#701: In Case You Missed It: September 2023 Recap of "The Tim Ferriss Show"

Tim Ferriss (0:00)

This episode is brought to you by 5-Bullet Friday, my very own email newsletter. It's become one of the most popular email newsletters in the world with millions of subscribers, and it's super, super simple. It does not clog up your inbox. Every Friday, I send out 5-Bullet Points, super short, of the coolest things I found that week, which sometimes includes apps, books, documentaries, supplements, gadgets, new self-experiments, hacks, tricks, and all sorts of weird stuff that I dig up from around the world. You guys, podcast listeners and book readers, have asked me for something short and action-packed for a very long time, because after all, the podcast, the books, they can be quite long. And that's why I created 5-Bullet Friday.

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And thanks for checking it out. If the spirit moves, yeah.

Kevin Rose (1:48)

Can I answer your personal question?

Tim Ferriss (2:09)

Welcome to another episode of the Tim Ferriss Show, where it is my job to deconstruct world class performers of all different types to tease out the routines, habits, and so on that you can apply to your own life.

This is a special In-Between episode, which serves as a recap of the episodes from the last month. It features a short clip from each conversation in one place so you can jump around, get a feel for both the episode and the guest, and then you can always dig deeper by going to one of those episodes. View this episode as a buffet to whet your appetite. It's a lot of fun. We had fun putting it together. And for the full list of the guests featured today, see the episode's description probably right below wherever you press play in your podcast app.

Or as usual, you can head to tim.blogslashpodcast and find all the details there. Please enjoy.

Kevin Rose (2:57)

First up, Arthur C. Brooks, author of the number one New York Times bestseller, Build the Life You Want, The Art and Science of Getting Happier, with co-author, Oprah Winfrey.

Arthur C. Brooks (3:15)

The Reverse Bucket List is something I do, oh boy, do I ever do it. And it took me too long to figure this one out. When I was 50, I'm 59 years old. When I was 50, I found my bucket list from when I was 40

And it was a classic thing. And on my birthday, I would make a list of my desires, my ambitions, and I would imagine myself, visualize myself consuming or experiencing these things, and it would fire me up and make me, well, kind of feel like a loser. Quite frankly, because it was lowering my sense of satisfaction, I subsequently found out.

And I looked at that list from when I was 40 And I checked everything off that list, and I was less happy.

Tim Ferriss (3:53)

Oh, no.

Arthur C. Brooks (3:54)

At 50 than I was at 40 And so I thought, I'm a social scientist, so I thought to myself, obviously, I'm doing something wrong. What am I doing wrong?

And basically, this is the problem. This is a neurophysiological problem and a psychological problem all rolled into one handy package. I was making the mistake of thinking that my satisfaction would come by having more. And the truth of the matter is that lasting and stable satisfaction, which doesn't wear off in like a minute, comes when you understand that your satisfaction is your haves divided by your wants.

Haves divided by wants. That's the model. So, you know, it's like, I'll slow down because I know people watching are like, I'm gonna write that down. Haves divided by wants. You can increase your satisfaction temporarily and inefficiently by having more or permanently and securely by wanting less.