#759: Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Todd McFarlane

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 #691 "Nassim
Nicholas Taleb & Scott Patterson — How Traders Make Billions
in The New Age of Crisis, Defending Against Silent Risks,
Personal Independence, Skepticism Where It (Really) Counts, The
Bishop and The Economist, and Much More" and #639
"Todd McFarlane, Legendary Comic Book Artist — How to
Make Iconic Art, Reinvent Spider-Man, Live Life on Your Own
Terms, and Meet Every Deadline."


Please enjoy!


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Timestamps:


[00:00] Start


[04:51] Notes about this supercombo format.


[05:54] Enter Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Scott
Patterson.


[06:32] The joy of writing a preemptive resignation letter.


[07:13] Developing resilience against criticism.


[10:04] Nassim: contrarian, or simply independent?


[12:27] Jiving with skeptical turkeys.


[17:21] Persisting through the polycrisis.


[19:18] Introducing the precautionary principle.


[21:37] Nassim's preferred legacy.


[23:50] Precautionary principle 101.


[25:14] Fat tails, thin tails, the COVID vaccine, and GMOs.


[32:51] Enter Todd McFarlane.


[33:21] Baseball.


[38:46] Rejection letters.


[42:38] Compelling storytelling and meeting deadlines.


[45:46] Deadlines pre-Internet vs. deadlines today.


[48:36] How industry status quo led to the founding of Image
Comic Books.


[1:00:30] The Comics Code and the last straw.


[1:06:52] The Marvel Dream Team exodus.


[1:25:13] How is Todd's camel bladder a competitive advantage?


[1:31:02] Career bouncing and double-shifting as a penciler and
inker.


[1:49:08] The happy accident of Venom.


[1:55:46] De-Rockwelling the company icon and inventing
"spaghetti webbing."


[2:03:31] Bucking the status quo to become the status quo.


[2:07:13] Parting thoughts and a promise for round two.


*


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Past guests on The Tim Ferriss
Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh
Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin
Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew
McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth
Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah
Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine
Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary
Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael
Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria
Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de
Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly
Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard
Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael
Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan
Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit
Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim
Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval
Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth
Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard
Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid
Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick
Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren
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Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah
Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.


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