Yes.
  
  Bonus: each interview is quite short, so one can skip around and read a few minutes here and there.
  
  We're all exceptional in some way, and this is a book that reminds one that exceptional journeys require exceptional solutions. Nice.
• 
  Lisa Carlson

  American author, public speaker Timothy Ferriss has compiled a book perfect for the generation obsessed with famous people. Apparently, the famous have some infinite wisdom/quotes which will elevate the rest of us peasants to success. First problem. The foreward is done by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Someone who cheats on his wife with a woman who works for the family and has a child with her is no role model for anyone. At over 600 pages this hardcover book would be a useful tool to hit someone over the head with to get them motivated as nothing in here is inspiring. Rather than read this nonsense use these tools if you want to succeed; listen to the one or two friends who support and care about you, tap into what makes you happy each day, trust your instincts as they never lie, be a compassionate human being regardless of how much you have, be active, eat well, get adequate sleep and have a laser focus to make your passion come true. It's possible just believe in yourself.
• 
  Remington Purnell

  In short: Tim Ferris at his most stereotypical: engaging, informative, and accessible.
  
  Tools of Titans is extremely readable and really smart. Ferris' curiosity about other people's habits is contagious. It's also the first book in a while that I couldn't put down-- and was personally helpful as someone on the cusp of college graduation to help vet some important decisions in my life. (I.E. If a career/personal decision isn't an automatic "HELL YES!", it's an automatic "No".)
  
  If you're-- as another another reviewer put it, "well-traversed" in the self-improvement/self-development book sphere-- you may find this book lacks existential and philosophical depth. Ferris explores the "How?" of successful people, but not the "Why?". Sure, these billionaires, icons, and world-class performers use meditation and the law of category to become successful-- but why did these icons choose to become venture capitalists or writers? Are these people satisfied in their careers? Are icons helping others?
  
  However, I am of the opinion that a fulfilling life is built through two categories. The first through selfish personal development: confidence-building, independence, raw ambition, exploration, travel, and goal-setting. The second through building meaning: service, relationship-building, investing in community, and spirituality. Tools of Titans exists solely in the former. Which is totally fine, just expect that category. Tools of Titans is 100% about personal maximization.
  
  Anyways, stepping off my soapbox because this book is awesome and thoroughly recommend it to anyone who wants to maximize their productivity and fangirl over Malcolm Gladwell more than they already do. Also, he interviews the Bobby Fisher guy, which makes this book in itself completely legendary. Highly recommend.
• 
  Vjekoslav

  standard Tim. many interesting things, many not so much... If I learned one thing from this book it's that it is very easy to write a book.
• 
  Kris Muir

  I just finished reading the book “Tools of Titans” by Tim Ferriss. In this 673-page compendium of successful individuals, Ferriss proposes two outcomes: (1) “Success, however you define it, is achievable if you collect the right field-tested beliefs and habits” and (2) “the superheroes you have in your mind (idols, icons, titans, billionaires, etc.) are nearly all walking flaws who’ve maximized 1 or 2 strengths.”
  
  The book is organized around the themes of healthy, wealthy, and wise. There are patterned questions for each of the individuals, but despite its length it doesn’t feel repetitive.
  
  Some common themes across domains are:
  -80% of the world-class performers meditate daily
  -an essential variable to success is the ability to stay calm
  -daily habit of writing promotes better thinking
  
  I highly recommend the Kindle edition, as the numerous references and highlighted bookmarks enable you to jump around from person to person while staying within the theme in front of you.
  
  Key insights that I will try:
  -for intense focus, listen to same song on repeat
  -if there is something that you want to learn, really learn on a deep level, then reading about it isn’t sufficient; you need to write about it, you need to teach others about it
  -experiment with cold exposure, start with cold finishes in shower for 30 to 60 seconds | “It can improve immune function, increase fat loss (partially by increasing levels of the hormone adiponectin), and dramatically elevate mood”
  -rolling your foot on top of a golf ball on the floor to increase “hamstring” flexibility
  -create morning ritual with easy wins: make your bed, read a few pages of stoic writing like Marcus Aurelius, meditate, do 5-10 reps of something
  -smell wine with your mouth open, it gives you better input
  -drink more tea
  -for better sleep, drink honey (1 tbsp) + apple cider vinegar (2 tbsp) in cup of hot water
  -perform visual overwriting just before bed to eliminate open loops in your head [10 minutes of Tetris]
  
  If you see an idea that can fit your life, then take it. As Ferriss says, “borrow liberally, combine uniquely, and create your own bespoke blueprint.”
  
