#746: Jerry Seinfeld and Maria Popova

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 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
Aronofsky, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter
Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah
Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.


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