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

There is something scammy about Tim Ferriss. It might be how he made his initial windfalls: selling BrainQuicken and the 4-Hour Workweek. The former is essentially snake oil, and the latter is about using loopholes in the global economy to push work to others (IOW, it fails the business version of the moral imperative.)

But there is also something authentic about Ferriss. His desire to learn and to share his learnings is obvious. I think he would probably be doing the same things he's doing now if he lived in a post-scarcity society. Tools of Titans is a distilled version of the learning and sharing and while I want to skeptically say it is just a money grab by skimming Ferriss' podcasts, it is more than that.

The book can best be read like a daily devotional. Each podcast guess has 1-10 pages devoted to their best ideas and thoughts or their "tools". These can be trite, but as you will likely note, a lot of "trite" advice turns out to be the best. As Sam Harris points out, "On one level, wisdom is nothing more than the ability to take your own advice." If nothing else, Tools of Titans will be a guide to figuring out how to take your own advice.

At times, some of the advice is contradictory- wake up at 4:45, wake up whenever you want to, wake up early, wake up early and stand out in the sun nake. Use the Inbox Zero principle, use social media to make 1000 hardcore fans, but also never check your email and get off social media. This contradiction might be helpful, though: you don't have to emulate all of these "titans" if you want to find some modicum of happiness or success.

Instead, the questions Tim asks of his friends and peers get turned around to the reader: What would you write on a billboard in a major city? What are you doing to be healthy? What books do you suggest or give? (do you suggest or give books?) What would you tell your 20, 30-year-old self?

Why are you still drinking Coke? You know that shit is awful for you.