  Happy Reading!
  
• 
  Krishna Chaitanya

  "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise" by Benjamin Franklin
  
  The content of this book follows this format. Tim Ferriss, the author, concocted tools/principles by many successful people in various domains and categorized them into 3 sections, health, wealth and wisdom.
  
  The book is inspiring and motivating to take action, you would find different perspectives and definitions of success. It includes suggestions, advice and their routines of celebrities, athletes and entrepreneurs. Additionally, Tim advices on the principles which worked for him and elaborates them in detail.
  
  Good one.
• 
  Amir Tesla

  Amazing. This book is a compilation of gems and jewels from iconic and world-class achievers.
  There is soooo much wisdom to digest and absorb.
  
  This book is the result of Tim Ferris Show podcast in which he interviews with ultra-successful figures. The material is divided in three section: Health, Wealth, and Happiness after Benjamin Franklin's famous quote:

  Early to bed, early to rise, keeps a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

  I strongly recommend this book to anyone. Not every page are gonna be useful o the everyone. This book, however, must be looked like a mountain of jewels from which you have to carve out the gems that resonate with you the most.
  
  I am so happy to have read it. I feel like there is a huge weight (of wisdom) on my shoulders which compels me to actively engage with them, digest them, absorb them and incorporate them into my daily life.
  Happy thriving
• 
  Matt Wright

  @ 58%, Did not finish.
  
  This isn't a book about the routines and personalities of celebrities, billionaires and world-beaters, it's a book about Tim Ferriss.
  
  Tim is the kind of man who wants you to know that he is on the Self-Actualisation level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Having to endure the constant interjections, the claims of how successful the author is just wore me down until I gave up and switched to something a little less self-centered.
  
  Perhaps Tim could fund his next start up venture in the San Fran tech scene by selling a condensed version of the book-a version that doesn't contain Tim. That's the book I wish this was.
  
  2 out of 5 stars, which is representative of the ratio of the genuinely useful content to the author's bragging inside it's 700 page bulk.
• 
  Aman Mittal

  I introduced myself to Tim Ferriss last year when I randomly found a post on his blog in which he had interviewed Maria Popova. Actually, I was searching for Brain Picking’s Maria Popova’s interviews as she is such an inspiring blogging personality, the way she curate the content for every post is amazing and seems an example of a creative process, just right out of her imagination.You must check out Brain Pickings. Moreover, scan through Tim Ferriss’ blog which is called FourHourWorkWeek.com and got introduced to his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show [Podcast Link]. He has done an amazing job by taking more than hundred 60+ minute interviews with some of the successful and interesting people by digging deep into their “mind”, process of their workings, process of maintaining their bodies, listening to their suggestions and how do they motivate, inspire, live and do something that they love to do.
  
  Tools of Titans is an enormous collection of bits and pieces of interviews that are available on his podcast and highlights the major theme of most of the interviews Tim has included in this book. The book is huge, exceeding 700 pages and is certainly not meant to be read all at once. It’s not Tolstoy’s War and Peace or David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest that you can read continuously without moving your body parts for next 7 to 10 days or so. Bear in mind, reading Tools of Titans will take more than that many days since it has a sheer amount of practical information to be processed by our mind. I’d recommend you to take your time with each interview described by Tim, think over it, if there’s a book recommended in between as there are so some interesting book recommendations, try to read few of them or at least do a little research on why the book is being recommended, what’s there inside and is the book for you? Then you can definitely add it to your TBR.
  
  
  
  For the last 18 days I have been getting up early to read a few chapters of this book. I found its better to change my routine of to spending time on Medium or Wordpress for some days and as the sun rises, I get to dwell in a book. I have been reading this book on my Kindle for the sole purpose to take notes comfortably and not to disturb my reading process. I love highlighting and in recent months it has proved beneficiary for me to reuse the highlights in my blog posts as paraphrasing or go through the highlights in later time, to get a glimpse of a particular book that I read and don’t want to re-read it again. (I will be posting a collection of my book notes soon…Look out for it)
  
  The book is divided into three sections: Healthy, Wealthy & Wise. If there’s another title for Tools for Titans, I imagine it’d be “Healthy, Wealthy & Wise”. In the Healthy section, there are professional athletes, researchers and world famous doctors who share their best insights, tips and tricks for a healthy living and having an efficient diet that will help you to go through your day, each day.
  
