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Episode

#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
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2:43:37
Published: Tue Nov 21 2017
Description

Stewart Brand (@stewartbrand) is the president of The Long Now Foundation, established to foster long-term thinking and responsibility. He leads a project called Revive & Restore, which seeks to bring back extinct animal species such as the passenger pigeon and woolly mammoth.Stewart is very well known for founding, editing, and publishing The Whole Earth Catalog (WEC), which changed my life when I was a little kid. It also received a national book award for its 1972 issue.Stewart is the co-founder of The WELL and The Global Business Network, and author of Whole Earth Discipline, The Clock Of The Long Now, How Buildings Learn, and The Media Lab. He was trained in biology at Stanford and served as an infantry officer in the US Army.I really hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!This podcast is brought to you by Peloton, which has become a staple of my daily routine. I picked up this bike after seeing the success of my friend Kevin Rose, and I've been enjoying it more than I ever imagined. Peloton is an indoor cycling bike that brings live studio classes right to your home. No worrying about fitting classes into your busy schedule or making it to a studio with a crazy commute.New classes are added every day, and this includes options led by elite NYC instructors in your own living room. You can even live stream studio classes taught by the world's best instructors, or find your favorite class on demand.Peloton is offering listeners to this show a special offer. Visit onepeloton.com and enter the code TIM at checkout to receive $100 off accessories with your Peloton bike purchase. This is a great way to get in your workouts, or an incredible gift. Again, that's onepeloton.com and enter the code TIM.This podcast is also brought to you by Four Sigmatic. I reached out to these Finnish entrepreneurs after a very talented acrobat introduced me to one of their products, which blew my mind (in the best way possible). It is mushroom coffee featuring chaga. It tastes like coffee, but there are only 40 milligrams of caffeine, so it has less than half of what you would find in a regular cup of coffee. I do not get any jitters, acid reflux, or any type of stomach burn. It put me on fire for an entire day, and I only had half of the packet.People are always asking me what I use for cognitive enhancement right now — this is the answer. You can try it right now by going to foursigmatic.com/tim and using the code Tim to get 20 percent off your first order. If you are in the experimental mindset, I do not think you’ll be disappointed.***If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast.Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Visit tim.blog/sponsor and fill out the form.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferrissPast 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, and many more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Chapters
The host talks about the benefits of minimalism and optimizing the essential things in life before an advertisement for his own email newsletter, Five Bullet Friday.
00:00 - 00:42 (00:42)
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Minimalism
Summary

The host talks about the benefits of minimalism and optimizing the essential things in life before an advertisement for his own email newsletter, Five Bullet Friday.

Episode
#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Tim Ferriss interviews Kevin Kelly to tease out the habits and routines of world class performers.
00:42 - 08:15 (07:33)
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Tim Ferriss, Kevin Kelly
Summary

Tim Ferriss interviews Kevin Kelly to tease out the habits and routines of world class performers. Kevin shares his thoughts on a variety of topics including virtual reality and the benefits of AI.

Episode
#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Steve Jobs used the phrase "stay hungry, stay foolish" on the back cover of the Whole Earth Epilogue and during a commencement speech at Stanford.
08:15 - 14:51 (06:36)
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Steve Jobs
Summary

Steve Jobs used the phrase "stay hungry, stay foolish" on the back cover of the Whole Earth Epilogue and during a commencement speech at Stanford. It's unclear what prompted Jobs to adopt the phrase or what he intended to convey by it.

Episode
#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Randomness can help break through fitness plateaus and take you to new heights.
14:51 - 20:54 (06:02)
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fitness
Summary

Randomness can help break through fitness plateaus and take you to new heights. It is also a key factor in innovation and success, even though it may not always lead to financial gain.

Episode
#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Tim Ferriss shares his skydiving experience and how Army training saved his life.
20:54 - 32:18 (11:24)
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Skydiving
Summary

Tim Ferriss shares his skydiving experience and how Army training saved his life. He rotated 90 degrees and pulled the reserve chute when his primary parachute failed to open.

Episode
#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Ken Kesey discusses his experiences with LSD, mescaline, marijuana and hashish in the 60s which led him to appear in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and the impact of fame on his image.
32:18 - 42:26 (10:08)
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Psychedelics
Summary

Ken Kesey discusses his experiences with LSD, mescaline, marijuana and hashish in the 60s which led him to appear in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and the impact of fame on his image.

Episode
#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
In this episode, the origins of the "Why Haven't We Seen a Photograph of Earth Yet?"
42:26 - 51:23 (08:57)
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Space Exploration
Summary

In this episode, the origins of the "Why Haven't We Seen a Photograph of Earth Yet?" button are explored, from its creation by Diane Michel DeSevo in response to a lecture by Buckminster Fuller, to its distribution and impact on society.

