The Tim Ferriss Show

#746: Jerry Seinfeld and Maria Popova


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This episode is a two-for-one, and that’s because the podcast recently hit its 10-year anniversary and passed one billion downloads. To celebrate, I’ve curated some of the best of the best—some of my favorites—from more than 700 episodes over the last decade. I could not be more excited. The episode features segments from episode #485 "Jerry Seinfeld — A Comedy Legend’s Systems, Routines, and Methods for Success" and episode #39 "Maria Popova on Writing, Workflow, and Workarounds."

Please enjoy!

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Timestamps:

[00:00] Start

[05:16] Notes about this supercombo format.

[06:19] Enter Jerry Seinfeld.

[06:46] Jerry’s writing process for survival in the comedy ecosystem.

[15:43] Lessons Jerry would teach in a writing class and how they relate to his fitness methods.

[15:43] Soliciting creative feedback while preserving pride over doing the work.

[20:33] Routines essential to Jerry’s well-being and their frequency and duration.

[24:50] How nurturing creativity is like parenting, and Jerry’s belief about pain and knowledge.

[26:17] Additional ways Jerry mitigates depressive episodes.

[27:27] A resilience-building failure.

[32:05] The importance of playing the game well.

[33:42] “Survival is the new success.”

[36:12] Jerry’s billboard.

[39:06] Enter Maria Popova.

[39:30] Are you correctly pronouncing names you’ve only read but never heard?

[41:13] What does Maria do?

[41:50] What is Brain Pickings (now The Marginalian)?

[42:31] What percentage of New York Times best sellers are a result of Maria’s coverage?

[47:55] The common denominator that guides Maria’s reading list.

[49:16] The importance of writing for an audience of one.

[52:07] Contending with the temptation to create BuzzFeed-like content.

[59:44] The daily discipline required for Maria’s well-being.

[1:07:10] Maria’s note-taking system.

[1:12:53] Seneca and the time-tested challenge of presence vs. productivity.

[1:16:08] Start-up opportunity? Build a note-taking tool for heavy readers/highlighters.

[1:22:52] About the team behind [The Marginalian].

[1:24:28] Collaborative proofreading and copyediting.

[1:27:21] Self-reliance pathology and how to overcome it.

[1:29:56] Finding a professional personal assistant and learning to delegate.

[1:34:36] Maria’s weightlifting regimen and favorite bodyweight-only exercise.

[1:37:22] Designing content infrastructure to be evergreen.

[1:39:28] Cutting out the commentary contrarians.

[1:46:13] Scheduling social media.

[1:48:25] Coping with email — and sometimes snail mail.

[1:50:31] How to cultivate a personal inner circle and pre-screen book review requests.

[1:54:54] What donation model works best for site revenue?

[2:01:22] Recommended reading from [The Marginalian] and parting thoughts.

*

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Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry SeinfeldHugh JackmanDr. Jane GoodallLeBron JamesKevin HartDoris Kearns GoodwinJamie FoxxMatthew McConaugheyEsther PerelElizabeth GilbertTerry CrewsSiaYuval Noah HarariMalcolm GladwellMadeleine AlbrightCheryl StrayedJim CollinsMary Karr, Maria PopovaSam HarrisMichael PhelpsBob IgerEdward NortonArnold SchwarzeneggerNeil StraussKen BurnsMaria SharapovaMarc AndreessenNeil GaimanNeil de Grasse TysonJocko WillinkDaniel EkKelly SlaterDr. Peter AttiaSeth GodinHoward MarksDr. Brené BrownEric SchmidtMichael LewisJoe GebbiaMichael PollanDr. Jordan PetersonVince VaughnBrian KoppelmanRamit SethiDax ShepardTony RobbinsJim DethmerDan HarrisRay DalioNaval RavikantVitalik ButerinElizabeth LesserAmanda PalmerKatie HaunSir Richard BransonChuck PalahniukArianna HuffingtonReid HoffmanBill BurrWhitney CummingsRick RubinDr. Vivek MurthyDarren AronofskyMargaret AtwoodMark ZuckerbergPeter ThielDr. Gabor MatéAnne LamottSarah SilvermanDr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.

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