  The second section is on Wealthy. This is section is the fact that this book is a great business book. Memorable sections that include actionable ideas, suggestions, tools for taking your personal brand and business to the next level. There’s a major theme of this section and that is to learn from other experiences. You can only experience one thing in one moment of a time but reading is a great asset that gets you familiar with more than one experience in one particular moment of time.
  
  Last section: Wise. This is my favourite part of the book. I was really captivated by different process that people implement in their daily working life that includes mental toughness, brevity of language, and observing things. Learning how to learn is probably the best investment you can make in yourself. This part is all about that. On a closer look you will observe how the simple Tim’s questions are and yet they simple ones have more detailed answers. He has even included his rapid fire questionnaire in the end of the book that I am going to take a look into and amend some of them in the interviews that I take.
  
  Another thing that I liked about this book is the way Tim projects his own voice in between these interviews which are a representation of his self-doubting, and self-motivated emotions. This way the book became more interesting with change of dialogs and I find them useful and motivating as they shine more light on a specific topic of discussion.
  
  Everything that is mentioned in this book whether a person or a book, is accurately indexed at the end of this books opening doors for to reference to it later.
• 
  Alan Williams

  If I could give no stars I would
  
  A very overrated book and one I couldn't bear to keep reading. I rarely stop a book if I started it but I only struggled through half of this one. Literally just notes in typed form. Format is inconsistent and scattered. Definitely would NOT recommend.
• 
  James

  This is a completely ridiculous book. I mean that in a good way. A book so long and labyrinthine that you’re not supposed to read it. But I read every word. Tools of Titans is essentially a collection of notes from Tim Ferriss’s podcast taken from the best bits of interviews with people ranging from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ariana Huffington to some random knob jockey that you’ve never heard of but has made a lot of money. It’s split into three sections — Healthy, Wealthy and Wise. For about what feels like the first 2/3 of the book, in the Healthy section, it’s full of advice from freakish superhumans that like to do things like jump in an ice bath or lift heavy objects whilst standing in a river. The only thing that makes that section interesting is it’s so far outside your comfort zone that it pushes the boundaries of what you’d consider normal. There’s some excellent advice, anecdotes and wisdom in the other two sections but it all feels a bit fragmented and the whole is less than the sum of its parts.
• 
  Kelly

  A meta-reading experience because, having read 150-200 books per year for the past few years and taking notes/insights on all of them, this entire book looks like what my annual book logs look like. Hence, I was highlighting all over the book (195 highlights apparently, since Kindle now integrates highlights into Goodreads). Tim Ferriss produced a book from his podcasts like I produce learnings and notes from the books I read, so this book was well-suited to my style.
• 
  Eryk Banatt

  This is a great book to pick up if you're interested in observing general patterns that highly successful (by most definitions) people tend towards, and less great if you specifically want these patterns largely spelled out for you. Different things work for different people, and this book is certainly no different; some of these very successful people swear by some things and others specifically removed those things from their lives to positive affect. The important thing, I think, is to look at these individual cases and pick out the things that sound like they would work for you, rather than looking for "the answer" to becoming successful.
  
  There did seem to be some common thread that I thought was interesting (although I feel that a LOT of these things point more towards correlation rather than causation) which I will list below.
  
  1. Pretty much all of them meditate
  
  I thought it was explicitly weird how many people in this book regularly practice meditation. I remain somewhat skeptical about this being such a life-changing addition to your habits (this may point towards regular meditation being a strong predictor to "getting along with Tim Ferriss", or "agreeing to appear on podcasts". Perhaps "being a Silicon Valley CEO" / "Living in California" has a strong correlation to regular meditation habits, rather than meditation begin correlated with success) but that said, there's science showing real benefits and meditation is a pretty low-impact lifestyle commitment anyways (at 10-20 minutes per day, maybe less) so I found myself picking up meditation after reading this. Couldn't hurt, right?
  
