The Tim Ferriss Show

For more than 40 years, David Allen has worked with individuals and organizations around the world to help them stay clear, focused, and productive—without burning out. He is the author of the mega-bestseller Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Subscribe to David's Substack at davidallen.substack.com.
This episode was originally published in September 2019. Show notes: https://tim.blog/2019/09/03/david-allen-getting-things-done/
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For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.
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Graham Duncan (@GrahamDuncanNYC) is the co-founder of East Rock Capital, a multibillion-dollar multi-family investment office he launched in 2006. He is also Chairman of the Sohn Conference Foundation, which funds pediatric cancer research.
This episode was originally published in February 2019. Show notes: https://tim.blog/2019/02/28/graham-duncan/
This episode is brought to you by:
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Timestamps:
[00:00:00] Start.
[00:02:29] I think of Graham as far more than an investor. How does he describe what he does?
[00:06:13] Absent the systems and frameworks he's honed over time, what made Graham a good talent hunter at the tender age of 24?
[00:08:42] What constitutes taste when Graham is scouting for talent these days?
[00:11:14] Upon meeting someone, how does Graham stress-test whether or not someone is "commercial" in the way they balance aggression and integrity?
[00:16:49] One high-signal question Graham has found particularly useful when trying to determine the quality of anyone from a trader to an OB/GYN.
[00:19:17] When interviewing a potential candidate, how does Graham vet their given references?
[00:22:21] On approaching the reference process with curiosity rather than an attempt to catch anyone with a "gotcha."
[00:25:34] Why does mutual friend Josh Waitzkin call Graham The Wild Gardener?
[00:27:04] How does Graham deal with contradictory perspectives — when the data is telling him one thing and his gut is telling him another?
[00:29:09] What does Graham do to familiarize himself with the way people underwrite their mental models (besides nearly beheading them)?
[00:30:29] Graham talks about his role as an investment coach, of sorts, and how he picks the best "players" for the game at hand.
[00:31:53] What other patterns has Graham noticed in the successful talent he's ended up selecting?
[00:36:06] In what way have others helped Graham surface his hidden assumptions, and how might a coach do the same for others?
[00:39:17] An example of when Graham's "grip" has been a bit too tight around his own beliefs.
[00:40:09] What Byron Katie has taught us about articulating the opposite of such beliefs — and having a mindful lunch.
[00:46:18] When evaluating a team, how does Graham think about each person developing the ability to look at the opposite versus hiring to end up at that optimal mixture?
[00:49:12] How might someone train to more clearly see disconfirming evidence — and roll with the punches when their instincts lead them toward regrettable decisions?
[00:42:21] What books does Graham gift to others most often?
[00:56:11] An aside about Wim Hof and Josh Waitzkin embracing "the other side of pain" to get the most out of life.
[00:59:31] How does James Carse's distinction of finite and infinite games apply to finance, and how would Graham test a potential teammate for compatible sensibility?
[01:02:41] How likely would it be for Graham to invest in a Jocko Willink project?
[01:04:16] Different people have different ways of sniffing around direct questions. Here are a few examples.
[01:05:54] Graham explains what this Kwame Appiah quote means to him: "In life the challenge is not so much to figure out how best to play the game; the challenge is to figure out what game you're playing."
[01:08:13] Going by David Foster Wallace's famous commencement speech, what's your water? Podcasting helps me see mine.
[01:09:32] Graham's take on Greg McKeown's Essentialism.
[01:10:31] How Graham sees careers as a river (with a nod of thanks to neuroscientists Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson's model of well-being).
[01:12:53] Toward which bank do the top one percent in any given field swim? What if that field is financial markets? What if that field is writing fiction novels?
[01:16:39] The differences between millionaires, billionaires, cultural billionaires, and time billionaires.
[01:18:47] An idea for how Tim Urban might allow for personalization of his 90-year-life calendar.
[01:20:00] Are you more concerned about the length of your life or its width?
[01:20:38] Life changes Graham and I have both made as a direct result of reading Tim Urban's "The Tail End" piece at Wait But Why.