Episode
#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The ongoing debate between AI and the human intellect has been around for quite some time.
51:23 - 56:42 (05:19)
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Artificial Intelligence
Summary

The ongoing debate between AI and the human intellect has been around for quite some time. Augmented intelligence, however, has been around since humans first developed language.

Episode
#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The speaker is trying to return to the layer of least abstraction in order to study his personal experience as perceived through senses and language, finding that it informs everything else that's upstream.
56:42 - 1:08:00 (11:18)
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Reality, Perception
Summary

The speaker is trying to return to the layer of least abstraction in order to study his personal experience as perceived through senses and language, finding that it informs everything else that's upstream. He shares his perspective on the kinesthetic feeling of greater truth and how rationalists may view his emotions, intuition or feelings as a liability and nothing else.

Episode
#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Scientists are working on bringing the woolly mammoth back to life using CRISPR technology to edit the genes of living elephant cells and bring back extinct species to the world, making mammoths one of the largest land animals once again.
1:08:00 - 1:25:22 (17:22)
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Genetics
Summary

Scientists are working on bringing the woolly mammoth back to life using CRISPR technology to edit the genes of living elephant cells and bring back extinct species to the world, making mammoths one of the largest land animals once again.

Episode
#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The podcast host highlights the ability of the guest to enlist help and foster collaboration in various projects.
1:25:22 - 1:32:42 (07:20)
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Project Management
Summary

The podcast host highlights the ability of the guest to enlist help and foster collaboration in various projects. The guest shares a personal experience of quitting Ranger training in the Army.

Episode
#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
A discussion about the benefits of working out in a social and competitive setting, with a focus on free weight exercises.
1:32:42 - 1:43:02 (10:20)
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Fitness
Summary

A discussion about the benefits of working out in a social and competitive setting, with a focus on free weight exercises. The conversation then shifts to a new technology tool that allows for collaborative creation and file management.

Episode
#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The speaker discusses the paradox of information and how it can be both free and expensive, but ultimately beneficial for publications because it leads to more valuable content being shared with larger audiences.
1:43:02 - 1:52:50 (09:47)
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Information
Summary

The speaker discusses the paradox of information and how it can be both free and expensive, but ultimately beneficial for publications because it leads to more valuable content being shared with larger audiences.

Episode
#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
In this conversation, iconic technology pioneer and think tank founder Paul Saffo and internet pioneer Mark Pesce sit down to discuss why we should hold onto our ideas, and the benefits of seeing them come to fruition.
1:52:50 - 2:02:14 (09:23)
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Technology
Summary

In this conversation, iconic technology pioneer and think tank founder Paul Saffo and internet pioneer Mark Pesce sit down to discuss why we should hold onto our ideas, and the benefits of seeing them come to fruition.

Episode
#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The profound impact of gamification and game thinking in designing and approaching situations is discussed with a focus on the benefits of physical games for young people.
2:02:14 - 2:12:19 (10:05)
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Gamification
Summary

The profound impact of gamification and game thinking in designing and approaching situations is discussed with a focus on the benefits of physical games for young people. Games can be seen as a competitive yet non-violent alternative to war, and a way to engage in healthy and physical, yet non-sexual interaction.

Episode
#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Dilbert creator Scott Adams suggests the use of systems thinking, which involves choosing projects based on the skills and relationships that one develops over time, even if the projects ultimately fail.
2:12:19 - 2:20:45 (08:26)
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Systems Thinking
Summary

Dilbert creator Scott Adams suggests the use of systems thinking, which involves choosing projects based on the skills and relationships that one develops over time, even if the projects ultimately fail. This accumulation of skills and relationships, according to Adams, can lead to unforeseen opportunities in the future.

Episode
#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The host reflects on the importance of politicians changing their minds and having the humility to admit when they were wrong, even if it means being labeled a "flip flopper" by critics.
2:20:45 - 2:30:06 (09:20)
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Public Service
Summary

The host reflects on the importance of politicians changing their minds and having the humility to admit when they were wrong, even if it means being labeled a "flip flopper" by critics.

Episode
#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
At age 40, it's important to reassess previous beliefs and thought patterns.
2:30:06 - 2:36:50 (06:44)
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Scientific Thinking
Summary

At age 40, it's important to reassess previous beliefs and thought patterns. To help train oneself to think more scientifically and be open to new information, book recommendations include "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman and "The Demon-Haunted World" by Carl Sagan.

Episode
#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
This episode discusses the importance of being welcome to situations that might come with unintended consequences and highlights the parallel between this concept and Andy Grove's management approach, which recognized that incentives can create undesirable outcomes as well.
2:36:50 - 2:43:34 (06:44)
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unintended consequences
Summary

This episode discusses the importance of being welcome to situations that might come with unintended consequences and highlights the parallel between this concept and Andy Grove's management approach, which recognized that incentives can create undesirable outcomes as well.

Episode
#281: Stewart Brand - The Polymath of Polymaths
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show