Reading history
Put the reading hours into what already happened rather than into forecasts
Spending the reading time on history books, diaries, biographies and old newspapers, and treating predictions about next year as low-value. Pattern recognition is the case for it, not facts. Someone who has read widely in history recognizes greed, panic and overconfidence when they turn up again, and can run through a day of headlines dropping most of them on sight. Diaries and contemporary reporting matter most here, since they record what people believed before anyone knew how the story ended. Nothing arrives quickly, because what accumulates is background rather than an answer to today's question. It costs a library card.
People on record
Sorted by strength of stance
Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- Morgan HouselDoes it
Writer · The Psychology of Money
His reading time goes into history and very little of it into forecasts, a swap he says has made his relationship with the news simpler. Time in the past makes the repeating patterns of greed and fear familiar. That familiarity, he reckons, is what lets you filter a day of headlines quickly. He quotes Kelly Hayes on how everything feels unprecedented to someone who has not engaged with history.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: How to Simplify Your Life in 2026 (#857)
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Habit entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.