  2. Making sure you have consistent output is much more important than making sure all of your output is good, especially since not everybody needs to see all of your output
  
  Not explicitly spelled out in Ferriss' "common thread" section but one that I noticed. I particularly liked the idea of just making sure you're doing stuff frequently, and not being so hung up on how good it is. This is suggested many times in this book, but in different ways ("come up with 10 ideas every day, even if they're extremely laughably bad", "treat it like an experiment and don't worry about the results", "find time for just one meditative breath every day", etc etc etc)
  
  3. Being healthy makes you more productive and generally better at everything
  
  Again, perhaps somewhat because wealthier people being more concerned with being beautiful than the average person, but much like meditation this one has some good well-established science behind it so I wasn't that surprised by the idea (but, perhaps, was surprised by the pervasiveness of it.
  
  4. Don't be afraid to explore solutions that nobody has attempted yet, develop your own opinions and don't blindly accept paths provided to you
  
  I think generally good advice that could easily be misconstrued to mean "look for gimmicks answers to everything." Sometimes what is generally considered the "best" way to do something is lacking in some respect and with some clever finagling you can either improve or sometimes outright replace the commonly accepted pathways. One fun, slightly irresponsible idea Tim has is his "personal MBA" where instead of spending $30,000 going to business school, he saved up $30,000 and just started investing in stuff, guns ablaze, with the full expectation that he would eventually lose all of that money but eventually learn what he was doing, sink or swim. Not the safest option, but it worked out well for him.
  
  I definitely added a good number of books on my to-read list, and there were some other ideas in this book I liked ("when in doubt about your next project, follow your anger" gets me every time) but most of those I think speak more towards me as a person rather than the general tendencies of successful people.
  
  All of that said, I greatly enjoyed the content of this book. The reason I'm not awarding this a full 5 is likely the same reason I enjoyed it, which is probably unfair; the entirety of this book really felt like Tim Ferriss' notebook rather than something that ought to be published on it's own. There's a weird amount of this book dedicated to the use of psychedelics, almost all of the first third of the book ("Healthy" among "Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise") seems almost laughably inapplicable to anybody who hasn't already achieved the basic strength training milestones (precious few in the US, myself included), and so on. I recognize that this is kind of the point of the book - kind of a tl;dr of all the content available on his podcast - but it's definitely important to realize that more than any other book Ferriss has published so far, this one was definitely written as the book Tim Ferriss most wanted to read, rather than the one that would contain applicable advice to the most people.
  
  A fun book to flip through, especially to read a little bit about names you recognize.
• 
  Claudio

  After listening all of the podcasts I found useful to read all the tips and tricks collected in this book. A real manual on how to improve your life, from so many different voices that it's impossible not to fond something valuable.
  
  
• 
  Wout

  3,7/5. This book is a buffet you can choose from.
  
  The fact that it’s 674 pages big and the way it’s structured makes it so that it’s a less nice ‘read’, however, that’s also why he advises to skip pages liberally. It gives you a lot of the hows but from what I’ve read so far not a lot of why’s, and this means that it lacks a bit of depth. But that’s not what the book was meant for, it just gives you the Tools of Titans. Generally I liked his other books better but that’s probably because I’m so well traversed in the self-development world. Perhaps reading all the 674 pages might be a bit too much for you so “skip liberally” and find the people/parts that interest you.
  
  Read my summary here:
  
  http://www.wouteeckhout.com/book-summ...
• 
  Mohammad Shaker

  What a start of the year!
  لم أعتد أن أقرأ كتاباً مباشرة بعد إصداره. ولكنني متشجع للغاية لهذا الكتاب.
  من أسرع الكتب التي قمت بقراءتها على الرغم من حجم الكتاب. قرأت الثلثين الأخيرين من الكتاب في يوم واحد.
  على الرغم من أنني لست من المعجبين بكتابه السابق كثيراً
  The 4-hour Week
  إلا أن كتابه هذا يستحق القراءة بحق.
• 
  Marrije

  Frustrating hodgepodge of bits & bobs. Wanted to give it two stars, but annoyingly I found a couple of actual useful ideas in there.
• 
  Anovelqueen

  Review to follow.