86Thousand400: Tim Ferris

Call Fussman (New York Times best selling author. Transformed oral history into an art form, conducting probing interviews with icons who have shaped the last 50 years of world history. Cal spent 10 straight years travelling the world. He also made himself a guinea pig. He now lives with his wife, who he met while on a quest to discover the world's most beautiful beach)

A question Cal suggests asking people more often

- "What are some of the choices you've made that have made you who you are?"

Joshua Skenes (Chef owner of Saison in San Francisco)

What's the best decision you've made with your new restaurant space?

- "We were starting over, actually. I think the best decision I made was just to say, "Let's really start over. Let's just completely empty our cup here and really think about what is valuable to me now. What's honest. What's sincere about what we're doing? Let's do that. That's still the driver of Saison now."

Rick Rubin (Called the most important music producer of the last 20 years by MTV. Johnny Cash to Jay Z)

The cleansing power of cold

- "Often, exercise will make me feel better, meditating will make me feel better, but the ice bath is the greatest of all. It's just magic - sauna, ice, back and forth. By the end of the fourth, or fifth, or sixth round of being in an ice tub, there is nothing in the world that bothers you."

The Sound track of Excellence

- Jason Silva, TV and YouTube philosopher: "Time" from the Inception soundtrack by Hans Zimmer

Paulo Coelho (One of Tim's writing inspirations)

"The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion"

Do you have a team of researchers, who help you?

- "I don't have researchers, no. No, no...if you overload your book with a lot of research, you're going to be very boring to yourself and to your readers. Books are not here to show how intelligent and cultivated you are. Books are out there to show your heart, to show your soul, and to tell your fans, readers: You are not alone."

Writing prompts from Cheryl Strayed (No.1 New York Times best selling author of Wild, Tiny Beautiful Things, Brave Enough and Torch. Lives in Portland, Oregon)

Try one or two pages of longhand writing: Go for uninterrupted flow, and don't stop to edit. Step one is to generate without judging. Chances are that you'll surprise yourself.

- Write about a time when you realised you were mistaken

- Write about a lesson you learned the hard way

- Write about a time you were inappropriately dressed for the occasion

- Write about something you lost that you'll never get back

- Write about a time when you knew you'd done the right thing

- Write about something you don't remember

- Write about your darkest teacher

- Write about a memory of a physical injury

- Write about when you knew it was over

- Write about being loved

- Write about what you were really thinking

- Write about how you found your way back

- Write about the kindness of strangers

- Write about why you could not do it

- Write about why you did

Eric Weinstein (Managing director of Tiel Capital and PhD in Mathematical physics from Havard)

The Power of thinking sideways

- Very often, it's a question of being the first person to connect things that have never been connected before, and something that is commonplace solution in one are is not thought of in another."

Advice to 30 year old self?

- And even though I wanted to do science rather than technology, it's better to be in an expanding world and not quite in exactly the right field, than to be in a contracting world where people's worst behaviour comes out. [In the latter], your mind is grooved in defensive and rent-seeking types of ways. Life is too short to be petty and defensive and cruel to other people who are seeking to innovate alongside you.

Rain Wilson (Playing Dwight Schrute in TV show the Office)

Getting to "Normal"

"I'm in my head a lot, and it kind of sucks...So there are certain tools that I have to use to get by. I've learned in my life that there are certain things I have to do to just be out of my head and get to normal. I'm not talking about being really super effective. Just to get to normal, I have to do meditation, I have to do some exercise. If I can get into nature, great.

Naval Ravikant (CEO and co-founder of AngelList. An AngelInvestor in more than 100 companies)

A few of Naval's Tweets that are too good to leave out

- "What you choose to work on, and who you choose to work with, are far more important than how hard you work"

- "If you eat, invest, and think according to what the 'news' advocates, you'll end up nutritionally, financially, and morally bankrupt"