[01:22:05] How does Graham try to appreciate the width of his life?
[01:25:05] Aside from the aforementioned Kwame Appiah quote, what might Graham put on his billboard?
[01:25:52] The power to be found in treating negative feelings like welcome party guests.
[01:27:43] Parting thoughts from Mark Twain and Graham.
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For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.
For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsors
Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday.
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"Coca is to cocaine what potatoes are to vodka" — Dr. Andrew Weil and Wade Davis on the health benefits, sacred history, and unjust prohibition of the most misunderstood plant on Earth.
Dr. Andrew Weil is a pioneer in integrative medicine and founder of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, where he holds the Lovell-Jones Endowed Chair and serves as Clinical Professor of Medicine and Professor of Public Health.
Wade Davis is an ethnographer, writer, photographer, and filmmaker. From 2014 to 2024 he served as Professor of Anthropology and BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia, and from 2000 to 2013 as Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society.
Connect with the Beneficial Plant Research Association (BPRA): Website (scroll down to donate) | Coca Leaf Research | Coca Leaf Documentary | Coca Leaf Retreat
This episode is brought to you by:
Incogni, which removes your personal data from the web, helping shield you from fraud, scams, and identity theft: Incogni.com/Tim (use code TIM at checkout and get 60% off an annual plan)
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Timestamps:
[00:00:00] Start.
[00:02:38] When coca tea cured my brutal altitude sickness in Chile.
[00:04:01] Andy meets coca, 1965: the Andes' master medicine for gut, energy, mood, metabolism.
[00:06:20] 14 alkaloids, one scapegoat.
[00:07:11] The paradox: one remedy for both diarrhea and constipation.
[00:11:37] 8,000 years, zero addiction — and the 1975 study no one wanted to run.
[00:13:11] Eradication began 60 years before there was a cocaine problem.
[00:16:27] Two nations inside Peru: alcohol versus coca.
[00:17:05] The 1950 UN commission that dictated coca policy by pseudoscience, fear, and racism.
[00:18:10] Filed beside fentanyl and heroin; 250,000 families and the price of peace.
[00:20:03] What coca actually feels like: milder than half a coffee, no crash, no withdrawal.
[00:24:19] Decoupling the leaf from the cartels; why crop substitution is a fantasy.
[00:25:54] Domesticated three times; the accident of Schedule II.
[00:27:49] The sacred leaf: k'intu, cruceta, Pachamama, runakuna.
[00:31:11] Hayo in the Sierra Nevada, and Latin America's most-denied gift.
[00:32:53] The wedge in the door: demand, the FDA, and an entrepreneur's gold mine.
[00:40:22] The story coca deserves — a film, green powders, and one good study.
[00:43:12] Monkey mind, the tax of consciousness, and an 84th birthday on coca.
[00:47:35] Who to fund: McCurdy and the hunt for legal leaves.
[00:49:17] Could coca treat cocaine addiction? Cost, and NIDA's timing.
[00:53:18] "Green cocaine" at the airport: coca is to cocaine as potatoes are to vodka.
[00:56:58] A 24-hour ritual run powered entirely by coca.
[00:59:07] Why two men gave their careers to one leaf — and the pharmaceutical body count.
[01:06:22] America's legal cocaine capital, and Coke's secret recipe.
[01:09:08] No accident: the hideous prose behind laws we still obey.
[01:15:42] Parting thoughts.
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For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.
For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsors
Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday.
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Sebastian Mallaby (@scmallaby) is the Paul A. Volcker senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and the author of six books, including More Money Than God, The Power Law, The Man Who Knew, and The World's Banker. His latest book is The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence.
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Timestamps
[00:00:00] Start.
[00:02:11] The twinkly eyed polymath who became Sebastian's next book.
[00:06:55] Picking the next book project the way a great VC picks a startup.
[00:09:41] Why God keeps crashing the superintelligence party.
[00:11:13] Shane Legg's grainy 2009 prophecy — and the nervous giggle.
[00:13:11] Ilya Sutskever burns an effigy.
[00:13:54] Demis at 4 a.m., hunting God's algorithm.
[00:18:43] Super-abundance, Mad Max, and the China shock lesson.
[00:22:39] The kitchen debate with Geoff Hinton that flipped Sebastian.
[00:24:06] Why a zero-percent chance of doom is indefensible.
[00:24:52] Will Washington seize the labs? The Mythos wake-up call.
[00:27:18] Anthropic's bull case, bear case, and a dead parent's letter.
[00:33:24] Where Sebastian and Benedict Evans part ways.
[00:38:16] Is the SaaS apocalypse overdone? One word: Palantir.
[00:39:53] The AI friend you'll never switch.
[00:41:56] Does Google win consumer AI by default?
[00:44:45] Four cities, eight days: China actually talks safety.
[00:47:28] A Cold War non-proliferation playbook for AI.
[00:49:45] Did the chip export controls actually work?
[00:51:49] Burned doves: why Washington swears China won't talk.
[00:54:56] "By 2028, the race is over" — one lab boss' bet.
[00:59:11] Inside Hikvision: toddlers, sensors, and US sanctions.
[01:01:07] Bill Gurley's Uber bet: venture capital perfected.
[01:05:18] Luke Nosek bear-hugs DeepMind into existence.
[01:10:52] Thiel's heresy: never invest by committee.
[01:11:59] How Founders Fund nearly fumbled the deal of the century.
[01:14:30] Selling to Google for $650M: a secret British heist?
[01:16:41] The Traitorous Eight, gardening leave, and the UK's to-do list.
[01:20:55] Ender's Game: "That's really how I see myself."
[01:23:42] Too dumb for Gödel, Escher, Bach? Maybe an LLM can help.
[01:25:19] If not Demis or Sam, then Dario.
[01:26:04] My royalties cliff — and what dropped in late 2022.
[01:27:47] Lila Sciences and the labs that run themselves.
[01:31:13] Sebastian's billboard: "Prepare your mind."
[01:35:14] The one thing Sebastian will never outsource to AI.
[01:40:09] Parting thoughts.

For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.
For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsors
Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday.
For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.
Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.
Follow Tim:
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Max Levchin (@mlevchin) is a serial entrepreneur and investor in 100+ startups. He's the founder and CEO of Affirm, the payment network powering consumer purchases and merchant growth. An original PayPal co-founder, Max served as CTO until its 2002 acquisition by eBay.
This episode is brought to you by:
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Timestamps:
[00:00:00] Start.
[00:02:50] The Ronin line that rewired how Max makes every decision.
[00:06:09] Paprika-style brain-computer interfaces.
[00:09:09] PayPal's founders lived inside a Neal Stephenson novel.
[00:19:21] Transformation via Neuromancer and Snow Crash.
[00:23:40] The book that found Max his wife.
[00:29:24] The real secret to a great marriage.
[00:38:29] What's worth tracking, and what's not.
[00:44:13] A scrawny kid, a clarinet, and a Kyiv velodrome.
[00:46:55] What going all-out on a bike actually gives you.
[00:51:02] The mantra by which Max rides.
[00:53:02] A Soviet kid's fear of socialism.
[01:02:48] Making a profit without destroying society.
[01:04:31] What is Affirm, and why did every banker say it would fail?
[01:20:18] Why the best mathematicians eschew the lending industry.
[01:23:50] Does agentic commerce break Affirm, or supercharge it?
[01:28:01] A PhD-level financial advisor in everyone's pocket.
[01:29:58] How close are we to buying anything through one AI chat?
[01:36:32] Improving your coffee: cheap, intermediate, and Bugatti options.
[01:44:33] The books every first-time founder should actually read.
[01:48:08] Claude Shannon, Ed Thorp, and the joy of playful genius.
[01:51:00] Why physical books still beat every digital reading experience.
[01:51:44] Parting thoughts.
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For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.
For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsors
Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday.
For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.
Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.
Follow Tim:
Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss
Instagram: instagram.com/timferriss
YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss
Facebook: facebook.com/timferriss
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferriss
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.